Media Control
Probably the one most important instrument for a functioning democracy is the media. It represents the voice of the people. Only, in the case of the USA the media represents the interests of large corporations. When that happens the very important feedback loop between the government by the people and we the people is severed. The government gets taken over by corporate interests – almost in effect a coup. It started when the media put profit over people first, via the advertisement and entertainment industry. Ethics and responsibility lost its way to a culture of profit making.
How much coverage do we get on critical pending issues such as the pathetic state of our education, economy, crime, health care, alternate energy, environmental actions, peace actions, and the dangerous chemicals being pumped into our food? Instead, you hear in the news about anthrax, weapons of mass destruction, some cat rescued from a tree, some cat stuck in a well,… What else to expect when the media is owned by corporations and entertainment industries?
When a terrorist strikes (as in 9/11) the propaganda machine was in full gear. Almost felt like Mr. Rogers handing out little flags to his puppets saying “c’mon wave the little flags, you don’t worry about a thing, Uncle Sam [the big corporations] will take care of you”. And whenever people do start worrying and questioning the government, then once again the little flags are handed out at the street corner. “What do I do with it?”, he asks. “You see, you just take it, and wave it – and say you believe in freedom”, he says. And so goes another one waving his little flag. You’ve become part of the “bewildered herd”. Silenced and kept under control, by corporations, and peer pressure of other bewildered herd.
“In what is nowadays called a totalitarian state, or a military state, it’s easy. You just hold a bludgeon over their heads, and if they get out of line you smash them over the head. But as society has become more free and democratic, you lose that capacity. Therefore you have to turn to the techniques of propaganda. The logic is clear. Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state. That’s wise and good because, again, the common interests elude the bewildered herd. They can’t figure them out.”
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.”