THE DECEPTION OF PERCEPTION; OR WHAT THE HELL??

We say it in a hundred different ways. Looks can be deceiving...can't tell a book by its cover...all that glitters is not gold. Consider even Einstein: "The more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks." Or what about Tolkien's entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In a land and in an age where image is everything, there are legions of image-makers who would deceive us into believing their glitter really is gold. Sometimes called publicists, PR reps, managers, or strategists, they exist for the singular striving purpose of spinning the story. The old Hollywood Studios were masters of the trade, and now Hollywood image-making has gone viral. From making movies to making presidents. From selling products to selling wars.

Among the many troubles that image-making can breed is the handy habit of simplifying and stereotyping everyone and everything. It's a cruel shorthand for thinking. By now we are -- or should be -- aware of the most blatant examples. Our culture has consistently stereotyped Native Americans, Blacks, Asians, Arabs, Blonds, Gays, and the overweight.

That said, there are two new subjects: Our government and our CEOs. In an ironic twist of historical fate, these once highly regarded elites have been steadily re-imaged as both dastardly and dangerous:

* When is the last time you saw a movie, read a book, or watched a TV series in which federal agents were seen as they once were -- daring and dedicated defenders of our safety and security? Not lately! Most times they are portrayed as part of vast networks of secret power engaging in global plots, coverups, and cold-blooded assassinations. Tracing all the way up to the FBI, CIA, and even the Oval Office. Clancy, Turow and Stone have made entire careers writing these nightmares for us

* Then there is the class-warfare imagery of our corporate executives. From Wall Street banks to Fortune 500 board rooms, we imagine effete elites manipulating our stock markets and foreign policies in order to suck the sweat of a nation into self-serving personal agendas. Money making more money. Power amassing more power. Like the scurrilously anti-semetic19th C Protocols of the Elders of Zion or the fanciful 21st C Dan Brown novels, there is this imagineering that sees heads of business and religion meeting in secret havens to plot their rule of the world

Two cautions....! One, we can too easily get caught up in the fear-mongering about "the dangerous other." Two, we can too easily dismiss these fears as just that, fears.