America's mighty propaganda machine

[Doug Millison]

I was in Beijing the day the CCP outlawed the Falun
Gong religious organization.  My son and I had arrived
in town a couple of days earlier, to visit some of my
wife's relatives and spend a month vacation.

The first morning after we arrived, we woke up early,
jet-lagged, and walked through the campus of the
university where my sister-in-law teaches and lives
with her family.  About 30,000 faculty, staff, and
students live on campus.  We saw hundreds of people in
the campus park, practicing the tai-ch-like Falun Gong
exercises -- students, faculty (retired and active),
and staff.

The next morning, the CCP outlawed Falun Gong and
unleashed an incredible propaganda blitz against the
organization, demonizing its leaders and
practitioners.  
Within 24 hours of non-stop propaganda -- on TV,
radio, newspapers -- otherwise intelligent people on
the campus had begun parroting what the media were
saying about Falun Gong.  Overnight, they were using
the CCP's words to demonize the organization to which
so many had belonged -- virtually every family had a
family member or close friend in Falun Gong.  

This is what happens when a population has been
conditioned by decades of propaganda, desensitized to
the truth, and starved for real information, my wife's
brother-in-law explained, in response to my question,
"How can it be that nobody was talking about Falun
Gong being evil and dangerous the day before
yesterday, when so many people on this campus were
taking part?"

This is what I see happening in the U.S. right now.
The corporate media continue to pass along, without
question or criticism, what the U.S. government has to
say about this situation.  All of the commentators now
seem to take it for granted that we are "at war", that
we must retaliate, that we must seek payback. I've
heard none of these commentators even mention that any
sort of air strikes or ground attacks will kill
innocent people, as they did in the Gulf War, in
Kosovo, etc.

This message seems to be sinking in, too,
unfortunately.  I attended a memorial service at our
church at noon today, where the pastor did his best to
help people grieve and find hope.  We had a time when
we could talk about our feelings and emotions.  I was
shocked to learn that some people  are praying that
the inevitable war that we must now wage -- in order
to make the world safe for ou democracy -- be short
and kill a minimum number of innocent victims.

I'm praying that more people will have a chance to
hear from the other voices that are calling for
patience, to understand the situation, to undertake
the difficult work of reconciliation, to work for
peace and justice, to reject the calls for more
bloodshed.

-Doug

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