[lbo-talk] Austerity In The Face Of Weakness

[Miles Jackson]

123hop at comcast.net wrote:
> Carrol writes:
> 
> "Propaganda does not exist in a vacuum. In fact, it only works with those
> who already accept its premises -- i.e., who have 'learened' those
> premises through their won everyday practice within a given set of
> social realtions. Put otherwise, propaganda cannot itself create the
> terrainon which that propaganda makes sense."
> 
> Are you kidding me? Propaganda (in the form of TV commercials/billoards/etc) 
> begins with consciousness (toddlerhood) in the U.S. 
> 
> Toddlers accept premises through everyday practice?
> 
> Get a clue.
> 
> J

Joanna,

Here's the problem with your argument: if propaganda is all-powerful and 

  omnipresent, how does anyone escape its grip?  How are people like you 
and me (and many LBOsters!) capable of critically assessing the 
propaganda?  I suppose that you could argue that we're all superhumans 
insusceptible to the Siren charms of mass media, but I suggest a less 
hubristic explanation: TV and other forms of mass media propanganda on 
their own cannot "shape" someone's consciousness.  As C. points out, 
there must be preexisting social conditions that both generates the mass 
media and also produces the kinds of people who uncritically consume it.

Miles