A couple of days ago in one of our Fontys Marketing lectures (‘E-commerce’ to be more specific) the topic of ‘internet or online privacy’ came up, along with some discussion and questioning about Facebook. You know like: Who uses your information, for what purposes, and their weird policy about them being owners of the content you upload to the site. In other words, how basically your ‘digital life’ is owned by this company and whoever this company’s ‘side-kick’ is/are (it does not take too much thought to figure out at least one of Facebook’s most powerful ‘comrades’).
All of this made me remember how once upon a time in a land not so far away, I had to read a book.
(What an ‘interesting’ sentence: “Once upon a time in a land not so far away I had to read a book!” Probably 99% of you, my dear readers, clicked the red ‘close’ thingy placed on the tab’s right-hand side after reading this. Meaning that I am possibly ‘talking’ (‘writing’) to myself at the moment… I can’t blame you!)
So, again –to my 1% (or maybe none) remaining ‘audience’–:
Once upon a time when I used to study journalism in a land not so far away, I had to read this book called “Cómo Nos Venden la Moto” (meaning “how they sell us the motorcycle”, if translated directly to English), written by Noam Chomsky and Ignacio Ramonet.
In brief (and explained in a more graphical way), what these authors write about is how…
In the United States throughout the, relatively recent, history two ‘characters’ were ‘conceived’:
1. The ‘elite, most capable and intelligent members of the community’ (according to: … …‘them’ ): Formed by the country’s government and corporations.
2. The ‘disconcerted flock’ (named this way by members of the intelligent elite): Consisting of… the rest of the country’s population.
The intelligent elite is ‘very intelligent’, according to the intelligent elite! While the disconcerted flock is… very ‘stupid’ according to… the intelligent elite!
So, because the members of the disconcerted flock are simply ‘too dumb’ to understand things, and because of this, they are not capable to decide what is best for their future and themselves; the intelligent elite (because they are ‘very intelligent’ and therefore ‘they know’ what is best for the disconcerted flock… which is, of course, 99.999999% of the times what is best for their own, intelligent elite’s, interests), decided that the disconcerted flock’s role in society should be: To just be distracted!
…to make sure that this works, the intelligent elite adds a little bit of ‘fear’ and ‘terror’ to the distraction!
The goal: Make the disconcerted flock believe that ‘everyone’s the enemy’. But… most important: Make the flock strongly believe that violence is the only existing mean available to combat this ‘enemy’ (invisible enemy).
The goals are to make the flock be distracted and terrorized because, although they are ‘dumb’, sometimes they tend to question things and they start causing troubles, such as: Strikes, protests, etc… Asking for change (a phenomena known by the intelligent elite as a ‘democratic deviation’).
As ‘weapons’ to ‘domesticate’ the disconcerted flock, and therefore avoid this so called ‘democratic deviation’, the intelligent elite uses propaganda and public relations. Mainly they make use of ‘concepts (messages, slogans) emptied of content’ which cannot receive any opposition (such as, for example, very nationalistic messages). An opposition to these, if there was any, would be taken as coming from a very subversive individual; seen by the rest of the disconcerted flock as a ‘weird’ and ‘special’ case. And of course: “Who wants to be the ‘black sheep’ (… …or the ‘baby blue cow’!)?” Right?
And so, by using their power and ‘weapons’, the intelligent elite begins to ‘manufacture consensus’ (a majority of opinion), where opposition to actions and ideas coming from above will most likely not happen; with a now ‘distracted’, ‘domesticated’ and ‘lethargic’ flock.
The most incredible thing, perhaps, is that all of these happens in a ‘democratic’ and consequently (supposedly) ‘free’ society!
Authors highlight similarities in this given situation with the Leninist approach, who also believed that “common interests usually dodge public opinion and that just a class of specialized, responsible man who are intelligent enough can understand and solve the problems derived from these”, but rather than being applied by force under the control of a totalitarian state it has been applied by using different methods under the ‘control’ of a ‘democratic’ (“power to the people”) state.
This is the basic information that the authors share in the book. All of course with the historical background, mentioning some of the most relevant members of the intelligent elite and specific historical cases where they make use of propaganda and public relations to manipulate and control the flock; followed by the explanation of how the U.S. intelligent elite applies this same concept to their foreign politics (which, unless you have been living under a rock in the past many years, it should not come as a surprise). Iraq, Vietnam, El Salvador, Cuba, The Philippines, my little Guatemala… Countless ‘interventions’ in the name of ‘democracy’…
The book was written in 2001; it would be interesting if a new edition would be written to see how Facebook and all these social network things play a role now a days in ‘domesticating’ the, what would be now for these intelligent elite members, pretty much world-wide disconcerted flock! (Haha!)
Anyways, it is a (short and) recommendable book! After reading it the first time, and learning other unknown things about mass media communication back in the journalism year, I reached to my personal conclusion that just like in the food industry some companies sell junk food (McDonalds, Burger King, and trillion others!); within the communication industry they also ‘sell’ junk news, TV shows, movies, etc… And just like you have the opportunity of choosing between junk food or healthy food (though now a days even fruits and vegetables are genetically altered and full of chemicals sometimes); you also have the choice of choosing what ‘you brain eats’…to put it that way.
Our Creative Writing teacher, back in the Fontys minor study abroad in Sevilla, used to make use of the word “elegance” (most of us relate it directly to clothing but), coming from the Latin word of “elegantia” means the ability to choose… to extract the best. An ability that every human being possesses.
And speaking of food! Lets end up this post with something perhaps a bit less boring:
What is the most ‘un-tempting’ student food you have ever tried, seen or heard of?
I’ll share with you a (true story!) friend’s breakfast secret recipe –
Yes: Corn flakes with milk energy drink… It would have never come to me! A TAURINE-ized way to start the day. And you can’t forget –student style: 38 Euro cent Corn Flakes and 29 cent energy drink!–
So, enjoy your energetic breakfast in a few hours (I really hope you do not take this as a recommendation for your ‘early morning menu’!)
Thanks for scanning through this post! (I hope it was not too boring)
‘till next week!
PEACE OUT
Your writer,
Maria
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