Which Side Are You On? - an essay

[jsj1313]

Alright, I wrote this essay, in addition to 17 others, for an exit project in high school. I thought it would be nice to get some feedback on it from an audience other than people I know. So here is goes...

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Which Side Are You On?

Something that has been bothering me lately is the media and its influence over the rest of the population. Being that my father was the general manager of television stations such as FOX and WNAB, I decided to discuss the issue with him. A few days later, I watched the film Fight Club. The next day, I viewed it again. Both mediums offered different solutions to the mass control of media.

When attempting to change an established, accepted foundation, there are two ways to do so: completely scrap the fundamentals of common society and build a new plan, or play by the rules and make gradual progress. The latter seemed to be the message preached by my father. He told me he had similar, desperate thoughts about our perspectives in life; that we were at the mercy of television, printed news and radio. Who has the time and resources to get first-person accounts on what?s going on in Iraq, or on global warming? I certainly don?t, so I?m forced to listen to what I?m told on these issues.

That?s where the dilemma occurs. Who?s behind the scenes, augmenting and swaying the news that is being fed to us? Those in control get to add their spice, their flair, to the concrete facts. It goes further. If we as people have been at the mercy of the media for our entire lives, then how valid are our values? Haven?t they been swayed as well? Maybe finding love and starting a family isn?t the main objective in life. I know, I know: everyone before us has had that objective or one of the other common ones: make a lot of money, give back to charity, helping people, the ever-popular ?be happy,? etc. To be honest, I?m not sure what our purpose is, but I do think it?s very possible that the common life goals instilled deep in our subconscious are not.

My father?s solution is a compromise. He believed that there are two types of people in media: those who control the content displayed to the others ? those ?behind the screen,? if you will ? and the ?sheep,? the ones who listen to what they?re told. My dad made a concerned choice to be behind the screen. Right now, I?m one of the sheep. Perhaps if I can write a book, make a movie, become a news anchor or achieve some other influence in the media, I can put my own twist on things. I?m not sure I like this particular solution; I am aware I am largely ignorant on most important issues and I deal primarily in theory. Maybe putting me back there would trigger more BS for the sheep to feed on, and I don?t want that: I want the truth.

And now for the ideas presented in Fight Club; the film was very anti-establishment, very dark and violent. However, it presented some interesting concepts. Among other things, the media is completely rejected. The perspectives on life commonly seen today are cast away for something more primitive, something more anarchist. Material possessions should not have control over people; corporate powers have too much control. Those are ideas which I agree with. However, the way the characters in Fight Club handle the situation ? by creating fascist regimes all over America with the hopes of eliminating all debts (thus washing the United States back to an even playing field) ? are overly-violent for my liking. I realize it is a work of fiction, but I do feel that a complete overthrow of the establishment is not called for.

So it seems that I have not solved anything. I still want control over what?s broadcasted for the entire world to see, but I want to give the truth. I want a big change in the ways of American society, but I do not want it to be by means of violence. This sort of leads me to the conclusion that I must compromise in order to achieve anything. Dissatisfaction correlates with compromise to me; I want to have my cake and eat it too. However, I am beginning to realize that isn?t always possible. These thoughts I?m having, well, they?ve been shared thousands of times by millions of people throughout history. Or at least that?s what I?m led to believe.

[Anna]

It's a good essay jsj1313. If you wanted to improve it, you could expand upon your point about the fact that the media can be misleading and deceptive by adding examples (such as when Bush declared that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in order to get public support for the war but this ended up being false). Perhaps some examples on values, also. It depends on what the criteria are for this essay.

In general though, I agree with what you are saying. We need to question our sources of information and read from as many independant sources as possible in order to seperate truth from fiction. The problem today is that so many people don't realise the lies they are being fed or how they are being manipulated to think or behave a certain way.
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BLONDE RUSSIAN