By Christian Marx

Throughout history, media has been used as a powerful conditioning tool. However it has only been in the early 20^th century that corporations have utilized this to full effect. Edward Bernays was the pioneer in public relations and propaganda. Initially he worked for advertising, but during World War 1 moved into propaganda for the war, working for the American government (Ewen, 1996).

Just as in those early years, Western governments continue to propagate wars for their own and their power broker’s economic interests. This is done to manufacture consent, or in other words brainwash the public into believing this war is necessary and just. We see this daily in our newspapers, particularly in recent years with the war in the Middle East. What the general public do not see or hear are the massive corporate gains, corporations stand to make, via oil and other resources extracted from the invaded sovereign nations.

The LNP have learned well from the propaganda of years gone by. They are masters of deception. We have seen the litany of lies and back flips that have emanated from LNP front benchers. Their legacy will be one full of broken promises and outright lies. Who could forget their continued denial of ‘man-made’ global warming? Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus among the world`s scientific elite, they continue to spin the lie that coal is good for humanity. I am sure it has nothing to do with their fossil fuel donors. Cough, Cough!

They are also champions of the art of deflection. When asked a question on economic figures, they merely deflect with the slogan of “we will provide jobs and growth.”

Another classic deflection technique is, when pointed out that they tripled the deficit, they blame the previous party for originally blowing out the budget, as if their 3 years of economic chaos and waste is a moot point.

Not only do the LNP thrive on deflection and spin, so do their followers. A classic example is the far right’s bastardization of the word ‘bigot’. They are upset that decent thinking people call them out on their hatred for refugees and asylum seekers. They have no argument to logically back up their hate, other than the crass parroting of Murdoch sound bites, such as “They are country shoppers” or the pearler “they are illegal`s” … despite the fact that it is NOT ILLEGAL to seek asylum under the Refugee Convention. Instead, they call us progressives, leftie bigots. Being left and a bigot is an oxymoron.

The Australian government has signed a refugee agreement. And NO, it does not matter how many other countries they pass through to get to Australia! If these countries are dangerous and are not signatories to the refugee convention, then they are perfectly entitled to seek refuge in Australia.

The bigots have been conditioned to hate and to blame other blameless demographics in order to feel good about themselves. They won`t blame their corporate masters who are the direct cause of this mass exodus from war torn nations. The capitalist conflicts for oil have displaced millions. If you right wingers want to halt immigration, how about you vote against corporate wars and conservative governments!

Unfortunately, many brainwashed Australians do not do any research beyond Murdoch “news” or A Current Affair. They have been conditioned like Pavlov`s dogs to react to a stimulus and behave a certain way. The great scientist, physiologist, Ivan Pavlov was able to condition dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell. Mainstream media has been able to condition shallow thinkers to salivate with hatred at the words ‘Muslim’, ‘boat people’, or ‘immigrants’. Like a trained monkey, these individuals are unable to critically think beyond the key slogans which trigger their hate. Strange times we live in …

There is a chance at least some of these people can break through the fog of propaganda, but the key is, they must want to do it! Just like an alcoholic who denies he has a problem, so the bigot denies all reality and clings to his false belief system, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary. In order to break through the mainstream matrix, it is vital that he or she reject the deception and classic conditioning of the corporate media, and stop the personal delusion and deflection.

Reference. Ewen, Stuart (1996) P.R! A History of Spin. Basic Books.