Confessions on Living in a Political Echo Chamber

I was a first generation immigrant to the US in 1980.  In that year our  family of 4 underage kids, not counting the wife and I, migrated to No. California, in the scenic city of San Francisco.  We would stay in a small flat rented by my mother-in-law located close to downtown San Francisco.

We would spend a good part of 30 years living in the same area, aptly named the San Francisco Bay Area, a cluster of burgeoning cities and towns closely hugging the bay and the ocean,  that totally would have over 8 million residents.  Aside from the astounding views and climate, it was also a very affluent area.  Not surprisingly costs of living were very high, notably with regard to real estate and consumer prices.

Employment opportunities were mostly in the tourist trade and industry, though going further south was Silicon Valley which would soon burst into the world stage as the hotspot for IT and the computer industry and where tech jobs were plentiful.  It was ground zero for the tech  boom of the 90's.

With our limited initial options, we decided to stake our future in that former environment, the wife finding employment in the local banking industry and I worked in the premier hotel in the city.  Overall, our family life was not bad, though we constantly had to juggle our jobs with the many demands for the care needed for our young impressionable kids. 

And on my part, I wasted no time undertaking my needed familiarization with the environment we found ourselves in, from the economic, to the social and political, which we all found to be quite different from the ones we came from.

And on the political front, I singlehandedly tried to learn as much as I could, at ease with the knowledge that the kind of government and politics were not much different from the one in the old homeland.  So I soaked in as much as I could or was fed me – from books, newspapers and magazines, and media like radio and TV.  And of course, from first-hand exposure to political activities in our daily living and working lives.  For me personally, it was a quite liberating experience witnessing first hand governance in a first world milieu.

What was not easily discernible to me then was that subtly or unwittingly I was being indoctrinated to one particular ideology which so characterized the Bay Area. No doubt it was definitely very liberal, and at the same time, libertine.

All these stayed under the surface until such time when I decided to shift from private employment to government.   From that change one invariably realized the rigid community that one had thrusted himself into, where political dissent was not countenanced and everybody was expected to toe a certain ideological spiel that had to be followed strictly.  Obey or you have no place to go.  And this I found among my contemporaries, people who were mostly members of minority groups.  The year was 2000, when the Bush-Gore election fiasco exploded.

To cut the story short, one then realized that the entire bay area, which is a very significant part of the entire state, had transmogrified into one political voice, enforced by very committed ideologues who tolerated no dissent. It truly became one bailiwick for  liberal  ideas, much like its counterpart LA in the southern part.  What used to be a 50-50 state in ideology during the time of Reagan and earlier became a Democratic bastion ruled by its overlords.  So committed to liberal ideals and politicians that in many recent  elections, the other party stayed away from campaigning, or even putting up opposing candidates,  save in some political enclaves that were not yet converted.

Media became  its most committed and vociferous acolyte in the dogged pursuit of unchallenged influence and paramount power, endlessly promoting ways and means to advance the ideology.  And truly reflective of the politics in the area, San Francisco even became a one newspaper town, and the more popular radio talk-shows were of the liberal bent. 

In this echo chamber only one voice and command resonates and listeners or viewers were invariably sucked in to the maelstrom, me included. Initially it felt good, being aligned with the rest and finding affirmation in what one has come to believe as truths.  But we know that in such a stifling environment so much of the goodness of the rule of democracy and freedoms are threatened and relegated to minor roles.  And replaced with authoritarianism and in a real way, of a despotic rule of the few who control the levers of power and influence. 

Continuing to subsist there simply means being subtly held in those beliefs.  After all, most ideas from whichever sides, including extreme liberal ideas were meant for the amelioration of the common good.  At least, that was how it was always phrased in official declarations. 

One desiring alternative voices will have to dig deep and far to find them, as scarce as finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

And this I had to do to begin my enlightenment or simply broadening my views  in politics.  One then learned to be discerning and discriminating in sources of news and information, media outlets, etc.  Media had become very partisan and could not be relied because while certain facts were withheld from dissemination, others were massaged to adhere to certain narratives promoting  the liberal ideologies.

And it was  a very liberating feeling to be able to think freely from a distance, examining other ideologies and being informed with sufficiently diverse  knowledge to make informed decisions.

It does take a lot of determination and effort  to be able to do this, more challenging than to be simply part of a faceless crowd chanting the same slogans which is definitely an easier path  to tread. 

A motto borrowed from one Jesuit school lectures us that, Veritas Liberat Vos.

The truth shall set you free.