In a comment on my recent diary about the deleterious effects of TV and the corporate media in general on our culture (More Money, Less Happiness. TV. Thanksgiving. And NEWSTRIKE!!!), BT contributor vida wrote “On the radio front I have to put in a good word for Pacifica-listen to it online and it’s got some great shows.”
And I answered.
Read on:
Pacifica does have some great shows. But here’s the kicker.
However much Pacifica is funded by establishment money…grants, “charitable trusts”, etc…to that degree it cannot be trusted.
There are forces at work here the single purpose of which is to co-opt the left. Believe it. They realize that ALL organizations operate on a vector principle. Apply force (In the form of money, in the form of moles) to the course of an organization…be it Pacifica, the Democratic Party, the NY Times, Newsweak, dKos, NPR, Public TV, Pacifica or any OTHER real (or even potential) opposition group…and the path of that organization is altered to the exact same percentage as that force is applied. Alter it enough, and BINGO!!! It becomes useless, a way to divert the energies of the left into a harmless little corner of the information/power nexus.
A little info-ghetto all our own.
THIS is how the American corporate movement has triumphed. (Call it fascist if you wish…the alliance of big government and big money…although it has surpassed the primitive efforts of narcissistic, sociopathic madmen like Adolf Hitler and Mussolini a thousandfold.) The people who are running this operation quite clearly realize that it is a better tactic to co-opt, to deceive, to assimilate rather than to ban. No messy gas chambers or political murders for THEM. As few as possible, anyway, and NEVER for attribution. No black or brown shirts marching through the streets. Just grey flannel suits, doing their business.
Just going on about their business.
“It’s just business. Nothing personal. YOU understand. Bada BING!!!” And ka-ching as well.
Jews bothering you?
Don’t exterminate. Assimilate. Two generations, three…no more “Jews”.
Just middle class Americans with Jewish names.
Or ex-Jewish names.
Left wing thinkers getting troublesome?
Buy them off. Infiltrate. Support and champion the moderate ones. The GOOD lefties. You know…the ones who complain but do not advocate any sort of real action or change. Put up straw men like Alan Colmes to be steamrollered by the Hannitys on a daily basis in plain sight of the sleeping public. The Harlem Globetrotters/Washington Generals approach. (What a GREAT name for a perennial, the-fix-is-in loser, by the way. Part of the BIG show. Always an opponent, never a winner. As if a bunch of guys from Harlem could whip the Generals from DC. Riiiight. Abe Saperstein, purveyor of dreams. One of thousands. Millions. Part of the BIG show.)
Yup.
The BIG show.
Vector politics.
Info Age style.
Very little real blood shed on the domestic front.
Too messy. Not NEARLY as effective.
Got a group that cannot/will not be assimilated? Too dark? Too different? Too aware of the real deal? Too much negative history for many of them to be able to ignore, to forget? Drop a bomb on their culture. A drug bomb. A crack bomb. A no-education bomb. A reservation/ghetto bomb. Assassinate the most dangerous ones; imprison the ones who are driven mad by the situation, and use what’s left over as low level labor.
Got a web-based, grassroots based movement that shows promise of actually DOING something? Marshal the BIG media guns (The BIG Show) and “YEEEARGH!!!” its leader right out of the water. Then support and control the so-called left-wing websites…the major ones…by any means necessary. Buy ’em out with sexist ads for brainless media shows. “Its ALRIGHT to be empty, foolish and totally lacking in content!!! We SUPPORT the dumbing down of America!!! It’s FUN!!!” Infiltrate them with moles. Appeal to the egos of their leaders and mainstream them. “Why…I’m on TV!!! I MUST be right!!! And now I can buy a new CAR, too!!!” Assimilate, assimilate, assimilate.
And it works.
And here’s little Pacifia, valiantly flapping its gums into the overwhelmingly right wing wind. Pacifically. In a pacifist manner. They’re no danger. Let them go on about their useless business. Keeps the opposition occupied and nullified. If they DO start to get effective, then take them down the same way.
That’s how it works, vida.
That’s how it works.
So, yes. Pacifica has got some great shows.
For all the good THAT does.
All Pacifica does is preach to the choir.
“Keeps them damned intellecshuls busy. Outta mah HAIR!!!”
Get in your car. Drive along any major highway in America. Stop in any fast food place. Ask people if they know what “Pacifica” is. If you are not within about 10 miles of a college town…fuggedaboudit. Even in the so-called “blue” states.
Fuggedaboudit.
And THAT is what I was talking about in this post.
Sure, there are “great shows” on. This whole THING is just one great big great show. Like the few frumpy nuns and dandruff-ridden academics that the networks trotted out to oppose the thousands of slick -talking pundit heads (Not a HAIR out of place, let alone dandruff…) during the runup to the Iraq War.
It’s ALL a “great show”.
Like pro wrestling is a “great show”.
The fix is IN, and it will remain in as long as the opposition thinks that a few “great shows” are going to do much beyond distract us with dreams of better times.
It is the BIG show that is in power.
The BIG show.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Eat up.
You’re gonna need it.
“Look, Ma!!! The Big Show is on!!!”
ZZZZzzzzzz….
AG
