NPR
The QOTD, on NPR:
300 people were shown either a real or altered photo of two different protests, and then asked to recall what happened back then. The point of this study was to show that altering a photograph will change how the events are actually remembered (in this case, as bigger and more violent.)… But, here’s the thing: these subjects weren’t actually at the original protests. Their original memories also came from images– hopefully not altered images, but certainly selected images. Right? The TV newspeople didn’t pick the boring pictures, did they? I get that doctored photos are bad. But how much of our memories and knowledge of the past are largely determined not by “reality” but what, or how, we were shown it in the first place. Obviously, a lot. Therein lies the question: is it worse to see a doctored photo, or doctored reality?
Here’s an example: search your mind for recollections about the Tiananmen “episode” in 1989. Can you remember anything– anything at all– other than that guy standing in front of the tanks? Do you remember who was protesting? Why? The question isn’t why you don’t remember anything, hell, it was 20 years ago and a solar system away; the question is why you do remember that guy. Are you better off for knowing this? Are you smarter? Or do you carry the false impression that you know something about which you really know nothing? That’s the Matrix– not only do you have false memories, but you get to feel good about being a knowledgeable, aware, citizen of the world.
NPR runs a cult this way. It offers an eclectic mix of topics, selected on purpose to allow you to think you are getting depth. You listen to NPR, and you think you’re learning, growing, becoming a Renaissance Man. You’re not. Sure, it beats CNN, but that’s not a battle anyone is supposed to lose. Its target audience is insecurely intelligent people who want desperately to be intellectual and well read but who don’t actually want to read too much. What NPR offers is sentiment; the feeling that you know something.
