The Inconvenience of Truth

Fear is a wonderful thing....that is if you’re the one yielding its power.

Fear is a powerful thing....just ask Hitler, Hussein, Mao, Bush...just insert dictator/terrorist here.

Fear is the weapon of choice for the evil, unscrupulous, immoral, extremist.

But fear is also so damn convenient, so damn tidy, so damn simple.

Control is a wonderful thing, so wonderful that millions take medication just to tame it, industries tell lies to caress it, leaders will do anything to seize it.

Fear has always controlled us. Fear of spiders, heights, failure, jail, the poorhouse. Fear pretty much maps out our lives, forces us into certain decisions, down certain roads, in fact most people live their lives doing everything to prevent the things they fear instead of living for the things that surprise, delight and excite them. We call these people thrill seekers, renegades, foolhardy....terrorist even but us no, no, no, we are law abiding, god fearing people who can proudly say that we don’t cheat the system, speed, take drugs, steal, cheat and anything else that seems remotely fun. Yet why don’t we? Why don’t we question, move in other directions? Why do we always do what we are asked to do?

A sense of community?

A sense of right and wrong?

Why don’t we riot in the streets? Why is it so hard to for us to imagine that what is happening in Egypt could happen here, in Australia, Queensland, Brisbane?
It’s not like we don’t have things to fight for?

Complacency ...maybe...possibly....not sure as I can’t see through this veil of fear.

But we are in the best country in the world, we have democracy whatever the fuck that is. We aren’t run by a dictator...a robot maybe but still she sways on the side of democracy for the most part. We have nothing to complain about.

But I wouldn’t know as it’s been a bloody long time since I heard anyone speak.

I’ve heard 24 hour rolling broadcasts of floods, cyclones, pain, destruction. I’ve seen macabre countdowns to natural disasters prior to the event and 24 hours of predictions. I’ve seen images of ruin, desperation, tears every time I turn on the TV, no matter what the time of day, the timeslot, the station.

I’ve seen fear, I’ve heard fear and consequently I feel fear.

Now I’m not saying there haven’t been things to fear in the last few months in our country, I’m not dismissing the tragedies that have unfolded right in front of us. I’ve seen it, heard it, touched it. What I am questioning is how the media has covered these things.

I know Queenslanders, I know they “breed them tough north of the border”, I know they will survive this, as they survived what has happened before (and happens every wet season), and what will happen again. We live in a country of extreme climate and, no Bob Brown, this has nothing to do with climate change – look at history you baboon the weather has rarely been our friend. But we continue to build our lives here and we continue to accept that every now and again Mother Nature will tear it apart.

But this isn’t about the floods, the category 5 cyclone, this isn’t even about Australia. Actually it is as I love this country and everyday this fear epidemic terrifies me...more than any flood could. Ever since that awful day we now globally refer to as 9/11 the media has taken it upon themselves to not only inform us down to the second but to manipulate us. There is no denying that we have a fourth estate on our hands.

But we are informed! And we all know that education is power and power is freedom...

It’s funny how easily we confuse 24 hour coverage with being informed. How easily we believe that having 24 hours of news channel now means we will be more clued-up. It’s funny how much westerners jump up and down about censorship when our media (and politicians for that matter) censor everything that we touch.

Democracy, whatever the fuck that is.

The media believes they ARE the news. They subdue us with fear. They scare every question, every complaint right out of us. Put simply they occupy us. Distraction prevents Destruction. A clever politician, campaigner, climate change orator knows the power of the media. Propaganda comes in many guises and not just a 60 foot poster on a China wall. Al Gore knew the power of the media, George Bush used it as effectively as Hitler, and Peter Beattie was the master. Yet when this juggernaut was used for good instead of evil, when Julian Assange burst on the world stage, outrage prevailed. How dare he! How dare he tell the truth! How dare he question? How dare he probe? How dare he feed the truth to the spoon fed millions!

Because being informed has nothing to do with the truth.

If you believe that censorship is not alive and kicking in our democratic lives then I ask you why are they so afraid of WikiLeaks? Why international events are either ignored or shoved between sport and the weather report, and why the highest populated government departments are the spin doctors...or why is there even such a term in our language. When did Truth become so uncool?

Because the truth is uncomfortable, fiery, and dangerous, and sometimes worth rioting for. The truth is indeed bloody inconvenient.