A very well argued and lucid post and I agree with the general thrust of your argument. It was not my intention to imply that the ruling class are consciously undermining the position of the working class as you inferred. Clearly, if this is indeed the reality, then dissident journalists and film makers like John pilger and Michael Moore would never have been able to break through to the mainstream.

As your correctly point out, it is inherent greed that drives the system forward. It is for this reason that corporate executives appear only too happy to finance and broadcast people like Pilger and Moore (despite their obvious ideological and political differences) in the knowledge that a sizeable profit can be made from their work in the process. In other words, they are metaphorically only too happy to pay for the noose with which to hang themselves with providing they make money from it.

The point I was trying to make in my piece then, was that it is not conscious conspiratorial actions of the corporate media against working class interests that is the issue, rather the problems arise because corporate reportage (barring the odd exceptions), is predicated on an entire set of false assumptions underpinned by an inherent systemmic bias in favour of the prevailing socio-political and economic orthodoxy. David Cromwell and his colleagues at www.medialens.org have invested a great deal of work in this field of analysis, as have Chomsky and Herman in for example, their ground breaking work 'Manufacturing Consent'.

In your final paragraph, in which you claim to part company with me, is I think, a misunderstanding of the thrust of my argument. What I was specifically referring to was my critique of Frodly's thesis at the beginning of this thread in which he appeared to espouse the merits of non-ideological thought represented through the independent party and the associated claims for impartiality and objectivity (as reflected in the corporate media) that this implies.

What I attempted to posit was that such claims for impartiality and objectivity are in reality an illusion given that false consciousness is an intrinsic aspect of the corporate media machine. It therefore follows that if the information we receive via the media on a daily basis is not objective but biased (and hence bogus) but nevertheless is presented to us as objective truth, then the claims of the independent party who profess to have objective credentials, must also in reality be biased and therefore bogus. This is why any claims for 'balance' both politically or ideologically, whether originating from 'news' media or from people like Frodly, is in my view, complete nonsense.

Much of this objective discourse is peddled by public state and 'liberal' broadcasters, like for example, the BBC whose 'hearts and minds' we are told are 'won over' by the arguments of people like me on the left. But this is not adequately reflected in their broadcast output as analysis by researchers at both Glasgow and Cardiff Universities testify. No, the sad truth is that the range of media discourse devoted to providing a full range of political points of view are necessarily compromised by virtue of the ideological restraints placed on them as a result of false consciousness.

This, in my view, is the reason why political and ideological debates in the mainstream media are, for example, restricted to the policy debates between the Democrats and the Republicans in the US without any serious examination of the powerful economic interests and false assumptions that give rise to them.

This is the context with which Noam Chomsky described the US as 'a single ideological state with competing political factions'. The single ideology he is referring to is the neo-liberal economic capitalist system, and the competing political factions are the Democrats and the Republicans. One could put a cigarette paper between the two of them to separate them in terms of their fundamental ideological differences.

I have a question, how do you know about this false consciousness? If it is instilled in us by the...actually I can't really tell what you think instills it! Is it the media? Corporations? The government? But if it is instilled in us all, how can you see through it? Are you just vastly superior in intellect to all other people on the globe? Or maybe you were raised in the wild by talking wolves, and the false consciousness was unable to be instilled in you?

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R.I.P. Molly, I miss you every day!!

Im a Tarte, what! you want some of this?


To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead. Thomas Paine

Who is saying you are confused spanny? LBJ?

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And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

I didn't read it because his post didn't use paragraghs.

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And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

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There are only two things wrong with this great nation of ours, democrats and republicans!

Not necessarily in that order.

Oh. I apologize if I misunderstood you. But you sure seem to afix blame for the "false consciousness" on the corporate media machine. You must admit that we on the left have known of the power of this false consciousness for a long time, and have used it to our advantage for a generation now. We've successfully changed American thinking away from the original founders' misguided romance with liberty, and redirected it toward our goals of a progressive and socialistic society, properly managed and directed by central planning and distribution.

Although many of our supporters still think they are "free," they are in fact wards of the socialist state for life, with social security, government run schools, govrnment run healthcare, and government run environmental policy. We've successfully proded them into believing that "freedom" means smoking dope with impunity and engaging in whatever off-beat sexual behavior they wish.........at any place or anytime they wish. As long as they continue to vote for our leftist candidates, they may believe as they wish.

If there is a "false consciousness" causing a bias in thinking and news reporting, it's been working for us quite effectively.

Obviously you are a 'glass is half full' type of a guy which is great, but I'm afraid I do not share your faith in the ability of the current system to bring about the changes necessary to free the working class from their oppression. The point I was making is the parameters for debate in the mainstream media are extremely restrictive which limits the scope for radical political change. Very occassionally, dissenting journalists like Pilger etc are given space to challenge official power and the false assumptions that underpin it, but are then marginalized. Adjectives like 'maverick' or 'firebrand' are used to attack them when the media's lies and distortions are exposed.

Naturally, not all the lies are believed by all of the working class, but the point is some of them are which then creates a false or contradictory consciousness within a significant layer of the class. False or contradictory consciousness arises because people's real life experiences and past struggles do not correspond with ruling class propaganda. The extent to which the working class are able to overcome contradictory consciousness is dependent upon prevailing socio-political and economic conditions. Hence, during the progressive period of the late 1960s foer example, class consciousness was extremely high but at present is is comparatively low. After Barrack becomes president working class consiousness will hopefully start to shift back again. But one ought not to underestimate the role of the mainstream media in their attempts to undermine this eventuality.

False consciousness or contradictory consciousness were concepts advanced by the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci in the 1920s. The argument is that consciousness in the mass of the people is constantly shifting or moving. The extent to which consciousness shifts is dependent upon a set of socio-political and economic conditions. During the late 1960s consciousness shifted within large sections of the class and as a result many people began to openly challenge ruling class ideology and the assumptions that underpinned them.

Contradictory consciousness arises because of the distortions and lies we are fed in the mainstream media. Some of us buy into these lies but others do not. So consciousness is uneven throughout the class at any given moment in time. As a result, consciousness can go one of two ways - to the left or to the right.

Marxists, as a political vanguard, are - as a result of our understanding of political economy and history - ideally placed to ensure that contradictory consciousness is shifted in the desired direction - ideally towards revolutionary socialism as the antithesis to a potential growth in fascism. In the 1930s in Germany we failed and the consequences were horrendous. However, the 1960s was a creative and positive period for the left which we need to see repeated following Barrack's election victory.

I assume you meant Clear Skies.

Bush had two choices.

Enforce the EPA rules on the books, or make up new ones.

Bush wrote up new rules and called it the Clear Skies Initiative.

Yes there were reductions in pollution. But the reductions were LOWER than what would have occured if they just actually enforced current EPA rules.


Ixtellor

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George W. Bush "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building"

Blasphemy is a victimless crime.

Agreed, party loyalty often blinds the individual. . . By keeping your self distant from party groups, you can keep an open mind for all the issues.

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This Machine Kills Fascists!

Resistance to Tyranny is Obedience to God

Remember the Children of Sderot