Mainstream Media… AKA, the Elite Propaganda Machine
Today, my lunchtime reading included some articles about technical flaws with the new iPhone (and the apologist media like Engadget who dismiss them out of excessive fanboyism… and healthy product placement deals or outright payola) as well as some finaincial news.
I came across an article which confirms (as if it needed any more confirmation) that when it comes to mainstream media (free media, commercial media, or whatever you want to call it), their function is not to provide individuals with information but, instead, simply exist so that powerful interests in society can push propaganda and disinformation on the public. Here is the article and the title pretty well sums it up:
Mike Shedlock, “Inane Thoughts of the Day: CNNMoney Article says ‘Housing Shortage is Coming’; Coldwell Banker CEO says Now is the ‘Absolute Best Time’ to Buy a Home,” June 25, 2010. http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/06/inane-thoughts-of-day-cnnmoney-article.html.
The author, Mike Shedlock (or ‘Mish’) does a very good job of picking apart such outright propaganda but I wonder just how many poor saps are sitting in front of CNN and hear this and think they are somehow getting the ‘inside dope.’ (For me, one of the truly confounding effects of mass media is that some people evidently think that the mass mediated messages they hear on, say, radio or television are in some way insider information.)
This process of mass communication is nothing new but surely does explain why we find ourselves in the global mess that we do financially. For the past decade, the mainstream media have been letting loose a constant stream of financial koolaid, filling people’s minds with huge expectations and the belief that money somehow grows on trees (or on the magical equity in houses*). And the questionable reliablility of the mainstream media is something that we should pay moer attention to. If you look at your local news, it is probably filled with people who went to journalism school, are decent human beings, but are probably overworked and oiverly worried about the everyday worries that come with employment (career, office politics, etc.). If they say something like “And this could just be another sign that the global recession is a thing of the past…,” what should we make of it? More often than not, this is not a statement that comes from any empirical analysis or a wealth of knwoeldge or experience. Instead, it is likely one part cliche (repeating what they hear around them, sometimes coming from the ‘experts’ they interview) and another part fear (they don’t want to rock the boat-full of advertisers and elites who depend upon the status quo). Now, if you look at national news, things might be a little different but probably only in that the amount of influence that powerful interests and elites play is that much more prominent. Most newscasters, especially on the mainstream news, are there because they are good looking and because they are willing to play within the rules of the system in order to achieve that position. (Note that this does not mean they are lacking skills as journalists or newscasters.) This explains why those people (and there were many) who warned of bubbles and fraud in the housing/mortgage/finance markets were mocked and belittled by the many journalists/pundits/experts who are attached to mainstream news.
Like so many things in life, if it sounds to good to be true, it probably isn’t. With the media, if it is free, there is a good chance that it is simply to good to be true.
*This reminds me of a commercial from a few years back which depicts two small children, one of whom is on his hands and knees, with a flashlight or magnifying glass in his hands, inspecting the floor. The other kid asks him what he is doing. To which the first child replies: “Wooking for ekwidee… Dad says da howse is full of ekwidee and dat makes us vewee wich.” I have to find that commerical as it pretty well sums up the naivety of the last decade (… or half century for that matter).
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Great phrase: The ‘Wall Street-Treasury Complex’
This week, I went back and re-read a couple of chapters from Chalmers Johnson’s book Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire. (It’s a great book.) He referenced an essay that I decided to locate and found a great phrase. The essay is entitled “The Capital Myth: The Difference between Trade in Widgets and Dollars” and was written by Jagdish Bhagwati (Foreign Affairs, May – June 1998). Bhagwati is supportive of free trade but criticises those that also argue that capital should also be treated in a similar fashion. In fact, Bhagwati makes the compelling case that the financial crises witness in the 1990s resulted, in part, from the unencumbered flows of financial capital, especially in terms of loans/debt (sound familiar?).
He says that the argument that free-flowing financial capital has no negative effects is a myth perpetuated by “the Wall Street-Treasury Complex.” What an apt phrase… and one that should become much more familiar to all of us.
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2010: The year we realized that the modern economy is nothing but a giant Ponzi Scheme
I really need to start posting more uplifting items… but, as usual, I spent my lunch hour reading some of the news and financial sites I frequent and finally had confirmed what I have been suspecting for some time: that the modern economy is nothing more than a giant ponzi scheme. Of course, I am not the first one to come to this realization but even today I am really surprised at the level of negativity by those who would appear to know what is what when it comes to fianances and economics (and, of course, who are willing to discuss it).
It might be that modern economies are nothing more than the creation of a financial elite or cartel (and the politicians who empower them) which would include the U.S. Federal Reserve but it goes well beyond the U.S. and the 20th Century. I suspect that the true underlying cause was petro-wealth (cheap, petroleum-based energy) which was plentiful for most of the 20th Century. The bounty allowed developed nations like the U.S., Japan, Britain, Canada… to build a modern, growth-based economy where much of what was promised to citizens would actually be realized in the future. Promises and expectations blossomed.
Today, we are entering an era that will be characterized by expensive, hard-to-access and hard-to-refine energy. However, the promises and expectations are absolutely dependent upon vast quantities of cheap (20th Century) energy. And so, quite simply, something has to give. Unfortunately, it will most likely be our modern, consumption-based, cheap-energy-dependent, and put-off-until-the future economies.
And what will this mean? In some ways, I am sure it will affect your average citizen and his or her current lifestyle. But here is where I am less doom-and-gloom. While it will no doubt affect you and me (assuming you and I are both ‘average’ citizens of a developed country), I am sure it is going to affect the elites much more than anyone else. It will also affect governments (who are or who represent the elites) who tax away wealth and squander it (think of all the wars fought over the course of the 20th Century) or hand it over to those same elites (think of all the financial bubbles, printing of money, and corporate welfare/bailouts). For them, the Ponzi Scheme will no doubt end soon… and let’s hope it is a rather gradual and peaceful transition.
At any rate, these are some of the lunch-hour (or so) readings that influenced this post:
What Does Japan’s Implosion Mean For the Rest of Us? by John Rubino on January 26, 2010
Bernanke’s Doom Loop by Gary North
Banking on the State, Piergiorgio Alessandri & Andrew G Haldane, Bank of England, November 2009
On the end of the era of cheap energy, see:
Aleklett, Kjell, Mikael Hook, Kristofer Jakobsson, Michael Lardelli, Simon Snowdon, Bengt Soderbergh. “The Peak of the Oil Age: Analyzing the World Oil Production Reference Scenario in World Energy Outlook 2008.” Energy Policy, vol. 38, no. 3 (March, 2010): 1398-1414. http://www.tsl.uu.se/uhdsg/Publications/PeakOilAge.pdf
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A culture on the brink
Chris Hedges, one of my favorite journalists/writers, has written an article summarizing some of the ideas from his latest book about the ‘unreality’ of modern culture. There are many interesting sections, but here is a good excerpt:
The childish idea that we can always prevail, that reality is never an impediment to what we want, is the central motif of illusion peddled on popular talk shows, by the Christian Right, by Hollywood, in corporate retreats, by the news industry and by self-help gurus. Reality can always be overcome. The future will always be glorious. And held out to keep us amused and entertained are spectacles and celebrities who have become idealized versions of ourselves and who, we are assured, we can all one day become.
The cultural embrace of illusion, and the celebrity culture that has risen up around it, have accompanied the awful hollowing out of the state. We have shifted from a culture of production to a culture of consumption. We have been sold a system of casino capitalism, with its complicated and unregulated deals of turning debt into magical assets, to create fictional wealth for us and vast wealth for our elite. We have internalized the awful ethic of corporatism — one built around the cult of the self and consumption as an inner compulsion — to believe that living is about our own advancement and our own happiness at the expense of others. Corporations, behind the smoke screen, have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. The free market became our god and government was taken hostage by corporations, the same corporations that entice us daily with illusions though the mass media, the entertainment industry and popular culture.
After yet another summer of watching mainstream media ignore actual issues or complex stories to endlessly twitter (on and on and on and on) about dead celebrites, Facebook, live celebrties, beer gate, celebrities who we wish were dead, and then go on to just recite government or corporate press releases, it is not hard to agree with Hedges. But, of course, it goes well beyond that as there is always the other side… the audience. I don’t think that audiences are well understood or well-served by major media conglomerates today despite all the market research. These media companies target only a few demographics and feed them little more than corporate marketing. Still, the system relies on consumers demanding little more than spectacle or light entertainment and I can’t help but agree with Hedges in conecting this to a sliding North American culture.
The rest of the article presents an excerpt from Hedge’s book about the ‘gonzo’ porn industry and the language can get a little graphic. But there are some very interesting tidbits too: who knew that General Motors was in the porn distribution business?
The article is located at AlterNet: Chris Hedges, “The Rise of Gonzo Porn is the Latest Sign of America’s Cultural Apocalypse”
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