Jonestown and a Culture of Lies

Back in the day, a nobody who made headlines was rare and generally ridiculed for his idiocy. Increasingly, today, it's the norm.

Take Terry Jones.
Please.

Then, people called such nobodies "mice" who somehow managed to find enough voice to "roar." For several weeks now, I've heard nonstop "news" coverage and countless talking heads spinning their take on pipsqueak issues that have turned into national newsmedia roars.

Enough already.
A burning book isn't newsworthy or attention-worthy.

How some "nobody" blogger whose objections to building an Islamic Recreation Center or an even bigger "nobody" Florida Christian preacher whose threats of burning books (... again... this isn't a new tool of the religious faithful: books are often the enemy of the religiously convicted ) managed to register on the national socio-political radar is simply shocking.

How did this happen?

It's tempting to think it's a phenomenom of the internet age: bloggers, 24-hour news cycles and inch-deep headline coverage is more given to shallow thinking than 23-page, indepth analyses in the New Yorker magazine. Right?

In fact, it might be that, at least a little.

American newspapers and magazines of the 19th century didn't have the luxury of repeating endless lies and distortions in 24-7 news cycles, but there's no shortage in our history of lies and distortions making their way into print and, hence, into the national narrative.

You can blame lots of American misadventurism on lies and distortions, whether as recently as wars in Iraq or Vietnam or as far back as the Spanish-American war. The supposed sinking of USS Maine in 1898 by Spain was a contrivance by those with a narrow agenda -- including a rather famous president -- to engage the country in war. A news media ripe for selling more papers went wild with rumors and misinformation that could rival George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld; the truth of the matter was irrelevant to the selling of newspapers and a fever of nationalism in Washington DC.

Sound familiar?

That said, it's still bewildering to think that in an age of thinking people having access to the internet Terry Jones (Jones?! Really?! ... yet another religious nut named Jones? Have we already forgotten the impact of that other religious nut who brought us Jonestown?) could command so much attention, whether on MSNBC or in the streets of Jakarta.

He's a nobody. Really!
Treat him as such.

Jones once headed a church group in Europe, but was kicked out the the country by German officials for irregularities in his church's finances, violations of hate speech laws, creating civil disturbances and having claimed a nonexistent PhD degree.

Since he's an American, we can't toss his sorry ass back to Europe but we can do the next best thing: honor him with the level of attention he deserves.
None.

Meanwhile, there are some real news items we should be paying attention to; for instance, did you hear anything lately about the anti-American rallies in Kabul resulting from Pentagon contractors killing 6 Afghan civilians -- including women and children -- because they got "in the way?" (Think: Blackwater tactics causing more Ugly American resentment) Serious things are happening and this superfluous roar is keeping us from hearing about them.

Boy, are we ever a nation desperately in need of an attitude / attention adjustment !

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PS:
Fred Phelps is now crying foul.
He burned several Qurans in the past few years - including even in Washington DC last year -- and nobody paid him any mind.
I wonder why?