1-"Professor Anne O'Dwyer taught me about cognitive dissonance - the psychological discomfort which occurs when you're confronted with a set of facts suggesting that what you're doing or believing is irrational or stupid. You pay $10 to go to a movie, and the movie is pretty bad. But rather than admit that you wasted $10, there's a tendency to say it isn't wasn't really so bad: the acting was impressive, the special effects looked really realistic - whatever you need to tell yourself to convince yourself that you got your money's worth. You want to feel like you're not a sucker. We paper over the cognitive dissonance in much of what we do - the fact that this clearly isn't the best way to be ordering a society, to be living a life - because we've got an awful lot invested in the route we've been pursuing. To admit that it's flawed awould be too much dissonance to handle." Pick an issue that you believe the media has "papered over". Describe how you figured out you were not getting the whole truth. What was the more complex truth & why was it hidden (or more important who benefits from the partial truth & who loses?) What is the cost to you and what can you do about it?

For the past day I have been trying to think of an answer to this question, and I cannot come up with a time that I thought the media “papered over” an issue.  I can think of times when the government covered up things, like the Watergate Scandal, but that is not something that I personally discovered.  I don’t think I pay enough attention to the news to be able to answer this question.  (Yes, I know I need to start.)  

I can relate to the part about not admitting that I wasted something.  I don’t like to regret, so even if something goes wrong, I like to think of it as a learning experience.  I don’t do this so that I don’t feel like a sucker; I do it because I like to make everything I do mean something.  I like to learn from myself.  I can realize when something is flawed, for example the parking on campus, and I can realize when I am flawed, for example I have a really bad sense of time.

I think when things are covered up it is bad for the people who do the covering and for those who are only showed the cover-up.  Living with a lie weighs heavily on the liar, and being lied to is like a false sense of reality, both are bad.   

2-In what way have you been encouraged to "sit back, relax, and enjoy the show" and how can you "grab the steering wheel before we go over the edge"?

I think that whenever a huge event happens in your life, you are either encouraged to “sit back, relax, and enjoy the show” or “grab the steering wheel before we go over the edge”.  Personally, if something bad happens in my life I tend to worry about the little things, like getting assignments done on time for my classes, instead of thinking about the big thing that just happened that needs my attention.  At those times my friends and family around me say I need to “sit back, relax…etc” and they say they have everything under control.  All I need to do “be” and they will take care of the rest.  They will decide everything.  However, their comes a time when you get tired of just “being” and you want to start “acting”.  I think that is an important time to “grab the steering wheel before we over the edge”.  That is when you make that first step to having the “bad thing in your life” relinquish control, and you begin to get stronger.  If you stay in your simple state of just “being”, eventually you will completely lose yourself and your ability to pick yourself back up.  You will go over the edge.  It is important to let others take control, but then it is also important to take that control back.