A Reason to Believe

Michele Friedman

Concealed from the eye, presumptions about ourselves and our surroundings linger within each of us.  Determined to preserve our biased notions, we often skew our perceptions of reality.  In “A World on the Edge,” Amy Chua exposes the reign of market-dominant minorities throughout foreign countries as a result of American globalization.  Fueled by their innermost self-prejudices, such ruling classes often maintain warped views of their surroundings in order to defend their exploitation of the indigenous majority.  Further uncovering the extent to which human beings distort information, Eric Schlosser highlights the devastating consequences of the romanticized symbol of McDonald’s within “Global Realization.”  Underscoring the idyllic vision of the United States throughout the world, Schlosser explains that eager countrymen often welcome American corporations into their regions in hope of attaining economic success.  In corroboration with the concept that society generally bends information as it sees fit, Beth Loffreda exposes the country’s misconceptions in regards to current events in “Losing Matt Shepard.”  In her essay, she reveals that Americans misconstrued and overemphasized the murder of Matt Shepard, a homosexual male.  Although it may be simple to point fingers at the media for erroneous beliefs within society, only man is to blame for his misinterpretation of reality.  As the authors indirectly prove, human beings have the tendency to manipulate any fact as a means of reaffirming their own preconceptions about themselves and the world in which they live.

Exaggerating the information that elicits his innermost fears, man often inflates data in order to justify his underlyingstate of anxiety.  As Loffreda indicates, the eyewitness to Matt Shepard’s attack had drastically overstated his recount of the boy’s conditions.  The sheriff notes: “And when he described this situation to us he told us that [Shepard] was found by a mountain bike rider, tied to a fence like a scarecrow” (Loffreda 312).  In actuality, however, the display of Matt’s body had been notably less graphic.  Propped upon a fence with his hands behind his head, the boy lacked even the slightest resemblance to the witness’s disturbing account (Loffreda 312).  The cause for disparity between fact and fiction within this case is clear: the bystander’s heightened sense of terror had skewed his vision of reality.  Undoubtedly, within the core of man’s soul lurks the agonizing phobia of death.  Interfering with his daily activities, he is often prevented from acting boldly due to such consternation.  In an effort to rationalize his arcane angst, man inherently amplifies any incident related to fatality.  Thus, the eyewitness overstressed his observation of Shepard’s murder - a true reflection of his own fear of demise.  Like the alarm of an early funeral, gaining weight is a pervasive phobia throughout the world.  In a recent study of second grade students, 76% of girls avowed that they would rather die than be called “chubby” (Newsweek).  With this newfound fear in mind, a backlash against the fast food chains becomes explicable.  Although restaurants have expanded their selections to encompass a greater variety of nutritious meals, Schlosser indicates that “attempts to introduce healthy dishes (such as the McLean Deluxe, a hamburger partly composed of seaweed) have proven unsuccessful” (Schlosser 507).  Endeavoring to substantiate their debilitating fears of corpulence, health fanatics have embellished their conceptions of unhealthful take-out, deeming all fast food alike to be comprised of grease and cholesterol.  Perceiving only the extremities within menus, such diet junkies avoid fast food chains altogether, overlooking the industry’s medley of vegetarian entrees, moderate portion sizes, and soy products.  Clutching on to their darkest fears, human beings ultimately inflate the facts which they are presented in an attempt to validate their deep-rooted trepidities in life.

Seeing that the general public has the propensity to weed out information that does not confirm their preconceived maxims, the existence of the American epitome of success becomes explanatory.  Schlosser highlights the proclivity to idealize the United States: “For a child growing up in the turmoil of [postwar] Berlin…the Americans were Angels.  Anything from them was bigger and more wonderful than anything that preceded it” (Schlosser 500).  Ignoring America’s persistent bombing and mass slaughtering of their soldiers in battle, such regions exclusively took note of the positive aspects of our country.  Holding their fantasies of the United States close to their ingenuous hearts, they were able to maintain the quixotic icon of “Americana and the promise of modernization” (Schlosser 498).  As they yearned for the alleged perfection of the United States, Germans blindly ignored the destruction of both their land and their culture, hopeful for the American promises of tomorrow.  In attempt to sustain the idyllic archetype of the nation, current citizens of the United States continue to close their eyes to their own glaring faults.  Chua asserts: “In America, we read about acts of mass slaughter and savagery- at first in faraway places, now coming closer to home.  We do not understand what connects these acts.  Nor do we understand the role we have played in bringing them about” (Chua 105).  While the United States is infused with news coverage and daily threats of terrorism, its biased citizens are inclinedto believe whole-heartedly in their country’s policies by misconstruing episodes exposing such turbulence.  “Glorify[ing] American chauvinism” and the whimsical concept that we have improved each nation throughout the world, our country continues to overlook the explicit complaints from the one region which we have failed- the Middle East (Chua 117).  Although Arab terrorists overtly proclaimed disgust with our attempts to exploit their land when they “destroyed the World Trade Center and the southwest side of the Pentagon, crushing or incinerating more than 3,000 people,” Americans remained ignorant to the fact that their occupancy is not advantageous to all nations alike (Chua 105).  Rather, the pronounced objection towards American dominance only prompted the United States to invade Iraq and further infiltrate their romanticized vision of American democracy.  Amidst such delusions of flawless international influence, we have shut our eyes, ears, and hearts to the people of the world.  Like society’s distortion of information to authenticate global maxims, racial lines are often blurred, as well.

Altering the facts which they are presented, it becomes evident that communities exclusively harp upon information that reaffirms their racial supremacy.  Loffreda identifies this trend as the spark to the hysteria ignited by Shepard’s assailment: “The nation seized upon Matt… [because he represented] the supposed center of American life- white, moneyed, male- Matt did indeed fit the bill, did suit the recycled homogeneities of a still-myopic national culture” (Loffreda 328).  Due to the human predisposition to accentuate only the data that proves one’s ethnic superiority, the people of the United States unconsciously inflated the importance of Shepard’s death so as to reinforce the value of the white man within society.  While simple minds may choose to reproach the media for the recurrence of this prejudice, pointing fingers at the source of information is naïve at best.  After all, man’s quest to establish racial dominance has caused for the manipulation of data since prehistoric times.  For example, while the Bible does not reference the race of the prophets, society has misconstrued the way in which divine concepts are conveyed, creating the archetype that all religious figures were of Caucasian descent.  Exposing the manner in which Chinese market-dominant minorities confirm their racial supremacy, Chua underscores their exploitation of external data.  The author’s aunt, a representative of the Chinese economic regime within the Philippines, endorses her race’s ascendance with such justification: “The Filipinos…were lazy and unintelligent and didn’t really want to do much” (Chua 115).  However, as Chua indicates, indigenous majorities are often limited in education due to financial and familial obligations (Chua 115).  While this critical factor is quite evident to the unattached reader, the mind’s susceptibility to screen information as a means of affirming racial superiority prevents individuals from viewing the facts as a whole.

Serving as a model of man’s preservation of his utopianvisionof life, Shepard’s murder illustrates the universal tendency to manipulate data in an effort to create scapegoats to which problems may be attributed.  Irrationally pinpointing homosexuals as the source of adversity within society, Matt’s assailants unjustly attacked the boy, the misperceived enemy.  Inadvertently displaying this very weakness, Chua attempts to reveal the vicious nature of globalization.  Nonetheless, beneath her endeavors to denounce the system, the author’s radical allegation, in its simplest form is an individual quest to rationalize the murder of her aunt.  Chua unintentionally exposes her deep-seated motives to criticize American policy: “Like having a birth defect, or marrying a Filipino, being murdered is shameful” (Chua 102).  In order to hold the United States responsible for her pain and humiliation, she isolates flukes of international violence, omitting the general advantage that globalization has had upon the world.  After all, had the practice exclusively generated hostility and dismay, American politicians would not be flooded with the beseeching cries of nations such as Germany to further sprinkle the American market upon their lands (Schlosser 505).  Through her screening of information to confirm her own personal biases, Chua exhibits the distorted cognitions of humans worldwide.  While her disparaging view of the United States differs from the beliefs of society as a whole, the tendency to twist information to suit one’s own motives remains consistent within all human beings alike.  Further exploring society’s exploitation of data by creating scapegoats, Schlosser divulges the warped reasoning modeled by Shepard’s murderers in the city of Plauen.  With emphasis upon the financial troubles that have engulfed the region, the author uncovers: “The high unemployment rate in Plauen has created social and political instability…Neo-Nazi skinheads have thus far not caused much trouble in Plauen, though a black person today needs real courage to walk the city’s streets at night” (Schlosser 516).  In search of a group to which they may accredit their problems, the people of Plauen have banded together with the unifying misapprehension that outsiders are to blame for their struggles.  Viewing society through their eyes of desperation, they overlook all figures indicating that various economies have improved due to the presence of foreigners.  Clearly, this is thoroughly demonstrated in instances where Americans provide employment for the nations which they infiltrate (Schlosser 498).  While impugning a group at large for one’s struggles is clearly unfounded, the authors prove that man has the propensity to distort his view of society in an attempt to censure specific groups for his hardships.

As Corazon Aquino once declared, “The machine’s power is frail. Without the people's support, it can be shut off with the ease of turning a light switch" (World of Quotes).  Although it may be simple to hold those who provide information responsible for society’s misconceptions, this allegation is superficial at best.  After all, the control ultimately lies in the hands of the

channel-surfer or the subscriber to Time magazine.  As the authors indirectly reveal, human beings will manipulate any fact in order to reaffirm their preconceptions about themselves and the world in which they live.  Fueled by such predispositions, only we are liable for our warped perceptions of reality.