Life, Labour, Tech. - 1
Reality through the eyes of Mass Media & Behaviour Psychology
Understanding the Reality
Information & Communications Technology have been both the cause and effect of several short term influential disruption that has the capacity to cross cut every individual in human species. Also they have heavily disrupted the existing progressive social relationships which several social democratic countries have struggled to enshrine, breathe life to it and implemented legally for at-least 5 to 8 decades now.
We all know how during 19th century and 20th century has become the era of global mass media influence, basically to manufacture consent, through exploiting human behaviour psychological weak points.
Every individual is connected through some media: from newspapers, to radio, to television, to internet, to social networks are all influenced by weapons of propaganda, behaviour psychology, etc... Its no wonder that every individual who have fall prey for the post truth, false information, fake news, etc.. are controlled by the oppressors and exploiters. But the dark-comedy is that the individualized person is just a puppet agent (acting in the interests for those ruling us directly and indirectly), who thinks that they are thinking for themselves with free will. It is the ultimate psychological crack by media.
How & Why does it work ?
Oppressive mechanisms sustain themselves by fractalizing (same rules at all levels of oppression, ex: Caste) & recursing (same rules applied to the next generation, ex: Caste) conservative romanticism. Exploiting systems take advantage of existing oppressive conditions and use it further to feed fake dreams, visions, addiction, hyper individualizing and cracking the unified empathy of the oppressed working class. Such disruptive force flows like water out of dam and has no respect for human rights or labour rights.
In such fractal and recursive world of oppression and exploitation, Media becomes the weapon of Mass destruction to construct and execute mass psychological operations and behaviour control where surveillance becomes the business model popularized by existing monopolies in all industries. These success models in-spite of their innate crisis are romanticized and recommended by business schools through business education, infecting the ability to critical thinking for masses who wants to earn a living... This is more pronounced and visible for those who care to take a insight little bit more deeper than a shallow search.
Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.
- John F. Kennedy
Most of the individuals sense the pain when they felt cheated by the government institutes, political campaigns based on which they have voted, private business organizations that plunder what is remaining off them, etc... Overwhelmingly the pain is sensed through their labour process. We feel the pain when we expect a fair return for the hard work we expend. That is when most of us start to look at the reality through our pains and begin to empathize others. This empathy once budged keeps flowering and eventually tries to stay connected with similar individuals associated/organized as communities, labour unions, etc.. to create more critical thinking and empathy among others similarly.
Our advanced technological society is rapidly making objects of us and subtly programming us into conformity to the logic of its system to the degree that this happens, we are also becoming submerged in a new "Culture of Silence".
- Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Organizing and Uniting for What ? Why ?
Sensing the reality, and struggling to not get raped, to not get oppressed, to not get exploited, to not get ridiculed, to not get bullied, to not get discriminated........ are part of the process. Even if the actions are defensive for the sake of democracy and respect for the others, real action pushes us to do something more socially impactful against the psychological oppression and prisons where the hyper individual still barely trying to live.
People United against oppression and exploitation will move forward and progress by creating means of production that can be used again to further development while learning and recognizing mistakes and patterns of mistakes through historical contingency, to anticipate and solve it inclusively through collaboration and cooperation. Thus to evolve socially.
Our collective labour shall not go in vain. Collective labour is what we have in common against oppression and exploitation. Those who work in information economy must prepare themselves to not prey for attention seeking, and surveillance, and also advance further to build real alternatives rather than a clone of existing business models as popularized by existing business schools, monopoly models, privileged super heroes, etc...
Critical and liberating dialogue, which presupposes action, must be carried on with the oppressed at whatever the stage of their struggle for liberation.
- Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Further Reading:
Human Behaviour Biology - Stanford University Course