This is all my fault. Surrounds me are bright, white lights reflecting off the pale blue walls onto a single white bed that sits in the middle of the room where my fragile little brother lies fighting for his life. Bandages confining his delicate little skull, whilst covering the deep gashes and bruises that have formed over the past couple of hours. With only the sound of the beeping monitor to reassure me that he’s alive. All that’s running through mind right now is how did I let this happen? How did we end up here, in this place? Could I have saved him from that fall? We were only mucking around up on the 5m diving board. It was supposed to be fun. The people in the white coats walking around are saying that he might seem a little hazy when it comes to recalling what happened. They say the fall has damaged his hippocampus in his left temporal lobe or something like that. From what my parents said, it means he’s damaged a certain part of his brain. Have I ruined his life forever? What if he doesn’t remember what happened? Then it hits me. What if he forgets it was me who knocked him off the board? Could I really change his knowledge of what truly happened to my personal desire of this never happening? No one knows what happened. I’ve felt too ashamed to tell anyone the truth. But maybe I don’t have to now. This is all my fault. But no one needs to know, right?
It was then that I realised I had the chance to alter my 8 year old, little brothers life into a fantasy of my own. Laid in my hands was the ability to clear my name of anything that happened today, being my fault. I had the ability to vary my brothers and my families outlooks of the accident, and reshape their beliefs so that they were not exclusively their own.
As well as the Government and the media, people we find closest to us have the tendency to reflect their own personal fantasies onto our own, therefore forming completely new desire in our mind. Important members in our lives play a crucial role in sculpting our world and what is most significant to us. However, when we allow different family members and friends to influence our lives significantly, we run the risk of falling into their personal desires. This can have a positive outcome, allowing you to open up to new opportunities and adventures that life may throw at you. But there is also the negative outcome of you losing your own personal dreams and values to live the reality of someone else's vision. Like in Wag the Dog, when Stanley Motss and Conrad Brean create a hypothetical 'war hero' in an attempt to boost the current presidents votes to be re-elected, society believed "the president [was] a hero" because he supposedly "brought peace". This is just unfolding how they were able to change the North American public's understanding of the truth, to benefit theirs and the presidents ideal professional career. Just like I could potentially change my little brothers life to benefit my own personal fantasy.
In today's society the Government has the ability to manipulate what we believe in, in order to benefit their own career. Reasons being, to benefit their own life, however in some cases they may not even know they're doing this. Governments have a immense impact on our lives, what values we hold and how our life should be subsisted. In 2001, before the election in October, John Howard, no former Prime Minister, "...expressed [his] anger..." about the story of "...genuine refugees... throw[ing] their children overboard." on their journey to Australia. This brought upon new laws and stronger border security for when "... those people (refugees)..." attempted yo enter the country. This resulted in John Howards polls increasing substantially for his heroic efforts. But were they really heroic efforts? Was he really protecting our country, our society? Or was this story spun in an endeavour to build false trust with his voters? Howards motives behind expressing this story could've possibly been to