Propaganda

Public Opinion?

As the ‘pre-crash’ policies gather momentum, some of us are wondering why large sections of the public appear to have faith in those who orchestrated the meltdown.
How is it possible to use (and abuse) public opinion, influence it, predetermine-, select-, shape-, control and restrict it, to serve those disastrous ends?
Books have been written with titles such as “The Opinion Makers“, and “The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies“, which seem to support Edward Bernays assumption, that, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”
Winston Churchill didn’t seem to have much faith either when he scorned, “There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.“

The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda

How Clean and How Renewable?

Big energy gluttons such as the multinationals constantly drum into us that our energy is clean, renewable and almost inexhaustible.
Why many of us haven’t just categorized this into the – too good to be true scams and frauds category – beats me.
Scientists tell us, that, the geothermal energy sources do not suffice for all the aluminum smelters “planned”, not to speak of the largely unknown health hazards of massive dosage of sulfide in the air. As regards waterfalls, no other western nation is as ‘damned’ as we are. – Dreamland – SavingIceland.org!

Opposite Land

Now that the banks that were created by and for fishermen, farmers, small industry and shopkeepers are no longer in our hands it is interesting to listen to the rhetoric.
The echo-chamber parrots the mantra about the benevolent foreign investor/creditor as being our heavenly Saviour and the mercy-full grace that we should be so lucky to have them.
In 1984 as in 2009; War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength

The Silence of the Web

The latest trend in our ‘democratic’ and ‘crime free’ society is the hostility expressed towards bloggers / reporters. The self appointed ‘elite’, financial or otherwise, id est those who have acceptable opinions are mightily indignant over inappropriate comments and leaks in the blogger sphere and want it stopped. The old tools they are so grief-stricken for are the mass media, proper academics and of course their legal technicians (as they are now called).

I my self find Chomsky’s explanations illuminating when he writes: “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.”

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