Joe Whitten Blog : Theology, Rants, Photography, Politics, Denver, Colorado

Brainwash: Persuade completely, often through coercion. Notice there is nothing in that definition that entails any type of elaborate technology, torture, or mind control. Brainwashing can occur slowly. Victims need not realize that their environment contains unperceivable elements of brainwashing. Brainwashing is most effective when victims are completely unaware of it.

Every day, people in the United States and, most likely, many other countries are exposed to advertisements, music, television shows that distort reality, and many other ideas expressed through media. Most people will state with absolute certainty that they are not affected by these things, but how can anyone be sure?

Perhaps a visit back in time can help. Were people willing to talk openly about sex one hundred years ago? The answer to this question is most were not. We can be sure of this by looking at books written at that time, newspaper articles, and other written records. If people were not as open about personal matters one hundred years ago, what occurred to change attitudes and perceptions about it? The term “Sexual Revolution”, while not heard so frequently today, was a very common term in the sixties and seventies (1960-1970). What caused people to suddenly shed their inhibitions during that era and openly flaunt sexuality and defiance to law and government? Television was not yet so bold then, but in the fifties, rock music was becoming very popular and the lyrics in it were pressing the limits of what was then acceptable.

Elvis Presley caused a stir when he moved his hips while singing. His dancing was considered vulgar and sexually suggestive. Today, with singers grabbing their crotches, using every foul word imaginable and singing openly and explicitly about sex, Elvis seems tame, but it’s important to remember that when he first appeared he was considered by many to be quite obscene. Several cultures still find him obscene today. The point of this comparison is to provoke thought about the way opinion, perception, and morality with it can be altered by what people see and hear even if they do not realize what is happening.

It is natural for opinions to change, but when opinions change due to outside influences that the people changing don’t know the facts of, change can be dangerous. When societies change unconsciously and without realization of the slow change, societies become the puppets of the influencing forces which they know little about and the motives of which they are completely ignorant.

In the early days of television broadcasting foul language was not tolerated in the shows. Married people didn’t even sleep in the same bed. If you ever watched I Love Lucy or The Dick Van Dyke show you will remember that during the rare episodes when a scene was shot in a bedroom there were always two beds and the couple would be fully clothed in pajamas. The only television shows in which more than one person would be in a bed were comedies like The Three Stooges where the three would share a bed so that one of them could irritate the other two by snoring loudly.

Could television have really influenced attitudes and morality? Is it affecting viewers today? Is pop psychology affecting people? Does the general populace really think about what they believe and why they believe it or do most people perversely cling to that which they have come to accept as truth and fact because it is easier to just allow someone to tell them what the truth is than to seek it for themselves? Has religion, specifically Christianity, been affected by distortion of the truth?

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 2 Tim 4:3 (KJV)

Has television become a teacher? Do people merely seek the channel where they can hear the words that justify the lifestyle they want to live?

If you doubt that watching television has affected the thinking of people, ask yourself how the term homophobia became so common. Any time that someone who considers homosexuality to be a sin or to be disgusting, there is almost certain to be some liberal, pseudo-intellectual nearby eager to use that term to describe them. People use it as if it elevates their intelligence and or coolness to a higher degree. Being against the casual acceptance of homosexual behavior does not reflect any type of phobia. Phobias are irrational fears of events with a low probability of occurrence. Being against a homosexual lifestyle is not an irrational fear of homosexuals anymore than being against thievery or adultery is an irrational fear of people who engage in those sins, but the term has been cleverly planted into the psyche of society and it is used by people totally ignorant of what they are saying. Once a person accepts beliefs for the sake of fitting in with the crowd he or she begins to lose their identity – brainwashing begins.

The media is a great tool for shaping the opinions and thoughts of millions of people. Even those who think they are too intelligent to be affected by it are affected by it.

In the late sixties and early seventies a common expression was “I have the blahs”. The blahs was an imaginary disease created by a drug company to sell their product. Any time you woke up feeling a bit down or tired you were encouraged to just drop a couple of pills in a glass of water and then just a “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” later you will be feeling great.

How much influence have television, movies, and novels had on attitudes regarding marriage? Today, many people prefer to live together now and have children outside of marriage. How does this affect the children? How has the erosion of the family unit adversely affected the lives of everyone, especially in the U.S.?

How much influence has television had on the general attitude toward homosexuality by way of shows like “Will and Grace”. That show wasn’t funny. People just laughed and watched it to prove how open and liberal they were. How do soap operas affect people? Watching people constantly scheming to destroy each other’s lives, committing adultery, fornicating with several people on a rotating basis, lying, and engaging in many other bad behaviors and often gaining from it is almost certain to alter the way people think about personal relationships if watched long enough.

Why are so many people so obsessed with television? Many people claim to watch only educational shows but that seems unlikely. Many people claim they pay their credit cards off every month and never run a balance on them, yet credit card debt has proven to be one of the greatest causes of financial destruction in the United States.

Proving that any individual is molded by what is seen on television would be nearly impossible. The purpose of this article is to influence the reader to think more seriously about it. If you watch more than a few hours of television a week, you are spending too much of your time in a cognitive void when you could be learning about the realities of the world. If you are watching cable news thinking that you are keeping up, you are being deceived. Cable news exists to make money, not to inform viewers. If you listen to people like Rush Limbaugh more than once a month, ask yourself; “Why do I listen to him?”. Maybe because it is easier for him to tell you how you should feel than for you to seek the truth and form your own opinion. Have you ever heard people arguing about something and realized that their arguments sound very familiar to topics and opinions you heard on a talk show? Maybe one is arguing from Howard Stern’s viewpoint and the other from Oprah Winfrey’s viewpoint. Neither of those two people is a great source to be basing opinions on. When you allow others to think for you, you are being brainwashed. You might be fortunate enough to listen to someone who is basically honest and intelligent, but odds are you are not. Honest, intelligent people are generally seen as not very entertaining so people turn to entertainers and speakers who amuse them.

Television does have an impact on people who watch it often. Humans cannot be exposed to any influence for lengthy periods of time without being in some way influenced by it. At the very least, frequent viewing of commercial television detracts the viewer from the realities of life. People claim that they only watch news or “educational” television. How often though do people take any time to verify what they view on television? Commercial news exists to generate income for television stations and the owners of the stations. Journalistic integrity is not the driving force behind the creation of the news on television.

A few years ago Joe Scarborough became obsessed with the Michael Jackson molestation case. For months his entire show was focused on this case to the exclusion of anything relevant or important. People go to trial frequently for molesting children without becoming the target of a television host’s ????????? so why would someone with an opportunity to educate a vast viewing audience about real work issues waste hundreds of hours on Michael Jackson? Regardless of the answer to that question, the fact is this; all of the people watching that show night after night lost a lot of hours that they could have been educating themselves and doing something productive rather than rejoicing in the misery of others. Viewers allowed their minds to be distracted and focused on an issue with no relevance to them.

After the Michael Jackson incident he become obsessed with the Janet Jackson wardrobe incident at the Super Bowl half-time show. Was that incident really worth the time people spent going on and on about it? Were not more important issues occurring all over the world? Talk show hosts often seem to use their pulpit as a way to elevate themselves above the rest of society. Isn’t it more disgraceful to waste an opportunity to bring important information to people by going on and on for weeks about some trivial incident than to accidentally reveal a bit too much skin on television? There are billboards on highways in this country that show more skin than Janet Jackson showed that day. Dis Scarborough spend any time on that issue?

If you watch(ed) that show frequently you spent time listening to nonsense when you could have been learning something meaningful. That show is only presented as an example. Too many “news” shows on television are as bad or worse.

There is, of course, the argument that television reflects society. What if television only reflects the views of a small minority who wish to have a great influence on a majority though?