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Showing posts with label advertising and marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertising and marketing. Show all posts

18.5.21

Mentis Imperium

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On 31 October 1938, the Mercury Theater On The Air, directed by 23-year-old Orson Welles, adapted H. G. Wells' outstanding science fiction novel, "War of the Worlds," as a radio play describing the events in the book as if they were an actual newscast.  It was essentially an elaborate April Fool's joke broadcast on Halloween night.

There was no television at the time, so the only sense the audience could rely on was their ears.  The Mercury Theater was well-known, and Orson Wells' voice was easily identifiable, given that he was the voice of "The Shadow," a famous radio show, and one of the most popular radio productions of all time.

Anyone who tuned in a bit late, and tuned out early, might have missed the announcer introducing the Mercury Theatre on the Air, or Orson offering the broadcast as a Halloween prank for purely entertainment purposes.  Maybe they didn't recognize Orson's voice, or those of his co-stars Joseph Cotton and Agnes Moorehead.  Perhaps they were talking on that new-fangled telephone contraption and overheard (it was a party line) someone talk about the invasion from Mars.  Perhaps they were fans of Perceval Lowell, the popular astronomer, similar to Bill Nye the "Science" Guy, who fancied he saw canals on the surface of Mars at the time (see Edgar Rice Burroughs and other pop fiction of the era).

Whatever the reason, a lot of people believed - for at least one hour of their lives - that Earth was under attack by Martians.  Not everyone, of course.  At the very least, folks in Grovers Mill, New Jersey, were well aware that it was a fiction.

This period was a heady time in mass media.  The very concept of mass media had only recently been invented.  In a short space of time, from the late 1800s until the mid-1950s, things like photography, telegraph,  cinema, radio, and audio recording were a new technology that gave humans access to information from around the planet in relative real time.  And they gave unscrupulous figures a new power never before unleashed on our species.

Until the advent of the 20th century, information could only travel as fast as a human or animal could run.  Though the concept of editing was well-known from print, which was already 400 years old, applying it to the senses of sight and sound were unthinkable until the advent of motion pictures in the first decade of the 20th century.

On the first of November 1938, though, the world changed.

Even now, nearly a century later, the masses are blissfully unaware of the power of mass media.  However, on that fall morning in 1938, a group of people at CBS and in the Mercury Theater on the Air became aware of the power they wielded.

Orson knew.

Just a year and a half earlier, the most dramatic event ever recorded live in human history, up to that point, had occurred.  It went live over the radio in May 1937, and within a week, the newsreels were showing the shocking images to adult audiences all over North America.  People were shocked, dismayed and emotionally damaged by that event.  The Hindenburg was a technological marvel, akin to the Titanic of the air.  It was a powerful propaganda piece, and its demise was as powerful as its existence.

In the space of two years, two events - one real, one imagined - had demonstrated the vast and untapped power of mass media.  Executives were busily calculating the economic value of that power, while the academics were busy analyzing it.  The former were seeking all the possible ways to capitalize on that power, while the latter were pondering the immense implications of it.

These two events launched an entire new industry, that of controlling and manipulating mass audiences.  They launched the careers of people like Walt Disney, and created demi-gods out of performers and shysters.  They weaponized advertising and marketing, and turned something called "news" into an industry, and later a control mechanism of unimaginable power.  Suddenly, things as ephemeral as light and sound waves were exponentially more powerful than stone monuments and the printed page.  These media were cheap and the delivery systems ubiquitous, and more importantly, required almost no effort on the part of the audience.

All of which begs the question, just how good have the techniques for manipulating and controlling humans gotten through the media?  Glad you asked.

Our favorite scientidiots, some of whom dwell in the country of England, have admitted unsing coercive and manipulative media messages to instill fear in the population for the purposes of controlling their behavior. 

Let that sink in for a moment while I go on to say, "I told you so," many times in fact, right here in these 12 years worth of blogs.  It's not often, though, I get to point to actual quotations and admissions by the perpetrators.

The article in the London Telegraph quotes an unnamed participant (I hesitate to use the title of Scientist) talking about the nature of the decision:

One scientist with the SPI-B admits that “In March [2020] the Government was very worried about compliance and they thought people wouldn’t want to be locked down. There were discussions about fear being needed to encourage compliance, and decisions were made about how to ramp up the fear.”

The unnamed scientist adds that “The way we have used fear is dystopian.”

Though this is certainly not the first time this has been done, it is rare that anyone admits to it, since lucrative careers are built on such skills.  There are two primary techniques used, known simply as personal benefit and personal threat, or more colloquially as "the carrot and the stick."

In the personal benefit category, the audience is told how they will gain prestige, wealth, admiration, or other vanity-stroking boost by acquiring a product or service.  In the personal threat category, they are led to believe that they will lose any of those benefits, become a laughing stock, or otherwise be humiliated in the eyes of their peers if they don't acquire the product or service.  

The former category includes luxury products or uniformed service providers emblazoned with the proper logos. For example, buying Nike shoes or a BMW will draw the admiration and envy of anyone who sees you in possession of these products.  Perhaps a particular cologne will attract more desireable mates.  Dining at a particular restaurant might impress others with your taste or sophistication.

In the latter category, you will be ashamed that your whites aren't whiter, or your body odor is offensive, or even repulsive.  Perhaps sweating will reveal your nervousness, or the label on your clothes will reveal that you are a cheap bastard.

These are pretty run-of-the-mill and every single advertisement you have ever or will ever be exposed to uses one or both techniques to motivate you.  For instance, you have bad breath and it offends others (threat), so buy our mouthwash and never worry again (benefit).

However, these techniques can and have been weaponized to control and manipulate entire populations.  During the Cold War, the constant threat of nuclear annihilation kept Americans docile and subservient to government interests.  A few of us remember "duck and cover" and air raid sirens going off every Friday at noon as constant reminders of just how fragile our grip on existence was, and of course voting and supporting government forces were the only viable solution.

In our current situation, the fear messages began as early of January of 2020.  Media showed us images of people dropping in the streets, packed hospital wards and footage of ambulances and emergency services in action.  Few folks noticed that almost all the images shown were stock footage from past crises, like chemical plant explosions, or even just random shots of Saturday night outside the local charity hospital.

We immediately panicked - on cue.  We were told to lock ourselves indoors, buy copious amounts of sanitizer and apprise "authorities" of any signs of illness of any kind anywhere at anytime.  Curiously, Americans also went on a toilet paper-buying rampage.  I've yet to figure out where that came from, but apparently folks figured wiping their butts was far more important than eating and taking vitamins.

The message was very powerful: an invisible enemy was all around us and could kill us in a particularly painful and horrific way if we didn't cower in our homes, avoid all human contact, and (most importantly) trust the people paraded on the evening news to lead us to health and safety.

It was all completely and entirely manufactured.  We were manipulated.  The "experts" we were told to follow were in on the deception, in fact some are even guilty of conceiving and launching the deception for the purposes of their masters.

The fear campaign has intensified in recent months to include vaccines as the savior - the solution - that offers the benefit of freedom from fear.  This is a curious thing, because the intangible and unseeable fear is now remedied by an equally unknown product, and the benefit is only relief from fear, not the return of liberties that were taken in response to the fear.

In other words, the relief from fear is nothing more than being stabbed with a needle (more fear) containing a substance that no one really knows what's in it.  For all we know, it is just salt water with a nifty label on the vial that has the magical spell "vaccine" printed on it.  Of course, that's not the case, since so many people are in fact dropping dead or having life-threatening events because of it.

This is unlike any campaign I have ever seen, though it is operating according to very precise phases that i am familiar with.  Phase I is threat - the who, what, where of the operation.  This was the early reports and images back during January to May of 2020.  Phase II is worry - the audience internalizes the threat and panics , seeking some outside entity to rescue them.  Phase III  is hope - solutions are proffered and focused on the entity that will deliver the remedy.  Phase IV is enlistment - once the remedy is made available, members of the audience who are susceptible to control are enlisted to coerce more resistant members using "carrot and stick".  For instance, a wary husband might be coerced by his wife with promises of intimacy once he is "safe" from the vaccine.

This process is essentially a complex form of the Hegelian Dialectic - thesis, antithesis, synthesis.  There is a problem for which a solution is found and all participants are made whole again by partaking in the solution.  Thesis: there is a deadly virus.  Antithesis: wash hands, stay indoors, avoid contact.  Synthesis: vaccination restores normalcy.

 We have been deceived.

The thesis or threat may or may not be real.  We have no way of knowing from the evidence currently in the public domain.  All we know for certain is that a number of performers in white lab coats have told us there is a "new" virus that causes deadly symptoms and there is no "known" cure for this situation.

The antithesis is that we must lock ourselves in our homes, avoid all contact with other human being and surrender ALL of our basic human rights - assemble, worship. speak, travel, choose, etc.

The synthesis is a substance that has not been tested, uses a completely new technology and may cause unforeseen harm.  You MUST submit to having this substance injected into your body by lab-coated performers before what you used to call rights, but are now just privileges, are partially returned to you...maybe.

To say every part of this scenario is wide open to deception, manipulation and coercion is an understatement.  In fact, the entire Damn-Panic is one massive conspiracy theory, for which there is exactly zero incontrovertible proof.

Ask yourself this: has anyone anywhere at any time in the past year held up a vial labelled "SARS-COV-2 - Live Sample," carefully removed its contents, placed them under a scanning electron microscope, and shown you point by point why this virus is any different from the Common Cold, or why it might be more deadly?  We won't even talk about the alleged "variants" that magically appeared right after the vaccines started rolling out.

You would think that an emergency of this scale involving an object smaller than we can perceive with our eyes would call for extraordinary educational efforts.  In fact, not only have the performers NOT done this, they have constantly changed the story, moved the goal posts, given and rescinded privileges, and essentially told us absolutely nothing of any value concerning this situation.  We are told to respect, trust, submit, and not ask questions.

We have been deceived by masters of the game.  It is a marketing plan that has been weaponized, utilizing psychological tools to manipulate our most basic instincts.

We are at fault.  We surrendered.  We were uncritical and credulous.  We were fearful and weak.  But it's not the end of the world.  It's time to wake up from the spell, realize  we've been had, and take back our agency as free adult humans.

WWOD? (What would Orson do?)

16.12.18

The Voice Of Q

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14.3.17

Cat And Mouse

I've been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century!

For Valentine's Day, my wife forced me to accept what is euphemistically called a "smart" phone.  I prefer to think of them as dumb devices, because they encourage the user to stop using one's natural mental facilities - like memory - and put everything into a collection device that then sends it off to agencies which use it to harvest one's wealth and data.

I exaggerate a little, because a few years ago, I bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 for business purposes.  I needed to be able to read and edit documents, look at CAD drawings and communicate with things like WhatsApp groups quickly and efficiently, without havingto lug around a laptop.  Works perfectly for what I need, though I insisted on using a dumb, stupid cell phone for calls - just a small uncomplicated device in which to speak and hear others at a distance.

I refused to become one of these "smart" phone junkie zombies who seem to always be in front of me everywhere I go, wandering aimlessly, paying zero attention to the real world, and hindering my purposeful and deliberate navigation of reality.

I should also note that I operate my Samsung tablet in full paranoia mode.  I keep all the apps in full approval mode and I check every single "permission" that I allow them to have.  I don't allow automatic updates and I place as little identifying information into the "cloud" as I can absolutely control.  I perform all my backups with a direct cable link to my laptop and I don't give Google anything I don't absolutely must to get the function I need.

And I only have one game - Solitaire Suite - which I haven't opened in two years.

At my wife's insistence, I graciously accepted the gift for how it was intended, though inside I was repulsed by it.  It has two SIM cards, one for the 4G data link, and the other my trusty old voice phone number.

It was at this point that I decided to go a different route.  I downloaded and installed the critical apps that I use daily - WhatsApp, Waze, Uber - but I created all new accounts, rather than link them to my other device.  I must say, I had forgotten what a pain in the ass it is to set up new accounts.  I've spent the past month retraining my device to do what I want.

The big difference is that I decided to go full default on this one.  I allowed the apps full permissions, auto updates and whatever else they needed to give me "full service", without my paranoid limits on their powers.  What a mistake that was.

My "smart" phone, only one month old, now regales me with constant advertising (known in marketing circles as "notifications") around the clock.  I spend nearly 10 minutes every morning clearing all the crap off my phone that I pay zero attention to.  The worst are the Yahoo Mail app and YouTube.

Yahoo send me constant updates on news stories that I could care less about, especially since I avoid the Yahoo News wire assiduously.  It also tells me every time I get yet another unsolicited advert (note: my Yahoo account is over 20 years old and I use it primarily now for registrations so all the crap goes to one address and I can bulk delete them).

YouTube, on the other hand, insists on "recommending" videos for me that I don't want to see.  Even if it sounds interesting, I avoid it religiously simply because YouTube recommended it.  I want to screw with their profile of me by not following any regular pattern of viewing or content.

One concession to my paranoia is that I made a custom pouch for my "smart" phone that is lined with mylar to minimize my electronic footprint.  This does make it rather difficult to call me, though folks can still WhatsApp my tablet to let me know they want to call.  It also means that when I use Uber, the phone needs a minute to talk with the network to figure out where the hell I am.  Small bother for peace of mind.

A lot of folks might think I do this to avoid government snooping, but really that is the least of my worries.  I hardly do anything worthy of spook attention, though I fancy my paranoia makes it at least a small challenge to invade my privacy.

No, I am paranoid because I believe that I own my data and identity, and I despise the idea that some monstrous mega-corp is harvesting it for their profit.  In fact, the idea makes me physically ill.  I am not a crop to be harvested for advertisers and marketers.  The idea of Google or Microsoft or Amazon making even a tiny bit of revenue off of my personal data and identity makes me hopping mad!

For this reason, I don't shop online, I don't use any app that requires payment, and I sure as hell avoid any of their services to the extent that I can find a small start-up offering the same or better.  In that I have succumbed to using some anti-social media, I never post personal information, like where I am or what I am doing.  I just link to other information.  This blog is the full extent of my "social" presence on the web, and I use Ubuntu OS and Tor when writing and posting.  In fact, I primarily use a server in Tobago to pop out into the open.

So, OK, my wife fist-whipped me into accepting the inevitable, but I still fight.  In fact, I use Tor and Orfox browser on my phone and tablet, except when things like Waze and Uber require my exact location in order to function the way I want.

I'm neither ignorant nor naive.  I know my paranoid antics do little to protect my data, but I like the idea of creating an entity in the mega-corps' vast data farms that isn't entirely accurate.  I like getting ads in German or French, because they have no idea I am in Indonesia.  I like that the ads have nothing to do with my interests because their profile of me is so bass-ackwards - assuming their ads can get through my various blocks.  I like that targeted junk mail and ads never have my correct name.  I also like knowing who precisely sold my data to whom by which names and addresses they use.  Puts them on my shit list of products and services I will never use again.

Any more, we basically have two options: live the Neo-Luddite life as a nomad in the Gobi desert, or succumb to the all-invasive Machine that is modern life.  I take some gratification that I can do the latter without completely giving in.

23.5.12

Running Out Of (E)Steam

One of my favorite Indonesian sayings is, "Sayap-sayap patah terbang kembali."  It simply says, "Broken wings return to flight."  I am proof of that. 

While hiking in the jungle over the weekend, it rained and turned the ubiquitous Java clay into glass.  I slipped and landed square on my elbow, jamming my shoulder right good.  As I lay in the mud staring up at the three monkeys staring down at me, they looked at one another as if to say, "And they call themselves primates?"

After a thorough massage, visit to the doctor, three X-rays and a compress of the nastiest, smelliest arak I've yet come across, I can sit here and assault the world with more of my ramblings.  And so, with a cup of fine java (pun intended) in hand, let us launch into another round, since I've had several days to muse over a dozen topics.

In the past couple of days, I've listened to some fine interviews with Gerald Celente on Coast-to-Coast, and Ian R. Crane on Red Ice Radio.  Two very well-spoken gentlemen expounding on all matters economic, which naturally led me to think about psychology.  Makes sense, right?

At any rate, what I've decided is that psychology is the root of all problems in our current mess we call society.  In fact, you can trace the roots directly to Freud and Maslow from the middle of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th. 

Freud, of course, turned all of humanity into perverted mother lovers whose most noble deeds were nothing more than attempts to breed.  Maslow went further with his Hierarchy of Needs to ascribe all motivations to basic animal desires, with self-awareness a distant bastard child of sex, housing and food.

Psychology was a natural marriage with advertising, and advertising is just a mild form of propaganda.  With psychology defining the human mind and basic motivations, the Madison Ave. types jumped on it to twist us into consuming robots.  Hitler and his gang further perfected the techniques to chain the individual's perception of self-worth to the glory of the State.

Psychology has spent the last century and a half figuring out ways to break the Mind down into constituent parts and rebuild it in the image of Corporatism, and it has worked brilliantly, if not seditiously.  A great number of people any more are little more than empty shells with magical paper in their pockets running wildly around buying up any old gee-gaw thrust in their faces.

Psychology starts on the false assumption that any human being can honestly understand the mind of any other human being.  That wasn't enough, though.  It went on to propose that it could train certain high priests to be able to diagnose and cure 'abnormalities' in thinking.  I mean, honestly, they believe that.

Going back to Hitler, he was a vegetarian, artist, writer, and rabid anti-smoker: all qualities that goofy 'liberals' drool over.  He rebuilt a destroyed nation and within five years, turned it from abject poverty to an industrial giant that took the combined efforts of a major part of the world's nations to stop.  How does psychology explain that this man was also one of the cruelest, most heartless mass murders in history?

Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" is a brilliant exploration of the psychology behind a character who seemingly had it all: wealth, power, possessions.  Yet, we are led to conclude that at his core, he was driven by the lack of love from a cold, heartless mother.  But that hardly seems to add up to a highly complex mind with diverse interests and a desire to influence millions.

In the end, psychology can not answer the one question it purports to, and that is to find a formula for human activity and motivation.  What it has found, though, is multiple ways to manipulate emotions and especially guilt in order to force people into desired behavior patterns.

Take, for instance, ads that promote soaps that whiten and brighten.  The commercials usually have two women, both married judging by the rings on their fingers, eyeing each other's whites.  The woman with the dingiest whites is made to feel guilt and envy at the brightness of the other woman's laundry.  No one mentions that fact that no one other than the wife should be looking at her husband's underwear, so what difference does it make?  But the seed is planted.

Another fine example is ads for luxury sports sedans.  We are shown a well-dressed man sitting at the wheel blazing down a mountainous road.  We are led to conclude that we have not 'made it' until we can plant ourselves in that driver's seat.  We clamor to finance our way into that seat, regardless of whether we can afford it, because we want to possess that image.  In other words, we are encouraged to chase ghosts in order to achieve self-esteem.

And that brings us to the crux of the issue: self-esteem.  It seems like so much is made of self-esteem.  In schools all over the world, children are given prizes just for waking up in the morning.  There is no achievement or actual victory.  There is only the shell of it.

Through the process of mental manipulation, we have been led to think that self-esteem is the Holy Grail of psychological health.  No one seems to question the fact that self-esteem is just an empty pride that is easily destroyed.  In fact, little Johnny, who has been pumped full of self-esteem all through school, can be destroyed in minutes in the real world.  Once his self-esteem is destroyed by reality, he will do anything for anyone in order to feel fulfilled again.  He can be made to buy anything, do anything, that will puff up his self-esteem.

The real counterpart to self-esteem is self-respect.  Self-respect, unlike its hollow cousin, is very hard to destroy.  Self-respect is generated from within, not from outside.  It is not bestowed through image or objects.  It is the feeling of worth and dignity.  It is the unshakable belief that one has value by virtue of one's humanity.  It is inherent in existence and needs no reinforcement from outside sources.

Self-esteem requires constant feedback from others.  It is based solely on external factors to exist.  It must be fed constantly by variables that are almost completely outside the control of the individual.  It forces the individual to constantly buy the latest gee-gaw or fashion in order to receive adulation from those who would not otherwise care a whit.

Self-respect, on the other hand, is fed from within.  It exists regardless of external circumstances.  It allows one to feel a sense of value, whether dressed in rags or the latest Prada designs.  Self-respect is the bane of Madison Ave., because that person can not be shamed into spending money they don't have to buy things they don't need in order to receive empty praise.

It is the difference between 'poor' and 'broke'.  Poor is a state of mind brought on by self-esteem.  One is poor if one succumbs to hopelessness brought about by the inability to receive praise.  Broke is a temporary state of being that can be cured with a little hard work and ingenuity, and success reinforces the sense of one's value as a human being, regardless of whether anyone else notices.

Self-respect is not a commodity that can be bought, sold and manipulated.  Self-esteem is.  This is the Great Lie perpetrated by Madison Ave., aided and abetted by psychology.  It is the one achievement of psychology that can be directly traced to the core of society's ills at this point in time.  By reducing us to self-esteem junkies, we can be made to follow any trend, buy any object, believe any lie, as long as it continues to re-inflate the leaky balloon we call Self.

In Bernard Shaw's great play, "Caesar and Cleopatra," there is a subtle juxtaposition between self-esteem and self-respect.  The aging caesar requires the love and attention of the young Cleopatra to puff up his flagging self-esteem.  He sees himself as losing his manhood due to age.  Caesar's scribe Britannus, however, requires only the knowledge that he has done the best he can at a task, regardless to what ignominy he must stoop to achieve it.

In other words, all of Caesar's achievements in conquering the known world can not fill his need for outside confirmation, while Britannus only needs the knowledge that he achieved his goal to feel worth.  Self-esteem and self-respect.

The New Renaissance of our society and culture will be based on this simple reversal of view.  If we generate our feelings of worth from within, rather than needing talismans of value, then we will quite easily conquer what ails us.

Think of the "Wizard of Oz".  The scarecrow performed feats of intelligence without a degree.  The tin man showed profound emotion and caring without a heart.  And the lion displayed extreme courage despite his fear.  They did all this from inner strength, not from accolades and accoutrement.

As long as we allow society's institutions to control us through fear, guilt and self-loathing, then we will continue to be slaves to them.  In restoring our innate self-worth, we will conquer the evil that is destroying our world without a single act of violence.  It starts by tuning out the psychological warfare being perpetrated on us through the media.  It finishes by realizing that we are all God's Creatures with value beyond calculation by virtue of our existance.

As Britannus said, "In war, we paint ourselves blue, so that though our enemies may strip us of our clothes and our lives, they can not strip us of our responsibility."

You figure it out.

31.8.11

Medium As Message

Bird Flu Virus
It is a frequent topic here on the Far Side about the use of media to instill 'behavioral templates' in the mass mind, so that when certain situations arise, we automatically drop into role and follow the pre-installed program.  Given that there are a number of scenarios about at the moment, it might be instructive to examine how this process works, and how you are programmed to react in a certain fashion.

That media work is not at issue.  It has been proven repeatedly that mass groups of people can be easily controlled and cajoled by what they see and hear in the media.  All advertising operates by creating a need or impression in you mind, and then supplying that need with some product.  Even media moguls are susceptible to it.

When Euro Disney opened back in the early 90s, Michael Eisner, then CEO, went to inspect the damage, I mean...new park.  Upon arriving, he began the tour with an inspection of the park's hotels.  If you're not familiar with Disney parks, they have on-site hotels for every budget, from discount family style to adult over-spender style.  Eisner went to the low-budget family box and found all these people arriving in Mercedes.  Well, he had a fit.

"Why are all these Mercedes staying at the cheap hotel," he demanded.  He was then made aware that the Mercedes C-class was nothing more than the Oldsmobile of Europe.  The brand had nothing to do with wealth, only the class of design.

Eisner, like many Americans, had succumbed to the marketing that had convinced everyone that the Mercedes brand meant high-priced luxury.  It didn't occur to him that they operate just like Disney, pimping low-rent and high-rent products for every budget.  Heck, just south of him in north Africa, every beat-up, run-down taxi is a Mercedes.

It works for just about every product.  Body odor was not an issue until the end of WWII, when a product called MUMM came out and they shamed everyone into 'needing' this product, so they didn't smell.  Feminine hygiene products, toothpaste, sodas, electronic gee-gaws...they all use your desire to project an image to sell you useless crap.  Everytime you look at a product and think, "Rich guy, lucky guy, wish I had one," you have been programmed.

A little reading on the subject of mind control and how this process works will give you at least some defense against the Dark Arts.

But, back to our topic at hand...behavioral templates.

What sparked this discussion was the CNN article pimping the latest designer virus called, ominously enough, Mutal Bird Flu.  Not only does the word 'mutant' engender fear, which we spoke of previously, but it is caused by something unseen, a virus, and it is vectored through something cute and cuddly, a bird.  All perfect plot points for mass mind control through fear.

For our discussion, we're going to choose the 1995 Hoffman flick called Outbreak.  We could choose any of dozens of flicks on this subject, including the brilliant Andromeda Strain, but this one is fairly blatant and easy to follow.

The primary message of the film is that the authorities have all the answers.  Don't be afraid, just follow orders and you'll be saved.  That there is a back story of a battle of wits between the Good Authorities and the Bad Authorities is secondary.  It serves to re-inforce the idea that at some level, there are people in power who have your best interests at heart, so just pile in the cattle cars and go to the detention centers and we'll get all this sorted out right away.

Among the many messages contained in the flick are: bad viri are manufactured to kill bad guys, cute and cuddly animals are scary, people who don't follow import/export laws are bad, the Good Authorities always win, and you're quarantined for your own good...if you try to escape you'll be blow to bits to save the world.  But the most important thing to learn is, the Authorities have all the answers; you're just a little, stupid civilian; just do as you're told and we'll figure this all out at levels much higher than you.  Oh, and take any medicine we tell you to take, for your own good...but more importantly for the safety of the world.

Basically, it comes down to a message you will hear repeated in all media all the time: You Can't Handle The Truth.

Even Batman tells you that.  In The Dark Knight, which you might think celebrates the empowered individual, we are told that we are incapable even of being a vigilante.  Only men with power and money, who work closely with the Authorities, are allowed to perform freelance law enforcement.  After all, you're only wearing hockey pads.  The same message is everywhere.

Back to Outbreak.

So, even though the Authorities created the viral menace, and a cute and cuddly vector (monkey) carries it, don't worry because they've also got the antidote.  That's right, even though they took your tax money at gun point and created a devastating and horrible disease while playing God with it, it's OK because they have the cure and if you just submit and follow orders, you'll be fine.

Don't worry that the Good Authority (Hoffman) is really only motivated to save his mean ex-wife (Russo) by fighting off the Bad Authority (Sutherland), the grandfatherly Shadow Authority (Freeman) will come to our rescue and give the hero the answer.

To tie all this together, any of the manufactured diseases that are currently in the wild or will be have already been 'cured'.  Our job as sheep is to follow directions and be penned up so that we can either be exterminated (to save the world) or innoculated (to save Big Pharma).  Those who don't follow the orders will be gunned down like rabid dogs and no one will question it out of fear and because that's what our 'behavioral template' tells us will happen.

No matter what happens, whether it's alien invasions, plagues, severe weather, or terrorism, we are to follow Authority at all times, because they always have the answers and will always come to our rescue.  We must allow them to do anything, be it torture, killing or round-ups, no matter what violations of liberty and freedom it requires, because it's for our own good.  The Authority always knows more and better than we do.

Whether it's 24, or Beverley Hills Cop, or Law and Order, the message is always the same: do not hinder the Authorities.  Their badge and gun means they can do anything in the name of saving us.  Our job, as stupid goy, is to stay out of their way and follow orders, for our own good.  In other words, we are all 3-year-olds, and Mommy and Daddy Authority are child-proofing the world for us.

Oh, and the 'behavioral templates' work both ways.  They teach us that being an Authority is fun because you have power over the goy and can do anything you want.  You can grope children's genitals and steal people's things and beat folks to a pulp if they don't show proper respect for your Authority.

The media teach us how to act if we are goy, glorify Authority to make us want to become Authority, and then show us all the cool things we can do with impunity once we pass the Mystical Test and become a member of Authority.  That's why cops strut like preening roosters and TSA agents violate every boundary of prudence and FBI agents all look like they stepped out of Men In Black.  They've been implanted, too.

Sigmund Freud
If you really want to feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up, read some of the theory and practice of media, especially from the turn of the 20th century.  It was a little more open and honest back then.  Read up on the history of media, and how it followed a parallel track with phychology, as both professions learned how to manipulate and control minds.  They truly worked hand-and-glove to bring you to submission.

Read up on how they telegraph events through dramas, how they subtly change your behaviors and beliefs through comedies.

In physiology, they have studied how persistence of vision creates the illusion of motion with as little as 12 frames/second, and how the flickering of the frames cause a sort of trance state that allows messages to by-pass your normal defenses.

It's bone-chilling and it's far worse than is possible to cover in a single column.  Suffice it to say that if your are consuming media, then it is consuming you.  And yes, even markerting geniuses like Michael Eisner are prone to its control.  Educating yourself on something so ubiquitous as media is the first step towards freeing yourself from its control.

The Big Question is, what will you do with the knowledge?