Following up to my own post (mea culpa) where I quoted Henry Giroux
thus:
For the first time in modern history, centralized commercial
institutions that extend from traditional broadcast culture to the
new interactive screen cultures - rather than parents, churches or
schools - tell most of the stories that shape the lives of the
American public.
I commented
mds> ...any corporation that's playing in [the $700 billion] price
mds> range will be prepared to spend a $100 million or so on salaries,
mds> bribes, support for favored educational or other institutions --
mds> in general for subversion of the public interest wherever that
mds> kind of return can be anticipated (hoped for?) in the short- or
mds> medium-term future.
Here's a piece on "stealth lobbying".
http://truth-out.org/news/item/9889-exposed-the-other-alecs-corporate-playbook
Clearly, the corporate playbook in the statehouses extends far
beyond the tentacles of ALEC, which is but a small part of a vast,
complex network of nonprofits.
The multilayered, dynamic system of corporate representatives
mingling with state legislators and public officials in a network
of quasi-governmental nonprofits, allows the small number of
people who are part of the interlocking directorate to wield a
huge amount of power in shaping public policy. Under the guise of
conducting educational activities, the stealth lobbyists of the
"other ALECs" reduce the choice of citizens to which version of
the corporate agenda to accept.
Will citizens, then, continue to accept such a scheme? Time will
tell.
Not precisely congruent with telling "most of the stories that shape
the lives of the American public" but parallel. The same arborization
of intentional, coordinated corporate/big-business agenda and
viewpoint, fed from the same financial wells and using the same
ingenuous techniques of persuasion (if not more aggressive ones)
permeates media, penetrates public and post-secondary education and
tilts the "the stories that shape [our] lives".
In YADATROT [2], those ingenuous stories essentially mask out much of
what meaningful work, meaningful career or just availability of
adequately-paid and adequately-respected jobs and replace the
masked-out portions with a Disneyland version of reality to which we
are expected to aspire. Critical thinking, actually seeing "what is on
the end of your fork" is anathema to the Disney-fied version of your
life and aspirations. The above-cited article reflects the propagation
of the corporate Disneyland stage set into local and state products of
the legislative process. As the author writes:
Will citizens, then, continue to accept such a scheme? Time will
tell.
- Mike
[1] Jeez, the "Gloomy America" subject is getting a lot of mileage.
Are we having fun yet?
[2] Yet Another Desperate Attempt To Remain On Topic
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
/V\
[email protected] /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
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