Harry Targ
https://youtu.be/7ucF2IeJTfE On spectacle, cultural hegemony, capitalism, and the media.
In addition,
we learn that the foreign policy/military/covert intervention complex have been
strategizing about new forms of war planning (reference to a recent NATO report
below). Along with preparedness for nuclear war, conventional war, hybrid war,
and cyber war, we now are engaged in building a capacity for “cognitive war.”
The latter refers to ways in which information, symbols, and myths can be
disseminated all across the face of the globe. The cognitive warriors draw upon
psychology and biology to figure out ways to shape people’s consciousness. The
imagery of the “fog machine” in Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
describes well how inmates in an insane asylum are blinded from seeing reality
clearly.
Insights from Social Science
Some time ago the eminent political scientist Murray Edelman wrote a book entitled The Symbolic Uses of Politics. In it he postulated that most people experience the political world not through concrete reality but through emotional symbols. For example, the classic way in which people relate to their political institutions is through the flag of their nation. Americans viewing the flag see images of men in combat fighting for freedom or men and women standing in line waiting to vote for their preferred political candidates. A colorful cloth with stars and stripes gets transformed in our consciousness into a rich, glamorized history even when the emotive images are in direct contradiction to people’s lives.
In addition, Edelman suggests the ways in which the emotional symbols get embedded and reinforced in the consciousness of peoples by borrowing from anthropological writings on myth and ritual. Myths are networks of emotional symbols that collectively tell stories that explain “reality.” Rituals reinforce in behavior the mythology of public life. We need only reflect on the pledge to the flag that opens elementary and secondary school class sessions in rich and poor communities alike and the singing of the national anthem at athletic events.
Edelman pointed out that emotional symbols (he called them “condensational”) provide the primary way people connect with the world beyond immediate experience. The extraordinary complexity of the modern world is reduced to a series of powerful symbols such as the threats of “international communism” or “terrorism.”
Media analyst Todd Gitlin wrote about “media frames,” that is the ways in which media construct the symbols and myths that shape information about the world. Print media shapes what we read, who are regarded as authoritative spokespersons, and what visual images shape our thinking about countries, issues such as war and peace, trade, investment, and the global climate. Television emphasizes visual images rather than words. Whatever the media form, points of view are embedded in the words and images communicated.
Writers such as Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti, and Robert McChesney accept implicitly Edelman’s counsel that people experience the world indirectly and usually in emotional form. They also assume, as does Gitlin, that what we read, see, and hear about the world is framed for us. They go further to suggest that what Marx called the “false conceptions about ourselves” in symbols, myths, rituals, and frames are usually the product of ruling class interests.
Branding
Purdue University
On October
27, 2021 a story appeared in Purdue Today, “Purdue Only University in
Fast Company Magazine’s Inaugural List of ‘Brands That Matter’.” The story
indicated that Purdue University was honored as the only university among companies
and organizations that were named by 'Brands That Matter' “that give people
compelling reasons to care about them, offer inspiration for others to buy in,
and authentically communicate their mission and ideals.” “…Purdue joins 95
internationally recognized brands, including Nike, Zoom and Yeti and other
large multinational conglomerates….”
President
Mitch Daniels, Purdue University, praised the “entire Purdue community” for
Purdue’s branding being singled out. “You can’t have a great brand without a
great product, and our marketing team has worked hard to sell the world what
this university stands for and how our faculty, staff and students impact
lives.”
Branding
stories that made the “news” included those on data science, the creation of Purdue’s polytechnic high schools in Indiana cities separate from public school
systems, frozen tuition, successes in
dealing with the pandemic, and admitting the largest incoming class in the
university’s history despite a housing shortage.
The article
also added that:
-Purdue was
“propelling the world forward through continued discovery and innovation,
inclusive collaboration and a culture of persistence that leaves nothing
undone.”
-as quoted
by the editor-in-chief of Fast Company the company “is excited to highlight
companies and organizations that have built brands with deep meaning and
connections to the customers they serve.”
-the Senior
Vice-President for Marketing and Communications, Purdue University, said that
“students and their families trust Purdue to provide an extraordinary
educational experience as demonstrated by record-setting numbers of
applications and our highest-ever enrollments….” Purdue provides “…a clear
sense of rigor and collaboration, transformative educational opportunities and
innovative approaches to accessing and affording a valuable Purdue degree.…”
The article
ends with a paragraph about Purdue University “developing practical solutions
to today’s toughest challenges;” becoming one of the most “innovative
universities in the United States”; providing “world-changing research and
out-of-this world discovery;” offering “hands-on and online real-world
learning;” and finally providing a “transformative education to all” with
frozen tuition and graduating students with a debt free education.
We live
in a World of Cognitive Warfare
A recent document prepared by the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
suggested that “in cognitive warfare, the human mind becomes the
battlefield. The aim is to change not only what
people think, but how they think and act. Waged successfully, it shapes and
influences individual and group beliefs and behaviors to favor an aggressor's
tactical or strategic objectives.”
This NATO document, of course, is addressing the world of international relations but the concept of “cognitive warfare” seems to parallel efforts “to change not only what people think, but how they think and act.” This project animates the efforts of media conglomerates-print, electronic, social media platforms. Changing how people think and act has its historic roots in campaigns to convince citizens to support wars, consume cigarettes, forget climate disasters, and to find flaws in populations because of class, race, gender, sexual preference, and/or religion. The processes of “branding” are similar in all realms of human experience.
Perhaps challenging the
process of “branding” should be on the agenda for all those who seek a more
humane society. Break up “branding machines.” Democratize the ability to
describe and express experiences. And, in the educational sphere, teach
students to analyze brands and to evaluate their relative accuracy.
