Noam Chomsky, when describing subtle methods of control in academia, journalism, etc. in the book Understanding Power ( p. 242), wrote:
For those of you who agree that "powerful institutions don't want to be investigated, obviously", then how do you think that whatever parts of the US government that the public may have depended upon to investigate other parts of the US government (or even their own part) which either goofed bigtime ("mega-OOPS"), let 911 happen on purpose ("LIHOP"), or made 911 happen on purpose ("MIHOP"), would have failed the public trust? Chomsky goes into subtle and crude methods of control, by which institutions suppress dissenting viewpoints. Right now, I can't quote extensively from the book, though I highly recommend it.
However, a swarm of debunkers wielding their awesome power of logic and critical thinking can probably figure out either general methods used by what I assume is the largest non-religious institution in the world, viz., the US government, to protect itself against serious investigation, or even specific methods used by the parts of government which investigated 911 to assure this same protection.
You're allowed to cheat by looking up the Chomsky reference and reading the whole section. You are also allowed to cheat by asking any reasonably bright 12 year old. For, as Chomsky says in the same section, discussing a related point
I'll check back on this thread on Sunday for a fresh dose of JREF enlightenmet!!
(emphasis mine)Alright, all of these are subtle forms of control, with the effect of preventing serious insight into the way that power actually works in the society. And it makes very good sense for a system to be set up like that: powerful institutions don't want to be investigated, obviously. Why would they? They don't want the public to know how they work - maybe the people inside them understand how they work, but they don't want anybody else to know, because that would threaten and undermine their power. So one should expect the institutions to function in such a way as to protect themselves - and some of the ways in which they protect themselves are by various subtle techniques of ideological control like these.
For those of you who agree that "powerful institutions don't want to be investigated, obviously", then how do you think that whatever parts of the US government that the public may have depended upon to investigate other parts of the US government (or even their own part) which either goofed bigtime ("mega-OOPS"), let 911 happen on purpose ("LIHOP"), or made 911 happen on purpose ("MIHOP"), would have failed the public trust? Chomsky goes into subtle and crude methods of control, by which institutions suppress dissenting viewpoints. Right now, I can't quote extensively from the book, though I highly recommend it.
However, a swarm of debunkers wielding their awesome power of logic and critical thinking can probably figure out either general methods used by what I assume is the largest non-religious institution in the world, viz., the US government, to protect itself against serious investigation, or even specific methods used by the parts of government which investigated 911 to assure this same protection.
You're allowed to cheat by looking up the Chomsky reference and reading the whole section. You are also allowed to cheat by asking any reasonably bright 12 year old. For, as Chomsky says in the same section, discussing a related point
I mean, there's nothing in what I just said that you couldn't explain to junior high school students, it's all pretty straightforward. But it's not what you study in a junior high Civics course - what you study there is propaganda about the way systems are supposed to work but don't.
I'll check back on this thread on Sunday for a fresh dose of JREF enlightenmet!!