Mass Media/Mind Control

This is taken without permission from the excellent website Vigilant Citizen.

Go here for the full article:

The Vigilant Citizen

"Mass media are media forms designed to reach the largest audience possible. They include television, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, books, records, video games and the internet. Many studies have been conducted in the past century to measure the effects of mass media on the population in order to discover the best techniques to influence it. From those studies emerged the science of Communications, which is used in marketing, public relations and politics. Mass communication is a necessary tool the insure the functionality of a large democracy; it is also a necessary tool for a dictatorship. It all depends on its usage."

"Walter Lippmann, an American intellectual, writer and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner brought forth one of the first works concerning the usage of mass media in America. In Public Opinion (1922), Lippmann compared the masses to a “great beast” and a “bewildered herd” that needed to be guided by a governing class. He described the ruling elite as “a specialized class whose interests reach beyond the locality.” This class is composed of experts, specialists and bureaucrats. According to Lippmann, the experts, who often are referred to as “elites,” are to be a machinery of knowledge that circumvents the primary defect of democracy, the impossible ideal of the “omnicompetent citizen.” The trampling and roaring “bewildered herd” has its function: to be “the interested spectators of action,” i.e. not participants. Participation is the duty of “the responsible man”, which is not the regular citizen.

Mass media and propaganda are therefore tools that must be used by the elite to rule the public without physical coercion. One important concept presented by Lippmann is the “manufacture of consent”, which is, in short, the manipulation of public opinion to accept the elite’s agenda. It is Lippmann’s opinion that the general public is not qualified to reason and to decide on important issues. It is therefore important for the elite to decide ”for its own good” and then sell those decisions to the masses."

Thus, Noam Chomsky's famous Manufacturing Consent, book and movie.

"Edward Bernays is considered to be the “father of public relations” and used concepts discovered by his uncle Sigmund Freud to manipulate the public using the subconscious. He shared Walter Lippmann’s view of the general population by considering it irrational and subject to the “herd instinct”. In his opinion, the masses need to be manipulated by an invisible government to insure the survival of democracy."

Bernays "basically created “consumerism” by creating a culture wherein Americans bought for pleasure instead of buying for survival." Hitler was infamously inspired by Bernays' book Propaganda. Perhaps one can see why:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.

We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.

Our invisible governors are, in many cases, unaware of the identity of their fellow members in the inner cabinet.”
- Edward Bernays, Propaganda

"The number of corporations owning the majority of U.S. media outlets went from 50 to 5 in less than 20 years. Here are the top corporations evolving around the world and the assets they own.

AOL Time Warner owns:

* 64 magazines, including Time, Life, People, MAD Magazine and DC Comics
* Warner Bros, New Line and Fine Line Features in cinema
* More than 40 music labels including Warner Bros, Atlantic and Elektra
* Many television networks such as WB Networks, HBO, Cinemax, TNT, Cartoon Network and CNN
* Madonna, Sean Paul, The White Stripes

Viacom owns:

* CBS, MTV, MTV2, UPN, VH1, Showtime, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, TNN, CMT and BET
* Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films
* Blockbuster Videos
* 1800 screens in theaters through Famous Players


The Walt Disney Company owns:

* ABC, Disney Channel, ESPN, A&E, History Channel
* Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Film Corp., Dimension and Buena Vista International
* Miley Cyrus/ Hannah Montana, Selena Gomez, Jonas Brothers

Vivendi Universal owns:

* 27% of US music sales, labels include: Interscope, Geffen, A&M, Island, Def Jam, MCA, Mercury, Motown and Universal
* Universal Studios, Studio Canal, Polygram Films, Canal +
* Numerous internet and cell phone companies
* Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas, Lil Wayne, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Jay-Z


Sony owns:

* Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics
* 15% of US Music sales, labels include Columbia, Epic, Sony, Arista, Jive and RCA Records
* Beyonce, Shakira, Michael Jackson, Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera

A limited number of actors in the cultural industry means a limited amount of viewpoints and ideas making their way to the general public. It also means that a single message can easily saturate all forms of media to generate consent."

The book Media Monopoly by Ben H. Bagdikian traces the consolidation of the mass media very thoroughly and provides the historical backdrops and maneuvers, such as the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as to the who, what, how, why and when of it all.

Modern Psychology and modern Propaganda evolved together, and lacking this historical awareness, most people simply accept TV, movies, "news" and the like, without proper skepticism and without proper context. This does indeed create a "Manufactured Consent" amongst the populace. Worse, this quiet acceptance gives permission to those who would rather us mindless and controlled; to war, destroy, and manipulate nearly every human being alive, for their personal gain, profit and convenience.

Two things must result from this knowledge:

1. Spread it far and wide. Discuss it. Teach it. Stay calm and simply raise awareness, yours included.

And 2. To transform centralized and controlling power to individual and community power.

2.a: Personally, one must meditate, learn to know your own mind state. Become a scientist of your own internal landscape and end the war inside. Then you will be of use. Clear-headed and available to simply assume control over this life, for yourself and others near you.

2.b: Community, permaculture. Grow ones own supply lines. Including food, timber, medicines, jobs, economies, and culture. An infinitely richer experience awaits us all. A vast expanse of peace and harmony is vibrating just beyond our perception. Collectively, we can achieve true bliss. We must accept nothing less, and work to make it so.