A bit of a lefty leap of a comparison, Brian. How about some music!
The Dixie Chicks just had their music pulled from radio stations at
the request of listeners, whereas dissenting russian musicians were
arrested and built the Moscow Canal, by hand tools only, until they
starved to death.
Prop-agenda is much weaker than Eno thinks because it exists within a
modern free press. Any new shred of a "fact", pro or con any "point
of the day" is analyzed from all sides in layers of different media.
alt.eno, BBC, CNN, DW, RFI, and the local pub are just "points of
light" in the massive free press constellation. Bush/Blair have been
hammered for months, having every little detail scrutinized, and
time-tabled by hundreds of journalists. All the info is out there for
anyone who cares. If Rolling Stone is the only place one gets
information, they are news-tritionally deficient at their own fault.
Luckily these types are also too lazy to vote!
Propaganda exists only in the vacuum of freedom. Stalin, Hitler- oh
and I have to mention Hirohito and Pol Pot for our pious "eastern"
friend, all controlled the press, and thus the masses. For germans or
russians to say now "but we knew it was propaganda" still means that
they swallowed and followed, because anything else would have meant
probable death. "But we knew"- this is just the human ego
rationalizing life under totalitarian oppression. People DID dance in
the streets in Iraq and Afghanistan after their oppressors were
removed. To say that they are being oppressed now by the coalition
soldiers sounds a bit extreme and shrill to me. Not perfect, but also
not oppression.
This pulp paperback from Rampton and Stauber is part of the free
press. I am sure they started their next tract by candlelight last
week: "Power to the People! The Real Truth about the Corporate
Control of our Power Grid". All the LIES! in this book have long been
digested in the media. This book is like factoidal fast food- it is
quick and it satisfies, but it will not last long. Their LIES! and
LIARS! exposed are like little candies that will be forgotten when the
big meal of mass divulgence is served. And, they did not analyze the
biased Prop-agenda regarding the pillaging of the Iraqi National
Museum- my personal favorite so far. "How could the US and the US
military allow the history of the world to be looted!" How many weeks
was that demagogue-d to death! To say that there is powerful PR
control over the media when we saw and read about the female curator
shreiking through the museum, over and over and over, on CBS, CNN,
MSNBC, Deutche Welle, BBC, RAI, Interscope, Al Jazeera, Fox, New York
Times, Salon.com, Time, etc. It was BIG NEWS! No one gave the
eventual truth, that the artifacts were actually locked in storage,
much air or column space though. Total lies being proven so by the
patient passage of time, although brainwashed MTV types still think it
like, happened, yo.
When a real body of evidence is presented to the world, just imagine
the analysis that will go on! Everyone and their favorite musician
will have a different opinion, for or against, truth or lie. And they
will be able to express them in most countries without getting a
piano-wire necklace inna Saddam-stylie. A few countries where there
is no free press, whaddaya know, happen to be on the short list of
terror supporters.
Brian Eno will not be a happy camper into the future here, because the
war on terror ain't over. Those cocka-roaches have scrambled, and it
will take some time to get them. Last year there was a 30 year low
in the number of terrorist attacks worldwide, as reported by the UN,
but you will not hear that from Brian Eno. . .