Are the Media and Hollywood Entertainment or Propaganda?
Posted on: October 18, 2014
A friend recently lamented that he hadn’t seen a decent movie in years and he goes to movies all the time. Sure movies were good enough to win awards, but he felt that they were neither entertaining or satisfying in any emotional sense.
We talked about it and I brought up the fact that I had seen a number of movies lately that had clear socialist undertones such as Divergent and Transcendence, both incredibly dull films that were in my opinion directed at impressionable adolescents.
Our conversation meandered a bit until I felt it was time to raise the question of the late Senator McCarthy and his penchant for attempting to track down communists in the government and even in the film industry. He was eventually ousted for any number of reasons but it seems to me he was on to something.
At the time Senator McCarthy was in office, there were only a few social programs at the national level and spending on “social development” was a small fraction of what it is today when now there are close to 100 “nutrition assistance” programs just at the national level and using government funds to pay for social development is commonplace. Socialism seems almost like a misnomer for the condition that governs the redistribution of funds in America and the only real major difference is that in The United States, our central planning committee (you know) doesn’t have the same authority as say The Soviet Union’s did. The major difference in my opinion is that fact and that we still use currency (which is crucial) and have the ability to make choices with it as a result. That has an enormously stimulative economic affect. Otherwise, we are not that removed from a Soviet form of government in many respects, emails are copied and stored, all phones are tapped, elderly ladies and babies are searched at the airport (isn’t that worse than the other in many respects?).
We have a media that largely does almost exactly the same as the Soviet propaganda machine yet while our media hides behind the constitution, frequently on behalf of corporations who benefit directly from the socialist money trough, the Soviet media was an arm of the communist party. The differences are only structural as well as the goals of our media but the net effect is frequently the same.
I have digressed.
I have in fact seen quite a few movies coming out of Hollywood that have political undertones which are clearly socialist. I still watch movies for entertainment purposes and merely to have something to do other than what I must. But the big government (we’re here to help) thread is there in much of what is coming out of Hollywood and I rather wish to have seen Sen. McCarthy carry on with his quest to discover the extent of communism in the government.
I really don’t know how it might be accomplished that we pull the country out of its almost completely socialist condition. I don’t know. No, I don’t.
My only parallel is to compare what might be required to facilitate a transformation to a less socialist condition and that is to compare such a goal as that of the initial stages of a war. I am not advocating any course of action here, merely explaining what would be required at the outset. When The United States invaded Iraq, Baghdad in particular for example, the first thing, that action which took place before all others, was to physically take control of the media outlets and the ministry of information (propaganda centers).
In my opinion, that would be required for Americans to regain control of the country if in fact Americans feel they no longer have control of their country. If Americans are going to regain control of their country, they will first need to take control of a fear mongering, disingenuous media.
Maybe things are not all that bad. No, maybe they aren’t. Maybe they aren’t getting worse. Maybe everything is tip top. Are things worse than at other times in American history? Maybe yes, maybe no.
But America will not regain control of the country if Americans don’t take control of the media. That is one thing for which I am certain. The media is the facilitator of the country’s condition, make no mistake. The media is what makes it possible for the country to be in the state that it is in, regardless of who is giving instructions to the media.
Taking control of the media would be the first order of action.
But things aren’t really that bad, are they? You know they aren’t that bad because someone is constantly telling you everything is fine. Your fear is manufactured, or is it? You don’t really know, do you? It’s hard to tell, isn’t it? What measure of reliability do you have that the information you are getting is valid, completely valid? Are elections thrown for example?
Try changing the channel if you watch a lot of television. Change the channel. Everything is fine. Change the channel, Ebola. Change the channel, everything is fine. Change the channel, fear. Change the channel, ISIS. Change the channel, everything is fine. Change the channel, fear. Change the channel, massive deficit. Change the channel, everything is fine. Change the channel…turn the station…change the channel, how can it be that most are all playing the same fearful tune? (I don’t have a television, by the way)
Now do you see what I am talking about? I guess at this point you just have to ask yourself how far it has progressed?
If you feel the government is worthless, for example, then you should know that it is the media that facilitates that. The media is the propaganda machine which facilitates the current state of the country, make no mistake.
We should talk some more about it some time.
William Thien
P.S. I say “the media is” and not “the media are” because the media seem to move almost in an orchestrated fashion, no matter what they claim. You’ve noticed it, too, haven’t you.
Copyright © William Thien 2014
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