There has been an ever present strategy in Washington to lead us down a road of fear and despair, if and only if America doesn't respond immediately to any threats that surface. Being wary is alright, but there is a key ingredient missing in the practice of informing people of looming crisis or failure: information. Many government leaders inundate Americans with headline statements that infuse fear and strong emotions in folks that gives leadership a "blank check" on policies that they want implemented.
Now, in today's economy, we've been confronted with statements from the U.S. Treasury secretary, Paulson, President Bush, and leaders of Congress, all having cried that if Congress doesn't make a decision on the housing mortgage bail out, then the U.S. would face a major economic fallout, a depression. What needs to be done is stop this fear mongering, and begin to "connect the dots", so that Americans can understand what this bail out will do to benefit the taxpayer. The fear of terror, the fear of financial crisis, the fear of voting for the wrong candidate, the list goes on, when it comes to unresponsive and irresponsible political leaders. If the current economic crisis is considered, even after instilling the fear of losing jobs, and credit and coming face to face with those elements of financial failure, this "crisis has had little effect on most Americans" (Lesson From a Crisis: When Trust Vanishes, Worry). Throughout history, people fear what they don't understand, and the Economic Stabilization Act, not only disables confidence, but places emphasis on bailing out the rich, simply because the populace doesn't understand how it works.
It would make more sense to publish a brief summary of how this act works online on a government website, maybe citing bits and pieces of the 110 page act, so that Americans can see how it helps them, and will benefit them in the long run. This is an age of information, and what the current administration fails to recognize is that more and more people take it upon themselves to be more informative with a tremendous library of information at their fingertips. There is no excuse anymore for politicians and leaders alike to propagandize on crisis, and force policies upon the public by instilling taciturn fear.
The leadership in government is simply not working, or should it be said that it isn't doing its job collectively. The average taxpayer, even if they could access the Library of Congress' THOMAS, he or she would not have the patience or diligence to sit down and plow through 110 pages of legislative jargon. It's not a document that can be easily digested by the public, and it shouldn't be the only avenue to getting more information about a government plan. It is the responsibility of government to make this information readily and easily available, and should be preceded by any language of dread from leaders who desire swaying the people into brash decision making.
Propaganda is a thing of the past. The information age is enabling individuals to define the truths that exist behind "the interests of those in power", or those simply seeking to persuade the majority. What propaganda does is takes slices of truth, not the whole truth, but part of the truth, and becomes a fog of information, called mystification. So in other words they are truthful lies, but are lies all the same (Propaganda 101: How to Decode Political Ads).
Due to the large amount of readily available information via the Internet, media or libraries, mystification of the general public is attainable, because the true information, the contextual information is difficult to decipher, and filter. So why not make it the responsibility of the U.S. leadership to do the filtering for the public? It should be policy that legislation cannot be voted upon until the taxpayers can supply feedback to policy makers about the legislation, in order to inform leaders that the average citizen comprehends the rudiments of this legislation. Also, legislation should not be voted upon, until a consensus is studied by our leadership of this legislative feedback.
Fear is that which we don't understand. So learn!
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