No, that isn't a misspelling; it's meant to convey the idea that the media, in all its forms but especially television, is the dominant force in our society; that it massages and lulls people into a false sense of reality. It's a kind of electronic equivalent of the "soma" of Aldous Huxley's novel, Brave New World: intended to keep the masses entertained and quiet, unable to engage in independent thought.
With few exceptions, the people of this country see the world through the huge "eye" in their living room. They see what this "eye" wants them to see and to understand it in the way the "eye" wants them to understand it. A marvelous instrument of social control; it's far more efficient than secret police, jails, all that sort of thing; although these are still necessary for those recalcitrants who ignore their master's commands.
The media is, besides the courts, the main reason the Abortion Holocaust has been fastened on this country as an alien growth, an ugly moral cancer. As we know, the media presents a false picture of the Life issue; plainly put, IT LIES.
Perhaps even worse, it fails to report abortion news although, in any objective sense, the struggle between the pro-life and pro-death forces is the greatest single event of the century. Millions of babies are being smothered, one might say, under a blanket of ignorance, carefully fostered by the all-powerful media.
Some of us have thought that if pro-lifers had control of the media for just six months, enabling them to present the truth, that at the end of that period abortion would be, literally, a dead issue in this country. People would be so outraged when they saw the truth that had been hidden from them for so long they would be tempted to go out and lynch the abortionists.
What to do?
As fare as the hardcore pro-life activists are concerned, they've read the books, and brochures; they get the pro-life newsletters; they know what the truth is. They are well aware of the way the secular media lies and distorts the pro-life story. They've been to the abortuaries; they've talked to the victims and know the horrible reality the media never shows.
The second group are the ordinary Catholic and Evangelical people. Through their churches, religious newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows, they have a better idea of the abortion truth than the average man in the street, who is exposed only to the secular media. Even so, after all these years there is still a vast amount of ignorance among our Catholic and Evangelical people. After all, they also watch the nightly TV shows and read the daily newspapers...and they are affected by them! It still surprises me to hear some of the things good, churchgoing people say about abortion and the Life issue in general, things that show they unthinkingly have absorbed the anti-life propaganda peddled by the secular media.
Beyond these two groups is the great mass of American people. They are prisoners - mental prisoners - of the media. They uncritically accept whatever the media tells them.
Remember, these are the people who elected that transparent mountebank and crook Bill Clinton, not once but twice, who kept "LaVerne and Shirley" on the TV for eight long years! We can't expect too much form them. The 'good' thing about them is that they really don't care about abortion, one way or the other; they really don't care much about anything unless it impinges on them directly. They are content with their simple pleasures; content to dram their lives away. If we win (I should say, WHEN we win), they will accept us as cheerfully as they now accept our present secular-humanist ruling class.
What does all this mean? What must we do from here on out to advance the Pro-Life cause among these three groups of Americans, remembering that the lives of untold millions hand in the balance?
Regarding the hardcore pro-life activists, there isn't much that can or should be done. Being what they are, they will continue to work and to educate themselves so that they may educate others. We should, however, make sure that newcomers to the ranks of these activists are made aware of the immense resources available and to make use of them - "an educated pro-lifer is an effective pro-lifer."
As for the third group (the "great gray herd" as someone called them" they are, for the present, largely out of our reach. We will be able to affect them when we take over the media (don't laugh, stranger things have happened!)
Right now, the best we can do is "damage control." We must keep after the media constantly to give us at least a modicum of fair play. We should carp and complain to them all the time, raise cain about their biased and unfair news stories and TV shows, keep them looking over their shoulders whenever they thouch on anything involving the Pro-Life issue.
Beyond, that, we must do whatever we can to destroy the American people's belief and confidence in the secular media.
We must concentrate our slender resources on the second group; the "believing" Catholic and Evangelical people. These folk are halfway there. our efforts to reach them must be greatly expanded. They will listen to us and understand us if we can get to them. We must use our ingenuity to work out ways of doing this. One example of how than be done is though Voices for the Unborn.
Joe Wall is a long time pro-life activists who has been involved in many areas of the pro-life movement.
