" Mr. Rangel, who has many poor and minority constituents, said he wanted to make the point that both rich and poor should share the burden of any Iraq war, which he opposed. He has nevertheless gotten many complaints from people asking " 'how he could get in bed with Bush,' " says his spokesman, Mr. Milne. "
I found it ironic that, after lengthy discussions about the alleged stupidity/lack of awareness/obliviousness - pick a word - of Americans, that many on this list either had never heard of this bill or had forgotten Rangel's motives behind it, which, by the way, were well-publicized at the time, and, having not scanned LBO archives (I leave that to Yoshie), may have even been discussed here previously.
My point? Not to chastise anyone (mea culpa on other news bits or ideas), but to show that the volume of information that is out there for all of us to consume is so immense, it is difficult even for those of us who are, largely, information hounds or news junkies to keep it all together or digest.
In a time and culture where we are bombarded with information and news - 24/7, 365 - from ever-present media at work, home, out and about and otherwise, people are going to respond to the sensory overload somehow, and blocking information or just ignoring it is one such defense. If we are dissatisfied with the collective American perspective and and write it off as simply failed education or lack of "knowledge," we may be ignoring another possibility: numbness from sensory overload.
Here's a question to throw out: What kind of media exposure do inhabitants of other developed countries have? Is it as pervasive as it is in the United States, and if it is, what about the quality of it? Is it possible that Americans just shut down after reaching a saturation point?
All questions,
- Deborah R.
===== "If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks instead of crosses." - Lenny Bruce