There is a similarity between our shopping malls and newspapers.

[KlatooBNikto]

When I go to our malls from Maine to California what astounds me is the total conformity and uniformity of products, stores, the decorations and even the lettrings on the displays.And as I look at the newspapers from one end of the country top another, it is the same.The thoughts, the ideas,the language everything seems to have come out of the same cookie cutter.

This is what a totalitarian mindset would produce. I think our totalitarianism is more effective than the Soviet version because we are not even aware it is totalitarian.In such an environment, it is easy for a Bush or Cheny or a Rumsfeld to create a Terrorist Boogeyman, launch an illegal war and expect the population to fall in line spouting the spoonfed slogans.

Welcome to the Brave New World of American totalitarianism. This is why a George Galloway will never appear on our TV screens or will have any room in our newspapers.We will have to make do with mid numbing repetitions of the Quotations from Chairman Bush.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Yes, consumerism has produced a bland sameness in our malls

and towns. As for our news sources they are all frighteningly similar in that they don't report any actual news.

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. If you haven't read it, read "Fast Food Nation"

There is a very good section on "sameness."

I also heartily recommend Erich Fromm's "Escape From Freedom" and Joseph Chilton Pearce's "The Biology of Transcendence." Both books touch on this problem. Fromm's was published in 1941 and is chilling in its application 60+ years later.

[IrateCitizen]

3. You don't really think mass media is for NEWS, do you???

I find very much agreement with Horkheimer and Adorno when it comes to mass media and mass culture. The purpose of mass media is not to inform or enlighten, as many on these boards like to still pretend. Rather, its sole purpose is to buttress and reinforce the status quo.

The reason that everything looks pretty much the same is that if people are consistently bombarded with the same opinions and points of view, they will likely come to accept that those points of view are the only viable ones, and therefore become less receptive to OTHER points of view.

The purpose of the mass media, as a part of mass culture, is CONTROL. It always has been, and it always will be. That's why I don't even watch TV news anymore (outside of NOW), and don't subscribe to any mainstream news publications.

[leveymg]

5. The media is like the supermarket. You can buy TV dinners or the

ingredients for something really delicious and nutritious. As a practical matter, few can harvest grain and plant everything one might want and need in their own backyard.

The MSM will continue to be an essential source of ingredients. Just make sure you wash and inspect everything thoroughly before cooking.

:popcorn:

[tanyev]

4. From the horse's mouth:

"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merge of state and corporate power." --Benito Mussolini

[earth mom]

6. Reading expands the mind and the world...

This country is predominantly "cookie cutter" because the majority of people don't read. We're a society of instant gratification-ideas, beliefs, lifestyles and philosophies are "presented" to us and far too many people accept them at face value without digging deeper. Instead of expanding the mind and opening up the world by reading; the majority of people in this country watch sports, movies, t.v., play video games, read magazines, shop at stores/malls where they are continually SOLD! SOLD! SOLD! (often via advertising) on more of the same.