Chomsky in 1990 How do the “owners” of our society keep us under their collective thumb? “Divert the ‘bewildered herd’…and make sure they don’t get involved in anything unfortunate, like running their own affairs…” A perspective on the news and where it originates, and insights into the process of indoctrination - accepting the values, interests and the understanding - of the “real bosses”, the people who run the show, the corporate managers and de facto owners of our so-called free society. Kind of a must watch interview from post-Cold War Russia and pre-9/11 times. Interesting on a few levels. Editor’s note: in recent years, given his refusal to discuss overwhelming evidence which destroys the official explanation of 9/11, (https://youtube/watch?v=rNR6Kbg5jJ8) one might also think of asking Prof. Chomsky, How far are you willing to go as a social critic for the greater good, as an intellectual or otherwise? 00:40 (on his book Necessary Illusions, defining some terms, quoting author Reinhold Niebuhr)..’it’s the task of the intellectuals..the ‘cool observers’ to create necessary illusions and emotionally potent simplifications for the general public…’ 02:10 Walter Lippman, the dean of American Journalists….and the bewildered herd. “We, smart guys, need to protect ourselves from the…bewildered herd.” 2:50 the idea is that in a totalitarian society, you really don’t need a lot of propaganda…but as a society becomes more free and democratic you have to keep the bewildered herd under control in other ways…through propaganda and manufacturing consent, construction of illusions, oversimplifications or simply marginalization…a large part of the task of the media is to simply direct them away from issues…keep them focused on sitcoms, spectator sports… 4:37 first modern democratic revolution was in England in the 17th century….that had to be suppressed, because people are getting so arrogant that they refuse to submit to civil rule…that same idea happens over and over again… 5:24 in the American Revolution -after the Revolution had won, the general public had to be taught, that the ideas that appeared in the revolutionary pamphlets - freedom and equality - were not to be taken seriously…this country was founded on the idea that the people who own the country ought to govern it. With the rise of modern corporations it sort of took new forms. 6:24 (on the public relations industry since the early 20th century, Edward Bernays and the need to control people’s thinking)…the engineering of consent, advertising…. 7:10 their main concern is to create the climate of public support for business rule and business profitability to break working class culture.. 7:27 how to threaten that? ask all kinds of questions….the ‘bewildered herd’ are likely to ask them if they are permitted to have an honest look at the world… 10:33 (an example of how our perception of our problems are shaped by absence / presence of topics in the media) the world isn’t shaped in those terms…. 13:03 criticism of media for serving business? nope. not allowed to discuss. corporate interests don’t exist - they’re behind some curtain, and you don’t talk about them…you can criticize the government, but the government is just one segment of the business class….the real problem is in the dictum on which the country was founded, if those who own the country are going to run it, which is in fact what actually happened, uh, you want to have a look at who owns it. 14:50 how do systems get maintained in the media? two levels of discuss: 1) how do the institutions work out so that the picture of the world is shaped in corporate interests 2) how are particular stories dealt with… (1) ask, “What are the media?” The major media…are big corporations…huge….and integrated into even bigger conglomerates. They have a product. Their market is advertisers. Big corporations selling a product (audiences) to other corporations. If you sell upscale audiences, you get more profit. One sector of the media they are basically selling privileged audiences, and they’re the ones setting the agenda…. 18:25 on one hand you have the agenda-setting media, which are selling privileged audiences, and then you have the mass media, which are selling huge audiences and just sort of pick up the structure from above…what do you expect to come out of that? the agenda-setting media, huge corporations selling privileged audiences to other businesses, what kind of picture of the world do you expect to come out of that system? well you can expect the picture that’s going to reflect the interests of the sellers, and the buyers and the product. a view of the world that serves the interests and the needs of the sectors of the population that in fact control the resources and make the decisions - the economic and the political managers, and the cultural managers in the culture of business schools and universities and so on - reflected their interests…the top sector of the population - the privileged…they have a job. those media, their job is to set the agenda in a way which will serve those interests - pick the stories, frame them, suppress them, modify them, in such a way that it will serve the interests of privilege - which they do…but also to indoctrinate their own audience - they have to indoctrinate them because those people in the decision-making positions, they have to accept the values and interests and the understanding of the real bosses, the people who actually are the corporate management and ownership. on 21:04 (one of the purposes of media bias, propaganda, advertising etc is to) divert the ‘bewildered herd’…and make sure they don’t get involved in anything unfortunate, like running their own affairs 26:50 the “crisis of democracy”….the crisis was that people were organized… 28:52 how do you solve the crisis? well, you restore the population to apathy and obedience - then you don’t have a crisis of democracy anymore. Then democracy is working just fine. Working in the interests of the privileged. You know it’s by the privileged, for the privileged and in their interests. That’s democracy. And when that gets out of hand, you have a problem. That’s the same idea / thought we’ve been hearing since the 17th century… 31:24 (on the range of topics in the media) the point is is that the entire spectrum is narrow 33:15 the topics that weren’t mentioned in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala… 34:48 international law - the world court ruled that U.S. actions n Nicaragua were illegal…..how much attention was paid to that? virtually zero. 35:18 you put all this together and…you get a picture of a society which is virtually totalitarian in its conformity to the needs of power, which cares nothing about terror and violence, as long as its carried out for an effective purpose… 38:18 necessary illusions? if we had something that you could call newspapers in the U.S. they would tell you what drives American policy toward the Third World…the roots of American policy in Latin America…the primary root is the economic root…the trade and investment there…they say that the major threat to U.S. interests is what are called ‘nationalistic regimes’ which are responsive to the needs of the masses of the population for improvement in living standards and diversification of production for domestic needs…why is that a threat? because we have to impose a climate favorable to private business, including guarantees for profits…for foreign investment….that says we have to protect our resources….the documents say…even the ‘doves’…we have to support police states, if necessary…because liberal regimes will be too indulgent to people carrying out these negative actions…. 39:55 the Sandinistas were directing resources to the general population and away from the elites…and they weren’t protecting the interests of the business community, so they have to go…the only question is how they go. so you have a tactical debate between the people who say let’s do it by terror and violence - like the Contras - and the ‘doves’ who say let’s do it by economic strangulation and ideological warfare, but that they must go. That’s certain. 46:30 how does the marginalization work? individual critics will be marginalized…but (within the media) people do have a way of participating and…presented to them on a regular daily basis an alternative picture of the world which reflects their interests and concerns and in fact their reality… (props to community-supported radio stations) * 49:58 the role of the fragmented majority marginalized groups in the United States…the educated population is the most indoctrinated and the most deluded….the role? they can get organized and take over…why do you need bosses and managers? there’s no law of nature that says people in the factory can’t run the factory…when those issues are brought up you’ll have a real crisis of democracy and in fact you’ll complete the revolutions that began in the 18th century and then were cut off… 52:10 the opening of the Iron Curtain…the way the west is looking at it is to convert eastern Europe into the Third World…
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 03:23:49 +0000
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