Manufacturing Dissent - Language

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.