manufacturing consent 2 of 2

You may have heard of the book by Noam Chomsky (and Ed Herman) with the same title as this video. But actually the ideas in this video are based on a different book by the same title, "Manufacturing Consent" by Michael Burawoy, which was written in 1979, years before the Chomsky book.

Chomsky's book is about the institutional structure of the media and they way this imposes an ideology upon a society. Burawoy argues that the structure of capitalist social relations generates its own illusions, ideology and consent, prior to the imposition of propaganda through media and schools. I think there is much to be admired about Chomsky's work, but I also think that Burawoy's work sheds some even more important insights into the way ideology is created and consent is "manufactured".

After a viewer mistakenly thought this entire video was an attack on Chomsky, I just want to clarify here: It is not about Chomsky at all. I just mention Chomsky here so that the two "Manufacturing Consents" don't get conflated. When I make a couple comments about "libertarians" in this video I am not referring to Chomsky or those that identify as libertarian-anarchist. I am referring to the right-wing, free-market libertarians. I have great respect for much of what Chomsky and other anarchist thinkers have added to the left and I would hate for anyone to think this video was an attack upon that tradition. I do sometimes wonder if parts of the anarchist tradition are too mired in the concepts of individual freedom which I question in this video. But I am in no way well-versed enough in anarchist theory to make such a critique in this video.

full text and more at:
http://www.kapitalism101.wordpress.com/manufacturing-consent

Category:

Education

Tags:

• marx
• capital
• labor
• burawoy
• consent
• manufacturing
• ideology
• fetishism
• commodity
• value
• exploitation
• work

[fozzymandias8128]

I agree, the success of the movements listed at the end of the video have been universally been limited by the pervasiveness of capitalist games. For instance, as a result of the civil rights movement, the black area of my city is no longer called "niggertown," as it was fifty years ago. But it is entirely unchanged in nearly every other way: poor, drug ridden and full of crime. So if any real progress is to be made, capitalism must be first seen for what it is by the masses. That will be tough.

[91Camels]

@brendanmcooney Incorrect, Brendan.

In a self-managed worker cooperative, the income of a worker-owner is comprised of the amount of money that is socially necessary to reproduce his labor-power PLUS a share in surplus value.

More importantly, the statement in your video is incorrect; i.e., "We are not free to choose our way out of wage-labor". Worker Cooperatives like the Mondragon are solid evidence that we can.

[boynamedblue]

good video, thanks for posting it. still i don't see anything insidious about the system, per se. i'm sure you'll all say i'm a fool.

[ConscientiousMind]

@mistersix420 That may be true; however, as an anarchist, my primary question is how to fight exploitation? By strengthening the power of the state (which capitalists will always find ways to subvert), or by turning the notion of "bourgeois freedom" into something positive and actually enlightening more people about genuine bottom-up cooperation and fair exchange?

We don't have to consume according to prices alone. We are free to examine the labor structure behind capitalism and do what's fair.

[mistersix420]

its not immediately clear to me that a worker-owned cooperative necessarily implies escape from exploitation when enmeshed in capitalist society. intuitively it seems they might even be involved in larger exploitation depending on how societys surplus value is distributed in competitive exchange

[busybuzzbuzz]

@91Camels

Michael Parenti on "pure socialists"/ Anarchists continued:

"Instead, they offer vague statements about how the workers themselves will directly own and control the means of production and will arrive at their own solutions through creative struggle. No surprise then that the pure socialists support every revolution except the ones that succeed."

[busybuzzbuzz]

@91Camels

"The pure socialists' ideological anticipations remain untainted by existing practice. They do not explain how the manifold functions of a revolutionary society would be organized, how external attack and internal sabotage would be thwarted, how bureaucracy would be avoided, scarce resources allocated, policy differences settled, priorities set, and production and distribution conducted" ~ Michael Parenti

CONTINUED ABOVE

[busybuzzbuzz]

It's interesting to see how many people involved in identity politics know nothing about class struggle and the bigger picture. I notice this mostly in bourgeois Gay and Lesbian groups and "greens" (I am a devoted environmentalist, don't get me wrong). I find something profoundly annoying when people say me, me, me, and we want this or we want that without seeing there collective place in the overall architecture and the root of the coercion and exploitation that they and others suffer.

[busybuzzbuzz]

Yay, well done Brendan. Glad you included the part about the unions. I know a few people here in Pennsylvania that are in the SEIU (Service Employees International Union). I try to explain that trade unions are there to keep workers in line more or less even though they do help in some ways. But it's impossible to get through to them.

You get a star on your forehead for this one.

[Elephantintheroom01]

07:15

And also 'THE GAME'.

[cheeseit126]

Excellent video, I’ve been thinking about capitalism and free markets for a while now; about how they are both self perpetuating systems that need no propaganda or media control to engrain themselves in society