revolution – a drastic and far-reaching change in ways of thinking and behaving…

Some years back, Gil Scott-Heron, a black poet who wrote the poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” during the turbulent 60’s was very close to getting it right for this era as well. His poem that was a diatribe against the mass media’s trivialization of social upheaval should now say “The Revolution is Also Being Televised” for the era that we are now in.

Weather you want to admit it or not, we are at the beginnings of a major revolution. I believe that the events of 9/11 forced the US to face the fact that we are not only at war with terrorism, but in many ways with ourselves. 9/11 was that cold shower that woke us up to the fact that the very fabric of our nation that had been woven by the rich and deep values of our forefathers has now become a very worn garment. I can still remember how much our country united together after that awful day. There was no partisan bickering, 527 attack ads, etc. And who can forget the picture of the congressmen and women in DC uniting together on the steps of the Capital building singing “God Bless America”? Yet in the midst of all of this “love”, Rep. Cynthia McKinney does the unthinkable at that time and blames Bush for the attacks. People all over the country was ready to see her hang from the gallows for making such a divisive statement. If the truth be told, her remarks only reflected the division that had been brewing in this country for some time (even before the 2000 elections).

Since McKinney’s remarks, the war between those that hold dear the values of this nation (as defined by the Constitution and Declaration of Independence) and those that seek to merge with the socialist ideologies of the rest of the world has been very evident to say the least. Newspapers, magazines, movies, books, cartoons, sporting events, etc. have now increased their role as being a part of the great battleground in which this revolution is being waged.

Some time ago, I commented on a recent The National Endowment for the Arts report entitled Reading at Risk. Here were my comments:

Apparently, they did a study entitled “Reading at Riskâ€ÂÂ. The biggest surprise in this study is that they found a -28% decline in literary reading between 1982 and 2002 in the 18-24 year age group. That is very scary. Only 37.1% of African-Americans were found to have read some type of literature in a 12-month period ending August 2002.

If less people are reading, then what are people basing their political views on besides what they hear from the media?

It is very true that while reading has gone down, the amount of time that we spend watching television, playing video games, and on-line has gone up. I must say that as a former “gamer”, I have become quite concerned of the trend in which bright and intelligent grown men that have the ability to impact society as we know it make the unwise choice to spend hours upon hours playing with their Xbox, or PlayStation (Now before you get “ticked”, I am not saying that gaming is bad. Instead, what I am suggesting is that a lot of our ingenuity is being wasted when we WITHOUT DISCIPLINE engage in fruitless activities that does nothing to better us as a person).

Ivan Pavlov, a famous physiologist who did a great deal of study on the science of conditioned reflexes believed that the following, from his research was true about mankind:

From a speech given by Herbert Philbrick. I found this excerpt in the book entitled “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” written by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt.

As I said in a previous posting, in the end, it really is not going to matter who wins this election. The increase of clear media bias/propaganda is here to stay. I believe that the days of taking news reports at face value are now just about gone. It is not an uncommon thing these days to see once successful magazines, newspapers either just go out of business, or get bought out. The more these vehicles of unique thought shut down, the more the whole concept of individual thought becomes lost.

So as you can see, a revolution of ideologies is happening right now. If you want to see it, it is as close as your nearest television set. Either way, you are part of this revolution. You just have to choose your side.

Yes, Mr. Heron, this revolution is also being televised.