I only survived my high school physics class by the skin of my teeth. But even with my limited knowledge of the subject, I recognize the formula E=mc (sorry my computer won’t allow me to shift my 2 to its proper place.) I’m sure you get it though. I have learned more about quantum physics from Benedictine monk Bede Griffiths than I ever did from my third period physics class in my Junior year.
But I have found another use for Albert’s famous formula. He had it in mind even if he didn’t know it when considering the sorry state of political elections. Now there are a host of quotations attributed to Professor Einstein. But unlike many of the alleged quotes he actually did say this one. “There will come a time when the rich own all the media, and it will be impossible for the public to make an informed opinion.” What he said in 1949 is abundantly true today. The rich own all of the media. Newspapers are dropping like flies at the first autumn frost. Radio and television are being controlled by fewer and fewer corporate plutocrats.
So I have reworked his formula. Forgive me Albert. Elections equal media controlled to the nth degree by folks who care little about the truth. It would have worked better if the m and c were flip flopped (controlled media by money. However I had as much trouble getting the formula to work as I did understanding the formula in 1968.
In the spring edition of PEACE AND PLANET NEWS, Caitlan Johnstone writes, “US presidential elections would still be rigged because mainstream political opinion would still be shaped by the wealthy and powerful people who control the sources from which Americans have been trained to get their information. So long as the rich and powerful can manipulate public opinion at mass scale through the corporate media, through Hollywood, and through Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, they can rig elections however they want.”
It leaves one wondering ‘where I can go to get unbiased, unpartisan information as November 2024 gets closer with each passing day?’ I’m afraid I don’t have an answer. So I’ll close with some timely words by that socialist Albert Einstein in a column published several years ago in THE NATION. “Under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.” Yikes!