Gay marriage is one of the "smokescreen issues" that is pushed in everyone's face by the propaganda machine aka mass media - our information supply - to divert attention from the really important issues.
The solution to this particular problem has been around since the idea of "civil unions" was conceived. A civil union approach could have been used to confer equal rights to gay people who want to marry, without tampering with the definition of marriage. If there are issues, resolve them.
But putting this issue to rest isn't the point at all. The objective is to keep the subject alive and ready to be popped into the news cycle on demand.
There's a pool of "smokescreen issues". Abortion is another. It's been decided that a woman is, and should be, in charge of her body. It's common sense. But again, a small number of people have decided this a compelling issue for all of mankind to argue endlessly over. Or, more specifically, to be thrown into the conversation to keep it from going in another direction.
This weeks examples of headlines that just happened to "fall through the cracks" while attention was shunted to smokescreen issues include what looks to me like the murder of Michael Hastings, and former US general James Cartwright being named in the Stuxnet leak inquiry.
As you may know, Michael Hastings was an investigative journalist. Can you imagine how chilling this is on the whole field of investigative journalism? Will Bill Moyers be next?
It's the headlines we're not seeing that talk about what's really wrong with America. The biggest injustice of all being the invasion of Iraq. Then comes the Wall Street barons who robbed us blind and plunged us into debt, the unbelievably large sinkhole called the MIC, the pitiful and declining state of health care, the complete loss of privacy and a foreign policy controlled by special interests that have parents sending their kids to kill and die for.
What we need, and can't implement fast enough, is election system reform. We've got to remove the big money from the equation. There are many people who care more about other people then a large salary and are smart/educated enough to get things done to mankind's betterment. These people exist and we need to build a path for them to get into office and truly represent us (what a breath of fresh air that will be!).
Then each of us wouldn't have to waste so many cycles thinking about these problems, only to rediscover being helpless to do anything about it. The answers to some of the biggest problems come easily when human decency and common sense are applied. We've been duped by suits with silver tongues who lack the human decency part. Just look at the current state of issues that are really important today. The invasion of the Middle East is about to enter its next phase, perhaps in Syria, but any country will do to keep the mission alive. If you could ask the people pulling the military strings whether they would ever consider the invasion of the Middle East as yet another defeat, this one larger then Vietnam because this one bites back, and they will shout you right down. Yet consider what's been achieved for all that blood, suffering and destruction. And now Bush is going around giving speeches? Read Vincent Bugliosi's book for what we need to happen.
For an interesting view on our information supply, see this video based on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave — how human perception of reality is manipulated by others.
Bill
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