Written by You can read our more detailed perspective on the state funded media agencies mentioned in this article here.
It seems to be a problem with the inclusion of business in art. A universally loved artist can be the most powerful voice on the planet, matched only by the wealthiest men in the world who spend billions to sneak their messages out. When a musician sings about equality he risks being shot in the street like a sick dog. When the film business came around the investors in this new artistic technology were very quick to capitalize and make decisions solely based on profits and American Nationalism. The tight grip businesses had around a new and captivating medium afforded the creation of the film industry we know today, as well as indoctrinating a new generation of artists that would be unable to open their goddamn mouths. The “Golden Age” of Film refers to a time when American oligarchs or “robber barons” controlled the 5 companies that achieved control over the entire film industry, and the movies sucked. All your favorite actors were fired for having left-leaning political views and suddenly all you could see was sex and violence on the TV.
Similar conglomerates exist to this day, they are run by descendants of these same oligarchs and have even widened the areas of control through continued government corruption and blatant bribery. The corrupt oil company is under the same umbrella corporation as the anti-oil drilling news publication, which is under the same umbrella as the non-profit that funds your local PBS station, which promotes the newly invented miracle pharmaceutical by a drug company that ALSO fits in this umbrella. There’s no Hollywood cabal or rival broadcasters. Anderson Cooper is an actor and Tucker Carlson is drunk, both are expert opportunists. It’s impossible to follow the money if it never changes hands. They improvise on a carefully crafted narrative designed to keep us in line, so we only fight when they say it’s time. It rarely fails to work flawlessly.
Why dumb us down? Why the distractions? There are the blissfully ignorant, I would say artificially numb. Entertaining is a part of human nature; it’s an activity that activates emotions, and misplaced emotions have been the downfall of multiple societies throughout history. But not all art and media are fake or nefarious. I think the forefathers that corrupted our media just left an impossibly high hurdle in their wake, only leaving an elevator for their dwindling kin to continue reigning in the market with the corrupt system they inherited. Only recently it seems the limitless expansion and gluttony that our past rulers enabled has turned into an avalanche of consequences that we the people will suffer for. How many World Fairs saw whole disposable cities constructed for an event that couldn’t even turn a profit? How were the illiterate workers of the 19th century supposed to understand how money laundering worked? They saw Rockefeller helping people in Africa because that is the only narrative they were told.
By the time anybody notices that all of the wealth is gone and you have a king, you’ve already been sent overseas to fight a new enemy that threatens your freedom, while back home your wife will be introduced to a new toxic and dangerous field of work. When you come home, the business that ran your town has been ransacked and condemned to build the planes that had just saved you from certain death.
Print.
Henry Luce, an American born in China, goes to Yale, he and his buddy Briton Hadden were eagerly recruited to the Skull and Bones society, after graduation in 1923 Britton forms Time Magazine in part with Henry Luce and Robert Livingston (Yale alum, and would later create the corrupt USIA). In 1931, the company hired Charles Douglas Jackson to act as a senior executive. 10 years into his job with Time, Jackson was elected president of the Council for Democracy. Just before WWII, he would join the OSS and during the war, Jackson was hired as an expert in psychological warfare. After the war, he became the managing director of Time (now Time-Life International) and the publisher of Fortune magazine. Jackson kept his OSS job the whole time and even merged with the CIA in 1952. Maintaining a good standing with the state department landed Jackson a job as the special assistant to President Eisenhower where he would form the American wing of the Bilderberg Group; [1] he invited Henry Luce to be a member.
Being led by rich republican frat boys, Time Inc. garnered connections to the richest men and most powerful organizations in the world, they also had full support from the state department, and beckoned their every call. Time would begin as a lighthearted news publication that piqued interest and was relatable to the average American. Having worked on the Yale Daily and including writers from the Harvard Lampoon made it an instant success. Having an illustration and interview of a rich famous friend on each issue was a clever and successful marketing and PR strategy that was used to sell any idea that would benefit the company’s bottom line or promote their sick nationalist views; it would be disguised as journalism.
In 1919 we had a golden opportunity, an opportunity unprecedented in all history, to assume the leadership of the world – a golden opportunity handed to us on the proverbial silver platter. We did not understand that opportunity.
-Henry Luce, The American Century[2]
In the 1940s the Congress for Cultural Freedom was formed as an international intelligence machine not to harvest data, but to transmit gobs of information as a global network of synergized media conglomerates. By the 50s, Allen Dulles would bring in Luce and his magazine empire, along with Jackson and Nelson Rockefeller, who had joined the CIA after directing the Museum of Modern Art and traveling around the world. Theodor Adorno worked closely with the CCF and Rockefeller foundation, he argued for the purge of cultural differences in the art community to purposely create a vacuum of intellect and beauty that could cause psychological distress on a global scale. He noted these potential “positive” effects:
- De-personalization, loss of connection to one’s own body
- Hebephrenia, which he defined as “the indifference of the sick individual towards the external”
- Catatonia, “a similar behavior is familiar in patients who have been overwhelmed by shock”
- Necrophilia. Adorno declared, “Universal necrophilia is the last perversity of style.”[3]
I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology… Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called ‘education.’ Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the press, the cinema, and the radio play an increasing part… It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.
The subject will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship… The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. Various results will soon be arrived at. First, that the influence of home is obstructive. Second, that not much can be done unless indoctrination begins before the age of ten. Third, that verses set to music and repeatedly intoned are very effective. Fourth, that the opinion that snow is white must be held to show a morbid taste for eccentricity. But I anticipate. It is for future scientists to make these maxims precise and discover exactly how much it costs per head to make children believe that snow is black, and how much less it would cost to make them believe it is dark gray.
Bertrand Russel CCF Chairman, The Impact of Science on Society [4]
Over time Luce and his associates would accumulate controlling stock in various media companies and news publications. Luce would buy out independent news sources such as Life magazine, which would then be used in an intelligence operation that sold the idea of war to unassuming Americans; using fake journalism to drive American policy in favor of whatever they wanted with no thought to the future or the land their children would have to grow up in. Corrupt news organizations are how the government convinced us that Japan deserved it. At one point Luce would garner support for the Kuomintang, an authoritarian nationalist regime that still exists and receives American financial support despite human rights violations and only a few other countries officially recognizing them. Luce was also known for despising John F Kennedy and would lambast him in the tabloids whenever possible. Here is a phone call between Henry Luce and Lydon Johnson discussing the fate of the poor Vietnamese who were to be doused in napalm.
Film.
Before Time Inc was finally formed, a new type of entertainment industry was being built on the other side of the country. The new motion picture business was proving to be lucrative, actors and producers of high renown such as Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith would attempt to achieve financial control over their art. Despite being the top billed actors and the driving force in entertainment at the time, funding for films still depended on one’s allegiance to the production company and willingness to promote any motives they might have as a company. As an actor of this era, it was becoming standard to sign to a production company that would have complete control over the art you’re allowed to produce, additionally they could use you for any advertisements they see fit.
At the height of his fame, Charlie couldn’t get an appropriate budget for his high-profit films and was beginning to feel held back by the soulless studio system. Other top billed actors noticed that their contracts were not being renewed despite their success, so, Chaplin and Fairbanks hired a private investigator, he discovered a group of frustrated businessmen that felt disdain for the artists’ passion, and they hatched a plan to merge production companies, distributors, and theatres to a parent company that could lock artists into a non-compete contract that barred them from making any independent ventures; the entire reason one becomes an artist. Before the scheme could take place the 3 Actors and 1 DP with the help of William McAdoo (son-in-law of President Woodrow Wilson), formed United Artists: the first independently funded film company in the increasingly shrinking world of American Capitalism. D.W. Griffith re-released Birth of A Nation under UA which sparked racial protests and riots across the country and added controversy to the company.
By the time UA could release its first successful picture, the studio system had set a high bar for production quality and films became harder to fund independently. Theaters started dealing directly with production companies who only sold movies as a block deal that bypassed the distributor and clogged theater screens with shitty movies that were poorly produced like a product rather than art. Because of greedy and vindictive businessmen, United Artists was forced to make deals with smaller theater chains that were also being hurt by the studio system; they hired Joseph Schenck as president of the company. Schenck’s brother was president of the theater chain that owned Metro-Goldwyn. Over time, most of the founders of UA would drop out and the company would be forced to make deals with new investors such as Samuel Goldwyn (Goldwyn Pictures) and Howard Hughes (Oil baron, RKO Studios, Transworld Airlines, CIA operative). The company was finally proving successful and in 1935, Schenck attempted to buy the company outright, he was denied and resigned out of spite, by this time he had already formed 20th Century to provide half of United Artists’ distribution schedule. After resigning Schenck set up a merger between 20th Century and Fox Film Corp, Disney, RKO and other companies would follow, creating a flurry of lawsuits against United Artists for “disputed compensation”. Later, Schenck and his loyal followers set up the United Artists Theater Circuit. The circuit would play movies from UA and others that signed franchise agreements, this kept UA alive at a time when all, but one founder (Chaplin) had retired from the entertainment industry altogether. The constantly changing media sector made United Artists one of the first and last independent ventures in Hollywood, they worked on a fraction of the average budget, and was the only one owned by the artists. The films that were released by United Artists for the most part represent the artistic integrity that the founders tried to preserve; a good idea is infinitely more valuable than a big nasty budget when it comes to the arts. Pickford, Chaplin, Fairbanks, and Griffith, attempted to grasp onto the medium they had mastered, and they were systematically worn down, defeated, and eventually driven out of it by greed-driven investors, rich statesmen, and a hypocritical court system.
He (Bill Donovan) went about recruiting men with pedigrees—Archibald MacLeish, the poet and Librarian of Congress, and a member of Yale’s Skull and Bones; Paul Mellon, of the banking dynasty; two scions of the House of Morgan, Henry, and Junius, who used Donovan’s London club memberships for clandestine ops; Alfred du Pont, who went on to direct espionage in France; various swells named Auchincloss, Coolidge, and Vanderbilt; a smattering of exotics, such as a former officer in the Russian imperial army known as Prince (he was not a real one) Serge Obolensky; and a few showbiz types, including Hollywood director John Ford, who made propaganda films. Donovan recruited so many sons and daughters of families in the Social Register that O.S.S., it was said, stood for “Oh So Social.” Many of the recruits had close ties to Britain. Raymond Guest, a polo player who ran clandestine maritime operations, was Churchill’s cousin. [5]
Evan Thomas, Vanity Fair.
Chaplin eventually fled the country and was disallowed to visit his family because of ties to the communist party. All they wanted to do was make fucking movies. Finally rid of soul and passion United Artists began trading hands and the trail gets harder to follow, as with any of the inspiring start-ups in this country it ended up under one of those umbrellas. You can rest assured knowing that United Artists still exists, in name only.
Tech Today Post-Mod-Hyper-Mass Media in the Multi-Polar World Technocracy?
As technology advances and the media sector expands, these subversive manipulation tactics only become more adaptive and sinister; a pro-war feature film may take the form of a military video game. Popular weekly magazines have taken to hourly social media updates or popular online influencers shouting into a camera for hours. With no real journalists left and a government that lacks transparency, we will likely never know who the current state actors are or who is just making propaganda on their own as a victim of their own empathy. We do know that defense contractors work in the film and video game industry to better influence and create recruiting tactics, but good luck digging through all the think tanks and big tech grants to find out who your favorite podcaster or “intellectual” actually works for.
Anti-trust laws have been passed and mergers have been blocked, however, we all know how the game still works. Power never really changes hands; it’s just restructured and reorganized. In the 1980s Reagan gutted those anti-trust laws, taking away educational channels and increasing advertisements; In 1996 Clinton cleaned up his amateur hack-job by allowing unfettered consolidation of the radio market. After 9/11 there would be a senate hearing and roundtable hearing where media CEOs, Lawyers, and Politicians all claimed concern for the growing consolidation. Claiming that there hasn’t been enough consolidation. A year later there is a catastrophic incident at an oil pipeline in North Dakota; nobody reports on the incident as Clear Channel owned all but one station in the area and nobody at their offices answered the phone. After an FCC announcement on media regulation and countless reports on the benefits of smaller media, the major broadcasters called for the total elimination of ownership laws. The internet would soon be ripe for the taking.
The practice of buying these independent companies began as a reaction to the public who PREFERS small market, independent art. Because these companies don’t typically agree with large market companies, they just buy the whole organization and fire whoever they can’t control, if they need to they will lobby their friends and family in the government to skirt around regulations and leap over the competition. If you look under most umbrella corporations, you will find names of small companies that started as independent and were bought out. The umbrella corporation can pull these names out as respected small businesses and use them to release influential media that isn’t independent, but the public won’t know. This is a good way to subvert the will of the people and introduce positive influence over things we would otherwise disagree with if it were presented by the larger corporation that the public is already wary of. Subversive marketing might not be the scariest thing in the world, but when most of these corporations are either owned by or working with members of the state department and defense contractors, think of the possibilities. Did you see Top Gun? American Sniper? Zero Dark Thirty? Iron Man? I bet you loved Star Wars. I did too.
When Kim Jong Un was having his American friends over we made a blockbuster movie where Kim Jong Un is killed by his American friend. It almost led to a nuclear war and a major company was allegedly hacked by themselves before the movie was scheduled to be released. Unfortunately, the movie was very funny, the intent was dark and disgusting. [6]
Are baby blood-drinking lizard cunts enabling government corruption by distracting and brainwashing us?
I don’t know about all that, but for a country that touts its freedom of speech and free market capitalism, we do an awful lot of work manipulating the media sector and explicitly placing intelligence agents into the arts and onto government payrolls just for propaganda purposes. I love a good war movie, but not if it’s made to start a real one.
LUCE, HENRY R. “The American Century.” Diplomatic History, vol. 23, no. 2, 1999, pp. 159–71. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24913736. Accessed 23 Sep. 2022.
https://spartacus-educational.com/USAluce.htm
https://modernhistoryproject.org/mhp?Article=HenryLuce
https://daily.jstor.org/was-modern-art-really-a-cia-psy-op/
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artcurious-cia-art-excerpt-1909623
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/the-great-reckoning
http://whale.to/b/jackson_h.html
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/03/wild-bill-donovan201103
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29993364-sesqui
https://mohistory.org/blog/where-did-it-all-go
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_fair
https://stolenhistory.net/threads/stolen-history-part-3-the-mystery-of-the-worlds-fairs.5642/
https://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/net/timeline.html
[1] “BILDERBERG CONFERENCE.” Bilderberg Conference: May 29th-31st, 1954, 1954.
[2] LUCE, HENRY R. “The American Century.” Diplomatic History, vol. 23, no. 2, 1999, pp. 159–71. JSTOR,
[3] https://modernhistoryproject.org/mhp?Article=Kulturkampf&E=AdornoTW
[4] Russell, Bertrand. The Impact of Science on Society. Columbia University Press, 1951.
[5] https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2011/03/wild-bill-donovan201103
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/world/asia/north-korea-warns-us-over-film-parody.html