Capitalist propaganda
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Capitalist propaganda is promotion of
Usage of term
Michael J. Vavrus refers to as, a nearly 150-year-long campaign of capitalist propaganda "to demonize political economy alternatives to the dominance of corporate capitalism."[2]
Purposes
Ideological hegemony
The primary purpose of capitalist propaganda is to maintain ideological hegemony, or the capacity for any ruling class to have their interests be reflected "as the common interest of all members of society, put in an ideal form," so that their interests are universalized as the only valid ones.[5][6] Philosopher Antonio Gramsci argued that "it is necessary to establish ideological hegemony in order to maintain the continuity of capitalism" and that this is the role of capitalist propaganda.[7][8] The ruling political and private elite, who control institutions like education and the mass media, exclude and eliminate opposing views, which allows for capitalist propaganda to operate on an almost invisible level in capitalist countries while being enforced at all levels, often going completely unnoticed and unchecked.[1][9][10]
In media throughout capitalist countries, such as the United States, "
Capitalist propaganda has been determined to be carried out by the private and political elite with the purpose of maintaining their own wealth and power in society. As Guinevere Liberty Nell writes in her analysis of capitalist propaganda and the public discourse, "in a private property economy, the powerful elite are in the private sector; and when it is the private sector that sustains the powerful, it is in their own interest to promote the private property system." Nell describes that capitalist propaganda is "used to support the ideals and norms that are required for, or at least to help bolster, the private property system and the elite's place in it" and that even those who do not intend to engage in the spread of capitalist propaganda may do so because of their conditioning in modern capitalist society.[1]
Techniques
Idealize social mobility under capitalism
Capitalist propaganda has been identified as promoting
Portray non-capitalist ideologies negatively
Capitalist propaganda commonly adopts the technique of portraying non-capitalist ideologies negatively.[2] Scholars have identified that capitalist propaganda in Western countries most commonly takes the form of anti-communist or anti-socialist propaganda. Political journalist Anthony Westell identifies a "relentless [campaign of] anti-socialist propaganda by capitalists who feared for their own wealth and power and, conveniently, controlled most of the mass media" in capitalist countries.[10]
Portray non-capitalist countries negatively
On the Soviet Union
Following the October Revolution in the Soviet Union, capitalist propaganda was used throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other countries to portray the country and leaders of the revolution negatively to the people. Scholars[who?] have identified that this was done largely out of fear that the revolution would inspire similar uprisings in their own countries.[15]
In Canada, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada, Tim Buck, claimed that the Canadian elite used capitalist propaganda in the wake of the October Revolution to portray the Soviet Union negatively to the Canadian people. Buck wrote that "the capitalist press distorted the meaning of the nationalization of banks and industries and referred to those great democratic reforms as 'the work of criminals.'" Buck describes how Lenin was also portrayed by the Canadian elite as an agent of the German Empire: "capitalist propaganda was directed very largely at confusing and intimidating people by the lying pretense that Lenin was 'a German agent' whose purpose was to deliver Russia into the hands of the German imperialists.".[4]
Promote capitalism as superior
Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. argued "for free enterprise education in television, radio, and other media" in order to "sell" the idea of laissez-faire capitalism to the masses. As described by scholar Lawrence B. Glickman, "selling [free market capitalism] meant telling (highlighting the virtues of free enterprise), but it also meant yelling (condemning those out to undermine it). Indeed, the two could not be separated since critics always seemed to be gaining ground."[16]
In the United Kingdom, high unemployment in the wake of the October Revolution concerned the British elite, who were anxious to avoid a repeat of the Russian Revolution in their own country and a turn to communism. Material was sent to the Economic League, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the surveillance of anti-capitalist activity, stating that "what is required is some years of propaganda for capitalism as the finest system that human ingenuity can devise." The League responded by placing numerous articles in newspapers, paying journalists to write them, and funding speakers, who they referred to as "big men in every sense of the word," to talk to the British public about economics in simplistic terms.[15][17]
Promotion of capitalism as the only viable option
Scholars Richard J. White and Colin C. Williams state, "at a time of global neoliberal economic, environmental and political crisis, capitalism is presented as society's least worst option" through propaganda. Professor Stephen Duncombe writes "the powers that be do not sustain their legitimacy by convincing people that the current system is The Answer. That fiction would be too difficult to sustain in the face of so much evidence to the contrary. What they must do, and what they have always done very effectively, is convince the mass of people that there is no alternative."[12] Late philosopher Mark Fisher referred to this phenomenon as "capitalist realism", where he demonstrated how capitalism was thought to be the only viable economic system to the point where imagining another system is prevented.[citation needed]
Another reason for this conception is due to the pervasiveness of capitalism, lack of present alternatives, and skepticism of alternatives' feasibility. Pro-capitalist individuals will often comment that capitalism equates to "human nature" and is hence unavoidable, despite the existences of Revolutionary Catalonia, Makhnovshchina, and the Paris Commune proving otherwise. Furthermore, the United States' role in the antidemocratic toppling of left-wing foreign governments have also helped to legitimize the capitalist realist perception.[citation needed]
In sociology, the dominance of capitalist thought stems from Antonio Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony, in which "consent to the rule of the dominant group is achieved by the spread of ideologies—beliefs, assumptions, and values—through social institutions such as schools, churches, courts, and the media, among others."[18] Consequentially, institutions serve to create an echo chamber of their ideological roots. In this case, capitalism conditions society to interact with it on a daily basis (e.g., consumerism, artificial demand, etc.) and provides owners of capital to reinforce their legitimacy. Gramsci's theory has been studied by official sociologists extensively, further confirming this concept.[citation needed]
Means
Mass media and entertainment
The mass media has been commonly described as the most pervasive avenue of distribution for capitalist propaganda. Advertising has been referred to by cultural theorist Raymond Williams as "the official art of modern capitalist society: it is what 'we' put up in 'our' streets and use to fill up to half of 'our' newspapers and magazines: and it commands the services of perhaps the largest organized body of writers and artists, with their attendant managers and supervisors, in the whole society."[19]
Writers such as
Television
Television has been identified as a major source of capitalist propaganda among existing scholarship and studies. As scholar Guinevere Liberty Nell writes, "the private propaganda of capitalist firms can be seen in many forms of media, including television." Shows such as The Price is Right and Undercover Boss have been identified as programs which visibly perpetuate a capitalist worldview. On the latter, Nell writes that "the show at first might appear to be a positive force upon corporate culture, bringing workers' needs to the attention of the management; actually, it promotes a submissive attitude of workers to management, and focuses on the productivity (and pride) of the workers in much the same way as the Soviet propaganda promoting 'Stakhanovites.'"[1]
Institutions such as the
Museums and the art establishment
Although they appear as "neutral" institutions in capitalist countries, art museums and other museums have been designed to uphold the ideological beliefs of the elite or capitalist class.
National organizations
National organizations that promote capitalist propaganda and monitor anti-capitalist activity by suppressing people who oppose capitalism exist to maintain the ideological hegemony of capitalism in capitalist countries. These organizations are often explicitly founded by and/or receive heavy financial backing and support from the elite, who use them to spread capitalist propaganda and discourage dissent. The Economic League was a non-governmental organization (NGO) in the United Kingdom dedicated to surveying and opposing all anti-capitalist activity as well as funding capitalist propaganda. The organization kept a blacklist of anti-capitalists for decades which it passed on to corporate members who used it to vet job applicants and deny people jobs based on their anti-capitalist ideological perspectives.[15][17]
See also
References
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- ^ ISBN 9780807773437.
- ^ Degras, Jane, ed. (1965). The Communist International: 1919-1943. Routledge. p. 374.
- ^ a b Buck, Tim (1967). Canada and the Russian Revolution. Progress Books. pp. 33–35.
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- ^ ISBN 9783319905068.
- ^ ISBN 9781550022285.
- ^ ISBN 9780520044951.
- ^ a b White, Richard J.; Williams, Colin C. (2014). "Anarchist economic practices in a 'capitalist' society: some implications for organisation and the future of work". Ephermera: Theory and Politics in Organization. 14: 948 – via SSRN.
- ISBN 9781135100674.
- ^ Matthews, Christopher (22 January 2014). "Shark Tank Star Thinks Poverty Is "Fantastic News"". Time.
- ^ ISBN 9781448138289.
- ISBN 9780300249002.
- ^ S2CID 220876401.
- ^ Cole, Nicki (2023-11-20). "How the Ruling Class Maintains Power Using Ideas and Norms". ThoughtCo. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
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