In the mad dash to 'level the playing field politics' currently in play, albeit in peril, people who watch Television or read Newspapers and Magazines or spend time perusing the myriad of op-ed blogs on the internet have been conditioned over time to envision certain iconic images whenever they hear certain words in a specific context. For instance, say the word Terror, what pops in your mind? Say the word 'terror' attack and 9/11 and what iconic image pops in your mind, the Twin Towers? Say the word 'terror' and Nightmare on Elm and likely the iconic image will be of Freddy Kruger. We fasten 'events' or impressive visuals to words which translate into images and we store them for contextual and cognitive access. This is no secret and it is one marketing firms have exploited for a very very long time!Enters the cause based politician whose world view provides the context of all of his/her mental imagery and in an effort to garner acceptability and to propagate the cause beyond themselves they have learned the lessons of marketing and have fine tuned the art of mind manipulation, even so subtly those who believe themselves 'strong minded' and 'immune' to such nonsense fall prey to the masterful employment of a tried and true craft: Sleight of hand! Watch this hand...OH! DID YOU SEE THAT? The other hand produced a surprise as if out of thin air!! Wow, what a surprise.
Recently we have been given to much discussion, especially related to Ms. Obama, where words like 'obesity' and 'poverty' are linked together. It is no secret she and her husband believe everyone in the world should have everything they need regardless of any known impediment needed to get them. They have used terms like 'equality' and 'level playing field' to lock in our minds their message. So how exactly does that work?
Americans are known worldwide for their generosity. They have historically established a national compassion which is based on the individual manifestation of the same! So, when individual Americans hear things like the 'poverty level' has gone up, because most people have never experienced 'real' poverty in context iconic images like little children with bloated bellies lying about on dirty streets, or whole hospitals with children laying on cots with open oozing sores and flies crawling all over them are their reference images. They see other children who have hands cupped around small containers with white rice in them as their day's ration of food. America intellectually grasps what real poverty is because it has been being introduced into their consciousness via the television for decades. But that is the image of poverty and when we hear our national 'poverty level' has increased we start accessing the stored images we have contextually stored under 'poverty' in our mind's bank of files to perceive what is being said.
Then there is the 'obesity' problem in kids that keeps being introduced and reintroduced into our daily consciousness via television images of stranger's butts walking down the street overflowing their pants or waddling in a skirt, most of which are adult behinds in any case. That is actually a correct image of obesity. Yet, what a dichotomy to have the mind juggle 'obesity' which is always associated with eating too much, which is associated with having the means to feed yourself too much, with the horrid images of poverty -- also being discussed daily. Confuse the mind? First you say 'fat' then you say 'skinny' and then you say this is a epidemic in our nation and your mind is trying to juggle horrific images of children dying of malnutrition and opportunistic disease and butts falling out of pants and the first lady determined this is a problem needing aggressive intervention, and you have a society starting to just fall into lock step because it must be so!
STOP! Think! In 2003, 0.88 billionth of the world's population subsisted on $1.00 a day. That represents 13.6% of the world population in 2003. 48% of the world population subsisted on $2.50 a day. How much are you living on? Really? When you break down the cost of the roof over your head, the food and water you have access to, utilities, just the necessities, what is the per day cost? In our country, even those who exist on the streets in dire poverty, for America, manage to come in for a free meal, but it still costs someone to provide it? No way it can be broken down to $2.50 per day! The mental images we have of poverty really is poverty. America has difficult times and many are without the standard of living other may enjoy and that is where the manipulation begins to connect and move the people. Because American's feel such compassion for lessor fortunate people when they hear kids are going hungry they immediately think little kids with bloated tummies laying in cots with oozing sores and tons of flies. But is that really America's childhood reality? What public school in all of America does not offer 'poverty level' kids free breakfast and lunch? And is it a small container of white rice or is it a nutritious somewhat balanced meal? The kids are given ample opportunity to exercise and maintain the natural immunity their system produces from nutritious meals and regular exercise.
We must slow down and watch both hands! Just because we are fooled into thinking the kids of America live in inequality when it comes to basic needs doesn't mean it is the same level of destitution we see from other countries where it really exists. They have taken on a bold cause trying to reduce obesity while touting poverty simultaneously. But what comes from the message? Being on message with Ms. Obama now has 'choice' being modified. Where we could go and choose a container of regular cottage cheese, many stores no longer offer anything but reduced fat or fat free choices. Fast food chains are being asked to replace their popular food items with vegetables and fruits. This does nothing to change the behavior of the consumer but if you federally mandate it what it will do is reduce the choice in places to take your family for a meal. When you raise the taxes on items considered a source for obesity, such as soda, you reduce the choice of beverages until the beverage companies no longer exist. And people comply because? They have allowed their minds to be cued up by external stimuli such as television and newspapers and then fall right into formation making choices until one day when they begin to miss their favorite french fries or a guzzle of their favorite cola and they go to buy either only to find out neither are there to buy that it dawns on them they've been had! Freedoms were yanked right out from underneath them with their full consent conditioned like the frog in a pot of water quickly warming to a boil..felt good until it didn't.
Maybe you don't frequent fast food chains or drink sodas but you appreciate the 'freedom' to make that choice for yourself enough to understand others should have the freedom to choose for themselves to imbibe in a soda with fries.
Stand up! Don't be deceived by the agenda of the folks who wish to bring you the quality of life that looks like everyone wearing military green work clothes, living in apartments that look exactly the same and eating whatever is served by the government down at the community kitchen. A nation whose freedoms are daily being surreptitiously stolen by the current powers at be is only the latest in a long line of politicians who have used 'words' and 'images' married and stored in our mental filing cabinet to launch a long term assault on our individuality while trying to reign us in under the control of big government. If I were to say 'terror' in the context of 'Solient Green' would that move you to WAKE UP? It is a few minutes until we cross the line of 'no return' and YOU and others like you becoming politically savvy and coming of age in this time of crisis of consciousness stand just this side of extinction. Our parents gave us a better world than we are giving our kids. Is that right?
At every level of life, not just food, our choices are being modified without our conscious consent and to our nation's detriment. I hope my grand child will grow up in a world where they can choose to relish a dark chocolate fudge brownie ice cream cone from 31 Flavors or relish a shiny bright red ripened tomato from their own garden. It should be their choice as to what they want to feed their body and their mind. No one else should have the powerful authority to rip from their lives critical thinking and personal choice both of which are currently on our national endangered species list!
Vote November 2, 2010 to block the movement away from choice and into servitude!
