She chose five students. Four of the students were told to wait outside the classroom and one remained.
While the other 40+ students sat there wondering what was about to happen our instructor shared a series of events in the form of three to four sentences with the one who had been left behind.
The object of this exercise was to prove how inaccurate a story shared by word of mouth becomes each time it's passed from one mouth to another.
The rest of the class had written the original information down so that we'd be able to remember what was said in the beginning.
The four participants outside the door were brought back in one by one. The first student shared the information with the second. The second shared the information with the third. The third shared the information with the fourth and of course, the fourth student shared the information with the fifth.
The goal of the exercise was proven in the first exchange between the first and second student. Details were left out. Some of the information was inaccurate. It was hilarious.
By the time the fifth student entered the room, the entire story had been so horribly distorted all we could do was burst into a sea of laughter which brings me to the point I'm trying to make.
In an age of 24 hour media news coverage, an internet that never sleeps, cell phones, iPads, digital cameras capable of uploading events as they unfold, magazine publications, online newspapers and all the other things we utilize that I've omitted, some of us would still rather get our information from other people.
Perhaps it's a lackadaisical syndrome. I don't feel like reading. I don't listen to the news because it's depressing. I'll just listen to what "they" have to say about it because "they've" been right before. And on that surprisingly rare occasion when "they" is proven wrong, people still don't want to believe it...even when "they" finally admits they've erred.
What's going on in our country today is the underbelly of the worst of the worst. Fear is leading the charge. Why? Because it's human nature to fear what we don't understand and the best way to remain in a cloud of darkness and confusion spawned by fear is to not educate yourself regarding what it IS you do not understand!
In the last year, I've heard the terms right wing, left wing, conservative, liberal, socialist, communist, patriot, our country....more than I have my entire life.
"We're gonna take our country back!!!" From who? The last time I checked it was MY country too and I didn't tap out and give it to anybody. The same people that control it now have controlled it for years - CORPORATE AMERICA. And if you think anyone else has control, you're mistaken.
Educate yourselves, people.
Put your pitchforks and your bullshit signs down. It's really getting old. Act like the citizens of a country that's been viewed as a beacon of hope for so many for so long.
A mob mentality doesnt suit the American populace very well but as our history has shown....it's great when you don't know what else to do.
*Who'll be the next one accused of destroying the Constitution?
