Because You Never Asked

 

(12/07)

     Before getting to the pulp of this oncoming rant, the writer would like to reiterate, for those who may have not matriculated in the less advanced courses offered in this subject (see essays “Introduction to Propaganda, 101”, “Propaganda, 201”, the “Escape From America” series, and many others), the transcendental importance he gives to this concept ---

     “propaganda”.

     Propaganda is usually associated with government-media spin and finagling with regard to politics and governance in general. It would be a great error to limit its scope within such constricted borders, for it casts its net far beyond any delimiting horizon until it reaches just about every nook and wrinkle of what we conceive ourselves as. All forms of cultural indoctrination are constructed over a foundation of unobjective “truths”, half truths, twisted truths, perverted truths, inherited concepts and ideas of what one should be, aspire to, and deem as “happiness”, “success”, or “failure”. Almost nothing we become is arrived to with a clear mind operating with unhindered volition and free will.

     One might suggest that the hundreds of millions of people living in the neo-liberal, global capitalism of the 21^st century’s developed world, have had their minds played with more than any group in the history of mankind. The incessant drumbeat of commercial propaganda has created a concept of what we need and want in order to be fulfilled that has evolved into an addiction. This addiction will either leave us stupefied and defeated with a dirty needle stuck in a swollen vein in some filthy alley overflowing unattended garbage cans, or be broken in time to regain our health and sanity. The jury is still out.

     Down through the centuries, there has not been one act of human barbarism --- the wars, the torture, the exploitation, the slaves, the genocides, the terrorism, the destruction, even the degradation of eco-systems --- that has not received the life giving oxygen of a propaganda mechanism.

     Whatever we did, it’s OK.

     But it is still the more traditional “political-governance” kind of propaganda that is the lynch pin for the grenade. It starts there. Today’s “global economy” is brokered and marketed by a “Military-Industrial-Media” complex (see essay “September 11^th”) whose propaganda machine --- like a new offense in American football that nobody has figured out yet --- is too sophisticated to stop. Some of their best forms of “misinformation” have less to do with what they say, and more to do with what they don’t say.

     This essay was inspired by a radio conversation I heard about energy and where we go from here. It eventually caught my attention for what it omitted to discuss. With this in mind, let’s review some of the great acts of propaganda omission previously discussed in these pages.

     Over the course of the W. Bush administration, the undertaking that has required the heaviest concentration of propaganda has been the war in Iraq. This is not surprising, for the justification of such a patently unjustified act would logically require a monumental tampering with reality. And yet, for those of us who still look to the future with some trace of hope, the ease with which it was imposed is both disheartening and depressing. The 2^nd Bush Oil War has confirmed the following in an almost mathematical way: if you control the important tools of communications technology, you can convince just about anyone that Shaquille O’Neal is a midget. The “spin” does not even have to be all that sophisticated, as long as you can disseminate it effectively, and the “Military-Industrial-Media” complex has a stranglehold on the technology. (Some people might argue the Internet changes that. Maybe. I’d like for that to be true, but I’m not holding my breath. Remember, the Internet is “their” business undertaking too.)    

     Some of the most important propaganda used to sell the Iraq war, as I’ve mentioned before in this ever growing mass of dubious philosophical patter, were acts of omission.

     The “o” word.

     America’s Big Media mainstream sources of “information” have religiously steered clear of any serious discussion of the oil factor as a catalyst for this tragic debacle. Considering the fact that it is the reason for all this, it has been given a microscopic amount of media examination. This war could not have been sold as a procurement of cheap fuel. It was necessary to make Shaquille O’Neal into a midget through such ridiculous rationalizations as weapons of mass destruction, democracy, liberation, an evil Saddam, terrorism, etc., than to go anywhere near the “o” word. Even now, after 5 years of abject failure, Big Media’s news and information sources will use the “o” word, in connection with Iraq, not much more than it uses the word “fuck”.

     The other great propaganda omission of the 2^nd Bush Oil War is the refusal of Big Media to talk about the morality of the invasion. I quote from the essay “Propaganda, 201”: “No foreign policy can be a good one without some moral basis. Americans have to understand that this was not just a mistake in policy, it was a wicked act! If we cannot arrive to this conclusion, then the mistakes of history are doomed to be repeated”.

     All imperial powers inculcate the molten mass of their populace into the goodness of their cause --- and let’s be frank here, for any aggressive imperial power, this is the most traditional form of propaganda, the thick trunk from which the rest of the family tree’s indoctrinal branches grow from. It could be argued that the United States of America has the most extreme case of this disease the world has ever known (freedom, liberty, democracy, blah, blah). After almost 6 years of the horrifying spectacle in Iraq, America’s geo-political gambit there has come under harsh criticism at home. But Big Media has never criticized it as an immoral act whose apocalyptic death and destruction cannot be justified by the situation in the world at the time of its undertaking.

     In the year 2002, the country of Iraq and its people could not be considered friends of the United States. If there had been no “o” there, they could have gone on not liking us in peace and anonymity. I liken the situation to this: a man goes into a convenience store, buys a bottle of Coke, opens it, finds the cap has been tampered with and the soda is flat. He storms back into the store and pistol whips the clerk, leaving him lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood.

     Considering whatever “grievances” the U.S. might have had with Iraq, it has acted in a similar fashion --- and Wolf Blitzer and the boys and girls of Big Media will not go there.

     As mentioned above, a discussion I heard on the radio about the world’s energy supplies engendered this essay. Three experts and a well prepared moderator kicked it around for a whole hour. This was a full 9 innings of minutiae --- what we have left, how much longer can we do this or that, what could be viable for the future, “peak oil”, are we closer or further than we think from the brink, coal, wind, nukes, ocean, sun, cow farts and corn stalks --- comprehensive and scholarly.

     This is not the first time I’ve heard or read similar conversations and they all fit neatly into the subject of propaganda “omissions” now under discussion. About 35 to 40 minutes into the alluded radio program, it became evident that any consciousness of life style change was not going to be part of the subject matter. There was discussion of trying to be more efficient and frugal with our use of energy, but nothing remotely challenging a way of life firmly rooted in excessive consumption, a way of life that defines our “happiness” and well being in an almost purely material way. These panelists were trying to find an energy “solution” that could accommodate current and even increasing levels of consumption. They were trying to find an energy “solution” the world’s current economic scheme could continue to function with.

     In other words, they were trying to save the world for consumerism.

     If you are not one of the roughly 6 billion people who are unfamiliar with these essays, you probably know by now that Post Consumer Man would rue such a “solution”. Even if they could provide the food necessary to feed the Faroukian obesity of the neo-liberal, consumer economy, the emotional adolescence --- with all the mistakes and foolishness such adolescence leads to --- inherent in the behavior of those participating in such a concept of life, would not be a positive goal for him. But the provision of such an energy source, one that could continue to fuel the obscene appetite of the socio-economic system now in play, can only be seen as a remote possibility. It would not surprise this writer if the nuclear option --- with all the inherent risks and subsequent problems, both seen and unforeseen, it could so dangerously lead to --- will be the next needle we stick in our veins in a desperate effort to placate this consumptive addiction.