quote:

Originally posted by _EuG_ I actualy watched that as well based on the recommandation in that thread. It is truly a great documentry, they both are. The Century of the self looks at the psycological aspect of population control, while this documentry looks at the tools that are availible to the governments / big business. They tie in together very nicely actualy.

Nice! Glad you liked it. I got this documentary on in the background now.

What blows me away the most, is how the government used to do its best to protect people from the field of public relations back in the 30's and 40's. They actually educated people on how to tell the difference between truth, facts, and regular bullshit.

I guess it was only a matter of time before one side decided to utilize these techniques to gain power.

quote:

Originally posted by infinity HiGH Nice! Glad you liked it. I got this documentary on in the background now. What blows me away the most, is how the government used to do its best to protect people from the field of public relations back in the 30's and 40's. They actually educated people on how to tell the difference between truth, facts, and regular bullshit. I guess it was only a matter of time before one side decided to utilize these techniques to gain power.

All these documentries are great and very educational, but they fail to provide any solutions to the problem. They dont even make any suggestions. Its funny how Chompsky, gets lots of media attention and exposure in Canada and other countries, but never in the USA. It kind of goes along with his arguments about concision.

quote:

Originally posted by _EuG_ All these documentries are great and very educational, but they fail to provide any solutions to the problem. They dont even make any suggestions. Its funny how Chompsky, gets lots of media attention and exposure in Canada and other countries, but never in the USA. It kind of goes along with his arguments about concision.

How do you initiate change when the "enemy" is controlling the biggest media outlets on the planet? They control the message. And until you change the message, you can't change anything. People are zombies nowadays. They're complacent. They don't care about the bad guys in Washington. They're more concerned about taking their kids to soccer, figuring out whether they should buy an iPod or a Banana Republic jacket, and tuning in to their favourite TV shows, sports broadcasts, etc.

Basically, their perceived needs (in actuality, they're just wants masqueraded as needs) are satisfied; and that's all that matters.

Another good example is Ron Paul. The guy gets absolutely NO media coverage in the States yet he's a presidential candidate. His name isn't even on candidate lists on stations like Fox, CNN, etc. They guy doesn't even exist according to them.

Last edited by infinity HiGH on Nov-19-2007 at 05:43

For anybody who wants to watch The Corporation , here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_li...A50FBC214A6CE87

It is split up into 23 parts.

quote:

Originally posted by infinity HiGH How do you initiate change when the "enemy" is controlling the biggest media outlets on the planet? They control the message. And until you change the message, you can't change anything. People are zombies nowadays. They don't care about the bad guys in Washington. They're more concerned about taking their kids to soccer, buying Christmas presents, and pretending to be good democratic citizens by voting for the same politicians with a different label. Another good example is Ron Paul. The guy gets absolutely NO media coverage in the States yet he's a presidential candidate. His name isn't even on candidate lists on stations like Fox, CNN, etc. They guy doesn't even exist according to them.

They are not our enemies, they are just a privaleged elite who exercises thier availible power for thier benefit. All they are doing is putting in place provisions that make it extremely difficult to change the status quo. As long as everything stays the same, this group of individuals stays all powerful. Its not just a matter of understanding or changing perception of the public. Its a matter of developing a new political / economic system that works for the benefit of all of society and not just the elites.

quote:

Originally posted by _EuG_ They are not our enemies, they are just a privaleged elite who exercises thier availible power for thier benefit. All they are doing is putting in place provisions that make it extremely difficult to change the status quo. As long as everything stays the same, this group of individuals stays all powerful. Its not just a matter of understanding or changing perception of the public. Its a matter of developing a new political / economic system that works for the benefit of all of society and not just the elites.

For starters, I think government and business should be separate the same way they claim religion and government should be separate.

Edit: And the responsibilities/objectives of the media needs to be reworked. The problem is that, in the capitalist world, everyones first objective is to make money. If the media's first objective is to make money then that means facts, truths and content will be manipulated so its most profitable. This just invites biased news stories that in turn, controls the way people think.

Last edited by infinity HiGH on Nov-19-2007 at 05:53

quote:

Originally posted by infinity HiGH For starters, I think government and business should be separate the same way they claim religion and government should be separate.

Government and business are in bed because they both rely on each other. The government needs business because of the big tax dollars, and the businesses need government in order to achieve favorable conditions within the market. I personaly believe that Capitalism, the way we have it is very flawed and will not last for ever. I have read views that say that tv commercials are the worst thing that happaned to capitalism. They say this because, in the past all products had to be made to the best quality and that was the selling and diffireciating point. Now with tv commercials, products just have to be linked to emotions and there is precived quality because of that. So instead of companies working on great products that will benefit society, they chose to work on products that society will be determined by.

quote:

Originally posted by _EuG_ They say this because before all products had to be made to the best quality and that was the selling and diffireciating point. Now with tv commercials, products just have to be linked to emotions and there is precived quality because of that. So instead of companies working on great products that will benefit society, they chose to work on products that society will be determined by.

They talk about this in Century of Self. It's thanks to Edward Bernays (father of PR) and his uncle Sigmund Freud that advertisers were able to link products to feelings, emotions, etc. Before them, commercials just showed the practical use of a product and that was it. You decided whether you needed it or not and went on with your day.

Now everybody "needs" an iPhone because it's a symbol of their persona. It shows that they're trendy and into the latest cool shit. They want Movado watches because it speaks prestige and its a status symbol. Same goes for cars. And almost every other product out there.

I took a course in school called "Consumer Behaviour" a couple of years ago that just completely blew me away. Obviously it was biased, but a real eye-opener. TV ads nowadays have barely anything to do with actually selling the product to you. It's about planting the seed in your mind; building it's image and your feelings towards it.

Coca Cola and McDonalds are the greatest examples of this in my opinion.

Last edited by infinity HiGH on Nov-19-2007 at 06:05

quote:

Originally posted by infinity HiGH They talk about this in Century of Self. It's thanks to Edward Bernays (father of PR) and his uncle Sigmund Freud that advertisers were able to link products to feelings, emotions, etc. Before them, commercials just showed the practical use of a product and that was it. You decided whether you needed it or not and went on with your day.

Exactly, and now they make our lives be dependent on these products which in reality are totaly unecessery. In North America, specialy USA, the whole media structure is financed by advertisers. Everything that we see on tv is in the best interests of advertisers, NOT the viewers. TV's showes are designed inorder to keep you on your couch watching the advertisements. Think about how everytime there is a moment of suspence in a show, a comercial always starts. You have no choice but to watch the comercials, cuz you wanna know exactly what will happen in the show.

I personaly dont watch much tv, but for someone who regularly uses television as a form of entertainment, it is very difficult to not be exposed to all the messages that make people into perfect consumers.

quote:

Originally posted by _EuG_ Exactly, and now they make our lives be dependent on these products which in reality are totaly unecessery. In North America, specialy USA, the whole media structure is financed by advertisers. Everything that we see on tv is in the best interests of advertisers, NOT the viewers. TV's showes are designed inorder to keep you on your couch watching the advertisements. Think about how everytime there is a moment of suspence in a show, a comercial always starts. You have no choice but to watch the comercials, cuz you wanna know exactly what will happen in the show. I personaly dont watch much tv, but for someone who regularly uses television as a form of entertainment, it is very difficult to not be exposed to all the messages that make people into perfect consumers.

I download my shows. That's how I stick it to the man.

quote:

Originally posted by infinity HiGH I download my shows. That's how I stick it to the man.

You should realy dedicate the time to watch Manufacturing Concent, it is a great documentry.

Im suprised that i learned about this topic in school.