Instead of education and knowledge, ignorance and helplessness spreads

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There is a huge mythology associated with education and introduction to knowledge. They broaden the horizons, make it possible to develop their own opinions, form a full-fledged person, add him to all the richness of culture. But the widely ramified systems of mass education of the twentieth century put on the conveyor the release, according to the term put into use by Solzhenitsyn, of "education", specialists who know nothing but their business.

Knowledge in an economic democracy is necessary only for the preparation of a qualified workforce. A market society does not need humanitarian knowledge, the purpose of which is to form an understanding of social processes and enrich intellectual and emotional life. Humanitarian knowledge gives an awareness of the world and awareness of oneself in this world, and in a market society this knowledge is dangerous for the system.

Previously, it was believed that the slave obeys the master as long as he is illiterate, until he understands the nature of the society that turned him into a slave, but without even understanding the mechanism of the social system, he strove to become free. Today, most workers in industrialized countries understand that they are nothing more than cogs of an industrial machine, that they are free only as producers and consumers, but in the process of their struggle for survival, they meekly accept their role as slaves of the system.

It would seem that education can provide clues to understanding and, therefore, resistance to the system. But if this is so, then why do many generations of university graduates not turn into critics of the system, but, coming into it as workers, forget about the respect for true knowledge and truth that was instilled in them at the university?

Apparently, the ethical norms and understanding of the mechanisms of the system that students receive in university "ivory castles" do not withstand the press of real life, and the media have more persuasive power than university professors. The professor, shining with erudition, has a low social status, because: "the one who knows how, does, who does not know how, teaches." After graduation, graduates, entering the business world, lose all interest in knowledge that does not generate income, just like the entire population.

Literary critic Oswald Weiner, examining comics - hand-drawn pictures with drawings (the most popular type of reading) - noted that the presence of intelligence in the heroes of this genre puts the character in the category of negative. The presence of intellectual abilities above the norm, that is, above mediocrity, in the eyes of the reader is pathology, the claim to be better than others.

The very way of life fosters a dislike for the breadth of perception of the world, the depth of knowledge, understanding of the complexity of social life. These qualities have no value in public opinion, but practical information is highly valued, it is a guarantee of success in life.

In the past, the source of wealth was land; today, the source of wealth is information. The amount of information is increasing every year, the number of newspapers, books, magazines, television channels is increasing, the Internet is developing at an incredible speed. 40 years ago, American television offered 4 channels, today there are more than 500 channels, 40 years ago the number of radio stations was slightly more than 2,000, today it is more than 10,000. It is they who shape the worldview and way of life. They are the institution of education, the educator of the masses.

Addressing a multi-million audience, the mass media presents only the range of topics and opinions that correspond to their tasks as commercial organizations and the views of customers and advertisers.

A television or radio channel, newspaper, magazine will never publish an opinion that would be contrary to the interests of the advertiser, since advertising is the main source of income for all mass media. Public opinion certainly has a place in the media, but only if it aligns with the opinion and interests of corporations.

Mass media tries to present itself as a public institution whose task is to serve the public interest, to represent the entire spectrum of opinions and views. But even an inexperienced observer can see that despite the multiplicity and variety of topics, different ways of presentation, everyone has the same unified position, set by those who control the channels of information.

Opinions contrary to the line taken by the media do not appear on any mainstream channel. A variety of assessments exists, it is necessary to create the impression of an existing heated discussion in the viewer, but discussions, as a rule, touch on only peripheral topics, these are storms in a glass of water.

“Freedom of opinion is guaranteed only to those who own the media,” says the old truth, and these are not the opinions, views of the mass audience, but the opinions and views of the owners of the media. But, even when topics of concern to the whole society are presented, they go through a multi-stage process of processing, sterilization, in which the depth and scope of the problems discussed are lost.

There are two realities in the mass consciousness: the reality of the facts of life and the virtual reality created by the mass media. They exist in parallel. The average reader or viewer may or may not believe what he sees on a computer screen, TV or reads in a newspaper, this ultimately does not change anything, since he has no other sources. He only knows what he is “supposed to know,” so he is unable to ask the “wrong” questions.

Authoritarian societies could accept that people say one thing and think another, it is enough that they obey. But the blatant falsity of political propaganda led to resistance, and the brainwashing often failed to achieve its goal. A democratic society, having learned the lessons of history, has abandoned outright lies, homegrown, flat propaganda tricks and uses methods of psychological manipulation.

During the Great Depression, newspapers, radio, Hollywood, paying great attention to the details of the life of the “great gangster” Dillinger, led the public away from a dangerous topic - the causes of economic collapse. Millions lost their livelihoods, but few understood the system of deception carried out by the financial elite. The figure of a lone robber obscured the figures of those who robbed the whole society. Empty rattles of sensations distracted the public from the most important aspects of their lives.

Economic society propaganda does not directly brainwash. She uses soft, subtle therapeutic techniques that direct feelings, desires, thoughts in the necessary direction, in which the complexity and contradictions of life are expressed by elementary formulas that are easily perceived by people of any educational qualification, and they are fixed in the mass consciousness thanks to professional skill and impressive aesthetics.

In a democracy, there is no state censorship; direct censorship is ineffective; self-censorship of information industry workers is much more effective. They are well aware that their professional success depends entirely on the ability to feel what those who have real power need. Among them, attempts to present their opinion contrary to the generally accepted are perceived as unprofessional behavior. The professional serves the customer and should not bite the hand that feeds him.

The mass media convince the reader, the viewer to make the “right choice”, which, in essence, is not in his interests, but he is unlikely to dare to share his seditious thoughts with someone; he is afraid to be not like everyone else, it is quite possible that something is wrong with himself, everyone cannot be wrong.

"Society imposes a ban on opinions that differ from the generally accepted, which leads to the abandonment of their own reflections," wrote Alexis Tocqueville at the beginning of the 19th century, and since few people dare to conflict with the opinion of the majority, a stereotypical set of generally accepted views and ideas.

Traditional propaganda manipulated consciousness, but in a post-industrial society it no longer possesses sufficient influence. Modern media use a different technique - the technique of manipulating the subconscious.

“New methods of propaganda are needed to gain public support for this or that initiative from the economic or political elite,” wrote political observer Walter Lippmann of the 1940s and 1950s.

The new methods that Lippmann talked about are manipulation of the subconscious, but its novelty is relative. It (albeit without a modern technical base) was carried out by the Nazi propaganda ministry.

Ernst Dichter, a German scientist and student of Freud, who emigrated to the United States in 1938 and was engaged in the psychology of advertising, wrote: “The main methods of manipulating the subconscious, which are widely used by the media today, were developed by Hitler's propaganda machine. Hitler understood, like no one else, that the most powerful tool for brainwashing is not the cultivation of critical thinking, but the manipulation of the subconscious. It was used by Nazi propaganda. Subsequently, it received a scientific basis and became known as "Perception-altering technologies", a technology for changing perception. The term "brainwashing" is rejected, it comes from the vocabulary of totalitarian regimes, and the scientific term "perception-altering technologies" is accepted unconditionally."

Mass media today no longer appeal to the mass audience (the population has lost its ethnic, cultural and class homogeneity, it is a conglomerate of millions of individuals), so they are practicing persuasion techniques designed for the psychology of groups with different interests, for a variety of individual desires, illusions and fears existing in various sectors of society.

The mass media, being part of the market for mass consumption products, strive to release as many information products as possible, since in the competition for sales markets, it is not the one who delivers the highest quality product that wins, but the one who delivers the most. The high quality of the information product can alienate the mass consumer, who is accustomed by the same media to perceive only the usual, standardized information chewing gum.

“Those who work on the information conveyor skillfully manipulate mass psychology using the methods of social engineering, in which many small guiding topics and ideas build a wide front of attack in forming the necessary opinion, and this tactic is more effective than a direct strike. The information capsules push the attention to the desired conclusion, and they are so short that the average person is unable to fix them with his mind. (Sociologist A. Mol)

All facts, as a rule, are correct, they are carefully checked, the information is reliable, but reliable in the same way as hundreds of photographs of a person can be reliable, where his face, body, hands, fingers are visible separately. The fragments make up various combinations necessary for their creators, and their purpose is to conceal the complete, true portrait of society and its goals.

In addition, modern technology allows a wider and more intensive use of the principle proclaimed by Goebbels: "a lie repeated many times becomes true." Repetition blocks critical perception and develops a conditioned reflex, as in Pavlov's dogs.

Repetition can turn any absurdity into evidence, it destroys the ability of critical thinking and strengthens associative thinking, reacting only to familiar images, signs, and models.

Modern mass media, using high technologies, provide not systemic knowledge, but a system of familiar images, and turn not so much to common sense as to the cliche thinking of the mass consumer whom they manipulate.

The consumer of information, immersed in a huge stream of disparate facts, is not able to build his own concept, develop his own view, and unconsciously absorbs the hidden meaning that is embedded in the information flow by its creators. It is in the number and selection of facts, their sequence, their duration, in the form of presentation.

The speed of transmission of information capsules neutralizes conscious perception, since the viewer is not able to digest a huge mass of facts and opinions, and they fall out of his memory, like from a leaky sieve, in order to let it fill up with another information garbage the next day.

Once upon a time, when the telephone became public and changed direct communication to virtual communication, it had a shocking effect on the public.

The word "phony", a derivative of the word telephone, came into use, its active forms are "phony up" and "phony it up"; and communication on the phone was perceived as a substitution - substitution of a real person for his sound fiction.

Cinematography also replaced the three-dimensional vision of the world in its realities with images on a flat canvas of the screen, which was perceived by the first viewers as black magic. Then television appeared and, finally, the Internet, which brought up the ability of modern man to live simultaneously in the real world and the world of phantoms.

“Imagination rules the world, and a person can be controlled only by influencing his imagination,” Napoleon said.

As Orwell wrote in the 1960s: “The purpose of the media is to train the masses; they should not ask questions that threaten the stability of the social order. … it is useless to appeal to the mind and intuition of people, you need to process their consciousness in such a way that the questions themselves could not be asked. … the task of social engineers, sociologists and psychologists in the service of the ruling elite is to create an optical deception of colossal proportions, in narrowing the entire scope of public consciousness to trivial, everyday forms. The next generation will no longer question the correctness of everything that happens. The atmosphere of public life will be such that it will be impossible even to ask the question whether this is correct or not."

After the end of the Cold War, the American futurist Fukuyama proclaimed the coming “End of Ideology” (the end of mass political ideology), it has exhausted its possibilities.

The information revolution was able to dissolve general ideological concepts in a multitude of information products, seemingly completely neutral. Ideology has ceased to be perceived as propaganda, since it is carried out not by the state “Ministry of Propaganda”, but by “free” media, entertainment and culture.

Changing color pictures on a television or computer screen create a sense of tremendous dynamics, the purpose of which is to hide the narrowness and static nature of the content. The kaleidoscope of popular culture is primitive, like the quotation book of Mao, and, like the quotation book of Mao, it uses a set of elementary truths. By unleashing an avalanche of images and continuous action on the viewer, he blocks the opportunity to see the few colored glasses that make up the kaleidoscope.

The fantasies of modern mass culture have a much greater power of influence than the propaganda of the past, not only due to their technological perfection, but also because the mass culture of all social systems of the twentieth century has prepared a new perception of the world, the ability to live in a world of illusions.

The popular culture of totalitarian countries created convincing political fakes, which Orwell said in his 1984 book that their influence was so great that people stopped distinguishing falsification from reality. The French philosopher Baudrillard, however, believed that the falsifications created by the propaganda of totalitarian countries were the initial stage in creating the foundation of the modern virtual world.

The fantastic film "The Matrix", released in 1999, shows the future of the modern information society, in which the manipulation of ideas is replaced by the manipulation of conventional signs, symbols, codes of fragments of the real environment. This is a play with shadows, flat reflections of the real world, and, in this game, as well as in the play by Anatoly Schwartz "Shadow", a reflection, a shadow, manipulates a Man.

The Matrix is a giant information network that allows its inhabitants to freely participate in the creation of a virtual habitat, and they enthusiastically build their own prison. However, the Matrix has not yet been perfected, there are still dissidents trying to resist it. Morpheus, the leader of the resistance group, explains to the newcomer Neo what the Matrix is: “The Matrix is a veil in front of your eyes, which is unfolded to hide the truth and prevent the truth from being seen. This is a prison for your mind."

A prison is usually thought of as a physically existing, enclosed space from which there is no exit. The matrix is a qualitatively different prison, a virtual prison, in which the inhabitant feels free, since there are no bars, cells or walls in it. Something like modern zoos, reproducing the scenery of nature, an artificial, improved habitat, not in any way reminiscent of iron cages with the concrete floors of old zoos.

In modern zoos there are no cages, animals can move freely, but only within invisible boundaries. The freedom of their movement is illusory, it is only a phantom of freedom, a decoration of freedom, in which unremitting and complete control ceases to be visual and visible. The well-maintained human zoo of modern society creates the same illusion of freedom.

The change from direct, physically tangible control to virtual control occurred so suddenly and imperceptibly for the majority that today few people are able to distinguish falsified freedom from real freedom, especially since freedom, like all other forms of human existence, is conditional, convention is the main quality that distinguishes society from natural nature.

To live in reality means to stop; life in its deepest principles is eternal, from biblical times to the present day it repeats itself, only the forms change, the essence remains the same. In order to make people move, you need illusions, dreams, fantasies, which should be more attractive than reality and constantly renewed.

The culture of any nation has elements of fantasy, uses images, symbols, and forms social illusions. But the ability to perceive fantasy as reality was a specific property of American civilization, since it grew out of the optimism inherent in all American history, the belief that in this country any fantasy can be realized. In the course of the development of American history, fantasies became more convincing than reality, and the artificial fantasy world turned into a wall behind which one could hide from a complex and incomprehensible world.

Rabindranath Tagore: “They (Americans) fear the complexity of life, its happiness and its tragedies and create many fakes, build a glass wall, fencing off from what they do not want to see, but deny its very existence. They think they are free, but they are free just like flies sitting inside a glass jar. They are afraid to stop and look around, as an alcoholic is afraid of moments of sobering."

Rabindranath spoke about America in the 1940s, when there was no television or computer yet. In the following decades, when the “glass jar” was improved, unprecedented prospects opened up for the complete replacement of the true knowledge of the world and society with colorful illusions.

The classic of American sociology, Daniel Burstin, wrote in the 1960s: “The information industry… huge investments are made and all kinds of science and technology are used. All the power of civilization is mobilized to create an impenetrable barrier between us and the real facts of life."