This Canadian documentary Manufacturing Consent based on the Noam Chomsky/Edward Herman book by the same name explores the the propaganda model of the media.  In other words, mass media is not meant to inform or tell the truth but instead is a tool used by the power elite to control the masses.

The video shows Chomsky’s guiding belief to be that a decent society should maximize human need for creative work, not treat people as cogs in a machine so that the power elite can maintain control, continue private ownership of public resources and increase profits, all the while managing media content (while preserving the myth of a free press).

Democracy in America is not functioning in an ideal sense.   Instead we have three groups:

1. The power elites that own the large world institutions and are at work to privatize everything for their profits and power.
2. 20% of the population composed of the specialized class (leadership types).  This group is mostly responsible for democratic functioning but is highly controlled by the propaganda machine.
3. 80% of the population (the masses) are marginalized, diverted and controlled by what he calls Necessary Illusions.

This is a long one so I’ll include some information below to capture some of the concepts.

In Chomsky’s words concluding Manufacturing Consent:

“The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided [as they have been until now]. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are … essential to survival.”

“The driving force of modern industrialized civilization has been individual material gain. It has long been understood that a society based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails as long as it is possible to pretend that the destructive forces humans create are limited, that the world is an infinite resource, [and] is an infinite garbage can.

“At this stage of history, one of two things is possible: Either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community interests guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others, or alternatively there will be no destiny to control.

“As long as some specialized class is in position of authority, it is going to set policy in the special interest it serves. But, the conditions of survival and justice require rational, special planning in the interest of the community of the whole (and by now that means the global community).

“The question is whether privileged elites should dominate mass communication and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely to impose NECESSARY ILLUSIONS to manipulate and deceive [whom THEY believe are] the stupid majority and remove them from the public arena. “The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured; they may be essential to survival.”

So, Chomsky says all states are violent to the extent they are powerful and that there is little correlation between internal “freedoms” in a society and violent external behavior. The modern American industrial civilization and the media system (which suggests a propaganda model) work because people don’t have the time to work and carry out the research to get the information necessary to create change. But, the information is present.

He says he does not have the answers but we should consider moving toward some sort of libertarian-socialist democracy in which our economic institutions would be run by the people. In this way, we would end private control over public resources — which are finite.

To achieve change and overcome the effectiveness of the propaganda model, Chomsky says we need to rely in part on activism and alternative media. We must develop means of intellectual self-defense. We must develop independent minds. We need to review a wide range of press (or do so in conjunction with others), including alternative media — and work at the community level in organizations that may have different focuses but that have similar values.

We must become human participants in our social and political system and work to make a difference. Given full information, ordinary people acting on their best impulse can govern themselves.

Regarding Thought Control in a Democratic Society, Chomsky makes these points:

1) Propaganda is to democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.

2) Ordinary people have remarkable creativity.

3) People have a fundamental need for creative work, which is not being met in systems where people are like cogs in a machine.

4) What would make more sense as a way to govern is a form of rationalist-libertarian socialism — not one that increasingly functions without public input. Chomsky advocates a system where a community and its members run things in a democratic fashion and whose people do not function as some sort of wage slaves.

5) People need to be able to detect forms of authority and coercion and challenge those that are not legitimate.

6) The major form of authority that needs challenging is the system of private control over public resources.

7) The First Amendment means that democracy requires free access to ideas and opinions.

8 ) Democracy in America is not functioning in an ideal sense but more in the sense that Lippmann noted in Public Opinion (where a specialized class of about 20 percent of the people — but who are also a target of progaganda — manages democratic functioning) and, in effect, are under control of a power elite, who more or less own the institutions. The masses of people (80 percent) are marginalized, diverted and controlled by what he calls Necessary Illusions.

9) Manufacturing consent is related to the understanding that indoctrination is the essence of propaganda and in a “democratic” society occurs when the techniques of control of a propaganda model are imposed — this means imposing Necessary Illusions

10) The concept NECESSARY ILLUSIONS is tied to Chomsky’s observation that there are power elites who dominate the way life happens and that part of the population (about 20% who make up the political class and are expected to participate as cultural managers in a limited fashion) are indoctrinated, and how most people (the other 80% of the population) are (in part because of media) marginalized and diverted from political awareness and participation in self-governing — that is, reduced to apathy so they don’t vote or take charge

11) Thus, indoctrination of the political class and diversion of the masses make up the essence of the democracy practiced in the U.S. (Chomsky notes also that there is no correlation between the internal freedoms in a society and violent external behavior — and that all governments are ruthless to the extent that they are powerful.)

12) Media are a tool of society’s power elites and owend and controlled by them and are used to impose those Necessary Illusions — illusions that are necessary to keep people diverted from the political process.

13) Major media (New York Times, Washington Post, TV networks, AP) shape our perception of the world by serving as Agenda Setters.

14) Media allow some dissenting voices but marginalize them via constraints such as CONCISION — a concept referring how in media conventional content and thinking must be stated briefly (concisely) so it can fill up the TV content between commercials or fit in the print media newshole (“600 words” repeating “conventional piety,” Chomsky said)

15) People need to seek out information from ALTERNATIVE MEDIA (media outside the mainstream and usually having a particular point of view) and move toward change by becoming engaged in community action — where people use their ordinary intelligence to make changes in their lives and communities.

16) He says it is “profoundly contemptuous of democracy” when our political system has stage-managed elections and uses manipulation such as testing phrases to determine their likely effect on audiences.

17) Chomsky argues that people need to work to develop independent minds — maybe in part by forming COMMUNITY action groups with others with parallel interests and values, not in isolation, which is where the present system tends to keep people.

18) AT PRESENT AS THINGS ARE, ONLY 2 POSSIBILITIES EXIST: 1) Either the general population will take control of its own destiny, or 2)There will be no destiny to control.

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