Culture and Life

by Rob Gowland

Propaganda

Remember how capitalist media and politicians used to wail so much about 
"Communist propaganda"? As though it was some mighty wall of misinformation 
that was moving in inexorably to crush them (and with them, the precious 
truth).

In reality, of course, Communist propaganda suffered from the serious 
drawback that it was primarily comprised of truth. Giving people the true 
facts was deemed our greatest propaganda weapon.

But facts can be dry, complex even difficult. The truth is often much less 
appealing than the lie it seeks to counter.

Capitalism of course cannot rely on the truth — certainly not the whole 
truth. Its spokespersons cannot possibly tell the truth about how people 
are exploited, cheated, treated like dirt — condemned to poverty, their 
children's futures blighted — so that capitalists can enjoy a nauseating 
excess of the world's products. It wouldn't help their position at all. 

So they have become the masters of image making, of real propaganda, 
as the term is understood these days: misinformation to falsify, distort or 
distract.

I was moved to these weighty thoughts by some new statistics from the very 
centre of capitalist image making — Hollywood, or at any rate Los Angeles. 
Everyone in Australia is "familiar" with Los Angeles, from films and TV.

The imagery is always the same: Hollywood, Bel Air, Beverly Hills, 
big houses up steep drives with expensive cars and manicured lawns, 
stars' names on the sidewalk, nightclubs, freeways and dress shops galore.

Poor people only appear in cop shows, largely as colourful backgrounds. And 
yet, in reality, every fifth person in Los Angeles lives below the 
official poverty line. The poverty line in the US is defined as a gross 
income for a family of four of just over $300 a week.

The median rent in LA is $150 a week. After paying rent, there's not a lot 
left with which to feed and clothe four people, pay for schooling and 
maintain a car (you can't get around LA without one). The much vaunted 
"American dream" would be a daily mockery.

So what about all those big houses and bigger incomes that we see in the 
movies and the TV shows? Oh, they exist right enough: approximately six 
percent of Los Angeles households have a weekly income of $3,000 or 
more.

That's a higher proportion of rich people than anywhere else in the 
country. And they are predominantly white.

In fact, while every fifth white child lives in poverty, every third 
black child does. And for Latino children, the figure is a shameful two out 
of every five.

But that's not the worst part: while Hollywood producers become mega-rich 
turning out sophisticated propaganda, more than a quarter of a million 
people are homeless in Los Angeles.

Hollywood films are made by capitalists for profit — and to support the 
system of profit. But back in the '20s and '30s, a number of films 
featuring ordinary working class people and their problems did get made, 
even if they had to slip through when the bosses weren't looking.

Today, as budgets get ever bigger, the films of Hollywood are less and less 
related to real life. No wonder Steven Spielberg calls his production 
outfit Dreamworks.

* * *

Racist massacre? Undoubtedly!


A couple of weeks back The Guardian ran an article by Tim 
Wheeler, editor of the CPUSA's paper People's Weekly World, on the 
spate of high-school massacres this year in the USA. Wheeler identified the 
shooting sprees as racist in nature, origin and intent.

In case any Guardian reader thought Comrade Wheeler was drawing 
rather a long bow at this particular target, consider what has happened to 
the family of one of the victims of the Columbine High School massacre in 
Colorado.

Last April, on Hitler's birthday, high school misfits and Hitler admirers 
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, dressed in the black trenchcoats they 
habitually affected, marched into the school carrying the high-powered guns 
that all US gun nuts have ready access to, and proceeded to unleash a 
bloodbath.

One of those killed was 18-year-old senior student Isaiah Shoels. In the 
blaze of media attention and political handwringing that followed the 
massacre, Isaiah's father spoke out against the racism prevalent in 
Colorado which had fuelled the bloodshed.

Within days, even before his son was buried, racists showed their anger at 
Shoels' action. Two white youths wearing the same black trenchcoats sported 
by the killers of his son positioned themselves outside his home. The 
threat was obvious.

In case it wasn't, the family began getting death threats by phone and 
through the post.

They were specifically warned to stop speaking out against racism. They 
were abused in the street, even — horrifyingly — accused of arranging the 
massacre themselves, presumably for some political purpose of their own.

Finally, for the sake of his family, Shoels had to take the advice of some 
of the anonymous callers that "If you don't like Colorado, leave!" and he 
left.

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