So what have we learned this weekend kiddies?

[nadinbrzezinski]

The media has taught us a lesson, not that everybody is willing to even see it

And it is a simple lesson

WE don't matter.

Only the chattering classes inside the beltway do

Get it now?

Good

Now on a serious work matter, perhaps I should turn into the deatpolooza for material for a horror short story...

[Two Americas]

1. what have we learned?

DUers watch far too much MSM "news."

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. that too... but in the meta aspect of society we

have also learned that the chattering classes are way too self absorbed

I wondered what would it take for them to cover the news. Now I know better. If this is not part of THEIR world, they simply will not cover it.

This is the kind of final epiphany that should dawn to most folks now

We don't matter, we are not part of their society. Or at least not beyond that of the serfs who are better seen but not heard.

[Two Americas]

9. you are correct

I think your analysis is accurate, and I think the point you make is extremely important.

The divide in this country is between the haves and the have-nots, not between right and left.

Our politicians and the fund-raisers and lobbyists and consultants they work with are also from the same privileged class of people, living like minor royalty while 90% of the people slide slowly into poverty and despair. Yes, the people who control our lives, our politics and our government live in a different world than we do, and that is the only world we hear about, and too many of us have cone to confuse that world with reality and to discount our own observations and the value of our working class brothers and sisters.

We don't matter. We are not part of their world. We are at best extras in their drama, poorly paid and ignored. The sad thing is that DUers will ridicule a person challenging the aristocrats of privilege by calling their fellow peons "nobodies" and of no consequence, while praising and admiring some wealthy asshole they don't even know and who does not care about us at all.

The shocking thing to me is how many people right here parrot the same points of view that defend and glamorize privilege and elitism, which is why I said "DUers watch too much MSM 'news'" and also I should add, they internalize too much of it and take it too seriously, and completely miss the "meta aspect" as you say.

Thanks nadin. You consistently bring a fresh and provocative perspective to DU that is rare and valuable, and your instincts and insights are stellar. Much appreciated.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. You welcome and an admirable expansion on the point

There is a Mexican Popular saying that translates as this

There is no ill that will last a hundred years, nor anybody who will be able to bear it

Even this... with all the propaganda... will come to an end.

And it will be sudden.

[Gabi Hayes]

22. only a hundred years of crazy evil?

as for the end, another, more comprehensive sort of fascism, the sort envisioned by William Gibson, say, will bring whatever this is, to an end....perhaps Chinese-inspired (that is, if we human planetary carcinogens, don't end life as we know it before the next wave has a chance to generate)

ever read The Pacific Century? it was written awhile back, but very prescient, and I think the author would even be surprised at how quickly things have
'progressed'

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. 'nother book to read?

thanks

[Garbo 2004]

25. Ah yes, my mother used to quote that saying. (In Spanish of course.)

It's fitting for so many occasions in life.

[roguevalley]

34. we have also learned that if you want to find out about the flooding,

the weather channel is awesome.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. And the fereign press... amazingly enough the Mexican Press

has done yeoman work... outside of the local press of course, who deserve more than just an award too

[JackRiddler]

3. That sophisticated blogger-type people also follow the moral hysteria of the week?

Didn't we know that already?

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. I am looking for the meta aspect here

listening to Aldous Huxley, here (another DU'er gave us the link)

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/huxley_aldous.html

Soma- telescreen- today

And this death fest is probably a good example of the anesthesia

[earth mom]

5. You hit the nail on the head! The majority of us are peons to the powers that be. Simple as that!

:grr:

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Sadly we still have many that refuse to see the clear lesson

[babylonsister]

6. I've learned to turn shit off once I recognize it. How's that? Maybe

if enough of us boycott with our clickers, it might make a difference.

I won't turn the news off, if and when it returns.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Mine has been off, but right now considering turing it back on to take some

ahem, notes

[babylonsister]

10. Don't bother; there is no news on that I know of. That must be

because there is no newz! You're better off on the tubes. Me, I have tunes on channel 833, Direct TV, old rock and roll. Very soothing. And no commercials!

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. I was thinking something like the Langoliers and the

Russert show seems to be puurrrfffecct for that kind of weirdness... expect that in this case I'd have the death come back to haunt the land through the teevee..

I mean we crossed from honoring to necrophilia a while ago...

[babylonsister]

14. No kidding...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3458191&mesg_id=3458353

And Langoliers, is that Stephen King? In an airport, and out? :scared:

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Yep, Langoliers occurs in a plane

[melody]

13. Oh, please.

I'm not a "kiddie", I don't need to be taught ... and who is the one who determines who matters?

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Ask the corporate media

the lesson is fully in full display for you to see.

[melody]

17. It's only there if we watch it

We can choose to look the other way.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. First you are going to avoid the car wreck? taking notes for a short story

So until now I have... I fully understand.

but that said... look at this from a meta social aspect... not whether you can turn the channel off or not.

At the meta level they just gave us a big nice middle finger. As I said earlier in the weekend, if this was a slow news weekend, fine, knock yourselves silly... alas it is not. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

So looking at the big picture here. I guess that anthropology class and my two sociology classes just went DING!

Or I guess it is all that history I read...

It reminds me of the let them eat cake moments that preceded the French Revolution, or the callous ignoring of the people by Officials of the Czar's government.

This is another let them eat cake moment

[melody]

19. No one says we should ignore it ... I'm saying we need to start redefining our perspectives

Jeez, never mind ... you're right, we all suck, everything is going to end, etc, etc.

Good night.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. where did I say that?

[Gabi Hayes]

24. maybe she didn't get the implication that the vast majority of news consumers

take most everything at face value, only consider the superficial when forming their worldviews...it doesn't much matter, usually, what a small group of better informed people think, because reality is what appears in the broadest, shallowest media forms, and consensus revolves around that, allowing the best marketers to attain, and maintain, power

seen this?

Karl Rove & the Spectre of Freud’s Nephew
by Stephen Bender
by Stephen Bender



"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country… We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized… "

So opens Propaganda (1928), one of several strikingly frank analyses of western social psychology written by Edward Bernays. This nephew of Sigmund Freud founded the public relations industry in the United States.

Mr. Bernays lived a fascinating life. He first got involved in high stakes politics when he "warmed up" the dour Calvin Coolidge by arranging the first presidential celebrity photo op in 1928. For the private sector, Bernays engineered a most notorious publicity stunt for the American Tobacco Company, by single-handedly neutralizing the taboo against women smoking in public. He organized a "Torches of Freedom" march down Broadway by ten smoking debutantes during the 1929 Easter Parade. With the help of feminists – some of whom understood the "right to smoke" as libratory – Bernays expertly publicized this spectacle, thus setting in motion the expected stir on op-ed pages across the land.

For Bernays, truth in public affairs did not exist per se. Rather, truth was the product of the "public relations counsel" forging prevailing "public opinion." It should be said that he readily recognized the ethical implications of his work, as witnessed in his later anti-smoking advocacy, after the dangers of cigarettes became known in the late-1950s. He could also be, in his own curious way, a humanitarian – as reflected in his work promoting the NAACP and anti-syphilis public education.

For Bernays, however, the necessity of controlling the public mind was a crucially important matter confronting the better element, a group in which he clearly included himself. In his first work, the hugely influential Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Bernays noted that the establishment of public education and the gradual extension of the right to vote caused consternation among western elites. The use of public relations techniques, then, was a way for the minority to "so mold the mind of the masses that they will throw their newly gained strength in the desired direction."


http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/bender2.html
...............

along with another "Propaganda", by Jacques Ellul, the above piece goes a long way toward describing how much easier it is, as we advance technologically, but regress
educationally, etc., for totalitarian regimes, be they purely political, or a combination of business/government (Mussolini's own definition of fascism) to maintain their strangleholds on the populace

and a cheery good night!

great thread, btw

still disagree on Reagan, though, and the above link/book is part of the reason why....toss in a little Orwell/groupthink, and that just about covers it

[nadinbrzezinski]

31. Have finally done it, started a file with recommended books and movies

at DU... .

Been readying, but obviously I will need to go get more done...

And that one is at the top of the new file... perhaps a book to take on vacation? Yes, I am weird and wonky that way

[ColbertWatcher]

21. I'm not a "kiddie", I don't need to be taught

True, you may not be a kiddie who doesn't need to be taught, but you've just hit the proverbial nail on the head.

What the GOP-controlled media does isn't for those of us who know better, it's for those who don't.

The way the GOP-controlled media tells the news is to influence the next generation.

You remember the Christmas Tsunami? Did you ever hear the story about that tribe of people who all survived? It seems they remembered what to do when the sea suddenly pulls away from the shore.

Why was it that younger generations of people didn't know what to do or what it meant when the oceans pulls away like it does before tsunamis strike? Because the ruling class doesn't need their servants knowing anything that doesn't make them a shitload of money.

As far as the bosses are concerned, their employees only need to know how to do their jobs and nothing else. If the employees start to read and learn stuff beyond what is required to do their jobs, the bosses feel threatened.

It's as true for the people of Sri Lanka as it is for non-union workers of Wal-Mart; the less they know, the better it is for the company.

[fasttense]

26. And if the janitor had died cleaning out NBC's toilets would

anyone have said anything? I kind of doubt it. Yet I think the janitor provided a better service to society than what Tim did.

I'm sorry for his family but when my father died there wasn't all this public mourning on TV. I would not have wanted it and I doubt Tim's family wants it. Let the man rest in peace. And let's not forget that like the janitor Tim was just a man.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. To his credit, when a camera assistant was run over and died

some months ago, Keith honored her at the bottom of the hour.

But overall, you are right... the janitor is one of us... the masses, not one of them... the chattering classes

[cali]

27. that you're endlessly condescending.

Of course, you'd already made that abundantly clear.

ugh.

[laststeamtrain]

28. I learned there are a ridiculous number of "Reagan Democrats" on DU.

They are all oxyMORONS.

Like jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, pay-n-save, etc.

I hate them, really I do.

But they hate me too, so....eh.

[OneBlueSky]

29. What Did You Learn in School Today? . . . by Tom Paxton . . .

What Did You Learn in School Today?
Words and Music by Tom Paxton

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that Washington never told a lie.
I learned that soldiers seldom die.
I learned that everybody's free.
And that's what the teacher said to me.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that policemen are my friends.
I learned that justice never ends.
I learned that murderers die for their crimes.
Even if we make a mistake sometimes.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned our government must be strong.
It's always right and never wrong.
Our leaders are the finest men.
And we elect them again and again.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
I learned that war is not so bad.
I learned of the great ones we have had.
We fought in Germany and in France.
And some day I might get my chance.
That's what I learned in school today.
That's what I learned in school.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. So apropo that song

thanks

[lpbk2713]

33. I learned the passing of a talking head will trump Tiger Woods for days.

Tiger has been 'playing injured' and is still phenominal. But his performance
has had to take a back seat to the passing of an American Idol of the MM. I know
golf is just a game, but if you've ever seen Tiger Woods play ....

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. To me the passing of a talking head trumps real disasters affecting

tens of thousands. Tiger is a sports story...nothing personal

:-)

But it was also trumped