Musings on a Sunday night ...

I just posted this week's contributions to the sister site - minnedosa united church ...

Not much else catches my fancy tonight ... I've been pondering the power we've yielded to the media ...

Our knowledge of the world is often focused and tainted by the media who have filtered out parts of the story and given us a version of the truth, which we then take to be the Gospel. This would be fine, if media's influence was limited only to our understanding of the headlines.

But witness the fiasco that Oprah Winfrey finds herself in the centre of. In a valiant attempt to get her viewers reading, she selects a book and heralds it as the latest - "must read" literary text. All is well and good (or is it??), people rush out and millions of copies are sold - men and women around the world read the book, and all is right with the world.

UNTIL, the truth of the book is questioned - then the fall from grace is meteoric. One day you are a celebrity, and the next day you are a pariah.

Such is the power of the media - you don't need talent, you don't need to be influential or even intelligent. You just need a really good marketing campaign ...

Sheesh !! I yearn for a world where intelligence and ability and compassion mean something, not a world where you make more money playing a silly game then knowing what country borders yours ... I yearn for a world where we value wisdom, knowledge and intelligence, and the powerful people are those who deserve it, not those created by the media ...

Heck, while I'm yearning - I'd like world peace and my cold to go away ...

Disappointment seems to be the order of the day ... maybe one day ...