Buen cine político Esta es una recomendación urgente, porque me temo que a “No” le queda poco tiempo en cartelera (en Madrid está en un solo cine, los Golem) y, por lo que me cuentan, aún no es posible descargarla. Así que vayan a verla cuanto antes. Además de asistir durante casi dos horas a una [...]

Son fiestas navideñas, momento de juntarnos, comer, celebrar y, sobre todo, comprar. La Navidad es, también, la “fiesta” del consumo, ya que en ningún otro momento del año, para beneplácito de los mercaderes del capital, compramos tanto como ahora. Comprar para regalar, para vestir, para olvidar o, simplemente, comprar por comprar.

13 estrategias de autodefensa para no sucumbir al chantaje publicitario navideño El trineo de la mercancía navideña tirado por jaurías de publicistas. Sin la publicidad, sin la complicidad de los gobernantes, sin la complacencia de los mandos clericales… el cometido mercantil de los festejos navideños naufragaría en las tiendas departamentales. Los mass media han secuestrado, en alianza [...]

As many wags have noted, the disclosures of Wikileaks have subjected the US Empire and its operatives to a full-body scan. Turnaround is fair play, because, until now, in the US, the powerless masses are subject to arbitrary pat downs and body scans, while the powerful and connected are massaged by [...]

Edward Bernays, the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, is said to have invented modern propaganda. During the First World War, he was one of a group of influential liberals who mounted a secret government campaign to persuade reluctant Americans to send an army to the bloodbath in Europe. In his book Propaganda, published in 1928, Bernays wrote that the "intelligent manipulation of the organised habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society", and that the manipulators "constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power in our country". Instead of propaganda, he coined the euphemism "public relations". Such spin is in place with the pull-out from Iraq, but it is a poor disguise for America's determination to keep waging war.

The new film “Inception” adds something significant to the ancient ruminations about reality’s authenticity—something profoundly relevant to this epoch of confusion. In the movie’s tale of corporate espionage, we are asked to ponder this moment’s most disturbing epistemological questions: Namely, how are ideas deposited in people’s minds, and how incurable are those ideas when they are wrong? Today’s most pervasive and effective propaganda is the kind that is “least noticeable” and consequently “convinces people they are not being manipulated.” The flip side is also true: When an idea is obviously propaganda, it loses credibility. Indeed, in the same way the subconscious of “Inception’s” characters eviscerate known invaders, we are reflexively hostile to ideas when we know they come from agenda-wielding intruders.

The last time I was in a room like this in the Pentagon, a colonel called Hum stopped my interview with another war-making official when I asked why so many innocent civilians were being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then it was in the thousands; now it is more than a million. "Stop tape!" he ordered. The Pentagon, says The Associated Press, spends $4.7 billion on public relations: that is, winning the hearts and minds not of recalcitrant Afghan tribesmen, but of Americans. This is known as "information dominance" and PR people are "information warriors." American imperial power flows through a media culture to which the word imperial is anathema. To broach it is heresy. Colonial campaigns are really "wars of perception," wrote the present commander, Gen. David Petraeus.

Artículo publicado en Amauta por medio y con permiso de Centro de Colaboraciones Solidarias por Eduardo Galeano La explosión del consumo en el mundo actual mete más ruido que todas las guerras y arma más alboroto que todos los carnavales. Como dice un viejo proverbio turco, quien bebe a cuenta, se emborracha el doble.  La cultura de [...]

Source: The Nation by Sebastian Jones February 11, 2010 President Obama spent most of December 4 touring Allentown, Pennsylvania, meeting with local workers and discussing the economic crisis. A few hours later, the state’s former governor, Tom Ridge, was on MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Matthews, offering up his own recovery plan. There were “modest things” the White House [...]

Source: t r u t h o u t by World Business Academy January 22, 2010 Editor’s Note: Truthout is joining with the World Business Academy in an effort to demonstrate popular opposition to the unethical practice of neuromarketing manipulation. Please visit the Stop Neuromarketing page to view a video and sign the petition. Guard your reptilian brain. Corporations [...]