Mass communication, symbolism, and the war for your mind!

Hello ATS!

As many have said before me, there is a war going on right now, a war for your mind.

I studied mass comm and journalism in college and I wanted to show ya'll a few theories about the media just to give you an idea of how this whole thing works. Some of you may already know but for those who don't check it out.

Cultivation theory is a social theory which examines the long-term effects of television. "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend "living" in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television.

Agenda-setting theory describes the "ability [of the news media] to influence the salience of topics on the public agenda."[1] That is, if a news item is covered frequently and prominently the audience will regard the issue as more important

The spiral of silence is a political science and mass communication theory propounded by the German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. Spiral of silence theory describes the process by which one opinion becomes dominant as those who perceive their opinion to be in the minority do not speak up because they fear isolation from society.

And of course the now popular quote of Edward Bernays (who I believe was the nephew of Sigmund Freud):

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”

I just wanted to throw those in there so that you can see how the media willingly and intentionally manipulates people and that people are in fact manipulated by the media.

Today I was thinking about the abundance of symbolism that seems to be so prevalent in society these days (namely the all seeing eye). I was wondering why, if the TPTB are real, if they are trying to take over the world, then why be so overt with all the symbolism? I know there are already a lot of theories about this but I was thinking what if it's just an illusion?

By illusion I mean what if back in the day, when the media began to converge, a small group of people decided to place hidden messages/symbols etc. within the media on purpose. Not for 'predictive programming' but so that people, namely people like us would begin to take notice. Once it got on the radar it was sure to be picked up by others which has definitely happened, it's even went mainstream to a certain extent.

So if not for predictive programming, or to 'rub it in our faces' then why? Why would they want us to notice? That's when it hit me. What if it was just a giant power grab. This small group of people 'TPTB' put their symbolism everywhere so that we would feel that they are 'all powerful' and running the world. Maybe they are running the world.. but is it because we believe them to be so strong? Most of you know the power of symbolism.

It's kind of like the monetary system. Money itself is worthless, its just some fancy paper.. its a symbol and because we have put so much stock in it over time it has begin to grow deep roots within society. Using the power that we gave it.

Kind of like the way advertising works with endorsements, you get a bunch of famous people to rock your brand then it's suddenly cool. At that point it has gotten ahold of your mind, the way you think and is influencing you.

Maybe this is something ya'll already knew, but to me this is epic. It's like right now there are so many distractions. I mean look at us, really bright and intelligent people, pouring so much effort into following alternative news and putting the pieces together but it now seems to me like it's just a con. A way to distract people from what is really important.

Right now we live in a mediated reality. We are surrounded by media, whether it be books, magazines, ads on the subway, the internet, your tv, your mobile etc. all these things converge around you to bombard you with information all day long. All these things pull us out of our real life in my opinion. They distract us from going out and making some form of difference. I know that people have pulled together in the past and uncovered hidden truths etcetera. But lets face it, good people like us should be inside our own lives, not worrying about the past or the future but right now and how we can make things right with ourselves and God. It's like that old quote that says, 'Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing himself.'

To me that is the big mistake with all this Occupy stuff, people are trying to change the world that they live in but not changing how they live.

I truly feel that if we could just learn to take care of our own business, in our own lives we can beat the system.

I think that is what Tupac was onto with the whole 'Killuminati' thing, like he said he didn't really believe it he just wanted to put the 'k' to it to kill the idea of it because it was just another thing to destroy peoples confidence.

I really like the story below, I think it is a great example of the way that life should be.

This is a very important life lesson that a philosophy teacher taught his students.

The teacher cleared off his desk and placed on top of it a few items. One of the items was an empty mason jar. He proceeded to fill up the jar with golf balls until he could fit no more. He looked at the classroom and asked his students if they agree that the jar is full.

Every student agreed that the jar was indeed full. The teacher then picked up a box of small pebbles and poured them into the jar with the golf balls. The pebbles filled all of the openings in between the golf balls. He asked the students if the jar was full. Once again, they agreed.

Now the teacher picked up a bag of sand and poured it into the mason jar. The sand filled in all of the empty space left between the golf balls and pebbles. He asked the class again if the jar was full. The students agreed it was technically full.

Finally, the teacher pulled out two beers from under his desk and poured both of them into the jar filling the empty space between the sand. Now the students began to laugh wondering how far this was going. The teacher waited until the laughter stopped. "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life," he started.

"The golf balls represent the important things. Your family, children, health, friends, and passions. If everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles represent the other things in life that matter, such as your job, house and car. The sand---that is everything else. The small stuff. If you put the sand in first, there is no room for the pebbles or golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all of your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are most important.

Pay attention to the important things in your life. Enjoy time with family. Go to dinner with your spouse. Play games with your kids. There will ALWAYS be time to clean the house or take yourself shopping. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. The rest is just sand. You are dismissed."

Before the students left, one shouted out. "You never mentioned what the beer represents!" The professor smiled and said, "Well I'm glad you asked. The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers with a friend."

I apologize for any grammatical errors, or bad spellings in my post I had a late night working and haven't been to sleep yet. I would love to hear your take on this and if you made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read it all. God bless.

reply to post by emptyOmind


In a similar light. I was just today pondering if the great conspiracy is that there is no conspiracy. That thought process did not get very far, but I was expanding it too much. In the context of the illuminati stuff it works better. It is like a self fulfilling prophecy or a meme.