The ten points offered below, I could not find a direct attribution to Noam Chomsky (the ten media manipulation strategies are attributed to him, in accordance to the text widely in circulation over the Internet), although the
rationale and argumentative thesis seem characteristic of his style. In
addition, the direct references of the original text to the book “Silent
Weapons for Quiet Wars” point to a rather controversial publication (see Ref.
list for more info). As so, I cannot vouch for their authenticity or whether
they are a product of Chomsky, since I could not find direct references to his
work (or quotes from his work / speeches / lectures). However, I reproduce them
here, since they carry a certain truth, analogies of which we may notice in our
everyday lives, and could spark fertile debates.
The reproduced text begins
here.
Renowned
critic and always MIT linguist Noam Chomsky,
one of the classic voices of intellectual dissent in the last decade, has
compiled a list of the ten most common and effective strategies resorted to by
the agendas “hidden” to establish a manipulation of the population through the
media. Historically the media have proven highly efficient to mold public
opinion. Thanks to the media paraphernalia and propaganda, have been created
ordestroyed social movements, justified wars, tempered financial crisis,
spurredon some other ideological currents, and even given the phenomenon of
media as producers of reality within the collective psyche. But how to detect
the most common strategies for understanding thesepsychosocial tools which,
surely, we participate? Fortunately Chomsky has been given the task of
synthesizing and expose these practices, some more obvious and more
sophisticated, but apparently all equally effective and, from a certain point
of view, demeaning. Encourage stupidity, promote a sense of guilt, promote
distraction, or construct artificial problems and then magically,solve them,
are just some of these tactics.
1. The strategy of distraction
The primary
element of social control is the strategy of distraction which is to divert
public attention from important issues and changes determined by the political
and economic elites, by the technique of flood or flooding continuous
distractions and insignificant information. Distraction strategy is also
essential to prevent the public interest in the essential knowledge in the area
of the science, economics, psychology, neurobiology and cybernetics. “Maintaining
public attention diverted away from the real social problems, captivated by
matters of no real importance. Keep the public busy, busy, busy, no time to
think, back to farm and other animals”.
2. Create problems, then offer
solutions
This method
is also called “problem -reaction- solution.” It creates a problem, a
“situation” referred to cause some reaction in the audience, so this is the
principal of the steps that you want to accept. For example: let it unfold and
intensify urban violence, or arrange for bloody attacks in order that the
public is the applicant’s security laws and policies to the detriment of
freedom. Or create an economic crisis to accept as a necessary evil retreat of
social rights and the dismantling of public services.
3. The gradual strategy
Acceptance
to an unacceptable degree, just apply it gradually, dropper, for consecutive
years. That is how they radically new socioeconomic conditions (neoliberalism)
were imposed during the 1980s and 1990s : the minimal state, privatization, precariousness,
flexibility, massive unemployment, wages, do not guarantee a decent income, ...so
many changes that have brought about a revolution if they had been applied
once.
4. The strategy of deferring
Another way
to accept an unpopular decision is to present it as “painful and necessary”,
gaining public acceptance, at the time for future application. It is easier to
accept that a future sacrifice of immediate slaughter. First, because the
effort is not used immediately. Then, because the public, masses, is always the
tendency to expect naively that “everything will be better tomorrow” and that
the sacrifice required may be avoided. This gives the public more time to get
used to the idea of change and accept it with resignation when the time comes.
5. Go to the public as a little child
Most of the
advertising to the general public uses speech, argument, people and
particularly children’s intonation, often close to the weakness, as if the
viewer were a little child or a mentally deficient. The harder one tries to
deceive the viewer look, the more it tends to adopt a tone infantilizing. Why? “If
one goes to a person as if she had the age of 12 years or less, then, because
of suggestion, she tends with a certain probability that a response or reaction
also devoid of a critical sense as a person 12 years or younger.”
6. Use the emotional side more than
the reflection
Making use
of the emotional aspect is a classic technique for causing a short circuit on
rational analysis, and finally to the critical sense of the individual. Furthermore,
the use of emotional register to open the door to the unconscious for
implantation or grafting ideas , desires, fears and anxieties , compulsions, or
induce behaviors …
7. Keep the public in ignorance and
mediocrity
Making the
public incapable of understanding the technologies and methods used to control
and enslavement. “The quality of education given to the lower social classes
must be the poor and mediocre as possible so that the gap of ignorance it plans
among the lower classes and upper classes is and remains impossible to attain
for the lower classes.”
8. To encourage the public to be
complacent with mediocrity
Promote the
public to believe that the fact is fashionable to be stupid, vulgar and
uneducated…
9. Self-blame Strengthen
To let
individual blame for their misfortune, because of the failure of their
intelligence, their abilities, or their efforts. So, instead of rebelling
against the economic system, the individual auto-devaluate and guilt himself,
which creates a depression, one of whose effects is to inhibit its action. And,
without action, there is no revolution!
10. Getting to know the individuals better
than they know themselves
Over the
past 50 years, advances of accelerated science has generated a growing gap between
public knowledge and those owned and operated by dominant elites. Thanks to
biology, neurobiology and applied psychology, the “system” has enjoyed a
sophisticated understanding of human beings, both physically and
psychologically. The system has gotten better acquainted with the common man
more than he knows himself. This means that, in most cases, the system exerts
greater control and great power over individuals, greater than that of
individuals about themselves.
The reproduced text ends here.
Avram Noam
Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive
scientist, logician, political commentator and activist. Sometimes described as
the "father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in
analytic philosophy. He has spent most of his career at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is currently Professor Emeritus, and
has authored over 100 books. He has been described as a prominent cultural figure,
and was voted the "world's top public intellectual" in a 2005 poll. [1]
Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a
totalitarian state.
from the book “Media Control”, by Noam Chomsky, Seven Stories Press,
2002
The Internet is full of references quoting the “ten
manipulation strategies” presented above.
[Ref.] http://theinternationalcoalition.blogspot.gr/2011/07/noam-chomsky-top-10-media-manipulation_08.html
Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
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