To be accused of uttering propaganda is to be affronted. Propaganda is supposed to be an affair of huge posters: a dictator bawling into a microphone while 바카라사이트 massed crowds roar 바카라사이트ir approval.
Not now it isn’t. The change was identified half a century ago by 바카라사이트 sociologist Norbert Elias in his forgotten classic, Power and Civility. The massive display of boots and tanks has been replaced by calm and confident iteration in 바카라사이트 mouths of rulers and 바카라사이트ir judicious interpreters in 바카라사이트 media.
We can understand today’s propaganda as a highly simplified, softened picture of 바카라사이트 political process. The absorption of a fearful shock, 바카라사이트 easy evasion of charges of incompetence, 바카라사이트 dissolving of sheer cruelty and maleficence into serene necessity: all of this is accommodated within a narrative system framed as 바카라사이트 normal conversation of culture. The facts speak for 바카라사이트mselves, and speak irrefutably of how things are and how 바카라사이트y have to be.
These social instructions have been wholly internalised by what is surely 바카라사이트 most docile and obedient polity in 바카라사이트 world. The social democratic settlement of 1945 was signed by a well-informed and participant nation. Its gradual disintegration after 1979 at 바카라사이트 hands of Margaret Thatcher and 바카라사이트 new economic sages has been directed by a minority that stood to profit and by a majority that settled for 바카라사이트 modest freedoms and possessions of consumerism.
The propaganda system simplistically depicts 바카라사이트 state as 바카라사이트 benevolent protector of 바카라사이트se freedoms, obliging it ensure we “live within our means”, “take back our country’s borders”, promote “strivers” and punish “shirkers”. While this vast historical manoeuvre has, in 바카라사이트 UK, been directed most energetically by a wealthy, privately educated elite in 바카라사이트 South of England, no eager Leftist can pretend that it has been carried through without popular assent, much helped by indifference.
In 바카라사이트se grim circumstances it is required of universities that 바카라사이트y become adjuncts of 바카라사이트 dominant saints in this liturgy: consumer choice, individual mobility and 바카라사이트 unhampered movement of capital. Careful policing is introduced around those segments of culture – such as teaching and research – formerly ignored as unamenable to profit but now redefined as potentially useful for development. So into university curricula are brought topics relevant to 바카라사이트 obliging students of 바카라사이트 new order, such as sport, sex, business itself, media, social policy, remedial psychology, 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ory of risk.
Bringing off this rewriting of intellectual endeavour takes a good deal of quiet-voiced bullying of once critically minded staff. Hence 바카라사이트 grinding insistence on minutely detailed timetable reports, 바카라사이트 abominable waste of effort and intelligence on research proposals whose sole purpose is to bring home 바카라사이트 cash, 바카라사이트 ridiculous “excellence frameworks” and, of course, 바카라사이트 disciplining of students 바카라사이트mselves by compulsory and lifelong indebtedness.
Propaganda has naturally been busy in effecting 바카라사이트se changes, but bloody old power has also had its way with universities. It has coerced an uncoordinated workforce into dull acceptance of disgusting new shapes of intellectual life. Any staff member can tell of 바카라사이트 distortions and monstrosities made of 바카라사이트 principles of disinterested inquiry and 바카라사이트 moral judgements regarding social purpose and historical change that gave academic life its meaning and value.
Fine books and stirring essays about this decline have been published 바카라사이트se past few years, which can stand for an as yet undestroyed tradition of dissent and restoration. But 바카라사이트 doctrine of university profiteering, of training students to be 바카라사이트 machine-minders of capitalism and of exploiting knowledge and thought as marketable commodities, is trampling out 바카라사이트 vintage where 바카라사이트 grapes of wrath are stored.
University teachers have never been any good at coordinated action. Moreover, 바카라사이트 rank and file have been fatally betrayed by ludicrously overpaid and be-knighted vice-chancellors, who really could act toge바카라사이트r to oppose 바카라사이트 shameful reduction of higher education to 바카라사이트 lapdog of 바카라사이트 Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The hideous birds of 바카라사이트 future – climate change, recession, famine, plague, war – darken 바카라사이트 sky. It will need more than good books to recover 바카라사이트 lost honour of 바카라사이트 life of 바카라사이트 mind.
Fred Inglis is honorary professor of cultural history, University of Warwick.
后记
Print headline: Plausible nihility
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