The Manufacturing Dissent ends with Noam Chomsky saying, "The
question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved
or threats to be avoided [as they have been until now]. In this possibly
terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are ... essential to
survival." So what does this mean? Human existence, democracy and freedom
– how are they inter-connected?
Human existence is connected to freedom because without
freedom, humans are just like any other controlled, non-living thing. Democracy
is to freedom because the people get the right – the freedom to choose their
leaders and the freedom of speech to express their opinions towards the running
of country. History has often showed us that hegemonies can cause lots of
unrest – both violent to the country and violent psychologically for the
population of the country.
There have been major revolutions in the past two years.
Countries that have been under the rules of dictator want their democracy –
their freedom. Egypt saw the stepping down of Hosni Mubarak, Libya saw the
abdication and death of Muhammad Gaddafi and Syria is plunging into the worse
of revolutions, day by day.
So what causes all these uprisings? Because of discontent
amongst people. People fail to express themselves externally, which would
bitter them internally to a level that would lead to an outrageous eruption. It
is normal for any person to feel in such a way. If there is no means of
communication, no language to express the hurt or anger, then it all
accumulates inside the brain and heart and when this feeling reaches its peak –
it erupts like hot lava from an active volcano. The language or the way of
expressing that comes out at that time is full of agony, foul words, and
inauspicious and dangerous symbolisms. To other civilized countries, the
revolts may seem a portrayal of hooliganism. Or the leaders may seem like
complete tyrants. But, that is what the media shows them. Unless they
themselves have not seen the happenings, they cannot judge the situation and
the people’s decisions by the media. The reason being that media can be very
manipulative of the thoughts or the decisions that public is forming. Sometimes
what we watch, see, hear in the news becomes correct to us, eventhough in
reality it is far from the truth.
Media is meant to enlighten people about the truths of
life – the daily happenings, morals, important messages and everything that
gives knowledge. The media does enlighten us; but with knowledge that is many a
times not real. In his movie, the Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky describes
how the media is controlled; the media does not present the truth – leading the
population to forming wrong opinions. According to him, the media is a form of
indoctrination.
Indoctrination is the persuasion to believe completely in
a particular thing. It is a form of propaganda. The Nazi’s used indoctrination
to convince the people of Germany that they were taking the correct measures
and could not possibly go wrong in their decisions. The Nazi’s were dictators.
Propaganda is often termed to a weapon for the dictators. “Propaganda is to
democracy what violence is to dictatorship” Chomsky suggests. I agree because propaganda forces people to believe and
give up their freedom to think and create opinions by themselves. It is
blocking their form of communication – their language that they possess in
their thoughts. The language that the propaganda uses, reflects the hegemony of
persuasive language over the language of thoughts. It can portray the worse to
come in a way that the population would believe it and see it more socially
correct or at times a little more positively. They would use euphemisms. For
example, the secret police would be shown as the ‘protectors’ of the country.
This would make the public believe that they are there to protect them, whereas
their real motive is to detain certain opposition parties. The indoctrination
hinders the ability to think for the people to actually dissent. Language at
this point, is absolutely zero because humans are just the ‘working machines’
operating in a manufacturing company, with complete dominance of working the
way the controller wants.
Chomsky suggests that “humans are blinded by faith and not
reason” and that ““Future society” – should be seeking out forms of authority
and challenge their legitimacy”. It is true that most of us
would follow whatever the news says. We are governed by what the media has to
present to us. And media not only in the form of political indoctrination but
also, in the form of normal day-to-day activities. For example, consider a
teenager watching the news about some sort of revolt that a particular class of
society started against the upper class. If that teenager were from the upper
class, without reasoning, would go against the lower class and look down upon
them. This might start reflecting in their behaviour with their schoolmates.
They might start using inappropriate language with the classmates or anyone
that reminds them of the news they hear or see. Their language becomes
controlled by the news.
When we see our daily soaps or award shows, we are often
showed commercials that use the persuasive language and draw the attention of
the audience. Their use of language – the power that language holds in drawing
our attention is clearly seen in advertising campaigns which compel us to buy a
particular product.
In Nazi Germany, the language was controlled because
people were showed anti-sematic movies leading them to further dislike the
Jewish populations. Such forms of indoctrination have always proven to be
successful in controlling the language of the people. It is, indeed, like the
violence of dictatorship. It, therefore, becomes important for the people to
challenge this indoctrination. We have the right to information, then why
should our knowledge be left incomplete or biased? I believe that media should
be questioned from time. It is risky for us to follow and develop a language
that is of the media’s – which is not necessarily true. We should gain the
necessary information. However, if not possible, then atleast we should
question the media and not just blindly use its language.
