UG#518 - The Mendacity of Hype (Psywar and The Truth Emergency)
Robin Upton | 27.09.2010 15:48 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles | Sheffield | World
The rest of our show this week is taken up by an adaptation of Scott Noble's documentary, PsyWar, on 'psychological operations' in US. It start with an examination of their use by the political machine to conjure up support for war, reporting that a remarkable ¾ of US soldiers that invaded Iraq believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the attacks on US on September 11th.
It then reviews the origins of propaganda as class war, identifying the Ludlow Massacre of 1913 as the origins of the use of psyops by commercial interests, and reviewing how they were used by corporations to combat widespread public awareness of and hostility to their agenda of selfish wealth accumulation. It looks at the rise and rise of consumerism as a tool for social control and solving the 'problem' of overproduction. Its conclusion is that whilst it has become an enormous business (there are more employees in public relations companies than there are journalists) propaganda can be countered by identifying its agents and unmasking their hidden agendas.
Thanks to Scott Noble for the documentary, a valuable contribution to combating the rising tide of self-serving lies coming from commercial bodies.
Robin Upton
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