Defining Social Issues: How the Corporate Media Dictates How and What Americans Think
By Solomon Comissiong
The US corporate media system has a successful history of telling American citizens how, what, and when to think about myriad social issues. The corporate media in America functions as a fourth branch of government. Americans inability to deconstruct dominate narratives is part of the methodic training (or lack thereof) they receive from cradle to grave. It simply would not bode well (for the ruling class) if most Americans harnessed the invaluable skill set of critical thinking. Most Americans remain blind to the fact that they do not truly reside within a well functioning democracy. They believe they are participating in an open democracy when in fact they are active participants within an illusionary system—-a system in which they play no significant decision-making role. The “options” they are given have often been pre-selected as “acceptable” choices for the masses.
One of the more blatant examples of this illusionary “democracy” is that of the so-called choice between a Democrat and Republican. Ultimately, there are more similarities between the two corporate driven political parties than there are differences, yet many who tend to vote Democrat believe they are supporting a party geared toward progressive social change. Unfortunately, these people could not be further from the painful truth. The party of jackasses (Democrats) is driven by corporate forces that are hell bent on maintaining the overall status quo. Keeping intact a class based society is what allows a vast concentration of wealth to exist. There is no other industrialized society with the massive gap between rich and poor, than that of the United States. The mythological ‘Land of the free and home of the brave”, is, in reality, as rapper Brother Ali says, “Land of the thief and home of the slave”. And when it comes to social issues, such as institutional racism, Democrats are no more committed to destroying that social plague than are Republicans—-Democrats merely do a better job at convincing their constituents that they are, especially those of color. The Democratic Party has a long history of deceiving their constituents of color into believing that they are something they simply are not.
The Democratic Party, like the Republicans, are primarily devoted to corporate interests, imperialism, and ensuring that America’s economic power remains concentrated within the hands of the few. The irony of this sad situation is that while masses of Americans mindlessly frolic around chanting the praises of “American exceptionalism”, capitalism, and democracy; their so-called government is actively rigging a one-sided system. Americans routinely (and unknowingly) participate in actions against their own interests. American society is riddled with illusions and distractions geared toward keeping its inhabitants completely oblivious to domestic and international issues connected to their overall well-being. These distractions are a part of an almost perfect system of misleading propaganda spewing forth from the US educational system, political arena, and, yes, the well oiled corporate media.
Americans are bombarded daily with thousands of untruths, meaningless messaging, and images of indoctrination. And with no real mass training in regards to critical thinking, most Americans are ill equipped to deconstruct dominant narratives force fed to them—without knowledge that it is even happening. Make no mistake about it, this lack of formal training in critical thought, is as intentional as they come. Why would the US government psychologically arm its citizens with the mental weaponry needed to disable the concentration of political and economic power from which the ruling class directly benefits. If the US government taught Americans the art of critical thought it would be akin to a hunter teaching a bear how to avoid his deadly traps. And when it comes to insidious traps, the US corporate media is one of the most effective—-routinely utilized by American elites.
The US corporate media have a rather effective working relationship with the US government. The US corporate media willingly helps promote significant aspects of the US government’s agenda; foreign policy being one of those aspects. Instead of challenging the imperialist themes that flow from the White House, Pentagon and State Department; the corporate media justify them. Instead of raising the level of consciousness, pertaining to critical issues, they play an active role in dumbing down and confusing masses of Americans. The corporate media, along with a large sector of the US government, work to transform Americans into “The Bewildered Heard” that the late political commentator and journalist, Walter Lippmann, spoke of many decades ago. Lippmann had little confidence the Hoi polloi to make decisions on their own. He, in essence, sympathized with the need for the US government to keep the public in the dark when it came to critical issues, in an effort make decisions for them. Lippmann called this anti-democratic decision making process as “Manufacturing Consent”. Walter Lippmann believed that it was necessary for an elite and specialized “class” of “experts” and bureaucrats to govern the aforementioned “Bewildered Herd”, thus circumventing any semblance of the false notions of democracy that are erroneously promoted within the US. Even though Lippmann first introduced his theories several decades ago, they are in full effect in 2011.
Each successive year the US government and the corporate media, renew their vows of dumbing down the masses, and leaving Americans in the dark, thus creating as many mentally obsequious citizens as possible. Unfortunately, this plan has worked like a charm. Americans have been trained, from cradle to grave, to be as critically disengaged as possible. Their essential critical thinking skill sets have been stunted before they could even develop. This is, in large part, why America’s school systems are devoid of any concrete critical thinking and/or media literacy coursework within their already limited curricula. The next phase is to indoctrinate children (and adults) to believe in everything from American imperialism to “American Exceptionalism”. This brilliant ploy ensures that those who stumble upon information that is outside of the typical pro-American/western narrative will reject it without any kind of critical deconstruction of that information. Their years and years of blind pro-American indoctrination prevent most from ever examining alternative information, media, and/or perspectives. They are, without recognition, zombies to the corporate and political elites who are using them like pawns on a chessboard.
Americans often argue and vote against their own interest, simply based on their inability to think for themselves. One has to laugh to keep from crying when witnessing Americans mouthing the exact words of politicians and/or media personalities, in a feeble attempt to pretend that they are asserting their own, well thought out, opinions and perspectives. They are nothing more than human parrots—minus the cuteness of speaking birds. There is nothing cute about witnessing a person programmed not to think for themselves—-especially when lives are at stake.
Prior to March 2011 most Americans could not point to where Libya was on a map, much less explain what life was like in that North African nation. Many of those same people believe that Libya is in the “Middle East” and not, in fact, in North Africa. However, within days of the US’s barbaric bombing campaign of Libya, many Americans were not only speaking as if they knew what was truly going on in Libya, they were cheering on the bombing like bloodthirsty animals. The human parrots were echoing exactly what they heard their corporate media and political masters saying when they said things like, “Gaddafi is a dictator…he must be overthrown”, “He is massacring his own people”, and “The people of Libya want him out”. Not once did these Americans stop, think, and proceed to fact check if any of those things, were in fact, true. Nope…the corporate media and war mongering politicians say, “jump” and their American parrots reply, “How high”. It did not matter that Libya had the highest of living standards in all of Africa (even higher than Russia and Brazil), or that all Libyans were afforded things that even Americans are not, such as quality free healthcare for all, free education on all levels, or affordable housing for Libyans. Americans unwittingly devoured all the lies fed to them, including the lie that Gaddafi was massacring his own people. There still is no evidence of that. Meanwhile, some of America’s closest allies, like Israel, continue to oppress countless Palestinians, thus robbing them of any human rights. The hypocrisy is abounding. None of these important facts matter within the fantasy world built by the US government (and corporate media), for millions of obedient Americans. But why would most Americans even care…after all it is not their towns and cities being indiscriminately bombed into oblivion. If Americans thought more about these things they might pay more attention to the illegal wars of imperialism that their government wages. And if they did, they might (collectively) demand and put an end to the brutal wars the US government’s military is inflicting upon helpless civilians in developing nations. At present, the US government (and its amoral allies) is salivating at the prospects of bombing Iran.
After being led into a war on Iraq, based on a pack of lies, who would have thought Americans would have fallen for another collection of lies, this time regarding Libya? However, when President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Americans their reasons for waging war on Libya, Americans fell for it…again. These things regularly occur in a country whose media overwhelmingly dictates public consent and policy—at the behest of the federal government.
Americans’ minds have been co-opted for generations. This mental takeover is why so few Americans can make the connection between their lack of social safety nets (universal healthcare, free tertiary education, etc); to the amount of money their government spends. The US government, year after year, uses tax payer money to wage wars and maintain one thousand military bases worldwide. Over fifty percent of Americans’ tax dollars (yearly) go toward military expenditure—over one trillion dollars in total. These important numbers are completely foreign to most Americans. This kind of information, within a tangible context, is methodically kept far away from the minds of unsuspecting Americans. And in place of this vital information is a deluge of mind numbing reality shows, commercials, and irrelevant “news” on the lives of Hollywood stars. Instead of deflecting or even deconstructing this mental poison before it is subconsciously imbibed, well-trained Americans carelessly overdose on this deleterious elixir. Most Americans are virtually defenseless—they are neither media literate nor adept at critical thinking. In essence, a great many Americans have been meticulously developed to become active participants in their own psychological downfall.
Until more critically engaged Americans take initiative to break down the multiple layers of programmed ignorance that engulf the minds of family, friends and community members; the mass indoctrination program will have no chance of mitigating. And until this happens Americans will continue to robotically take their orders, on how and what to think, regarding everything from US foreign policy to universal single-payer healthcare. They will also continue to mimic the dangerous war mongering statements of corporate politicians, all the while not understanding a damn thing pertaining to the ramifications of America’s perverse war fetish. Countless innocent civilians are continuously destroyed in these wars, but who cares as long as the corporate media broadly demonizes them while making sure obedient Americans receive their orders to shop, shop, shop till they drop, drop, drop.
Ensuring that more Americans receive the critical thinking training needed to destroy the systematic manufacturing of consent will take grassroots efforts of consistency and coordination. It is not in the best interest of the US government nor the corporate media to facilitate an environment replete with engaged and knowledgeable citizens. If they do this, their illusion of democracy will slowly fade away. If the US did this, their orgy of global plunder would be in serious jeopardy. Our collective dreams of a more socially just world are largely predicated on what happens within the US. Many of the global roots of injustice can be directly traced back to America. This is irrefutable whether the victims of America’s program of mass indoctrination wish to believe this or not. Wars, coups of destabilization, global depression, plunder of other countries’ resources, and destructive one sided economic policies, are all unsavory things that the US government is quite adept at. If change is going to happen—it must come from a grassroots effort. Millions of Americans must speak out. More must get involved in the business of injustice destruction. And yes, more must create alternatives to the corporate “news” media, while developing media literate and critically engaged communities. These are all vastly important steps towards a social revolution that is desperately needed to create a socially different world. It, in essence, is time to manufacture a world replete with peace, justice, and equality.
Solomon Comissiong is an educator, community activist, author, public speaker and the host of the Your World News media collective (www.yourworldnews.org). He can be reached at: solo@yourworldnews.org
