We Are Being Programmed (Part 3): The Lab

We are all affected by it...call it advertising, propaganda, programming, social engineering, psychological operations, or whatever other term could be applied.  The act of a force outside of your mind trying to convince you to do something. In the third episode we play a couple of clips of commercial radio from the 1940's, then we enter 'The Lab'.  Once sound film is perfected (more or less), Hollywood productions are now the great laboratory of for propagandists experimentation.  Any good propagandist would look at the sheer numbers, up to 90 million moviegoers each week, and start drooling at the possibilities.  One homogenized audio/video message seen in just one week by 90 million people?!  This had never been an option in all of human history before motion pictures with sound were invented.  Brave new world.  American politics took notice of the potential for reaching so many people with one homogenized message and took action.  Those white men in power in Washington D.C. started hanging out with those other white men in power in Hollywood...a lot.  This is the moment when American politics had to first, and evermore, deal with what they will look like to the public.  People in politics/industry quickly figured out how to sell the image needed to get citizens/consumers to choose their product.  Oh, and then WWII started and the Golden Age of Propaganda was about to begin. [Click to Listen]

Propaganda (1928): Part 1

On this supplemental episode we kick off a series of the Mic Check Radio Book Club.  It's the audio book of Propaganda by Edward L Burnays, published in 1928.  Noam Chomsky has called this book "the main manual of the public relations industry".  It may be 87 years old, but the ideas and concepts are still used (and successful) today.  This book explores the psychology of manipulating the masses in order to influence consumerism, politics, social change and gender dynamics.  On this episode we will hear Chapter 1: Organizing Chaos and Chapter 2: The New Propagandists. [Click to Listen]

We Are Being Programmed (Part 2): The Switch

We are all affected by it...call it advertising, propaganda, programming, social engineering, psychological operations, or whatever other term could be applied.  The act of a force outside of your mind trying to convince you to do something.  In the second episode of this series we take a look at the early, early days of advertising...before cars took people to stores miles from their house.  Back in this time period, the merits of a consumer good or service were believed to be enough to sell the item.  At the turn of the century (1900) we were still considered 'citizens' by those in positions of power (government and industry), but this was all about to change.  After the success of the Committee on Public Information, a WWI organization in charge of swaying public opinion to support the war, the same techniques used to sell the war to the citizens of the US were adapted by big business to more effectively sell their goods and services.  Edward Burnays was a member of the CPI and the leading proponent of switching the citizenry into consumers in the post WWI years. In the mid 1920's, he successfully combined the philosophy of Wilfred Trotter (and his idea of "herd instinct") with the writings of his uncle, Sigmund Freud.  The successful techniques pioneered by Burnays are still being used to sell us consumer goods today; press release, celebrity endorsement, testimonials, sex, product placement and the idea that buying a consumer good that we don't need will fill that empty hole in our lives. [Click to Listen]

We Are Being Programmed (Part 1)

We are all affected by it...call it advertising, propaganda, programming, social engineering, psychological operations, or whatever other term could be applied.  The act of a force outside of your mind trying to convince you to do something.  In the kick-off episode of this series we go over the etymology and definitions of the above terms and then get into an example of how 'conversations' on this topic usually play out within the corporate media [hint: they suck].  We also take a listen to some shitty pop music and ask 'how do the lyrics affect the human brain', mainly in an unconscious way.  We conclude part 1 with an adaptation of the Zen TV Experiment and how it could be used with any kind of screen, to the benefit of us all.  [Click to Listen]

FBI Arrests Ohio Man for Legal Activites

Here's the initial news headline that caught my attention "FBI Arrest Ohio Man in ISIS Inspired Attack on US Capitol Building".  This headline caught my eye for a number of reasons; I live in Ohio, the FBI has a track record of coaxing isolated individuals into "plots" like this and the idea of attacking the US Capitol sounds terrifying.  So, in this episode was track down the publicly available paperwork the FBI filed on Christopher Lee Cornell to see what the reality is behind this kind of headline. [Click to Listen]

Reasonable Expectations of Privacy

More details on Police State tactics of surveillance. The FBI (and the court system) has determined that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy once a citizen has left his or her home.  So, if you are outside of your house, you will be monitored.  How?  Two of the new surveillance weapons used by the United States Intelligence Community are the DRT Box and the StingRay.  They both work in similar ways.  They are "cell-site simulators" or "ISMI catchers".  

From the ACLU website:

"Stingrays, also known as "cell site simulators" or "IMSI catchers," are invasive cell phone surveillance devices that mimic cell phone towers and send out signals to trick cell phones in the area into transmitting their locations and identifying information. When used to track a suspects cell phone, they also gather information about the phones of countless bystanders who happen to be nearby.Law enforcement agencies all over the country possess Stingrays, though their use is often shrouded in secrecy. The ACLU has uncovered evidence that federal and local law enforcement agencies are actively trying to conceal their use from public scrutiny, and we are continuing to push for transparency and reform."

The DRT Boxes are now being used in the air (plane, drone, helicopter, etc.) to sweep up even more information from cell phone users.  It doesn't seem like there is even an expectation of privacy within the walls of your home anymore.

[Click to Listen]

Activist Cinema 2014

A look at some of the great examples of Activist Cinema from 2014, and a little bit of behind the scenes information about the 'Sony Hack'.
No No: A Dockumentary,
The Internet's Own Boy,
The Unknown Known,
Citizenfour,
Night Moves,
Selma.
[Click to Listen]