Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 18:30:09 +0100 (GMT-1)
From: Joacim Persson <joacim-AT-ymex.net>
Subject: the propaganda machines


On Thu, 8 Nov 2001, ninetyone andy wrote:

> In general, I don't quite believe the UK
> poll statistics saying there's a majority in favour
> among the population as a whole. Most people I meet
> have some doubts and I don't think anyone believes
> we'll get the man himself - the gov. is sufficiently
> rattled to issue guidance to us teachers about staying
> neutral. But as most of my [17/18 yrs] class said, it
> isn't a question of having anti-war teachers - once
> you discuss it, read the papers and measure the
> actions against the criteria they've set for success,
> you can't help thinking it's not going to 'work' too
> well. Blair needs a news black out.?

Beware that polls for statistics may very well be faked; spanning from
everything direct lies to having the questions and formulations in the
forms adjusted to pave way for a certain wished interpretation.
Every state has its psychological defense people, and in days like these
they are most certainly very busy, particulary in states directly involved
in the conflict. There are, nowadays, better reasons than ever to be
sceptical.

It's worth mentioning that polls works as self-fulfilling prophecies: If
everyone beleives that most people have a certain opinion, they may be more
willing to be of the same opinion themselves or be less willing to express
an opinion not conforming to the opinion of what they think is the majority.
(But then, some of us tend to deliberately disagree with the majority by
principle. =)

It's like if you can convince enough many people that a certain bank is on
the verge of bancrupcy, the customers will withdraw their money from their
bank accounts, thus effectively putting the bank out of business.

Do your own polls.

Joacim
-
main(){printf(&unix["\021%six\012\0"],(unix)["have"]+"fun"-0x60);}
  -- David Korn