Technology, Capitalism, & Media: A Manipulation
Primary tabs
Technology, Capitalism, and the Media work together in order to manipulate the masses into robots.
Technology, Capitalism, & Media: A Manipulation
Communication technologies have made giant leaps forward throughout history allowing for information to be produced and consumed more easily. With the development of these communication technologies the media industry evolved into a machine that could feed the goals of capitalism more efficiently. Today the mainstream media and the entertainment media promote a form of neo-liberalism with the aim of creating a consumerist and materialistic society that is complacent to the current forms of authority in order to stabilize the proper breeding grounds for a capitalistic society. In the capitalist system of the United States of America (USA) “political entertainment propaganda†is the message transposed through the various mediums. The mainstream media cartels use technology to communicate information in various languages to impose their ideologies upon the consumers of the world. While the message in the medium transmits through the various formats of technology it weakens the human body by changing the structure of the subjects mind.
People communicate in order to share and understand various forms of information with each other in turn forming bonds, common grounds, and relationships to build onto. Throughout history communication has taken many mediums allowing people to pass on information. Languages have evolved differently throughout all parts of the world, but with the advancements of globalization upon languages it has brought them together at a stunning pace, reducing the diversity of the old languages while at the same time creating new languages that cater to the goals of an ever efficient capitalist society. Increasingly languages that are no longer useful because of the small portion of its speakers begin to die out as new mediums and languages are created to communicate, a recent example being that of computers.
When the printing press was invented communication drastically changed. The creation of one universal language has been accompanied by the evolution of one universal machine to transmit all formats of communicating through languages. One of the first mass-produced books that became available after the invention of the printing press was the Bible, thus allowing for the message of the Bible to be distributed across the world in a universal medium that was accompanied by religious missionaries. These missionaries claimed to hold the truths of life in the medium they so frequently presented to whoever would listen. To these early missionaries and religious followers anyone who didn’t accept their message was seen as a sinner and evil soon estranging the unconventional thinkers from society. This new technology allowed for the individual to become immersed in an ideology that was not their own self-creative construction, in turn allowing the outside forces to conform their minds to their way of thought. The use of technology to construct and mold an individual soon advanced and took different approaches to communicating with radio, television, and computers, which all began to help the spread of ideas while at the same time destroying individuality. With the disappearance of one being able to create their own ideas since the individual becomes flooded with so many other ideas. Soon these information systems and technologies begin to be the dominant culture, since they practice the techniques of assimilation.
In order to understand technology it needs to be refined “in relation to the harm they wish [technology] to conceal†(2003, Los Amigos de Ludd). The culture industry or mainstream media and governments use technology to submit and exploit the citizenry of the world to neo-liberal ways performing it in such a way that the citizens lifestyle becomes intertwined with technology. When the citizen uses technology they come to rely on it in a dependent manner, which weakens the individual creative spirit and enforces their reliance upon a machine supported by the dominant capitalist system. Consumers are fashioned in such a manner that ordinary people who are by nature good, turn into materialists and blind consumers whose reliance upon the system guarantees their compliance. The individual whose spirit is self-made is thrown away along with the rest of the “throw away society†creating a system of values that are destructive to the true nature of life. This nature of life encompasses the individual being able to think freely allowing for unconventional ideas to develop and evolve without outside influences that wish to instill their ideologies.
Technology acts as an imperializing force that submits the mind to its ideals in a manner that doesn’t use direct force, but rather a more effective means of hidden conformity. In Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment written by Michael Parenti, Dan Schiller is quoted in regards to the transmission of language through the media technology:
For manipulation to be most effective, evidence of its presence should be
nonexistent. When the manipulated believe things are the way they are
naturally and inevitably, manipulation is successful. In short, manipulation
requires a false reality that is continuous denial of its existence.
It is essential, therefore, that people who are manipulated believe in the
neutrality of their key social institutions. They must believe that the government,
the media, education, and science are beyond the clash of conflicting social
interests.
An example of this can be found in the existing US media where its viewpoint is suggested to be more liberal than conservative, in an attempt to construct an opinion of the information being transmitted as leftist. The conservative ideology is portrayed as the underdog in order to present their ways as dominated by the liberal system implying a cultural signifier that the little guy (conservatives) does what is right. The US corporate mainstream media acts as a double-edged sword by transmitting the spineless liberal viewpoint as truth to its subjects while also suggesting that the conservative viewpoint is righteous for its stance against the mainstream liberal media. The words of the media are related as being the absolute truth and their science as being flawless, yet in the fields of science one can never assume that what is presented is the absolute truth and measures that approach science in this manner such as the chaos theory should always be taken into account when digesting information.
The ideology imposed manipulates people into believing that by using technology they can become freer, yet in actuality this dependence upon technology weakens their body and mind, creating a perfect workhorse for the capitalist society. Over time as technology has become more intertwined with life it has changed the way people think and view life, actually creating a mind that behaves more like a machine or robot. People become processing information in new ways, while its message attempts to demonstrate the “happiness†that can be found in getting a job and living within the “free societies†of neo-liberalism in order to achieve enlightenment. People are taught that a lifestyle full of productivity where profits are made allows them to consume pseudo-necessities which bring them happiness and a feeling of success. The citizenry’s reliance upon these pseudo-necessities further assimilates them into domination by the capitalist empire, with the overall goal being to create the perfect slave or one who doesn’t know that they are actuality a slave.
Advertising on television plays a large role in the apathy and acceptance of the ruling system found amongst the youth of the US since targeting at the earliest ages is the best way to make them believe their ideologies for the youth are still developing their own ideas from the blank spaces of the untapped human mind. The manner of American television provides advertising that indoctrinates its viewers into a society that values possessions and materials with great respect being given to those who have become monetarily rich by living within the system. Bill Gates is portrayed as the all-American way of getting rich and while his ways of doing so are highly questionable he is considered righteous and the richest human being alive. However individuals such as Pablo Escobar, the famous Columbian drug dealer, who is portrayed as garnering his wealth in an unacceptable manner is dehumanized. It is widely thought that if Pablo Escobar was able to declare his wealth it would out number even that of Bill Gates, however this isn’t possible since the distribution and consumption of certain drugs like cocaine are deemed unacceptable practices. In a constant stream of advertising the victim becomes desensitized to certain aspects of reality, creating a virtual one. This virtual reality is used to influence the publics opinion in a manner that promotes the division of society into hierarchies maintaining the social divisions in turn creating an environment that facilitates capitalist thought. Leading up to the Iraq war according to the polls in the mainstream media 69% of Americans believed that there were connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. The Bush Administration played a large role in promoting this fallacy to the American public by using the media to serve its needs, even though the administration later admitted that the intelligence regarding a possible link between Saddam and Al Qaeda was nonexistent and was just a hypothesis. The mainstream corporate media played an enormous role in influencing public opinion by producing patriotism amongst the citizenry in order to gain support for the government administration’s agenda with some telecommunications corporations like Clear Channel even going as far as sponsoring pro-war rallies.
The public becomes so desensitized by this overload of information aimed at them everyday that they lose their ability to think critically about what they are experiencing. One technique of this disinformation comes in the form of virtual wars where the killing of human beings becomes accepted in a manner similar to that of a video game. As one solider has noted that they felt
guilty that we had slaughtered them so; guilty that we had preformed so well and they so poorly; guilty that we were running up the score… We saw Y-72 (tanks) in battle lines, firing away blindly in the air. They didn’t know what was killing them, but they were gamely shooting knowing they would die. (Adbusters, 2004)
Training the human mind to view killing as virtual and appropriate actions to pursue to rescue the world from their enemies takes great amounts of work. When the human mind is at its earliest stages it is pure and self-creative, yet as time passes ideas are funneled through their minds in an attempt to create a subject that values consumerism and the pursuit of monetary assets. The subjects of the USA media are lead to believe in a culture run by fear where life couldn’t exist outside of the current system. This is why large police forces can perform acts of brutality, but not be covered by the mainstream media even though the subjects know of their presence. They are made to seem as defending against freedom from violent fascists who wish to take away their dream of becoming rich and able to afford that dream vacation some day. It is widely made to believe that without police life would not be possible for complete chaos would unfold into a term that is constantly misused in the corporate mainstream media – anarchy. Anarchy is viewed as a system that is completely illogical for it is against human nature to live peacefully amongst themselves in a system that doesn’t value monetary assets and posses no hierarchies or national borders. Currently there are attempts being made to train the perfect guilt free solider in an attempt to harness the strength of life under one authoritative system where all differences become one.
Among the various mediums of transposing information “the public is [also] catered for with a hierarchical range of mass-produced products of varying quality, thus advancing the rule of complete quantification†(Adorno & Horkeimer, 1944). The children of the working classes of the USA are sold toys, which resemble McDonalds’ kitchens and cash register’s to prepare them for their future McJob, or job that requires low amounts of prior skill and provides a minimum wage that is not sustainable to live a healthy lifestyle off of. The corporate media and ruling elite capitalists aim at creating a society that is herded into cities where their working abilities can be explained to satisfy the temporary desires inflicted upon the masses.
With the advancements in the global telecommunications industry a culture industry that promotes the conventional ways of thought and discipline was allowed to prosper and make way for the coming of a New World Order. The New World Order aims to dominant the culture industry and with it the world by creating one machine that rules all where the ideas of neo-liberalism flourish. Efforts have been taken by many anarchists, anti-fascists, anti-authoritarians, and free thinkers to counter the balance of power specifically by using the system against the system, i.e. the Internet. Ample grounds have been explored using the Internet to create an Independent Media Center and aid the exchange of unconventional thinking. However their ideas go directly against those of the ruling elite and are attempting to use the media and technology once again to squash these rivals, they demonize as evil terrorists. There exists no way to predict the future and its fate lies in the hands of those willing to stand up to its forces.
Works Citied
(2004, March/April). Adbusters – Journal of the Mental Environment, 52.
Adorno, Theodor, & Horkheimer, Max. The Culture Industry: englightenment as
Mass deception.
Los Amigos de Ludd. (2003, Spring/Summer). Technology as capital: preliminary
Notes. Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed, 21, 29-31.
Parenti, Michael. (1992). Make-believe media: the politics of entertainment.
New York, Bedford / St. Martin’s.