Alexander Fauque

Consume. Conform. Obey.

December 11th, 2007

“The medium is the message.” This quote, which has come to stand for Marshall McLuhan’s philosophy, will
serve as the basis for this assessment of how the medium affects the transmission of knowledge and information.
Defining medium as anything that serves as an extension of the self, McLuhan proved prophetic in his analysis
of where the western world’s newfound dependence on media was leading. He saw that the message was not the
story as it was being told, it was the change it brought about in the receiver. For example, a news story’s
message is not the specific and particular event; rather it is contained within the reaction of the listener. It is my
belief that media can transmit information and knowledge as two distinct entities. In the common conception of
media as vessel for information, the message is often indoctrinating, serving the specific interests of its
propagators. Contrarily, media has also been employed to reach out to individuals and connect humanity so both
sides will be discussed.

North American society takes after Nazi Germany in a number of ways while building upon and reshaping some
its’ inherent flaws. As long standing business partners, corporate America and fascist Germany became intimate
during the Great War. It was during this time that the military industrial complex first took off. One of the main
parallels between the two governments has to be the elaborate and highly effective propaganda machines. In
America, this incarnates in the form of Fox News Network that controls much of what the populace is exposed
to. Television is its’ medium of choice to the point where even music and information are chiefly televised and
image oriented. It serves many goals at once as it offers the semblance of choice in the variety of available
channels, it incapacitates the viewer, sucking out creative energies that could be directed elsewhere. It also
provides all the answers, doing the thinking for you. Most significantly though, it slows neural activity. The
result of this equation is a population whose cognitive faculties are dulled as they are pumped with information
carefully chosen and presented by corporate networks while they are further incapacitated in the very act of
sitting transfixed by the screen and all this under the guise of a variety of choice and well earned leisure time!
Never mind the fact that half of what is shown is an advertisement; television itself is all that is needed to subdue
and program the population. Its use in education is especially detrimental as it has particularly harmful effects on
children, so much so that the Swedish government has banned the showing of advertisements to children under
the age of twelve, and this since 1991.
Cell phones represent another aspect of corporate state control. Again it has been shown that these devices are
detrimental to one’s health, take up time that could be used constructively, are causing problems in classrooms
and serve primarily as a way for companies to suck money out of teens and adults alike. Cell phones once
seemed as though they were an option for those who might need them or for emergencies. Now, most students
carry one at all times and pay well over 20$/month in fees. Referring back to McLuhan, it is not the content of
television or cell phones that is disturbing, though it often is. It the alienation among citizens they cause that
concerns me most. In relying on all these media, we are ever putting something between ourselves and the actual
experience we are supposedly having. Conversations are had through the intermediary of a phone or computer,
learning through a film, traveling in a car. A nation so divided cannot organize itself cohesively to instigate
revolution, discuss legislation or make decisions concerning tax resources or foreign policy, rendering it
extremely vulnerable to further mental and physical oppression. We must always ask whose interests our
worldview serves and it is quite clear that corporations, who in effect are the government, are the only ones who
stand to benefit from our apathy and separation. The widespread sophistry of the west is a facet of this in that it
has people believe that what is good for one is not necessarily good for another. Following this logic, we cannot
unite under one idea and carry it out because any one view is as good as another. There is no motivation to
exchange ideas in any sort of dialectical process because we have already understood that no matter the amount
of thoughtful discussion that ensues, all is ultimately a matter of opinion anyway.

If we look at the language used, it is clear that the corporate utopia has each person consuming one of each unit;
thereby selling the most possible units while keeping everyone firmly entrenched at arm’s length from one
another. iPod, iPhone, Ford Escape, Myspace, Personal Computer, Home Office are all examples of this. Max
Weber warned against the disappearance of the individual at the hands of the bureaucratization of mass society
and the film “The Matrix” expressed something similar. Humans are being converted into generators of capital,
divided, confused and solitary, they hop on the first bandwagon that passes. Suburbia is the ultimate expression
of this. Walls of concrete and silence are erected around each individual, sheltering them from the hostile outside
world. We lock our doors at night, use video surveillance and install convoluted alarm systems, keeping our
treasured bits of paper in safes; all to keep the bad guys out. This atmosphere of hostility again serves corporate
interest by filling the populace’s mind with delusions of outside enemies. A population that is afraid is easily
controlled and lured with the promise of security. The trained killers are called “defense ministry” and any
modern political platform will boast safety as a top priority. Never mind that it is the nation we live in that is the
number one source of terrorism, environmental degradation, GMO loaded foodstuffs, arms sales and slave labor
factories across the globe.

It is time to introduce social responsibility in the education sector and discuss the various types of media that can
be used without state infiltration. Philosophers of education discuss the notion of the democratic classroom.
What this equates to is a learning environment where every member is an active teacher in her own right who
assumes full responsibility for her experience. It is the duty of the student to do more than the minimum of
completing homework and assignments; this is the only the beginning. It is imperative that student groups are
formed and extra material be consulted and brought into the classroom. Students must learn to see what they are
supposedly learning as something that is in the process of becoming intrinsic to their beings, not as some
external body of facts to be consulted when the need for capital deems it necessary, or examination time rolls
around. Candace Jesse Stout, in her essay “The Art of Empathy: Teaching Students to Care,” discusses the use of
art in the classroom as a means to communicate a living presence and instill a sense of humanity in students; an
excellent suggestion in my opinion. Classical music, paintings or other art put us in touch with something more
than mere fact. They convey a profound and grounding sense of human accomplishment and connectedness. In
my art history class, we are asked to create a piece of art and exhibit it at the end of term as a group. This is a
wonderful way to incorporate students in the greater dialogue that can only be hinted at through second hand
experience.

Ultimately, it is very difficult to access media that has not been tainted by state control. Therefore, I strongly
urge students to rely on each other, their peers and family, for guidance and support. We must stop raising
boundaries between one another; the time has come for a unified movement of active and organized citizens who
will not stand idle as the governments that profess to represent us pillage and burn for corporate interest. I
propose we tear down all walls between genders, races and nations as these have all been shown to be social
constructs, holding no ground in actual reality. We are all neighbors on earth and increasingly people are waking
up from the illusion of separation. Let us abandon our unsustainable technology and get back to real human
experience before we forget entirely what it means to feel. This way, we may cultivate an atmosphere of love
and co-operation, giving future generations an example to build on and a history to be proud of.