I'm thinking that my predictions have been pretty skanky lately. That's because there's a difference between my cogent analysis and what's actually been going on in the devious minds of the rat bastards and perps who've been scheming to take the loot in the giant heist taking place in Washington, DC right now.
From a Marxist perspective, having seized the means of production, the ruling class maintains its dominance through the instruments of propaganda. And propaganda is a vastly expensive enterprise. The Tea Party macinery is a pretty simple thing to do if you have the money to do it. But what about the left wing? How might it deploy propaganda?
I was reading Edward Bernays' book * and I came to page 78 and 79. And it talked about how he created demand for General Electric in the 1920s. If you understand propaganda, you can see how the machinery operates. By substituting a few words from the original book, we come up with a left wing narrative. This is a simulated look at how a cultural phenomenon could be played out over a multi-year period.
Al Gore and the world wide enviromental movement want to empasize the virtues of solar panels. They talk to manufacturers of solar panels, who help them by giving them charitable financings, equipment, consultants, etc. Influential architects have been persuaded to make solar panels (and their equipment) an integral part of home design. A major real estate developer is persuaded to make his next subdivision a solar powered one, and he creates an architectural competition, judged by eminents in the art world. Lady Gaga is persuaded to hold an event in the real estate development's interiors decorated by leading designers (complete with magazine, internet, etc. coverage), and it gets national and international media attention.
If someone figures out how it all works, they'll be the one who deserves a Nobel Prize. But we all play our part when we create this giant conversation. And each of us has the responsibility to go out and learn about the actual facts of the situation. Now, go and do likewise.
*PROPAGANDA, by Edward Bernays, pp.78-79 (2005) Ig Publishing, Brooklyn, NY. Noam Chomsky recommends this book.
** and I believe that Tinkerertink69 said the same thing in his column today.
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Comments
In the beginning of the book, the Pope talks about, "they(the masses) may be led to the springs of water of life,." (1% Kindle edition) But leading to the water does not guarantee the person being led will drink the water,
I will read more and catch up to where you are at hopefully today. Plus Goebbels even though evil was the King of propaganda. So I am sort of interested in what he has to say.
You might find this blog of mine enlightening.
No one has to know you went there to read it.
I try and deploy propaganda all the time here, though not necessarily very well. When I talk about the scale of money, whether I say that if a buck equals a second, the richest guys in America are worth over 1.5 millenia; or I say that if an inch equals $10k of net worth, the richest guys in America have in excess of 78 miles (both of which I've said), there's an extent to which I'm propagandizing. It happens to be true, but I am trying to shock, albeit because I genuinely am shocked.
We need to get better at it. We also need to reach the guys who need our help most, and that's what I really don't know how to do.
Kosh--I think you do a fine job of deploying propaganda here on OS, especially with regard to your analogies.