resist the propaganda and loyalty oaths, like Liberal Street Fighter
Many have worried over the years about some overt regime of information control. Hollywood visions of screens pumping out propaganda and newspeak. Nightmares of jackboots and overt government censorship. A powerful piece by Mike Whitney points out that they’ve done it much more quietly:
This may seem like a minor point, but in fact the conduct of the Bush administration cannot be seriously evaluated without understanding that deceit is the cornerstone of their class-based world view.
Evidence of this is everywhere, right down to the language that is painstakingly minted in right-wing think tanks to conceal the real meaning of administration policy. “The war on terror”, preemption”, and “enemy combatant” are just three expressions that are intentionally designed to mislead the public. The real purpose of this language is to elicit support for unpopular policies that serve the exclusive interests of elites.
They are the perfect reflection of the ruling class in this country, and they learned these tricks in the corporate world. Many of us spend our days awash in lies and carefully chosen language defined to produce … well … production. In the Bush Administration language is used to produce consent, support and power.
The line between private and public is being erased, but only in favor of one class of the public; the corporate class and the extremely wealthy who benefit most from Wall Street. The government has been taken down by a hostile takeover and the pieces are being sold off to the highest bidders, with the media, the one private endeavor enshrined in the US Constitution, hired as Gov’t Inc’s PR firm:
The “privately” owned media is only capable of producing a narrative that is compatible with the goals of ownership. Curtailing civil liberties (Patriot Act, National ID etc) and waging war are never in the public interest; they only serve the narrow objectives of the few who stand to gain from them directly. It is critical that the propaganda-system be progressively exposed so the public can see its destructiveness and work to create a different model.
The Democratic Party for quite some time has been on the corporate payroll as well. There are some genuine representatives in the party, but they are marginalized and sold out regularly by their supposed allies. Many hope that a growing sense of discontent amongst the populace will lead to change in Washington, but we can all bet that the corporate class, and their minions in the parties, will do everything they can to head attempts to organize:
Bush’s top lieutenants are entirely committed to creating their own storyline and calling it news. They are not restrained by the facts that emerge from the”reality-based” community. They are equally zealous about seeking out conflicting points-of-view and silencing them through their attack-dogs in right-wing radio. We should assume that they will do whatever it takes to eliminate the voices that compete with the one message they want to convey.
This means that the internet, which is perhaps the last outpost of democracy in America today, is undoubtedly part of the broader government strategy for controlling information. The internet is seen as “command and control” for the disparate leftist and liberal groups that foment resistance against the political establishment. There should be back-up plans to protect this vital resource. The Bush administration has already demonstrated its penchant for toppling regimes through “decapitation” or removal of the leadership. As the nexus for leftist organization, the internet is a logical target for this type of government disruption. Any attack on the system would be catastrophic for the antiwar and anti-imperial movements as well as a serious body-blow to personal freedom.
Mr. Whitney seems to be warning that the internet will be brought down, sites blocked, but as the success of the current regime has shown, there are other ways to remove leadership that might help focus resistance. Buy it off. As many supposedly liberal and leftist bigger blogs turn their backs on women’s health advocates (single issue voters) and antiwar activists (hippies) one has to wonder if the fundraising done through the blogs, overt advocacy for party structures and access to party leaders through conference calls isn’t corroding their independence.
It’s important that we on the left, those who resist the continued corrosion of our personal autonomy and freedoms, do everything we can to keep communicating, keep advocating, keep resisting. As Mr. Whitney concludes:
Both free speech and its antecedent the truth are much greater threats to the state than any bomb-wielding revolutionary. In the new world order only the managers are entitled to the truth, not the managed. That way, the public can be moved sheep-like in the direction of government policy. This means that hard news on any topic is the implicit enemy of the political establishment. It is only by providing a constant stream of diversions and fear engendering alarms that the public can be kept in a persistent fog and deprived of the right to choose. Information is freedom; and that freedom is destined to become the province of the ruling class alone if the public fails to organize resistance.
The administration is “privatizing” information in the same way they have privatized all of the other tangible forms of wealth. The rest of us are left with the lies and distortions that course through the government’s ideological-filter. This isn’t a battle that can be won without a struggle. We believe that the truth is the birthright of every human being who will pursue it with an open heart and an inquiring mind. And, we will fight to preserve that right.
INGSOC Soldier via EXPLORING DYSTOPIA
Marchers at sunrise from RiniArt dot org a library of the art of Rini Templeton
