Editor's Box

Inside March 11, 2003's Issue

-Editorials-

HOPE Money Important

War Babies Cartoon

Editor's Box

Become better informed before forming opinions

Chris Hammonds - assistant editor A war is impending, and everyone seems to have an opinion on the matter.

Despite the overwhelming complexities of international politics, it seems that the vast majority of Americans are armchair political strategists with their own agenda on the Iraq situation, among other things.

You're probably wondering where I'm going with this. While I could use this space to rant about my own political views, I'm not going to do that. I feel that it would be contrary to my point.

You see, I often wonder how and why people are so quick to jump to easy conclusions about extremely important matters. In an ever-volatile world where political fervor is the order of the day, seeing things in black and white seems to be an easy way out of a whole lot of stress.

Civilians are expected and encouraged to focus their mental resources on reality television shows, entertainment news and Michael Jackson's tree-climbing shenanigans with underprivileged children while the real decision-makers sit behind an Oz-curtain of faux democracy and make things happen.

This is, of course, not unusual. Without massive generalizing by the media, done consciously or not, the gears of democracy would have a lot of trouble turning. Stereotypes exist for a reason- it's just how things work. A democratic nation cannot control its people with force, so other methods have to be used. It's much easier to bomb a regime of people lumped together under one category than it is to destroy several hundred thousand complicated and individual human beings.

People are subjective creatures, so it stands to reason that when the most powerful majority of them think similarly, their view of the world becomes the ruling order. I'm not going to rant existentially here. This isn't about psychology or philosophy; it's just common sense.

I suppose the point I'm trying to drive home is just that I believe everyone should educate themselves and be willing to shift their opinions about things or perhaps void them altogether when necessary.

Watching Fox News for an hour a night does not make one well informed on world events. Don't stick to one source. Read corporate media, read independent media, read slanted media and objective media. Dig for your own conclusions and then challenge those. And above all else, recognize the danger of jumping to conclusions.