Psychic Exploitation Language and Media

Embed Doc
Copy Link
Readcast
Collections

CommentGo Back

Download

Psychic Exploitation, Language and Media

Colonialism:An incredible lust for gold, silver, land and other riches propelled theSpanish and Portuguese to invade virtually every part of South and CentralAmerica. With superior weapons, they enslaved and massacred the nativepopulations. The English, French and Dutch followed this example on other continents.In addition to violence, the colonialists imposed inferiority complex. Theytold the defeated people, “Your culture is primitive, your religion isdefective, your language is unsophisticated.” This weakened the people’swill to resist.When countries gained political independence, capitalists then developedclever techniques to continue their exploitation of newly independentcountries. One of their most powerful techniques has been to imposepseudo-culture.Pseudo-culture means that which is fake, imposed, which does not uplift apeople. Pseudo-culture refers to ideas and products that paralyse societyand prepare the people for economic exploitation. They offer to make lifemore pleasurable than was the case under their own culture, but in fact theyundermine the resolve of the people. The widespread dissemination of “consumer culture”, with its appeal to material pleasures, ultimately has adebilitating effect psychologically and spiritually. It also lowers theresistance of those who try to maintain their cultural heritage.Many of the television programs broadcast around the world promote aUS-based materialistic pseudo-culture. The powerful impact that this has wasdemonstrated in a recent study done at the University of the Philippines byProfessor Maria Doronilla. She interviewed several hundred Filipinoelementary students from different schools. One question that she asked themwas: What nationality would you like to be? The majority of the childrenanswered American, while others wanted to be Japanese or European. Less than15 percent wanted to be Filipino. Psychologically, this has a damagingeffect on one’s personality.Advertisements portray a life that is seemingly more pleasurable than one’sreal life. Such ads make people want to be rich – to enjoy the glamorousclothes, cars and houses that everyone in Hollywood TV shows and films seemsto have. For example, many Venezuelan children see their parents struggling,living with much less income and fewer material goods, and so start to feelthat they are backward and primitive. So it also makes people want to bewhite! If children want to be someone else, it means they don’t want to bethemselves. Even young children begin to develop a low self-image andinferiority complex because of pseudo-culture.The corporate-owned mass media continually promotes the desire to get richquick; it does not broadcast revolutionary music, theatre or news.Pseudo-culture paralyses people and breaks their will to resistexploitation.The Exploitation of Women:

Prout views the domination of women as a historical process, linked to thelarger problem of imperialism. With the end of matriarchy and thedevelopment of family structures, women became partially dependent on men,especially during pregnancy and immediately after childbirth. Warrior societies generally prohibited the killing of women, and for the most partrespected the rights of both women and men. However, when the intellectuals,particularly the priestly class, gained control of society, to maintaintheir power they created religious edicts and so-called “divine”commandments to cripple women in every sphere and turn them into wagelessslaves.The economic exploitation of women has intensified during the capitalistera. Studies in most countries show that men continue to earn more thanwomen at every level of education. In the US, on average, for every dollar that a man earns, a woman earns 73 cents for the same work per hour. InBrazil, women earn only 65 cents for the same hour a man works, and inJapan, a woman earns less than 50 cents for every dollar that a man earns.TV, films and magazines use women’s faces and bodies to advertise everythingfrom cigarettes to car parts, turning women into commodities valued only for their sex appeal. Prostitution and pornography have become hugely profitablebusinesses for some capitalists.The Awakening of Women:Prout advocates the abolition of dogmas and the end of patriarchalexploitation and discrimination against women, through the following means:- Free education for all: Lack of quality education leads to dogmaticoutlook and is the main reason why some women participate in or accept their own exploitation. Every child should learn to value diversity and to viewgender, racial and cultural differences among people as enhancements of our human family, like different colored flowers growing together in onebeautiful garden.- No social or religious discrimination: On the spiritual level, there is nodifference at all between men and women. Yet the vast majority of religiousleaders around the world are men, even though the majority of followers arewomen, whom the leaders call “the upholders of the faith.”- Economic self-reliance for women: In order for women to have socialfreedom, they must be economically independent from, or beside, men. Proutencourages women who choose to live at home with their children to startcottage industries, e.g. home services, handicrafts, arts, food services,computer businesses, intellectual services and consultancies.- Social justice: A healthy society demands justice for women. Society mustprotect women from both physical and psychic abuse.Media:In 1981, a cable television network was created in the US for pop music.Called MTV; today it beams its programs to more than 250 million householdsin 71 countries. The owner is Sumner Redstone, one of the ten wealthiest menin the world, with assets of over US$10 billion. In this way, he is also themost influential educator in the world. However, his only message to

of 00

Category:	Uncategorized.
Rating:
Upload Date:	04/05/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	This document has no tags.

Documents

People