The Century of the Self

[Mitch Cronin]

Terrific series of 4 videos... each about 55 minutes.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=the+...elf&emb=0&aq=f#

[MCDU]

Very interesting. Thanks, Mitch.

[planett]

After 3 of 4 parts, all I can say is Brilliant............enlightening.

[boestar]

So after watching the first 2 episodes it really reinforces the fact that we have been and are just sheep being led to the slaughter.

Millions manipulated by a few. There are people who would have you believe that this is no longer happenning. Propaganda is aired each and every day to keep us under control.

[planett]

All done. Scary stuff, and it explains a lot.

[Don Hudson]

Mitch;

Thank you for the links.

Noam Chomsky, with Edward Herman wrote "Manufacturing Consent" in 1988 which discussed these very notions.

The reasons why it isn't possible to label the media as "liberal" can be found in such examinations of the media's effect upon society. Media is a business after all, its interests lying in the status quo and controlling "the mob", not in disruption and especially not in revolution.

The notion of democracy is fundamentally disruptive because change is driven "from below" and "led" from above. There is no way either business or the media would choose such values as guiding principles. This series illustrates very well why for example Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebels, so admired the ability of the United States to control its population without firing a shot.

Our media aren't complicitous in a "grand plan" - the "plan", as Bernays envisioned it, has long since become our fundamental reality, so embedded in our psyche that it is "normal". It is impossible to imagine a world without media, without the internet and all such phenomena symbolize and stand for. Our "participation" is "normal" to the point where that which we may have called "propaganda" even fifty years ago, is now entirely invisible to us so beyond our awareness it is.

The notion of "liberal" may mean many things but one thing it means which isn't discussed very much is "liberalism includes the willingness to examine and re-examine one's notions of democracy, power and a notion called 'governmentality' even as one governs."

Such notions are anathema to business and power politics, and are consistently labeled "left-wing" and other pejorative terms to create and sustain a sense that such notions were "bad" and that a liberal democracy is not desireable because it is "socialist", another term which is pejoratively associated with liberalism.

Bernays brilliantly served the needs of the so-called "right wing" by showing how it was possible to control human beings without violence and instead with their voluntary compliance.

It is critical as well, for all of us to realize that as we watch this four-part series on propaganda (labeled, interestingly, the Century of the Self) that it too, is a form of propaganda, but then all such works are - we just happen to not be aware of the sense of "propaganda" when we agree with the message!

Many still do not understand how "propaganda" works as the often-shrill and at-times acrimonious responses to Copenhagen, here and elsewhere, clearly illustrate. The key understanding is not in understanding how propaganda "works" however - the key is our response, "groupthink" being just one of many. It is not as though "we" are "manipulated" - we are accustomed to participate in a compliant, voluntary way to someone else's hegemonies, (which aren't a hegemony if we agree with them!), editors unseen in offices buried in tall buildings, making decisions on what will be printed and headlined or broadcast in the "news".

It is equally critical to understand that even these editors are not trying to "manipulate the public" in the sense meant in the film. They too are "willing participants" to the "meta-message", the nature and sources of which are almost always not immediately visible. It is "the way" the world is seen and editors see it as their professional duty to "tell the truth", itself an interesting notion. In other words, editors are doing exactly "the right thing".

I hadn't seen this series before but it is in itself a fascinating example of that which it intends to examine. I happen to agree with the message only because the series "message" is the intentional disrespecting of the population with the intention to manipulate people, either for monetary gain or the ascension of power, the means of such manipulatoin always being hidden from those so targeted.

I happen to believe in the wisdom of the masses and remain deeply suspicious of any power structure that tells me (the populace) that it "knows" what is best for me and doesn't permit me a voice in what I think is best. That is, after all, the intention of "propaganda" and the message in the series.

Don

[Mitch Cronin]

Interesting thoughts Don. Thanks for that.

I think it's worth noting, that for every shrill voice, from a point of view that's set in stone, there are, perhaps, hundreds of quiet listeners, waiting for a response from another direction, because they're just not sure.

There was a time when I thought I'd surely take part in some kind of a, 'power to the people' style revolution... I could have even seen myself at the front of the pack in some way, pushing for change... or, even heading off to the woods to start a commune somewhere. ( I'm not kidding, I'd love to have lived that way!) ....nowadays I look for any way I can to stay away from the stresses of "the rat race", as my mother always called "it". My wife handles the bills and I do my best not to even know what things cost.

Most of us are slaves to the monetary system of debt and it's masters, almost as sure as if we picked their cotton. That's by design, of course, and there's a widespread belief that there's precious little people like myself will ever be able to do about it. But if we're aware of it, at least that much gives us the power to make choices. Well, some of us.

I think this - as yet still dawning - age of the internet and mass connectivity and communication will eventually force a major societal change, but not before such masters (who are as we speak, and as you know, getting immeasurable lessons in the use of the same tools for propaganda's sake) give the maintenance of current norms their best efforts.

I saw another video this morning that I'd recommend*, called Zeitgeist Addendum. There will be points in it I'm sure you won't agree with, but I suspect you'd appreciate the first half hour, or so (it's looong - you might want to fast-forward to about 4:15 or so to miss a long intro ). The first half is about the "Fractional Reserve Monetary System of Banking", and does a fine job of detailing why it is we're all slaves to a "corporatocracy". .... I almost watched it once before, but found it too depressing... The second half spends time detailing a new society these guys want to build... maybe they're crazy, or maybe they're right on the money, I haven't any idea.... I couldn't keep watching because I find it a little beyond our abilities yet.... maybe after we all find that common enemy....?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912#

* I think it's valuable to share this sort of thing, since it does represent a viewpoint that, for the time being anyway, can only be heard off the mainstream, in just this sort of manner.

Cheers,

Mitch