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First they control your eyes....

I may not be a connoisseur of films, but I sure do indulge in a lot of them, not in the making but as a consumer. Sometimes, I wonder if I am hiding in a fictitious world of make-believe, fantasy and poetic justice. Or that the conventional wisdom that I learned in the course of my growing up facing the hurdles of life are somehow unlearnt and new thoughts are infused.

 If fact, way back as early as 1905, a Catholic priest had suspected that the newly introduced moving pictures were corrupting the mind of the masses. He objectively demonstrated his theory via a modern-day lie-detector type of a contraption to prove his conviction. Over the years, people started analysing movies and its messages, whether hidden or otherwise. Hence was born the field of film studies.

 After its successful role of being a propaganda tool of the Americans to justify their entry and actions in the first World War, it continued its heyday of trying to mould and unify the thoughts of the Western-educated world. Follies and injustices were nicely swept under the carpet and given cosmetic touch-up. Hitler and his party created mass hatred of a certain through his orchestrated attack of a section of the population via films. So did the Allies in giving hope to the supposed warriors of the 'correct side' of the war.

 The advent of cable news networks brought about mongers of news from individuals with a vested interest who could sell ice to Eskimos and create a mountain out of a molehill! Lessons learnt from its early years strengthen the adage that a lie oft repeated becomes the truth.

 The next step in the brainwashing exercise is the appointment of modern-day management gurus in the form of talk-show hosts. They highlight social issues which are primarily first world problems which would not bat an eyelid in any third world country. The hosts, being hosts, the peddler of issues with the uncanny ability to pluck questions from thin air, attempt to influence sponge-like minds of the modern mind to think alike. In a way, it is modern-day post-Cold War indoctrination of the mind.

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Location: Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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