Information

I was curious to listen to the news reports today after Newsweek reported that in Guantanamo Bay US military personnel "flushed a Qu'ran down the toilet" to intimidate detainees in the prison camp there.

Mostly because nobody seemed to ask whether or not it happened.

We know exactly how many sources the reporter had. We know how he dealt with his sources. We know that most of the other media are finger pointing and criticizing the report for failing to have sufficient corroborating sources.

Newsweek even retracted part of the story.

But not the whole story. And not the part about the event. Only the part that qualifies it as "according to a single source."

Information is the strongest Mechanism of Power there is.

Power comes from the Need of the subject. If there is no need there is no power. The power is only released by the ability of someone to offer help or hindrance to the fulfillment of the need of the subject. That ability is the Power Mechanism. It is the trigger of power. The Need is the Source of the Power. The power resides inside that need. But it takes a mechanism to bring it out. To make it real. To activate it.

In the Mechanism is the ability to create feelings of control, influence and seduction. These are the experiences of power.

When a young girl is told that a certain hair style is "totally yesterday, so five minutes ago" she is compelled by her need to belong and be appreciated to feel controlled to change her doo.

When she is told that one band is more cool than another she is influenced to listen to that music.

When she is told that if she attends a certain university she will have a better chance of successful career and a wealthy lifestyle, she is seduced into thinking that she must go there.

In each case, it is power. In each case she has need. In each case it is the information that triggers the power and impacts her choices. The information is the mechanism.

After all, that is the point. We want to have an impact on the choice she will make. That is the purpose of power. To effect choices. Sometimes control, sometimes influence, sometimes seduce.

Information is simply the mechanism in each of those circumstances. The power resides in her need to belong, be accepted, be cool, be successful, be happy. As long as she thinks that she needs the information to know what to choose she will be reliant on the information.

We are completely subject to the information that comes to us from journalism. We look to independent sources for unbiased information so we can make clear, rational and correct decisions about our world, our government and all other aspects of our lives. We cannot be a citizen of this tiny globe without the information we get from news media.

We are critical of the media for good reason. We are cautious. It has been shown time and again that media is biased. Even Ted Turner, media and news mogul extraordinare, has written for Ode Magazine stating that the world is in danger from the concentration of media into the hands of a few major corporations.

However the art of spin has gone beyond the concentration and control of information.

Somehow today the Whitehouse has successfully released "surveys" which suggest that citizens want news media controlled.

As a result of this report by Newsweek, our officials are suggesting that people have died around the world due to irresponsible way Newsweek released this information.

But again I ask - Is it true? Is the statement that US military desecrated the Qu'ran true?

After everything we saw in Abu Gharib, we know it is possible.

So stop avoiding the question by accusing Newsweek of being irresponsible. The administration has been irresponsible in the way it has governed its prison guards and interrogators. That has been proven beyond a doubt.

It is power to be able to control the information.

It is scary power to get people to agree to let government control the flow of information - which was the great lesson taught to us by the Soviet Union.

It is masterful, yet corrupt, power to control not just the answers to our questions but the questions being asked.