media control the spectacular achievements of propaganda

“Now there are two 'functions' in a democracy: The specialized class, the responsible men,Ĭarry out the executive function, which means they do the thinking and planning and understand the common interests. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda Over the last ten years, every year ot two, some major monster is constructed that we have to defend ourselves against.” You had to crush them to defend yourselves. In the 1930s Hitler whipped them into fear of the Jews and gypsies. You have to whip them up into fear of enemies. Just having them watch the Superbowl and the sitcoms may not be enough. In such circumstances you've got to divert the bewildered herd, because if they start noticing this they may not like it, since they're the ones suffering from it. If you look at the domestic programs of the administrations of the past ten years-I include here the Democratic opposition-there's really no serious proposal about what to do about the severe problems of health, education, homelessness, joblessness, crime, soaring criminal populations, jails, deterioration in the inner cities - the whole raft of problems. Nobody in power has any intention of doing anything about them.

Media Control is an invaluable primer on the secret workings of disinformation in democratic societies.“There are growing domestic social and economic problems, in fact, maybe catastrophes.

Chomsky further touches on how the modern public relations industry has been influenced by Walter Lippmann’s theory of 'spectator democracy,' in which the public is seen as a 'bewildered herd' that needs to be directed, not empowered and how the public relations industry in the United States focuses on 'controlling the public mind,' and not on informing it. From an examination of how Woodrow Wilson’s Creel Commission 'succeeded, within six months, in turning a pacifist population into a hysterical, war-mongering population,' to Bush Sr.'s war on Iraq, Chomsky examines how the mass media and public relations industries have been used as propaganda to generate public support for going to war. According to Chomsky, 'propaganda is to democracy as the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state,' and the mass media is the primary vehicle for delivering propaganda in the United States. Noam Chomsky’s backpocket classic on wartime propaganda and opinion control begins by asserting two models of democracy-one in which the public actively participates, and one in which the public is manipulated and controlled.

Media control the spectacular achievements of propaganda