How Powerful is the Mass Media?

Our rulers can’t fool all of the people all of the time, argues Sadie Robinson

The idea that the mass media controls our ideas is a very common one. According to this theory, the media acts as a kind of syringe that injects propaganda directly into our minds.

People are seen as sheep that follow the media more or less unthinkingly. The conclusion is that we are powerless in the face of mass propaganda that brainwashes us into compliance.

This view of the media does not just exist at the margins of society. It’s also a dominant idea within mainstream politics. Leading figures in all the main political parties see winning over the mass media as the key to winning elections – rather than having decent policies that ordinary people could support.

The notion that the media is all-powerful is also used to write off any sense that people can fight back against the system, or that they can be won away from racist or sexist ideas.

All this raises two questions. Who actually controls the mass media? And how much impact does it really have on the ideas people hold?

Under capitalism the mass media is owned by a handful of rich and powerful people that form part of the “ruling class” – the tiny number of people at the top of society who own the factories, offices and other workplaces.

Rupert Murdoch, for instance, owns over 175 print publications across the world, including the Sun, the Times and the News of the World here in Britain.

Kenya Crisis: Colonialism Through Consent

Kenya Crisis: Colonialism Through Consent
By T.D. McDonough, 2008.

The corporate media has failed to question the wider context behind the events unfolding in the Republic of Kenya and the real interests of the global elite in maintaining auxiliary control. The corporate interests within the east African nation must be explored if we are to understand the real mechanisms at work beyond the failed election and the resultant turmoil.

Kenya has been a long-standing ‘client’ of the IMF and the World Bank, both of whom, despite their misleading titles, are corporate entities, not social organisations. As such the IMF and the World Bank have invested heavily in the country’s ‘economic reconstruction’ since the pseudo-emancipation from the British Empire in the 1950’s. Like all developing nations, the accrued debt coupled with the reliance on exterior assistance enables the dominant powers - the IMF, World Bank and their ‘investors’, in this case - to maintain influence, even to exert control, over the ‘client’ country. This also includes the subservience and loyalty of elected officials.

However, in 2006 the Chinese government approved a request by CNOOC Ltd, a state-owned energy conglomerate, to begin oil explorations in the region, including the coastal regions of Kenya. This follows China’s long-standing interests in east Africa, or as one commentator in Nigeria observes: ‘the Chinese seem to have started where the Europeans left [off]‘.

China’s been deeply involved in east Africa, both ideologically and economically, since the 1960’s and the recent development is simply an extension of a long term plan to hegemonise, then colonise, East Africa, much like the Western nations did in the latter centuries, although the Chinese have pursued a strategy of coercion and investment, rather than unlimited force and aggression.

So, the full image begins to emerge: Kenya is the site of contention of two of the world’s dominant powers. The ‘current’ President Mwai Kibaki is friendly to western interests mainly due to his unwavering subservience to the IMF and the World Bank. Kibaki has passed numerous constitutional reforms in the past decade including privatisation laws, the redistribution of ‘idle’ land and reforms to the economy allowing for easier foreign investment. Kibaki proposed a new constitution in 2005 but received a resounding ‘no’ from the electorate.

The current dispute in Kenya is due to wide-spread allegations of corruption within the voting system. By all accounts, the opposition party, the ODM, was ahead in the votes until the final stages, when Kibaki’s PNU raced across the finish line. The country was soon plunged into chaos.

Tensions have been rising in Kenya over the last few years and the Western and Eastern powers have been well aware of this fact. But, chaos is King, especially when profit and potential oil reserves are at stake. By maintaining Kibaki’s presidency the Western powers can maintain their influence and safeguard against the expansion of China’s burgeoning African empire; or, alternatively, if the situation becomes even more extreme they can intervene directly and secure their interests through NATO and the UNThat is, unless the people organise themselves and take the path of revolution, which is, sadly, very unlikely. It seems that Kenya will remain an ideological battlefield for some time.

Its yet another sickly dose of reality: the realisation that the people of Kenya will never receive any legitimate assistance; by all accounts they are trapped between the jaws of a lion and the claws of a dragon, with either path leading to further exploitation and even more death. Mark these words: “there be oil in Kenya!” Expect the announcement before the close of 2008.

As always, the corporate media has failed to inform the public. The news channels have instead opted for sensationalist claims, such as ‘genocide’ (ITV News), ‘rape’ and ‘pillage’ (Sky/Fox News) and even ‘tribal warfare’ or ‘another Rwanda’ (BBC News 24). This couldn’t be further from the truth. Although the tribal differences in Kenya are being exploited, the violence in Kenya has western corporate sponsorship, whose aim is to withstand a Chinese takeover - let the facts be known and the truth will soon follow.

Ring of Power: Secret History Rediscovered

Ring of Power: Secret History Rediscovered

This documentary represents over four years of research by an anonymous professional. The result is an astonishing account of the histories of the world detailing the transference of power from the ancient world to the modern age and the mechanisms of that power, from organised religion to the corporate media and the pantomime of limited democracy.

The production values are far from professional but the high degree and accuracy of the information is remarkable, as is the ability of the film-maker to present the complete picture from an ancient and complex puzzle.

We are ultimately left with the same conclusion about the state of affairs in our world. The cookie trail ends with the banking elite and the small cabal of closed families who manipulate world affairs using whatever means necessary. Up until this point they have only been able to manipulate global events and adapt to social change, but the time is drawing near when they will be able to control global events and prevent social change. This video is a remarkable step into that reality.

Ring of Power 1.1

(144mins. Produced by Amenstop Productions. Hosted at Google Video.)

Ring of Power 1.2

(140mins. Produced by Amenstop Productions. Hosted at Google Video.)

America: Freedom to Fascism - Director’s Authorized Version

America: Freedom to Fascism - Director’s Authorized Version

‘Determined to find the law that requires American citizens to pay income tax, producer Aaron Russo (”The Rose,” “Trading Places”) set out on a journey to find the evidence. This film which is neither left, nor right-wing is a startling examination of government. It exposes the systematic erosion of civil liberties in America since 1913 when the Federal Reserve system was fraudulently created.

Through interviews with U.S. Congressmen, a former IRS Commissioner, former IRS and FBI agents and tax attorneys and authors, Russo connects the dots between money creation, federal income tax, and the national identity card which becomes law in May 2008.

This ID card will use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips which are essentially homing devices used to track people. This film shows in great detail and undeniable facts that America is moving headlong into a fascist police state. Wake up!’

- www.freedomtofascism.com

America: Freedom to Fascism - Director’s Authorized Version

(111mins) Produced by www.freedomtofascism.com Hosted at Google Video.

 

Socialism and Man in Cuba

Socialism and Man in Cuba
By Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara de la Serna (1965)

 

Though belatedly, I am completing these notes in the course of my trip through Africa,^[30] hoping in this way to keep my promise. I would like to do so by dealing with the theme set forth in the title above. I think it may be of interest to Uruguayan readers.

A common argument from the mouths of capitalist spokespeople, in the ideological struggle against socialism, is that socialism, or the period of building socialism into which we have entered, is characterized by the abolition of the individual for the sake of the state. I will not try to refute this argument solely on theoretical grounds but rather to establish the facts as they exist in Cuba and then add comments of a general nature. Let me begin by broadly sketching the history of our revolutionary struggle before and after the taking of power.

As is well known, the exact date of the beginning of the revolutionary struggle — which would culminate in January 1959 — was July 26, 1953. A group led by Fidel Castro attacked the Moncada barracks in Oriente Province on the morning of that day. The attack was a failure; the failure became a disaster; and the survivors ended up in prison, beginning the revolutionary struggle again after they were freed by an amnesty. In this process, in which there was only the germ of socialism, the individual was a fundamental factor. We put our trust in him — individual, specific, with a first and last name — and the triumph or failure of the mission entrusted to him depended on that individual’s capacity for action. Then came the stage of guerrilla struggle. It developed in two distinct environments: the people, the still sleeping mass that had to be mobilized; and its vanguard, the guerrillas, the motor force of the mobilization, the generator of revolutionary consciousness and militant enthusiasm. This vanguard was the catalyzing agent that created the subjective conditions necessary for victory.

Here again, in the framework of the proletarianization of our thinking, of this revolution that took place in our habits and our minds, the individual was the basic factor. Every one of the combatants of the Sierra Maestra who reached an upper rank in the revolutionary forces has a record of outstanding deeds to his or her credit. They attained their rank on this basis.