1. Since purposes and intentions are diverse and complicated, it occurs to me that the generally odious practice of Manufacturing Consent - and its cousin, manipulation of consensus, can be applied by powerful people and groups to constructive ends.
2. Mind you, such techniques being wielded more effectively by those who are rich and/or powerful stand as reasons why our society does well to govern itself so that the Consent Manufacturers & consensus manipulators do not have outsized influence.
3. But the influence they do have is immense, ingrained. Somewhat sadly, it has formed who we are as individuals as well as who we become as a society. It is not so much that we are not independent, as that we simply cannot & will not extricate ourselves from this influence.
4. Would we be better off entirely without Manufactured Consent & manipulated consensus? That is as obvious an improvement as if we were able to fly or to shoot laser beams from our eyes - but it may also be just as impractical, even impossible, to consider. It is not how it is.
5. And while, as a Progressive *and* a Discordian, I see worth in resisting Consent Manufacture & consensus manipulation in how I live my own life, it is a hard fight, and sometimes I see other concentrations of worse evils in society & government - which urgently need removing.
6. Use the tools you have. If it's a tool that was cranked out by those who are amazingly good at Manufacturing Consent or manipulating consensus, I will say prayer in memory of those possibly many who were hurt to develop such a tool. But I might still help use it against evil.
7. A slippery slope? Certainly. A dangerous capitulation? Undoubtedly. My existing in modern civilized society leads me to learn, deal with, and use a great deal that I consider hazardous and dangerous to me. I get around in a large metal box that goes fast and burns fuel.
8. And my dependence on automobile travel is part of a societal trend based, not on its merit, but on the viral growth of an industry intended to make big profits for car manufacturers and the oil industry.
Still, sometimes I benefit from driving. 'S how it goes. For now.
Still, sometimes I benefit from driving. 'S how it goes. For now.
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