Ace Ventura, 11/5

In class on Thursday, we reviewed Chomsky and his major ideas regarding propaganda. I find the idea of propaganda to be very similar to the concept of ideologies that are being impressed upon society through a "ruling class". In the case of propaganda, there is still a "ruling class" that is choosing which ideas and opinions are conveyed to the public whether it is through news, movies, print publications, etc. As a public, we "opine and recline" which means that we have all of these different forms of information which includes propaganda being given to us and we choose to absorb it. Just as Adorno and Horkheimer say that the radio democratically makes everyone equally into listeners, the same happens with propaganda as we recline and absorb it. We could choose to not listen to it or we could be aware of it and critique it so that we have a more valuable outlook on it, but most of us choose to accept it. I think magazines like People or Us are good examples of this because they are often telling conflicting stories like "Angelina and Brad are broken up!" while another magazine is saying "Angelina and Brad in love and having another child!". Instead of seeing these conflicting messages and realizing that both could not possibly be true so this must be propaganda that is strategically used to sell magazines, we buy into both stories, discuss it with our friends to see what they think about it. I think this is partially because of the idea of hyperstimulated sensitivity that has fallen upon our society. We have become so accustomed to receiving news from so many different sources that we hardly notice it anymore and it all becomes mashed up into one source that we take in and almost immediately believe.