Media Control
Section 1: Early history of propaganda
·
“…Turning a pacifist population into a
hysterical, war-mongering population which wanted to destroy everything German,
tear the Germans limb for limb…” (11/12)
·
“more intelligent members of the community” (12)
·
“State propaganda, when supported by the
educated classes and when no deviation is permitted from it, can have a big
effect.” (13)
Section 2: Spectator democracy
·
“the common interests elude public opinion
entirely… and only be managed by a specialized class of responsible man” (15)
·
“…the big majority of the population, they are
what Lippmann called “the bewildered herd””(16)
·
“Those of us who have rationality have to create
“necessary illusions” and emotionally potent “oversimplifications” to keep the
naïve simpletons more or less on course.” (20)
Section 3: Public Relations
·
“That raised two serious problems. For one,
democracy was malfunctioning.” (23)
·
“Do you support our policy? But you don’t want
people to think about that issue. That’s the whole point of good propaganda.”
(26)
·
“The media are a corporate monopoly.” (29)
Section 4: Engineering Opinion
·
“But it is effective in changing opinion,
contrary to what a lot of people believe.” (33)
·
“By the prevailing conception that’s a problem,
a crisis that has to be overcome. The population ahs to be driven back to the
apathy, obedience and passivity that is their proper state.” (33)
·
“If you want to have a violent society that uses
dorce around the world to achieve the ends of its own domestic elite, it’s
necessary to have a proper appreciation of the martial virtues and none of
theses sickly inhibitions about using violence.” (34)
Section 5: Representation As Reality
·
“It’s also necessary to completely falsify
history. That’s another way to overcome these sickly inhibitions…” (35)
·
“When you have total control over the media and
the educational system and scholarships is conformist, you can get that across.”
(36)
·
“It is necessary to overcome the sickly
inhibitions against the use of military force and other democratic deviations.”
(37)
Section 6: Dissident Culture
·
“Skepticism about power has grown, and attitudes
have changed on many, many issues, It’s kind of slow, maybe even glacial, but
perceptible and important.” (39/40)
·
“Everybody thought that the use of violence to
suppress people out there was just right.” (40)
·
“Organization has it’s effects. It means that
you are not alone.”(40)
Section 7: Parade of Enemies
·
“useful to prepare instead of just reacting.”
(42)
·
“But they’re losing their attractiveness as an
enemy, and it’s getting harder and harder to use that one, so some new ones
have to be conjured up.”(43)
·
“There’s always an ideological offensive that
builds up a chimerical monster, then campaigns to have it crushed.”(45)
Section 8: Selective Perception
·
“This in an unusually explicit and comprehensive
testimony, probably unique in its detail about what’s going on in a torture
chamber.” (48)
·
“Very little information about that ever
appeared. The media never asked whether exposure of the atrocities…”(49)
·
Talking about bombing in Lebanon. ”All, fine the
United States backed it. That’s one case. Yu didn’t see anything in the media
about it or any discussion about whether Israel and the Unites States should
observe the UNSC..”(51)
Section 9: The Gulf War
·
“We continued with “quite diplomacy” and ended
up with ample reward for the aggressors.” (57)
·
“Was there a way out? … These questions were not
discussed, and it’s crucial for a well-functioning propaganda system that they
not be discussed.” (60)
·
“It was drilled into people’s heads over and
over again: He’s about to take everything.”(63)
·
‘It’s whether we want to live in a free society
or whether we want to live under what amount to a form of self-imposed
totalitarianism, with the bewildered herd marginalized, directed elsewhere,
terrified, screaming patriotic slogans...”(65)
War on Terror
·
“it requires too much detailed analysis.”(69)
·
“…Guidelines: principles of fairness, accuracy,
relevance, and so on…”(70)
·
“in order to rise to the absolutely minimal
moral level we have to agree, in fact insist, that if some act is right for us
then it’s right for others, and if it’s wrong when others do it then it’s wrong
when we do it.”(77)
·
“namely, that we and our allies are the main
victims of terrorism, that terrorism is a weapon of the weak.”(81)
·
“…credibility. Another term for it is declaring
that we’re a terrorist state and you’d better be aware of the consequences of
you get in our way.” (84)
·
“we accept moral truisms. If we rise to that
level, we can then, and only then, honestly raise the question of how to
respond to terrorism crimes.”(98)
·
“leaves us with a dilemma… either conventional
hypocrisy…other option…that we profess with grand self-righteousness.” (100)