I Wrote a Research Paper About My Trip!

So because I went to China, I needed to do a big project to get credit. I wrote a 7 page research paper and figured I would share it with you. Please, enjoy. I know it’s a bit hard to get through. 

Communism, Lies, the Media, and Truth

Recently, I went on a trip to China and noticed some differences between their life and the way I was used to living mine. Having learned about communist countries in school, I had a complete world of expectations. Somehow, they were completely wrong… I expected the country to be less clean and well-kempt, but it was really clean for a big city. I also wasn’t necessarily expecting the plethora of police everywhere, but it was easy to get used to, as I wasn’t committing a crime. It was the first time I had ever left America, and it was crazy to think of how the ideas that I’d spent a lifetime building up, had gotten completely dismantled by the truth I found when I went to see it for myself. It was an experience I find hard to put words to. It shattered expectations, rebuilt better ones, changed my entire mindset, showed me a much larger world outside of my own, opened a world of possibilities, and proved that dreaming big is dreaming normal when there’s a whole big world out there. The experience completely changed my life for the better, through the solidification of friendships, and the real-world that I saw, without any filter. It was an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. The entire lesson for this trip was to teach wisdom chasing, and it went so much further than my Christian school education had taught me. Things I had grown up believing, were challenged with new information Dr. Johnson provided me with. The trip both alleviated some fears I had about the world and created a few new ones. I learned so very much and would go back to the trip a thousand times over, but alas, it is over and I must go on chasing wisdom in other places. I have been considering and even researching many of the the things I learned on this trip over the last month. I am most struck by how easily people can be controlled by those in power.

China is a communist country, so their dictator controls what goes in and out of their country, which includes information. The dictators control what their country knows and what they learn. In talking to our Chinese tour guide, Tina, in the Forbidden City,  I learned something the Chinese children learn in history books that doesn’t seem physically or even logistically possible. She was insistent in its truth, because of its origin. It was a story about an emperor. One night, he drank a lot and slept with hundreds of his concubines, thus creating a holiday. She believed story this without a shadow of a doubt, but when we asked about Tiananmen Square (the infamous massacre of “pro-democracy” Chinese civilians), she denied its existence. Maybe it's what she was supposed to say, or maybe it was what she truly believed. I still don’t know for sure because she revealed to us towards the end of the trip that there were things she just wasn’t allowed to say. But, when we asked her why she was so ready to believe such a physically impossible story about the emperor over actual events that happened in her own life time, she told us it was because the story of the emperor was in the history books and the story of Tiananmen Square was not. It is understandable that the government wouldn’t want its country to know about the horrible events that happened in Tiananmen Square the night of June 3, 1989, for the sake of rebellion. China just doesn’t want its ruthlessness revealed to its own people. Footage from the Tiananmen Square Massacre was broadcast in America, so while Americans know the truth, the Chinese people live in convenient ignorance. There is an old saying that goes, “Ignorance is bliss.” The Chinese people are easier to control if they don’t know any other way of life than the one they are living. It seems awful, but it is not uncommon.

Going back in world history, Germany was also a country lied to. Hitler lied to the Jews and the Germans about pretty everything revolving around the Holocaust. The Jews were lied to every single step of the way. In Eliezer Wiesel’s Night, he reveals the lies his Romanian town’s Jews were fed as they were moved into Ghettos. They were convinced that the Red Army was closing in on their town, and for their own protection, they needed to be moved into a protected community. After they were moved, they convinced themselves that their relocation was actually for their safety and they continued to have faith in the German regime, until finally they found themselves face to face with a crematorium. Only then did they realize what they were forced into, and sometimes not even then did they realize it. The camps gates were adorned with the phrase, “Work will set you free,” written in German, of course. This was another step of trickery from the Germans, making it seem as if the prisoners would be allowed to leave the camps eventually if they worked hard enough. Hitler’s lies were all carefully crafted to keep the Jews from realizing their fate (Weisel). According to Andy Andrews, in his work, How Do You Kill 11 Million People, the easiest way to kill (or control) people, is simply to lie to them. However, Chinese citizens are not the only current communist citizens to be lied to as German-Jews are not the only in the past to be lied to.

Venezuela, another Communist country, is being lied to by its dictator. Currently, Venezuela is in need of dire help, and countries like Puerto Rico and the United States are trying to help, but the dictator is insistent in the fact that they are perfectly fine and in no need of help (O’Grady). This is dangerous for many reasons. First and foremost the citizens are being brainwashed into thinking the way the government wants them to. Critical thinking and a growth mindset are both necessary to stay informed in any environment, but especially in that kind of environment. Lying seems to be the ribbon that ties communism together. Laos is yet another Communist country currently being lied to. Laos is nearing their 44th year as a Communist country. The only people that communism benefits are the highest class. This is a small group in Laos who have attained a privileged life. As one of the least developed countries, it’s poorer citizens have found themselves in a hole they’re unable to dig themselves out of. I believe the reason this works so well is because the dictator is always situated comfortably in the higher class, so as he gets more and more, the lower class gets less and less. Keeping his people in poverty won’t bother a dictator because his power-hunger is too strong. The truth is, people in poverty and want are easy to manipulate.  Laos didn’t even have a healthcare system or effective hospitals in 1995. Most people in Laos at that time, didn’t have the ability to read or write (Kamm). Keeping citizens uneducated is how dictators stay in charge. Continuous lies are how to keep a people group uneducated. Uneducated people are ridiculously easy to manipulate and control.

Communists control the media flow and the information that gets to the common people in order to manipulate and control them. But, as I thought all of this through, and I listened to Dr. Johnson as he taught us about the influence of the media,  I realized what a profound effect media has on people even in countries that allow their citizens to have freedoms not enjoyed in Communist countries. The free media plays a large role in the flow of information in some countries, specifically in the United States. Media in China is very limited, as all their technology is. In China, the social media outlets that most of the world enjoys, don’t work. The content on the nightly news is controlled by the Communist government. These government impose restrictions on information to protect the fragile lies that have held their citizens in ignorance. But, in America, the media exists to the delight of itself and has become slanted by whomever writes it. In the past, traditional journalism existed just as an answer to the who, what, when, where, and why questions that made up current events. This form of journalism excluded anything except for solid facts, including the writer’s feelings toward the topic. But, in 2019,  this type of journalism is dead. Journalism now exists to push an agenda, and people’s lives are often the collateral damage left in its wake.  An example of this can be found in the story of Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh. He was falsely accused of rape, first by someone he went to highschool with, and then by two other women. The media took these accusations as fact, and not only ran with this; they sprinted cross country. President Trump had nominated Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, so alligations like this were certainly scandalous. With the allegations, the media very quickly jumped into action, with each outlet trying to be the first to spread information about the story, but the stories are drowning in personal feelings. The stories about Kavanaugh’s story were so slanted, they ignored all information that refuted the allegations. The media nearly ruined his life for the allegation which he and evidence denies (Ponnuru). Not only can media make untrue things seem true, it can also “create” stories seemingly out of thin air. Social media might be even more important at shaping our culture and influencing society and than traditional journalism is.This next example has caught a second wind of media attention and has two documentaries about it. I would be willing to bet that the viewpoints of both “documentaries” are slanted. The event started as the Fyre Festival and quickly became known as “the Fyre Fraud” (Stuever).  A man by the name of Billy McFarland took to social media to form a fraud of epic proportions. He advertised an event that was masqueraded as a music festival in the Bahamas, but was actually a non-event at a random spot that people unwillingly camped at, waiting for an event that would never happen. McFarland tried to convince “consultants, producers, online influencers, publicists, marketers, co-sponsors, booking agents, technicians” and even the local residents of Great Exuma Cay to help him (Stuever).  By the day of the event, all of the very few acts McFarland had booked, had cancelled on him. He had planned “VIP stations” as well, which were actually mattresses in disaster relief tents that had been rained on the day before. Even though it seemed shady, four hundred people still travelled to get to the Fyre Festival. The reality created by social media about the event and the reality of the event were two very different things. McFarland didn’t get away with it, as he’s currently in federal prison, and it taught people a valuable lesson (Stuever). The media has the ability to create something out of nothing, if it wields its power correctly. If given a bit more power, McFarland would’ve made quite the communist dictator. The media just takes lies and spins them in much deeper webs. In its current state, it proves the need for access to our own non-slanted media for fact checking. But in 2019, there is no such thing as non-slanted media.

The Chasing Wisdom study in Beijing, China, was a real eye-opener to me in seeing the way a country can lie to its people and the way the people swallow those  lies. I have witnessed the power of the American media machine, and I watch people live their lives on social media every day. I see the discrepancy between the real lives of those I know and the highlight reels they feature on social media.  I have just never connected all of these dots before. As one who speaks her mind, I don’t like the idea of constantly holding my tongue for fear of death, nevertheless, if I had to, I would adjust and survive as the fittest do. On a journey of chasing wisdom, it’s important to be able to trust the sources that information comes from, but in a place like China, how can you trust any sources? If the government is feeding you lies from the day you are born until the day you die, when will you learn any different? Closer to home, how can I trust anything I see in the media if everyone is pushing his own agenda? What is even real?  I have realized a fear of mine, and it’s a good one to have, a mindful one. I’m afraid of sheltered knowledge, a knowledge controlled by the government ruling me. The only way I see to get around this, is to get out in to this great big world and seek the truth of it for myself.

Thanks for reading this far!! If you want, let me know what you thought about it or if you have any commentary.