The corruption in this country has reached such alarming levels, and the consequences when it comes to the direct harm that corruption inflicts on the population (and the world) so atrocious, that for many years now I have been wondering if the only way a population can remain so passive is if it is subjected to massive brainwashing.
Given the increasingly blunt manner in which the ruling elites continue to engage in blatant acts of corruption and oppression, born our of government and corporatist collusion, if the population were not under the control of the mind-numbing corporate media conglomerate propaganda, right now we would have the equivalent of Occupy Wall Street, ten times the size of what it was at its height.
Right now there would be hundreds of thousands of people protesting in Washington, D.C., having kept vigil there for months (coming and going). There would be huge rallies, civil disobedience tactics, and all manner of protests all across the country, non-stop, week after week, month after month.
As I watch this, I kind of find it interesting, and somewhat exciting, in the realization that I'm in the middle of an honest-to-goodness science fiction-type reality.
People as drones, as automatons, in some kind of mind-control stupor, while thinking they are living in a free society. I don't say this with disdain, but more as matter of fact.
The effects of this mind-control are truly mind-boggling (pun intended). There are certain conclusions that we accept as incontrovertible, which have been in fact carefully implanted into our collective psyche through propaganda.
I'm always interested in finding ways to explain this phenomena, and as I was doing some research tonight, I found one of the most informative sources I've seen in years.
It's a Gonzaga University Master's Degree Thesis by Frank McCoy, submitted on December, 2012: THE PROPAGANDA MODEL: CORPORATE AND POLITICAL COLLUSION IN
THE CREATION OF AN OLIGOPOLISTIC MAINSTREAM U.S. MEDIA (Click here to view the entire document in PDF format).
The thesis is incredibly well-sourced. Most importantly, it explains exactly how the American corporate media conglomerate in collusion with the government, has formed an oligopolistic entity whose sole purpose is to manipulate the population into accepting undemocratic corporate control over their lives.
The more congested the media landscape becomes the greater risk of harm there is to the public interest. As powerful corporations grow increasingly wealthier, powerful, influential, and politically affiliated the greater risk there is to the political economy on a global scale. The risk inherent with affluential transcultural media corporations is the mass homogenization of content and, thus, propagandist reinforcement of corporate and political interests serving only the dominant elites and, in turn, harming and marginalizing non-elites. One would be grossly remiss of the tangible danger and malign effects to the public to simply abridge the issue examined in this study as a case of the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer.
The most pernicious effect of all this, of course, is the fact that most people are totally unaware of the level of manipulation by the propaganda they are being subjected to:
Without an awareness of the grave consequences involved with an increasingly concentrated media environment the public (i.e. non-elites) will continue to be systematically brainwashed by the propagandist arm of the government that is the mass media and will unknowingly acquiesce to the interests of the dominant elites.
One of the most important concepts covered in the thesis is The Propaganda Model:
The theoretical foundation of this report is Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s propaganda model (PM). In short, the model contends that mass media institutions are owned and controlled by large corporations whom have relationships in business and social circles with other corporations and political officials. These relationships result in self-censorship on the part of the media entities because they depend on advertising revenue and political support from their sponsors and cohorts. It is argued that the media are unable to detach themselves analytically from the dominant sectors because of these economic, political, and social relationships (Herman & Chomsky, 1988).
One rising danger I see is that as this generalized mind-control over the population takes hold, rendering it totally passive in the face of blatant corruption and increased oppression, the Corporatocracy will be incentivized to institute an increasingly oppressive regime; one that could eventually turn into a science-fiction like total-information awareness surveillance police state, or a modern and more advanced type of fascism.
What can be done? One of the conclusions reached in the research paper is that one of the most important things is for people to become aware of the effects of the propaganda.
I for one, will not be ready to throw in the towel and accept this type of dystopian world which this Corporatist regime is trying to impose on us. We need to wake up and take action against these nefarious forces. Organize, strategize, resist, protest, and push back until we bring the Oligarchy down in defense of freedom and democracy.
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