Miles writes:
"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."
First of all I am not saying that it's just a matter of propaganda. I am saying that propaganda is a deep and effective material force that shapes and distorts consciousness. Is it that much more effective because pre-existing social conditions re-inforce and amplify its effect? Of course.
And frankly I don't think that most people (radical or otherwise) do escape its grip.
I observe that most people completely accept the commercials that completely break up their emotional/aesthetic experience. It is like a woman accepting that every once in a while her husband has a right to rape her.
I don't know what "propaganda on its own" could do; propaganda is never "on its own." It is never even perceived as being propaganda. I have had generations of college students tell me that advertising is a sort of consumer service that helps us make better choices. How's that for effective? Having radicals tell me that it's a no op seems strangely similar.
It is a material force that is stamped on your brain every five minutes or so. If it were so immaterial to your consciousness, why is it so necessary? If the pre-existing social conditions are sufficient, why the unceasing brainwashing?
Joanna