Influence, a force for good and evil

 
Subject: Influence, a force for good and evil. 

The power of democracy, concept which in theory, can effect your future by voting to oust a government which is not meeting your needs is idealistic to say the least but, like winning the lottery there are many many optimists. But is it genuinely sustainable in a climate where people are influenced, as never before by forces acting through the media and plethora of questionable platforms on the internet.
The concept of an individual 'contemplating' their political position, evaluating not only their place in the society they live but also their opinion of other societies at large, is distorted by the media/internet 24/7 interface. It's  not only a distortion of the society you personally know and which would normally be the touchstone for any decision you make but the added warping of national and foreign environments which, until fairly recently would have been safely out of sight. There is something to be said for the concept that "ignorance is bliss".
Fake news is not an alien phenomenon it's an everyday reality. Clever people have always sort to manipulate the news and through it, the general public and  each day the mainstream media attempt to manipulate society through political punditry. 
Advertising, in essence the art of convincing people to buy a product by embellishing it with attributes it does not have, pounds our addled brains, day in day out they peddle their untruths and the effect it has on our mental equilibrium would go some way to describe  an Orwellian 'Group Think' Project

The incursion of the dreaded 'electronic interface', into our lives is so overwhelming since it provides an open conduit into our 'every moment' and is so influential because of the fact that we continually lay our self open to manipulation.  Never mind the dreadful security implications which open us up to any loose fingered criminal and the pressure, every day, of voices on the media calling for us to install some gadget or other to control our lives from afar but which unfortunately allows others to do the same.

There seems no end to the gadgetry on offer to connect us up to the wider world when in reality we seem unable to properly come to terms with the actual world we live in. Over hyped lifestyles of the great and the good leave very little space for our rather mundane existence but it's the one we have and we are far better advised to see the value in that than in perceived riches elsewhere.