(May 18, 2023 at 4:27 am)emjay Wrote: If I may interject my thoughts on this? Though I see where you're coming from, I'd say that propaganda only goes so far. For instance think this modern digital age, where we are being conditioned to accept that we will no longer own anything, only licence it, and where it's often right in the T&C's that that they can whip it out from under you at any time for any or no reason. Then if that wasn't enough, further conditioned to accept we'll less and less be able to pay for anything outright either, instead having to rent or subscribe to it. The point being that since these big tech companies are actual or pseudo-monopolies, they can get away with this, but as much as they attempt to propangandize us to not only lump this but also like it, all it does in reality, at least for many people including me, is create resentment at being exploited... ie it does not succeed in making us want and/or value this state of affairs, just realise how powerless we are against it.
Well, clearly the propagandists have to work harder on you!
To some extent it means their methods of persuasion have failed, but I suppose there are also cases where they don't have to bother. As you say, if we have no choice but to take what they're serving, then they don't care whether we like it or not.
You make a good point about people feeling powerless. One of the things that gets propagandized is the illusion that we have any power at all, government-wise. Your vote counts!!! Except it doesn't.
I think where the propaganda is really effective is when it sets acceptable limits on our choices, and then markets all the available choices. So for example the ways in which a person can rebel from mainstream normie society are largely choices in what you buy. A person who buys a leather jacket and rides a Harley-Davidson is a rebellious individual not bound by societal norms. And he knows that's true because it's been marketed to him so successfully. He rebels in a way that's predetermined by advertising.
A normie shops at Forever 21, a rebellious individual who thumbs her nose at authority shops at Hot Topic. Same amount of money in the same mall; different semiotic expressions. (Are these stores still in business? They were the last time I was in a mall.) Actually thinking outside the box is hard.
An actual rebel who actually evaded societal persuasion would be stomped on, and not only by the police. Most of the scolding for social norms comes from peers. People really like to scold.
I have a good friend here in Japan who moved to California for a few years. She was excited thinking about the chance to live freely in America and work on her art away from Japanese peer pressure. Pretty much as soon as she got to the US her home owners' association told her she wasn't allowed to display her sculpture on her own front porch. Property values!
