Funny - you sound exactly like me on Jallu (a superb Finnish branvin or burnt wine) ;-)

One day we have to get drunk together and then go out and vomit on Murdochs. I am a non-violent person, but I do not consider soft projectiles to be violence. I have not yet given up hope that the Narri Approach (That's Finnish for Jester) - ie hitting those in power on the head with an inflated pigs' bladder - will be effective.

What we need is more Ridicule! It is a powerful weapon against the pompous. But one blow is never enough - drip drip drip.

Now go and join the Bald One in rehab. And take care ;-)

You can't be me, I'm taken

pig's bladders -- not nearly persistent enough :-)  when it comes to soft projectiles I favour the Biotic Baking Brigade.

but Murdoch... I am not sure what fate is truly appropriate for that awful man.  maybe a life sentence trapped in a small cell with an indestructible TV playing, endlessly and loudly, the crap that he funded and broadcast.

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...

Good diary - much better than saving your hair!!! :-) And so true.

From Propaganda (Published 1928) by Edward L. Bernays The book available in its entirety, in pdf format, via the link above. It is listed as being in the public domain. Read it, it is a lovely book!

If, for instance, I want to sell pianos, it is not sufficient to blanket the country with a direct appeal, such as:

"YOU buy a Mozart piano now. It is cheap. The best artists use it. It will last for years."

The claims may all be true, but they are in direct conflict with the claims of other piano manufacturers, and in indirect competition with the claims of a radio or a motor car, each competing for the consumer's dollar.

What are the true reasons why the purchaser is planning to spend his money on a new car instead of on a new piano? Because he has decided that he wants the commodity called locomotion more than he wants the commodity called music? Not altogether. He buys a car, because it is at the moment the group custom to buy cars.

The modern propagandist therefore sets to work to create circumstances which will modify that custom. He appeals perhaps to the home instinct which is fundamental. He will endeavor to develop public acceptance of the idea of a music room in the home. This he may do, for example, by organizing an exhibition of period music rooms designed by well known decorators who themselves exert an influence on the buying groups. He enhances the effectiveness and prestige of these rooms by putting in them rare and valuable tapestries. Then, in order to create dramatic interest in the exhibit, he stages an event or ceremony. To this ceremony key people, persons known to influence the buying habits of the public, such as a famous violinist, a popular artist, and a society leader, are invited. These key persons affect other groups, lifting the idea of the music room to a place in the public consciousness which it did not have before. The juxtaposition of these leaders, and the idea which they are dramatizing, are then projected to the wider public through various publicity channels. Meanwhile, influential architects have been persuaded to make the music room an integral architectural part of their plans with perhaps a specially charming niche in one corner for the piano. Less influential architects will as a matter of course imitate what is done by the men whom they consider masters of their profession. They in turn will implant the idea of the music room in the mind of the general public.

The music room will be accepted because it has been made the thing. And the man or woman who has a music room, or has arranged a corner of the parlor as a musical corner, will naturally think of buying a piano. It will come to him as his own idea.

Under the old salesmanship the manufacturer said to the prospective purchaser, "Please buy a piano." The new salesmanship has reversed the process and caused the prospective purchaser to say to the manufacturer, "Please sell me a piano."

Under the old economic order, Capital exploited Labour. Under the new one, Labour asks Capital: "Please exploit me!" It comes to him as his own idea.

is much much much worse.... you ahve a anrrative so far to the right in economic issues that is hard to foresee...  I hope France does not become one..

Media, media and media... I am sorry to say .. but it is the only thing that the US left needs to wing now... jsut they need to control a part of the media.

A pleasure

I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude

They also own the means of communication, which disseminates "opinion".

This can change.

Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden

1. The left "loses" because it takes money to run a propaganda campaign and people on the left usually have less of it. They are not motivated to become captains of industry.

2. The left hasn't "lost", it has just suffered a temporary set back - and that mostly in the US. When asked people prefer more social services, not less.

3. A large fraction of the population benefit from corporate greed in that they have money invested in the stock market via their retirement plans. They expect returns in the range of 10-15% (while in reality most long-term investments yield around 8%). This leads firms to do all sorts of things to boost short-term profit.

4. Excess consumerism is partly voluntary. (Replacing shoddy items when they break may be forced consumerism.) This consumerism drives industry in the directions that produce the biggest profits. Hence the rise of the SUV's.

5. I suggested reading the online book by Robert Altemeyer in my most recent diary. The relevant point is that those who rise to the top of social organizations tend to have an authoritarian, amoral personality type which is also highly correlated with conservative social positions. Liberals are not so driven to "win". Read the book!

As Pogo said many years ago: "We have met the enemy and he is us."

[For non-US readers, Pogo was a semi-political comic strip starting in 1948 and running for about 40 years.]

Policies not Politics
---- Daily Landscape

I must be catching a cold this morning... I feel icky. ;-)

Please excuse me for not responding but I have to go saw my head off.

Have epistemological model of Complex Information environments. Will Travel.

Is it not a global world?  One can Google "left gatekeeper" and get suitable answers.  The "left" is merely an echo of the right, a part of the industry of deception.  To make 30% return on investments someone must get exploited, someone must give up a piece of their lifestyle, hey, an unmanned factory can spit out 5000 widgets per hour right, the China factory can fill the orders of thousands WalMarts with vise grip tools which fall apart on the first use, Hell the China factory can put out millions of "energy saving" twisty flourescent lamps for less than the price of the raw materials in the EU.  Yes, this is "free" trade.
www.prisonplanet.com
Sometimes even the "tin foil hat" sites have more common sense than the "experts"?
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/