Re: So I should give up the argument before I start.
That would have been my advice.
***
Re: though a good conspiracy can run for some time to the profit of the participants.
Katharine Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post understood this very well. Here's her take on the matter:
"There are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows."
So you see dear boy, the public doesn't start the karoom in the echo chamber. The public's only role is to act as regurgitators. You see this every day in America where the talking points created by the malevolent genius Karl Rove and his minions is first distributed to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity and within 24 hours these evil bastard propagandists have gotten the new meme firmly ensconced in the pathetically incapable minds of the masses. What's a "meme" you ask? It can best be described as a nervous tic, as that damn advertising slogan you can't get out of your mind, as an endlessly repeated lie that therefore becomes the truth.
"Things go better with Coke."
"They hate us because of our freedom."
"Just Do It!"
"Let's Roll!"
"I love you, buddy"
"Support the Troops"
"We'll Make More"
"WMDs"
The first cliche of each pair is a common and well repeated advertising slogan for a U.S. multinational corporation. The second is the corporate propagandist's slogan for the fascist system of mind control. The method is the same. Create an appeal to emotion. K.I.S.S., and do not let the public ever start to think.
***
Re: So, the media are slaves to their market segments in the public arena
Balderdash. Chomsky has it right. The media has been consolidated. Today, NBC is owned by GE and CBS is controlled by Westinghouse interests. So, we have two of the largest TV networks controlled by military contractors. What are these ashholes going to sell? WAR! Which is exactly what NBC and CBS, along with all the other media whores, sold the American public on after 9/11. There is absolutely every reason to believe that if the American media had suggested that America should deal with terrorism as European have done for decades, the American public would have gone along. But that was not the plan that the White House had. They lusted for war. And they had the military contractors like GE and Westinghouse as allies in their lust for war. Therefore, it was a foregone conclusion that the fully owned and controlled corporate media whores on the networks would be working assiduously to sell WAR!(TM) from the moment that the World Trade Center towers collapsed until today and into the future. It's just so good for business, my man!
For you to even begin to think that the public has the least bit of input into this circle-jerk of militarist lust is nuts. The public can be misled for a very long time, and we're going to WAR!(TM) with Iran next. It is fated. It is in the batter. It cannot be prevented. There's simply too god-damned much profit in it for the Masters of the Universe to not do it. And the Masters don't really give a damn what the public thinks, since the Masters know that they are totally in control of the echo chamber. The public has no place at that table except to take the crumbs and regurgitate them. |
