News From Marrs |
LIFE
UNDER A CENSORED MASS MEDIA |
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Jim Marrs - 2003-03-10 |
"I myself was to experience how easily one is taken
in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though
unlike most [Americans] I had daily access to foreign newspapers,
especially those of London, Paris and Zurich, which arrived the day after
publication, and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign
broadcasts . . . It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find
that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and
despite one's inherent distrust of what one learned from [government]
sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions
made a certain impression on one's mind and often mislead it. No one who
has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how
difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime's calculated
and incessant propaganda. Often in a [ ] home or office or sometimes in a
casual conversation with a stranger in a restaurant, a beer hall, a café,
I would meet with the most outlandish assertions from seemingly educated
and intelligent persons. It was obvious that they were parroting some
piece of nonsense they had heard on the radio or read in the newspapers.
Sometimes one was tempted to say as much, but on such occasions one was
met with such a state of incredulity, such a shock of silence, as if one
had blasphemed the Almighty, that one realized how useless it was then to
try to make contact with a mind which had become warped and for whom the
facts of life had become what [Bush sources], with their cynical disregard
for truth, said they were." I feel the lengthy paragraph above clearly articulates life in present-day America for a thinking, aware and concerned person. This was written many years ago by William L. Shirer and printed in his monumental work, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960) pp. 247-248. I only changed it in four places. To restore the original, simple insert Germans for [Americans], Nazi for [government], German for [ ] and Hitler and (Nazi Propaganda Minister Dr.) Goebbels for [Bush sources]. Isn't it amazing how history repeats itself? |
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