Manipulating the Public Mind

[Guest guest]

Manipulating the Public Mind

 

By Charles Sullivan

 

No one is more effectively enslaved by the power brokers in government

than those who wear the chains of servitude but think they are free.

Unfortunately, the average American has no conception of how

effectively their perceptions are shaped and manipulated by the media

propaganda they unwittingly feed into their unsuspecting minds

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10448.htm

 

 

Manipulating the Public Mind

 

By Charles Sullivan

 

09/29/05 " ICH " -- -- A sea of humanity descended upon the nation’s

capital yesterday to voice its opposition to the invasion and

occupation of Iraq. My wife and I, along with a sizable contingent

from West Virginia, were among the teeming throngs that flowed through

the streets of the District of Columbia like a raging river in the

aftermath of a storm. The rally was about more than the shameful

events orchestrated by our government in the Middle East, it was

equally about U.S. imperialism on a global scale. It was also about

the Bush regime’s appalling lack of concern for the Gulf Coast’s

poor†" particularly the inhabitants of New Orleans. It was about the

complicity of Congress in the criminality of what passes for

government in America these days. Demonstrations and acts of civil

disobedience will continue throughout the weekend.

 

The turnout was immense. Trying to estimate its size from within was

like standing in the midst of a forest and trying to gage its extent.

You have to wade through the crowd and take contingency samples; or

get above it to gain an appreciation of its size and scale. I spoke to

a friend on a cell phone while marching by the White House who was

watching coverage of the event on C-span. He informed me that C-span

estimated the size of the crowd at between two hundred thousand to a

quarter million. When I got home I looked at coverage of the event on

NBC and CBS which estimated the turnout as about half that of C-span.

 

The major television networks will determine how most Americans view

of the event will be shaped. This is what interested me--how coverage

of the event would be presented to the world. The manipulation of

images and information is frequently subtle but its effect on the

public mind is often profound.

 

None of the networks even carried excerpts from the many excellent

speeches being given by the likes of Cynthia McKinney, Cindy Sheehan,

Jesse Jackson, Ralph Nader and other social justice luminaries. Those

speeches†" an important component of the rally†" laid bare the callous

disregard the nation’s power brokers have for life and habitat,

especially the poor; and particularly the black poor. By choosing to

omit them the corporate media once again failed to provide viewers

with the information they need to make them free. They carefully

steered the public mind away from any harsh criticism of the Bush

regime and its corporate looters.

 

The major networks have consistently underestimated the size of anti

war protests. This has been the case with every march on Washington

that I have participated in. By deliberately under estimating its size

the media gives the impression that opposition to U.S. militarism and

America’s war on the poor and the working class is significantly

smaller than they really are.

 

CBS chose to highlight the three arrests that occurred at the anti war

rally on Saturday, rather than the non violent protesters. The

decision is disingenuous in that it plants the seeds of thought in the

public mind that peaceful demonstrators are purveyors of violence.

This is in fact rarely the case. When violence erupts in otherwise

peaceful demonstrations it is virtually always the police and FBI

plants in the crowd that causes the violence. Remember cointellpro? It

remains with us today.

 

Although I heard that there would be small pro Bush, pro war, counter

demonstrations occurring simultaneously against the tide of the main

event, I did not see any of them. However, CBS chose to play up these

tiny, insignificant counter demonstrations by interviewing Bush

supporters but not the Bush detractors. This is especially troubling

because it gives the impression that the counter demonstration, which

was virtually invisible to those of us in the streets, was much larger

than it really was. By deliberately under reporting the anti war

turnout and playing up the pro war side, reality was once again

distorted into unrecognizable, fantastic, miasmic forms in the public

mind.

 

The vast majority of American citizens have their world view shaped by

the corporate news media. Can there by any doubt why the public mind

is so distorted†" so disconnected from reality?

 

More totalitarian nations control the masses through the use of brute

force. We are seeing more and more of that in the cities of America,

as witnessed in the streets of New Orleans recently. However, in

comparatively free societies propaganda is the weapon of choice; and

it is no less intimidating and effective than brute force.

 

No one is more effectively enslaved by the power brokers in government

than those who wear the chains of servitude but think they are free.

Unfortunately, the average American has no conception of how

effectively their perceptions are shaped and manipulated by the media

propaganda they unwittingly feed into their unsuspecting minds.

 

Indeed, so superb are the propagandists who control the flow of

information in America that the average American enthusiastically

supports polices that are detrimental to him. Thus we witness families

that espouse political and fiscal conservatism supporting huge tax

cuts for the wealthy, rampant corporate welfare, and the writing of

blank checks for endless war waged against the world’s working

poor†" and they are themselves the cannon fodder for those wars. We

are witnessing a bizarre psychic phenomenon that is the physical and

spiritual equivalent of mass hypnosis. We seem almost incapable of

waking ourselves up; or looking away from the shining pendant that

swings before our glazed, vacuous eyes. Better not drink the kool aid.

 

Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer, and free lance

writer living in geopolitical West Virginia. He welcomes your comments

at earthdog. Only the civil need respond.