I remember all of the doom and gloom news reporting of my childhood. We had the end of the cold war, the AIDS crisis in full swing, lebanon, lybia, Ronald Reagan conspiracies, communist plots from Russia, the war on drugs, MTV. The future seemed to be a particularly nasty place to be back then (remember Max Headroom?), and things were not going so well already.
Today, mere days after the White House closes down their search for WMDs, this news report is released: Terrorists Likely to use Biological Weapons Against the US.
News like this puzzles me, because it doesn't appear to be news at all. It reminds me of a dodgy 5-day weather forecast. Sure, the patterns may appear to lead in one direction, or perhaps it's government propaganda (after all, aren't biological weapons considered WMDs?), but it seems counter-productive to officially expect the worst. Call me a closet-case optimist, but I'd rather not expect the world to be more hostile in the future, even though my own intuition (and history) dictate otherwise.
I remember grouchy smurf. He hated everything. So, in turn, everything he did was miserable, and he was no fun to be around. I'll admit to being something like grouchy smurf on occasion (every other minute, perhaps), but I know some things about how the universe works. I know that if I expect things to suck, they are going to suck. I know that if I expect good things to happen, nine times out of ten good things will happen, regardless of whether or not I get what I want. GIGO. This isn't morality, or ethics. This is just the way it works.
Because so many people are watching, and because so many people will believe anything to be true even when it hasn't happened yet, predictive reporting can have a lasting negative effect. It's an excellent tool for pushing an agenda and creating opportunities, both positive and negative. Because what people believe in is what usually happens, whether it's right or wrong (then there's that whole problem of who's going to take the rap).
To summarize, there is a place for speculation. Blogs are a good place for that, because they aren't 'official doctrine' or bound by journalistic rules of ethics. And I really don't blame official government speculation on the outcome of our global state; it's just not rational. But speculative reporting has some effect on the shaping of the future, both positive and negative. These reports give optimists an opportunity to say "Remember folks. Your thoughts and beliefs affect the outcomes of your daily lives." And they also give doomsday prophets the opportunity to instill fear into a spin-sedated mass culture.
Somewhere inbetween, I think, lies the truth.
posted by Edward Svengali @ Friday, January 14, 2005,
