In the world’s biggest program of social engineering the Pentagon
teamed up with Hollywood and with the TeeVee industry to sell us violence. The
tradition of social engineering goes back to the father of consumer propaganda:
Edward
Bernays, twice (on his mother’s and his father’s side) nephew of Sigmund
Freud, (also a master of social engineering to whom Bernays often paid
tribute). Bernays, who published a book titled Propaganda, parlaying what he learned from the 1914 war effort, developed
what he called the “engineering of consent.” His view of “democracy” is
paradoxical to say the least:
 |
| Edward Bernays |
“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized
habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic
society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute and
invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are
governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested,
largely by men we have never heard of….It is they who pull the wires that
control the public mind.” And Bernays was certainly one of them, in the
civilian world, the first of many. His first assignment—by Big Tobacco which
hired him—was to introduce American women to smoking (and lung cancer). On the
tail of his big success (he got socialite suffragettes to smoke up a storm as
they marched down Fifth Avenue demanding the vote) the U.S. Army hired him.
Fast forward to today’s militarized, gun-happy, armed-to-the-teeth
U.S.A. The American public likes to
believe it’s not being manipulated in any way, but a recent
FOIA request disclosed that at least 800 feature films received support from
the Department of Defense, including such violent blockbuster franchises as
“Iron Man,” “Transformers,” and “The
Terminator.” Such films as “The Recruit” and “Zero Dark Thirty” were influenced
by government officials to show heightened and inflated real world threats
while downplaying government malfeasance.
In a symbiotic relationship with the entertainment industry,
the Pentagon gets to re-write history, whitewash the military, and beef up
recruitment figures. The entertainment industry gets access to free shoots,
military hardware, personnel, and locations. For example, the 2013 “Captain Phillips”
was able to use a U.S. military guided missile destroyer, an amphibious assault
ship, several helicopters, and members of SEAL Team Six, courtesy of the U.S.
Navy who worked the shoot into their training.
With Pentagon affiliation, production benefits from
additional perks: often it is able to avoid Screen Actors Guild’s daily
minimums, and having to pay residuals. But here, as everywhere, the rule of no
free lunch applies: Pentagon (and CIA) vetted scripts have to be re-written according
to government dictates, their meanings doctored, their images altered, and
sometimes, the project is cancelled altogether because it fails to meet
military standards.
No where in the credits does the public ever see the name of
Phil
Strub, the go-to liaison man operating in Hollywood on behalf of the Pentagon,
a man with the power to demand re-writes, alterations, and deletions of
material not in keeping with the image the military likes to project. Films are
denied Pentagon support if in Strub’s view they show the military in a negative
light, which might include films with scenes relating to murder, torture, extracting
gold teeth as war booty, or drug use, such as “Platoon,” Apocalypse Now,” Zero
Dark Thirty,” and “Argo,” none of which received Pentagon support. More than
1,100 Television titles have had their content brought into line while
benefitting from Pentagon backing, from “Army Wives,” to “Flight 93” to “Ice
Road Truckers” in exchange for the industry’s providing glamor to D.C.’s
political class.
More often than not, Hollywood is happy to play ball with
Strub because his approval means a huge break in a film production’s budget.
The budgetary difference between a film that benefits from Pentagon largesse in
exchange for censorship, can be as much as $50 million dollars, a difference
that can make or break box office. And, although Strub denies it, there is a
correlation between a Pentagon-approved hit war movie and increased recruitment
figures, a key consideration in the absence of a military draft. Not only has the Pentagon established liaison
with the industry but since
1947, the CIA has also gotten into the game, “assisting” in some 60 film and
television shows.
The entertainment industry is one arm of a heavily propagandized,
increasingly violent society, and with its access to the malleable minds of
millions, its influence in molding mindset may very well outweigh that of the
media as evidenced by such recent events as the Charlottesville murder of
Heather Heyer, the
playground attempted lynching of a 8-year old boy by juveniles, the
stomping to death and shootings
of unarmed homeless men, the ascendance to the lands’ highest office of a
White supremacist (who caught the
public eye through professional wrestling), the abrogation of habeas corpus
and posse comitatus (see the September 10 newsletter) the militarization of law
enforcement nationwide, the private security Black Swan war against the water
protectors at Standing Rock, the impunity manifested by such agencies as ICE
and the border patrol, and the hew and cry for war against Russia and North
Korea by its media arm.
A society is what it watches. A society that ingests
militarism and violence along with its popcorn does so at its peril.
Bibliography:
Tom Secker and Matthew Alford: National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government
Control in Hollywood
David L. Robb: Operation
Hollywood
Watch
The Century of the Self, Adam Curtis’ documentary describing the social
engineering work of Bernays and the Freuds.
Note: Next Newsletter,
“Chelsea Manning,” will appear October 1.
For peace of mind, boycott Hollywood film.
Some Roses Amongst the Week’s Thorns
California
clean money Act AB 249 passes in bipartisan vote of 59-15 on
its way to the governor’s desk.
California
passes Sanctuary State bill forbidding state and
local law enforcement from providing information to or acting as the deputies
for federal immigration authorities.
Last Friday, Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert told
reporters that the White House might put out another executive order
or additional guidance in the next month. “We shouldn’t use
federal money to rebuild in ways that don’t anticipate future flood risk,”
Bossert said. “So we need to build back smarter and stronger against flood
plain concerns when we use federal dollars.”
The Senate Appropriation Committee
voted on Thursday to reinstate funding for the United Nations Population Fund
and overturn the abortion gag rule, which bans funding for international
organizations that provide (or even discuss) abortion care. The move goes
against Trump’s executive order, which reinstated the
gag rule during his first few days in office. Foreign Policy reports:
Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) cancels what would have ben the largest roundup in
ICE history.
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