An interesting analysis of the relationship of racism in and by the media, and the "manufacture of consent" for war and empire.--MN
From: "F. Jones" <thanubi...@yahoo.com> In The Mis-Education of the Negro by Carter Godwin Woodson, it states, "If you can control a man's thinking, you don't have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks, you do not have to worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don't have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don't have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one." These words, written nearly eighty years ago, not only still ring true, but are also the core philosophic foundation behind a modern racist perception management program; wherein which the perceptions of black people are being covertly negatively shaped as a means of defending and maintaining white dominance and control. Today the U.S. Government, as with many other white governed nations, now uses media driven perception management programs to defend and maintain their position of white dominance and control. The U.S. media's racially devaluing depictions and distorted portrayal of its Black population, that amplifies the negative to the point that it distorts reality, is a deliberate government deployed perception management program. It is purposefully designed to imply the superiority of its white populace over its Black; therefore creating internalized -self-contemptuous- responses within its Black population that hinder their Black unity and upward mobility, and manipulate them to accept white dominance over their lives. It also reinforces seemingly pre-conditioned response of resentment and prejudicial images of Black people in the majority population, thereby creating a false impression of wanton Black criminality and violence. This creates conditioned responses in its population for eventualities to unfold against its targeted Black populace without opposition or resentment. Dr. Edward Bernays, a mass manipulation and propaganda specialist hired by several U.S. presidents described this process by saying that: "If we understand the mechanism and motives of a group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it." The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) describes "perception management" as a type of psychological operation intended to provoke the behavior you want out of a given individual or targeted group collectively. Perception management through propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, and direct behavior of a population to achieve responses that further the desired intent of the Government. It is supposed to be directed at foreign audiences, and involves providing or discarding information to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning in a way that is favorable to the originator of the information. The main goal is to influence friends and enemies, provoking them to engage in the behavior that you want. [A study published in [a] recent issue of the journal Sociological Inquiry, ScienceDaily (Aug. 23, 2009) —sociologists from four major researrch institutions support the hypothesis that large populations can be manipulated in this way.] Perception Management programs use propaganda as a form of communication to purposefully persuade and/or influence the emotions, attitudes, opinions, and actions of a community, population, or specified target audiences for ideological, and/or political purposes through the controlled transmission of one-sided messages (which may or may not be factual) via mass and direct media channels. It combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations. Although [DOD] perception management programs are specifically defined as being limited to foreign audiences, critics of the U.S. Department of Defense charge that it also engages in domestic perception management. Today what are often deemed as being credible news sources are often [providing] totally made up stories ... to push a government agenda. This practice of perception management has been used for several decades as a propaganda strategy for controlling how people view political events. Perception management includes all actions used to influence the attitudes and objective reasoning of foreign audiences and consists of Public Diplomacy, Psychological Operations (PSYOPS), Public Information, Deception and Covert Action. It was refined by US intelligence services as they tried to manipulate foreign populations, but it eventually made its way into domestic US politics as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Beginning in the 1950s, more than 800 news and public information organizations and individuals carried out assignments to manage the public's perception of the CIA, according to the New York Times. By the mid-80s, CIA Director William Casey had taken the practice to the next level: an organized, covert "public diplomacy" apparatus designed to sell a governmental objective [to the US population] . As a means [of] meeting the U.S. Government's unrelenting objective of maintaining its position of white dominance, the self-perceptions of black people are being covertly negatively shaped. It is done through the "Mainstreaming" of negative propaganda devaluing Black people within the United States [that] has been on-going for more than 40 years. Through this perception management program, Black people are being made to see themselves through [a] mortifying lens secretly assigned to them by white elites. This present system uses the national media's proven ability to mass manipulate and socially engineer society through the usage [of] mass media propaganda techniques. Its constant deplorably negative depictions of African Americans - that subject them to seeing only the fraudulent worst in themselves - is designed to corrupt their sense of racial black unity and cohesion, mold the character of self-hatred, engender self-doubt, self-loathing, and distrust among their group; and insinuate that Blacks admire, respect, and trust only Whites. It also drills the message that Blacks are powerless, of lesser moral, and intelligence and that they need whites to govern over their lives. This "Mainstreaming" of negative propaganda devaluing Black people within the United States has been on-going for more than 40 years [attempting to covertly reverse the gains made through the Black freedom struggle]. Its unrelenting daily assault on the Black psyche is designed to adversely manipulate and shape the minds and collective consciousness of America's Black population. The main motto of this mass manipulation program is to divide and conquer, and it works by affecting the unconscious mind through deception. This program not only manipulates Blacks to accept white dominance over their lives, it conditions them to prefer it. There are many quantifying examples supporting the contention that the U.S. government pursues secret agendas which employ mass manipulating perception management programs. Former CIA official Philip Giraldi in his article, "The Rogue Nation," makes it clear that the U.S. government has a hegemonic agenda that it is pursuing without congressional or public awareness. The agenda's big picture is not understood by the public or [even] by most in Congress. Giraldi asserts that the agenda is illegal under both U.S. and international law, but that the illegality of the agenda does not serve as a barrier. In the February issue of the American Behavioral Scientist, a scholarly journal, Professor Lance DeHaven-Smith writes that state crimes against democracy (SCAD) involve government officials, often in combination with private interests that engage in covert activities in order to implement an agenda. Examples include McCarthyism or the fabrication of evidence of communist infiltration, or the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution based on false claims of President Johnson and Pentagon chief McNamara that North Vietnam [had] attacked a U.S. naval vessel. During the Cold War, the Pentagon sent undercover US journalists to Russia and Eastern Europe to write pro-American articles for local media outlets. More recently, the US government used perception management techniques to promote the belief that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the invasion of Iraq. According to the article "The Man Who Sold The War" by James Bamford, [in] a recent edition of Rolling Stone magazine, John Rendon and his Rendon Group, the leader in [the] strategic field of perception management, was awarded [a] 16-million [dollar] contract from the Pentagon "to target Iraq and other adversaries with propaganda. The Rendon firm has been very influential in creating the conditions necessary to justify the war in Iraq. And it has had close ties with the US government ever since 1991, when the CIA hired the firm to help 'create the conditions for the removal of Hussein from power'." Sometimes it involved so-called "white propaganda," stories and op-eds secretly financed by the government. But they also went "black," pushing false story lines, such as how the Sandinistas were actually anti-Semitic drug dealers. That campaign included altered photos and blatant disinformation dispensed by public officials. During the ongoing Iraq war, the US military covertly paid Iraqi newspapers to print stories written by US soldiers; these stories were geared towards enhancing the appearance of the US mission in Iraq. This massive manipulation/perception management program is at the core of the feeling of self-contempt that many African Americans now experience as well as the feelings of superiority that many whites possess. It adversely manipulates and shapes the minds and collective perceptions of the Black population, breaks down their sense of racial unity and allegiance, molds the character of self-hatred, and engenders self-doubt, self-loathing, and division among their group, hence weakening their ranks. It also conditions Black people to accept white dominance over their lives and fosters false justifications for [the U.S.] legal system's mistreatment of African Americans, wherein they are disproportionately incarcerated, given stiffer sentences, and unfairly treated. The effects of this program are also manifested in ideas, education, governmental policies, economic stratification, social segregation, housing markets, hiring and promotion practices, psychological issues, and minority access to a variety of social services and opportunity. It also affects attitudes that, when enacted through governmental policies, laws, and other legislation actions, serve to ensure that African Americans will not advance. The hypothesis that large populations can be manipulated in this way is well validated by top sociologist, psychiatrist and major research institutions. Moreover, history overwhelmingly demonstrates that the White elite's innate proclivity for racism, control, and dominance is much too deeply engrained for them to merely just give up their practices of implementing different forms of suppressive systems against its Black population. Therefore this method of defending their position of white dominance was the logical choice, for unlike the extremely blatant systems used in the past, which Blacks were able to easily identify and therefore unify to form counter strategies against, this racist system is much harder to detect. Once you as a Black reader and recipient of this once hidden information becomes aware of it, you now inherit the moral obligation to help spread this truth throughout the masses of our people. Please do so. By Franklin Jones aka Thanubian www.divineBlacktruth.org ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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