5 ms·

McLuhan talked about how Western books and movies (especially movies as a hot medium) could cause revolutions simply by giving people in poorer nations a window

McLuhan talked about how Western books and movies (especially movies as a hot medium) could cause revolutions simply by giving people in poorer nations a window into what they were being deprived of. This is a formidable weapon if deployed with this intent.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
gumby 4y ago
Likewise satellite TV and the Internet had a lot to do with the instigation of the Arab Spring.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Natsu 4y ago
North Korea is still like this. People who have escaped are most impressed by the abundance of food. Having enough to eat is foreign to them. They're actually starving, right now: https://www.38north.org/2023/01/food-insecurity-in-north-korea-is-at-its-worst-since-the-1990s-famine/ https://www.38north.org/2023/01/food-insecurity-in-north-kor...
jacurtis 4y ago
I don't have a source, so take this with a grain of salt. But I had heard a story on a podcast once (not sure which one, sorry...) that the CIA was actually very involved within Hollywood in the 40-70s and used it exactly in this manner. This was coming from an interview with someone who worked in CIA intelligence during these years. According to the interviewer, the CIA funded and pushed the entertainment medium to distribute a vision of how good America was for the average person in order to improve the reputation of America around the world.
- woodruffw 4y ago
  I don't know about film, but the CIA was (somewhat) famously involved in defining and propagating the style of midcentury creative writing[1]. "More Hemingway and less Dos Passos" as this article puts it[2]. [1]: https://www.openculture.com/2018/12/cia-helped-shaped-american-creative-writing-famous-iowa-writers-workshop.html https://www.openculture.com/2018/12/cia-helped-shaped-americ... [2]: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3vg3/how-the-cia-turned-american-literature-into-a-content-farm https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3vg3/how-the-cia-turned-am...
  - pessimizer 4y ago
    And art (esp. abstract expressionism): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Paid_the_Piper%253F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Paid_the_Piper%253F

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

gumby 4y ago

Likewise satellite TV and the Internet had a lot to do with the instigation of the Arab Spring.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Natsu 4y ago

North Korea is still like this. People who have escaped are most impressed by the abundance of food. Having enough to eat is foreign to them. They're actually starving, right now: https://www.38north.org/2023/01/food-insecurity-in-north-korea-is-at-its-worst-since-the-1990s-famine/ https://www.38north.org/2023/01/food-insecurity-in-north-kor...

jacurtis 4y ago

I don't have a source, so take this with a grain of salt. But I had heard a story on a podcast once (not sure which one, sorry...) that the CIA was actually very involved within Hollywood in the 40-70s and used it exactly in this manner. This was coming from an interview with someone who worked in CIA intelligence during these years. According to the interviewer, the CIA funded and pushed the entertainment medium to distribute a vision of how good America was for the average person in order to improve the reputation of America around the world.

woodruffw 4y ago
I don't know about film, but the CIA was (somewhat) famously involved in defining and propagating the style of midcentury creative writing[1]. "More Hemingway and less Dos Passos" as this article puts it[2]. [1]: https://www.openculture.com/2018/12/cia-helped-shaped-american-creative-writing-famous-iowa-writers-workshop.html https://www.openculture.com/2018/12/cia-helped-shaped-americ... [2]: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3vg3/how-the-cia-turned-american-literature-into-a-content-farm https://www.vice.com/en/article/4x3vg3/how-the-cia-turned-am...
- pessimizer 4y ago
  And art (esp. abstract expressionism): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Paid_the_Piper%253F https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Paid_the_Piper%253F