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The Consequences of Propoganda
One of the weirdest things which has happened over the past few decades has been the descent of the privileged classes in North America, and worldwide, into insanity. I've just spotted one of the roots of this: the media. Specifically, however, a particular aspect of the mainstream media has made this happen. This is a simple matter of the fact that the people the media is supposed to influence, and the people who trust it implicitly, do not align.
The people outside of the bubble of privilege are, by and large, distrustful of the mainstream media, and have been growing more and more distrustful of it over time. The reasons are not important, but what is important is that these are the very people the media is supposed to influence. The benefits of controlling public opinion do not matter if they are limited to the top: nor do the benefits of persuading the elites to buy products, for the true market is the general public.
The people inside the bubble are going to have the ideas that the privileged want them to have anyway, for they are the privileged; they will consume to wretched excess no matter what happens, since they are sheltered from economic wants. The real prize, is convincing the millions outside the bubble to believe what you want, and to buy whatever you want them to.
This is best done by one of two methods: the first is that of earning trust, and then persuading people that what you want them to think is in their best interests; the second is the method of propaganda. Propaganda works best by hammering home on the emotional, shutting down the rational mind. The problem with this is quite simple: what is warm and fuzzy to one person can be cold and prickly to another, and it works best if you can either persuade people to trust you or overwhelm them with repetition.
The privileged trust the media, and by and large share many of the same values as the people making the media. Those outside the sheltered classes have many reasons to distrust the media, and have had them for decades. The result is that the mainstream media has started resorting to propaganda, as it is impossible to fix what they cannot admit: that people have valid reasons for distrusting them.
The result is that those outside the circles of privilege see less and less reason to trust an increasingly Soviet media, and the privileged classes are getting caught up increasingly in their own reality, being manipulated more and more powerfully by a mass media that is increasingly losing its grip on reality.
The people outside of the bubble of privilege are, by and large, distrustful of the mainstream media, and have been growing more and more distrustful of it over time. The reasons are not important, but what is important is that these are the very people the media is supposed to influence. The benefits of controlling public opinion do not matter if they are limited to the top: nor do the benefits of persuading the elites to buy products, for the true market is the general public.
The people inside the bubble are going to have the ideas that the privileged want them to have anyway, for they are the privileged; they will consume to wretched excess no matter what happens, since they are sheltered from economic wants. The real prize, is convincing the millions outside the bubble to believe what you want, and to buy whatever you want them to.
This is best done by one of two methods: the first is that of earning trust, and then persuading people that what you want them to think is in their best interests; the second is the method of propaganda. Propaganda works best by hammering home on the emotional, shutting down the rational mind. The problem with this is quite simple: what is warm and fuzzy to one person can be cold and prickly to another, and it works best if you can either persuade people to trust you or overwhelm them with repetition.
The privileged trust the media, and by and large share many of the same values as the people making the media. Those outside the sheltered classes have many reasons to distrust the media, and have had them for decades. The result is that the mainstream media has started resorting to propaganda, as it is impossible to fix what they cannot admit: that people have valid reasons for distrusting them.
The result is that those outside the circles of privilege see less and less reason to trust an increasingly Soviet media, and the privileged classes are getting caught up increasingly in their own reality, being manipulated more and more powerfully by a mass media that is increasingly losing its grip on reality.