![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Smoke and Mirrors
Dec. 13th, 2010 10:14 amThe entertainment industry is full of it.
Chomsky calls it the Great Mythmaker. I supposed it would be comparable to the pantheon deities, and primitive rituals of the Greeks, Sumerians, etc. With many of the culture participating, sharing in those experiences, as well as gleaning nothing practically applicable to life, or the improvement of it, as a result of their participation - besides what arguably may be considered the "socialization" of their personalities; hence force referred to as "archetypalization".
People find themselves becoming something they was designed for them, as a result of their environmental influences, many of which are highly controlled by industry (political or corporate propaganda.)
-----
Pacifism, a tenet of Buddhism, as well as a belief of Jesus Christ, numerous other religions, and ethical philosophical systems, is the only method we can utilize to our benefit as citizens. Terrorists are a problem for us, but not because of why the state deems it so - they are a problem because the atrocities they commit result in the power structures that are our governments - the world over - to further clench their fists around us, under the guise of protecting us and our "rights."
This is a predictable response: every single government in the world, regardless of its system of rule, be it democratic, autocratic or socialist, or any range between or outside the aforementioned, will use it to increase aggression against external interests, and decrease the amount of freedom citizens enjoy. These actions serve a ruling class a number of benefits, and coupled with propaganda and the entertainment industry, produce a powerful force for change. With proper execution, the ruling parties will enjoy increased nationalistic pride (and therefore increased support from the population); increased numbers of volunteer soldiers and the increased security and knowledge-gathering of their societies and others as a result of increased surveillance and presence of law-enforcement. These are both a result of increased citizen participation (a synergy of nationalism) and the direct influence of the ruling class. Fear permeates the society, and because we feel we can not protect ourselves, we turn further to our sovereign empire.
Just as a humble businessman, or working-class citizen, desires not to fall from their current standard of living - desires to create for themselves a better and more secure future - the ruling parties, and the elite classes of wealth and affluency, desire to only further secure their futures in their current, or a more powerful, state. The existence of the common individual...of the working-class...is necessary for the continued existence of the state. Their suffering, too, is necessary for this purpose. As is the socialization, and the "proficient" - as defined by the state - "education" of the people.
But if a state commits atrocities...if it commits murderous acts, preemptive invasions and occupations of foreign states (as a result of vested interests, natural resources, labor or acts of terrorism)...then how does this reflect within its systems of education, or its very definition of proficient education? How does it reflect in its propaganda, its entertainment - the myths, art and even the people and their very culture?
Most importantly, how is it that the people can hold within themselves a belief of good will for man, of doing unto others as what would be done unto them, and simultaneously hold the paradoxical and unsympathetic world view that innocents are simply necessary casualties of wars - which may or may not be morally sound? Besides the plethora of other cognitively dissonant doublethink.
Chomsky calls it the Great Mythmaker. I supposed it would be comparable to the pantheon deities, and primitive rituals of the Greeks, Sumerians, etc. With many of the culture participating, sharing in those experiences, as well as gleaning nothing practically applicable to life, or the improvement of it, as a result of their participation - besides what arguably may be considered the "socialization" of their personalities; hence force referred to as "archetypalization".
People find themselves becoming something they was designed for them, as a result of their environmental influences, many of which are highly controlled by industry (political or corporate propaganda.)
-----
Pacifism, a tenet of Buddhism, as well as a belief of Jesus Christ, numerous other religions, and ethical philosophical systems, is the only method we can utilize to our benefit as citizens. Terrorists are a problem for us, but not because of why the state deems it so - they are a problem because the atrocities they commit result in the power structures that are our governments - the world over - to further clench their fists around us, under the guise of protecting us and our "rights."
This is a predictable response: every single government in the world, regardless of its system of rule, be it democratic, autocratic or socialist, or any range between or outside the aforementioned, will use it to increase aggression against external interests, and decrease the amount of freedom citizens enjoy. These actions serve a ruling class a number of benefits, and coupled with propaganda and the entertainment industry, produce a powerful force for change. With proper execution, the ruling parties will enjoy increased nationalistic pride (and therefore increased support from the population); increased numbers of volunteer soldiers and the increased security and knowledge-gathering of their societies and others as a result of increased surveillance and presence of law-enforcement. These are both a result of increased citizen participation (a synergy of nationalism) and the direct influence of the ruling class. Fear permeates the society, and because we feel we can not protect ourselves, we turn further to our sovereign empire.
Just as a humble businessman, or working-class citizen, desires not to fall from their current standard of living - desires to create for themselves a better and more secure future - the ruling parties, and the elite classes of wealth and affluency, desire to only further secure their futures in their current, or a more powerful, state. The existence of the common individual...of the working-class...is necessary for the continued existence of the state. Their suffering, too, is necessary for this purpose. As is the socialization, and the "proficient" - as defined by the state - "education" of the people.
But if a state commits atrocities...if it commits murderous acts, preemptive invasions and occupations of foreign states (as a result of vested interests, natural resources, labor or acts of terrorism)...then how does this reflect within its systems of education, or its very definition of proficient education? How does it reflect in its propaganda, its entertainment - the myths, art and even the people and their very culture?
Most importantly, how is it that the people can hold within themselves a belief of good will for man, of doing unto others as what would be done unto them, and simultaneously hold the paradoxical and unsympathetic world view that innocents are simply necessary casualties of wars - which may or may not be morally sound? Besides the plethora of other cognitively dissonant doublethink.
