Over the years, global media have conspicuously improvised on their craft of manufacturing the 'truth'. Technology has made the weaving process simpler and less cumbersome. On the face of it, "truth" is but a manufactured art...in the format of a 'story', that we want to tell ourselves. And also feel comfortable, by listening to this. Essentially, truth is like a fairytale that we really want to tell ourselves, at any given point in time, in our lives.
Most of us by intuition, are gifted enough to understand this. However, the majority of people would still like to pretend they do not, because they wish to be able to get by, in this ongoing status quo of our system. Among the majority of people, those who have conformed to the rules, of whatever system that wields the power, are required to mandate the 'story'... they want everyone to quietly tell the same story to themselves!
Therefore, the vast majority of people who are exposed to the factory-woven truths pretend not to understand, in order to move forward with stealth. And this is also done, for a reason. They are fearful that the same system will most likely crush them, for not conforming to the unspoken rules. Moving forward this punishment will likely be extended to all others, who stand up to contradict their own, woven stories.
The bottom line is that in order to manufacture the truth, you will only need a story, along with sufficient power, in order to coerce the vast majority of our society, to pretend to believe in it.
If you happen to be one of the vast millions of human beings who still believe there exists something that we ideally would like to call 'truth', my narrative can be very upsetting.
Particularly, when you will most likely discover that there is no such thing as the 'truth', or simply put, something that includes all that we have conditioned ourselves, to regard as the 'truth'.....since our early childhood. It is just the product of a technology of power, and certainly not a pragmatic state of being.
I know some of my close friends would now like to give me a funny glare, implying that I have really freaked out. Their possible retort: Well.... how about the 'Word of God', the Holy Books and the Scriptures, or the irrefutable laws of quantum physics. I do not, at this stage, wish to open a whole sack of worms.
In our technology-laden society, where one layer overlaps the other, we need to convince ourselves that it is but the so called 'manufactured' truth, that strikes us to illuminate our minds, and reaches us, only after this has emerged out of the meticulous, manufacturing process and assembly lines.
To grasp this product, is not very complicated. Well again, this is offered in the form of a package, that we have always known as believable 'stories'. This is aimed to reach us, through our own weaknesses and the addictions of our ceaseless surfings, made through the search engines.
Newspapers of solid credibility, that are published in London, New York, Delhi or Tokyo have, for their own reasons, expressed 'public opinion' by way of publishing fabricated write ups. I need to be careful here, by avoiding mentioning specific examples, at this point. I have been exposed to a host of concocted stories, disseminated through respectable outlets, over the last couple of years.
As much as we would like there to be, and pretend to behave and speak as if these were only one, there is no Mystical or Spiritual Arbiter of Truth....yes, I mean the 'official' truth, that comes out of both, the state controlled, or the so called under-influenced, independent media houses.
The truth spreads out like a sheet, according to the likes of those in 'power'. To me, this is the only purpose of developing the concept of truth. And, this is the reason why the concept of 'truth' has been invented. That is, to strongly counter any other competitive truths available, and render the same as gross untruths or lies. Much to our disdain, did we not come across the 'other' kinds of truths? For example, your truth, his truth or my truth.
There is however, in my opinion, just one truth, which is the 'official' truth! It reflects how the powerful media bosses control reality, to impose their ideology on the masses, or their employees, or their children....or their estate or beneficiaries.
We have always longed for the objective truth... for instance, of whatever happened somewhere in our past, that has remained a mystery. Just recall, whatever happened to the unexplained mysteries of JFK, Nine-Eleven, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Big Bang...and/or, well... whatever. This won't happen, because the truth is just a story. Something that is neither your story nor mine!
Coming back, truth is also a story that brazen 'power' gets to relate, which the powerless never get to do so, unless related with the story of those in power....which, again is always like telling someone else's story! The unfortunate powerless masses in my humble opinion, are either the servants of 'power that be' or are just cynics or 'pagans'.
There is no third alternative. We either parrot the truth of the ruling classes, or utter something synonymous to the 'blasphemy' of others. Obviously, the so called 'heretics' do not regard their truth as heresy. They regard this as the real truth, which again, turns out to be the heresy. The 'truth' that is churned out from of the powerful, is always a fallacy or perhaps, an apostasy.
It may be personally comforting for some of us to tell ourselves whatever truth we know about certain issues that ring alarm bells, like the 'Russia gate', or the 9-11 event that altered our world, in the year 2001. Or, it may be something that is still a matter of convenience for us, to share our knowledge with others, who may be agreeable to this perception.
Perhaps, this may even expose the lies of the corporate media on Twitter, Facebook or in our blogs. Should this happen, the ruling class will most likely, still give a damn about it. I can say this because, ours are merely the ravings of heretics, that do not warrant serious responses.
When Glenn Greenwood, a journalist of high standing and a Pulitzer Prize winner carefully and respectfully accused the powerful media owners, of lying --they did succumb to pressure, and did give a bit of the 'damn', that I have mentioned above.
I admire the professionalism of my close friend and colleague, Syed Badrul Ahsan, in Bangladesh when he is directly confronts the media outlet, or a state organ, when public trust is breached by way of transmission of fabricated stories.
I have watched him rise up to the occasion to mobilize public opinion without fear or favor. We believe that in the periphery of our minds, theoretically, we all feel that the questionable stories reaching outspoken journalists like him could very well turn out to be true.
I am sure none of my colleagues can afford to cross the red line and end up getting branded as a 'cynic' or a 'schismatic', or someone who is condemned to the outer mainstream of Darkness. Like Robert Fisk or Jonathan Cook or Assange and many other 'apostates' of this dynamic era.
I do not wish to flirt with the idea that it is insignificant to expose the woven lies of the corporate media or the ruling classes. It is really, very important. This is what I like to do only in private, in a funny or satirical manner. It is however important as well, to realize that truth is not going to suddenly 'stand up' like my eleven month old grandson Arhan, who does so because he is able to upgrade his own self, out of his messy, regular crawl.
I do not wish to convey a wrong impression that is is not important to expose the fabrications of the corporate media or the ruling classes. I think this is really, very important. I humbly feel that it is also significant to comprehend that the truth shall not rouse the masses from their sleep.
Or, perhaps inspire them to throw away their shackles. People are not going to stand up like Arhan does, see the truth and initiate a revolution. People already know the 'official' truth, which is claimed to be the only truth there is. Those who are conforming to this are doing so not because they are deceived but because it is safer and more rewarding to do so.
We suffer from this malaise only because our society has adopted a tradition of ignoring accountability in our media and state organs. Singly or jointly, both have continued to fabricate stories. They do this with impunity only because of a lack of checks and balances which allows the status quo to be maintained. The tragedy is that the offenders go scot free and totally unpunished.
The author is a former educator,
based in Chicago (USA)