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Right-wing think tanks in the United States (which are heavily funded by the government and influential corporations, and can thus “freely” say what they think) are now advocating putting missiles in space in order to effectively counter another terror attack against the homeland. It is estimated that such a project would cost over a trillion dollars over the years. Furthermore, it seems like an expensive and unviable answer to a few hijackers carrying box cutters. The point here is that these decisions do not represent the will of the people. They reflect the will of elites and their followers such as the puppet think tanks.
The institutional role of these think tanks is to justify and legitimize the decisions of the elites by attaching academic authority to such decisions as killing Iraqis for oil. (Instead, the verb “to kill” is replaced by “to liberate” and the noun “oil” is replaced by “freedom”—this is done of course because as the German linguist Wilhelm Humboldt has said, humans perceive the world through the medium of language). If the think tanks take an alternative approach, they may cease to operate because they are heavily dependant on corporate and government funding. This constitutes at least one example illustrating the making of decisions and justifying them in a totalitarian manner whereby the public has no say in the direction it is being led.
Another question which needs to be raised is how the elites perpetuate their grip on power. One strategy is by thought control through the media. Indeed, the media are the most adept tool for telling what Joseph Goebbels called the “great lie”. (Dr. Goebbels was Hitler’s propaganda mastermind; this is where the name “Dr. Evil” originates). According to Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, the media in “democratic” societies like the United States operate based on the “propaganda model” (5). The full explanation of this model requires a lengthy discussion. However, the model essentially asserts that the owners of media control and influence the version of reality they choose to show the public. They do this by having implemented a system of “filters”, which basically separate the appropriate stories from the inappropriate ones.
The causes for this selection process are quite clear. For one, many media channels are subsidiaries of much larger corporations and reflect the interests of the larger corporation. Keeping this in mind, if the larger corporation is a manufacturer of war products, would it be feasible to imagine that the subsidiary [the media channel] would say that the war against Iraq was unjust? For example, NBC, an American television channel, is a subsidiary of General Electric, a major US manufacturer of military aircraft engines, many of which have been used to bomb Iraq’s civilian population. In this context, it is difficult to imagine that a corporation such as General Electric would oppose something which is profitable using a media channel that it controls.
To understand this point it is imperative to realize that the corporation is an institution of the elites. Its operation and the direction it takes reflect and realize the interests of the elite that owns that corporation. Having said that, it is possible to realize that the corporation is an institution, like any other institution, is not designed to self-destruct. On the contrary, the corporation is designed to preserve itself and the formidable power of its owners. This allows one to realize the workings of power. In essence, capitalist elites have two principal objectives: attain power and safeguard it. Having realized that thought control is more effective than death squads, capitalist elites have manipulatively used media as the great weapon of mass distraction (6).
Producing senseless and idiotic programming such as the so-called “reality shows” or talk shows showing people confronting their spouse’s secret lover serve as a replacement for discussing genuinely important issues. In other words, owners of capital exploit their grip on the media to distract the masses and turn their attention away from issues that matter. Rather than being used for the purpose of informing the public and being a “watchdog” to check the exercise of power, the media are being used as a tool to keep the masses passive, ignorant, and blind to the truth. History has taught elites and those after power that passivity and ignorance are necessary conditions if subjects are not to challenge being ruled and coerced into control.
In addition, in order to achieve passivity and ignorance, two elements are required. The first is an ideology and the second is a medium to indoctrinate others to become followers of that ideology. One can witness the two elements at work with a brief look at the rise of different ideologies such as the world’s monotheistic religions. In all the monotheistic faiths, an individual, named to be either the prophet or representative of God, has used the claim of divine inspiration to justify indoctrinating others with a set of static beliefs based neither on evidence nor on rationality. After the preaching had paid off and created an organized religion with a clergy, a hierarchy, and lots of subjugated followers, passivity and ignorance had been achieved.
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Nima Shirali
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