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Manufacturing Consent (film) Quotes

Manufacturing Consent (film) is a television program that appeared on TV in 1970 . Manufacturing Consent ended in 1970.

Manufacturing Consent (film) is recorded in English and originally aired in Australia. Each episode of Manufacturing Consent (film) is 167 minutes long.

Manufacturing Consent (film) Quotes

  • (EMTV video host) "I'd like to welcome all of you to this lecture today. Several years ago Professor Chomsky was described in a U.S book review as follows: "Judged in terms of the power, green, novelty and influence of his thought, Noam Chomsky is arguably the most important intellectual alive." Professor Noam Chomsky."
  • (Unnamed) "The point is that in a military state or a feudal state or what we would now call a totalitarian state, it doesn't much matter what people think because you've got a bludgeon over their heads and you can control what they do. But when the state loses the bludgeon, when you can't control people by force, and when the voice of the people can be heard you have this problem; it may make people so curious and so arrogant that they don't have the humility to submit to a civil rule, and therefore you have to control what people think."
  • (Unnamed) "Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you're really in favor of free speech, then you're in favor of freedom of speech for precisely for views you despise. Otherwise, you're not in favor of free speech."
  • (Unnamed) "Sports; that's another example of the indoctrination system. For one thing, because it offers people something to pay attention to that's of no importance, that keeps them from worrying about things that matter to their lives, that might give them some idea of doing something about. And it's striking to see the intelligence that is used by ordinary people in sports. Listen to radio stations where people call in, often with the most exotic information."
  • (question from the audience) "Referring back to your earlier comment about escaping from or doing away with capitalism; I was wondering which workable scheme you would put in its place?"
  • (Unnamed) "Me?"
  • (Unnamed) "Well, I think that what used to be called, centuries ago, "wage slavery" is intolerable. And I don't think people ought to be forced to rent themselves in order to survive. I think that the economic institutions ought to be run democratically, by their participants, by the communities in which they exist, and so on; and I think basically through various kinds of free association."
  • (Unnamed) "Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain -- Now it's long been understood; very well; that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist; with whatever suffering and injustice it entails; as long as it's possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited, that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage can. At this stage of history either -- the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community issues guided by values of solidarity, and sympathy, and concern for others, or; alternatively; there will be no destiny for anyone to control."
  • (Unnamed) "What seems to me a; in a sense; very terrifying aspect of our society, and of other societies, is the equanimity and the detachment with which sane, reasonable, sensible people can observe such events. I think that's more terrifying than the occasional Hitler or LeMay or other that crops up. These people would not be able to operate were it not for this apathy and equanimity. And therefore I think that it's in some sense the sane and reasonable and tolerant people who share a very serious burden of guilt, which they very easily throw on the shoulders of others who seem more extreme or more violent."
  • (Frat Boy) "Yeah, for the last hour and 41 minutes, you have been whining how the elite and the government have been using thought control to keep radicals like yourself out of the public limelight. Now, you're here, I don't see any CIA men waiting to drag you off. You were in the paper, that's what everyone here heard where you were coming from, in the paper and I'm sure they're going to publish your comments in the paper. Now a lot of countries, you would have been shot for what you have been done today. So what are you whining about? This is -- We are allowing you to speak and I don't see any thought control."
  • (Unnamed) "First of all, I haven't been saying, haven't said one word about my being kept out of the limelight. The way it works here is quite different. Now I don't think you heard what I was saying, but the way it works here that there is a system of shaping, control and so on which gives a certain perception of the world. I gave one example, I'll give you sources where you can find thousands of others. That has nothing to do with me, it has to do with marginalizing the public and ensuring that they don't get in the way of elites who are supposed to run things without interference."
  • (Unnamed) "If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged."
  • (Unnamed) "If I'm analyzing capitalism and I point out that General Motors tries to maximize profit, that's not a conspiracy theory. That's analysis."
  • (Unnamed) "The way things change is because lots of people are working all the time. They're working in their communities, at their workplace, or wherever they happen to be, and they are building up the basis for popular movements which are going to make changes. That's the way everything has ever happened in history, whether it was the end of slavery or the democratic revolution, anything you want, you name it, that's the way it worked. You get a very false picture of this from the history books. In the history books there's a couple of leaders --"
  • (Mrs. Chomsky) "This guy, he's gotta go home, he really does."
  • (someone from the audience) "Thanks."
  • (Unnamed) "It means you have to develop an independent mind, and work on it. Now that's extremely hard to do alone. The beauty of our system is that is isolates everybody. Each person is sitting alone in front of the tube, you know. It's very hard to have ideas or thoughts under those circumstances. You can't fight the world alone. Some people can but it's pretty rare. The way to do it is with organization. So of course if there's to be intellectual self defence, it will have to be in the context of political and other organization."
  • (Unnamed) "Then there are other media, too, their role is quite different: it's diversion -- The purpose of those media is just to dull people's brains; to get them to watch national football -- or get involved in astrology or fundamentalist stuff, just get them away, get them away from things that matter. And for that it's important to reduce their capacity to think."
  • (EMTV video host) "Three, two, one, take two. Good morning --. My name is Kevin Flook, and I'm your video host all day here at EMTV."

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