Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media

Media:	DVD
Directed by:	Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick
Starring:	Noam Chomsky
Release date:	02 April, 2002
List price:	~~$29.99~~
Our price:	$25.86 that is 14% off!

Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media

Average rating: Stars

The Self Delusion of Prevailing Ideologies

"I gather there are some people beyond that darkness out there, but if I don't look you in the eye it's because I don't see you, I only see the darkness."

That quote is found toward the beginning of "Manufacturing Consent" and is taken from a lecture Chomsky was about to give in an auditorium where apparently no house lights were available. I'm unsure if anything more revealing was intended by Chomsky's opening comment, although it's impossible not to read something more into it.

The breadth of information offered in "Manufacturing Consent" is manifold, shedding light on two primary subjects.

One: Noam Chomsky, his life, childhood, his anarchist convictions which fueled his decision early on to place a lesser degree of import on an easy going, comfortable career in linguistics in favor of an uncertain, often tumultuous life of political activism and dissent.

Two: The oligarchy in which existence is ensnared. The necessary illusions which are implemented to deceive and brainwash the populace, tricking them into believing that they actually have a representative form of democratic government and indeed have a hand in decision making policy.
And of course, the media; a broad apparatus used to manufacture the people's consent, ensuring that an appropriate percentage of the populace will be effectively indoctrinated and hoodwinked into supporting the agenda of the ruling class and its military power, or, will be effectively depoliticized, tuned out and away from crucial matters which directly impact the quality of social and individuated life.
Most of what is seen on television, be it news, sports, situation comedies, movies, whatever the programming, serve as little more than an advertisement for a specific mindset resulting in a strategically wished for outcome.

At one point someone asks Chomsky "how do the elites control the media?" He replies, "how do elites control GM? ...because they own it." Look at institutional power as an entity: they have their own "news" division. In fact, it's THEE news division. Naturally those who comprise this power structure at all of its various levels understand that to serve the proper role, especially if one wishes to "get ahead" is *not* to actively undermine the structure's agenda by telling the truth and revealing its own crimes.

"Manufacturing Consent" is a remarkable film. You see Chomsky interacting with all sorts of people, students, interviewers, average people who he's inspired, and even those who obviously despise him for daring to speak a truth which conflicts with prevailing (media induced) ideology, one that their own self deceptive belief structure demand be untrue in order to maintain a delusional, happy consciousness.

As Chomsky asks, "do the facts matter, or don't they?"
For him it comes down to a single question: Can you look at yourself in the mirror?

Another telling moment comes when Chomsky is asked to recall a childhood incident which left an indelible impression. He tells of a time where the standard fat kid was being picked on at the playground with everyone taunting him as someone's older brother was on the way to beat him up, and Chomsky was impelled to do the right thing, so he went and stood next to the fat kid as a display of solidarity, but was eventually intimidated and walked away. He says the shame he felt for doing so never went away, has always stayed with him, and that the lesson learned was to never do that again, and that you always stand with the underdog.

"As any change must begin somewhere, it is the single individual who will experience it and carry it through." ~ Carl Jung

Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media - Noam Chomsky

Mark the Shark

Great insights; worth the time and money; wateched it many times and always see something new

Noam Chomsky - Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky and the Media

More a Tribute to Chomsky than an Expose of Media Control

I was a bit disappointed in this documentary. I'm a fan of Chomsky and Herman's book by the same name, and was expecting this DVD to be a sort of movie version of it. However, this documentary is really a tribute to and catalog of Chomsky's ideas and character. Although I feel Chomsky is entirely worthy of admiration if only for his dogged adherence to the ideal of freedom, I also thought this film was too much the work of fans and not documentarians. Of course, there are very few documentaries that don't make similar mistakes, but I think, for the sake of making Chomsky's ideas and known and understood, this kind of romanticism of him does a disservice to that objective. To the extent that this film does deal with the ideas of his book, it does an admirable job of getting his points across, most notably in the first half of the film.

I also thought that the film ran too long and much of the last half of it could have been removed without much effect on its clarity.

If you're a fan of Chomsky of course, you'll probably really enjoy this documentary, especially his discussion in the special features section of the DVD with William F. Buckley and Michel Foucault. If not, I'm certain you'll have long lost patience with the film after about an hour and a half.