The Clay of Opinion

The mind is currently occupied by the shaping of opinion. Opinion Engineering. Thought Engineering.

As a Copywriter,  I saw things. I had been seeing them for a long time before I even started selling my Wordsmith skills. There is a way that the press directs sentiments. The ‘trend’ has lost its value as a word. I never liked the word, anyway. It resonated of mediation, of unknown, unseen strings. It always felt like whatever the context, the ‘trend’ in question seemed constructed. So I will keep it between the inverted commas of demotion.
You've seen them. They call them ‘trials by press.’ I have seen them too. Where a sentiment is planted into the public. I've seen Editors edit things until all the essential oils were left littering the floor. And a dry monstrosity is left on the table. Ready for the public ' s consumption.
Agendas.
Way too many. And there's a lot to say on the word. But we will say as much as is needed for this discussion. Yes,it discussion. We must engineer our selves. We should neither passively accept nor depend too heavily on external media. It will and does warp the mind.
How easy it has been to stir up the chaos in every one. To turn strikes into party politics battlegrounds. To tell people what a freedom fighter or a terrorist is. To nudge ideas. To make accusatory fingers point in the direction one deems fit. It is too easy. When certain parties would like to stir a flu scare, a news broadcast here and there will do the trick. When a certain resource is overstocked and they need to get rid of it, a single or a jingle will move stock. By feeding certain sentiments. Many of Sigmund Freud ' s students ended up working in Advertising. Not surprising. Who got hundreds of thousands of women to smoke? Was it a conscious choice by the global female consciousness? Or was it Marlboro and Camel who did it? Look at the footprints of history and the answer is obvious. Sentiments people think their own can be and are so often manufactured. ‘Trends’ are manufactured. A statistic will suddenly pop up in various radio and TV shows or magazines. Planting seeds that sprout and spread their vile fruit. A swine flu scare to control pork profits, a mad cow disease scare for beef. Look at how stock exchanges and markets play the feelings of people like instruments.

Yet, we have the power to be aware. We need only strengthen our faculties. We have the ability to know better and not be easily swayed by word from ‘above.’ So we should engage more with our systems and faculties. Pry. We should. Because otherwise we will end up serving somebody else's agenda. Ethics are nurtured by information. An ethical person is one who is informed about the content and context in question and can make conscious judgement thereof.   Thusly, the lesser informed will be less aware. And if they become aware or their privation, then they will need more information before they can make ethical interventions within the context.
Morals are not ethics. Dictionaries to this day still equate morals with ethics.  Morals does not equal Ethics. Sorry Collins and Oxford. You're wrong. Even as far ( and a few earlier examples) as 1952, L Ron Hubbard noticed this falllacy (I think 3 l’s is deserved)in our books of explication. He pointed out in one of his lectures in Texas that dictionaries, a go-to for many, we're misinforming people. He also believed as I, that morals and ethics are not the same thing. We are misled by popular definitions. And the more we choose not to inform our slaves,  the easier we become to sway. As the old adage goes: Stand for something or you'll fall... Morals and ethics are about the same thing, yes. Namely: rectitude concerning behaviour. But that's as far as the similarity goes. One goes up the scale of survivability.  The other drags us down.
Now tell me, if dictionaries can mold one's understanding of subjects, how much more so the DJ on the Morning Show? How much more the Evening News? What informs you? Who's opinion is your opinion , anyway?.