News

“Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?”- Al Gore 2007

Mr. Gore asks the above question relatively early in his new book which deals with condemning the major media as a whole, “The Assault on Reason”. He believes that television and the media are working together to convolute the human mind into throwing away rational thought processes and embracing the various permutations the mass media came up with in convincing people that going to Iraq and waging an unwinnable war was the correct thing to do.

BUSH ADMINISTRATION IN CAHOOTS WITH THE MEDIA
Gore goes on to accuse the Bush administration of being in bed with the major media powers of America, including Rupert Murdoch who owns the national Fox news channel, along with a dozen other media outlets. He also feels that many Republicans sell out to organized money in order to pay for the huge advertising bill when it comes to generating a television presence before a major election.

Gore believes that the Bush administration has studied ways in which news outlets like Fox news are able to brainwash American citizens into re-electing every major Republican that Bush endorses. Since the president’s approval rating right now is less than 30 percent, it is hard to believe that Gore thinks Bush’s endorsement would be good for any Republican at this time, but he does argue that Bush is still taken seriously by voters living in red states such as Texas and Oklahoma.

POLITICS OF FEAR
Brain research plays a huge part in one of Gore’s book chapters entitled “Politics of Fear”. In this chapter, he sites scientific research that indicates moving images on television trigger primitive adaptive behavior that “immobilizes viewers.” He states that George Bush knows this and uses television to instill that fear into every viewer who watches programs on the terrorist threat and other frightening topics.

Al Gore speculates in his new book that a print campaign for the initial march into Iraq would not have been a successful one because “the parts of the human brain that are central to the reasoning process are continually activated by the very act of reading words.” The “vividness” of television played a huge part in convincing the American people that we were totally justified by taking out Saddam Hussein and his repressive Iraq government by any means necessary.

THE BAD-MOUTHING BEGINS
The famous Nixon quote that states “People react to fear, not love.They don’t teach that in Sunday school, but it’s true” is an unbridled parallel to the current Bush philosophy, according to Mr. Gore. He writes in his book, “George W. Bush reminds me more of Nixon than any other president.” By making this comparison, Gore is obviously alluding to the fact that Bush should also face the same impeachment proceedings that caused Nixon to step down from the presidency in 1974.

THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE MUST CONTINUE AT ALL COSTS
An expert of one of the main chapters in Gore’s book includes this scary religious analysis, “Bush’s view of policies in the context of a fateful spiritual conflict between good and evil does not really represent Christian doctrine.” Gore goes on to state his case that Bush would like to eradicate the division between church and state so he can get all of the right-wing Christian senators and congressmen together and abolish abortion rights and same-sex marriages as being against the church and decent moral codes.

He also quotes James Madison’s warning that “a religious sect may degenerate into a political faction”, meaning that the right-wing Christian coalition could gain a huge power and influence over every political issue being voted on today. While that is a very terrifying thought, Gore is obviously trying to frighten the stable and sane people reading his book into voting for every Democrat in all future political elections over any Republican who would dare run against them in a national or local election.

While Gore makes some valid points overall in his new book, Gore’s agenda must be taken into account first. He would love nothing more than to see a new Democrat president take office in the next election that will approve of all of the environmental laws Gore has given his stamp of approval to. So read his new book with a grain of salt, and remember that politics is still a very dirty business.

Technorati Tags: al gore, bush administration, fox news, george bush, politics of fear, rupert murdoch, television, convolute, republican, s endorsement, oklahoma politics, rational thought, thought processes, adaptive behavior, brain research, cahoots, texas and oklahoma, brainwash, approval rating