BUYING CONSENSUS IN 'FREE' MARKETS: THE END OF DEMOCRACY?

摘要

Repeatedly, in western democracies, sophisticated marketing techniques are used to manipulate consensus. “Free” markets comprised of human beings are interesting only because they are potential buyers and it is possible to buy consensus. Marketing techniques (advertising, psychological effects) have been applied to getting consensus. In western democracies, in many European countries, in Italy, for example, marketing technologies are used to get (i.e. to buy) political consensus, by allowing to consider as equivalent the decision to buy a product and the decision to vote for a candidate. rnI propose that the interest is not in convincing, but in shaping an adequate cognitive model. This may be the end of the classic democracy. The real consensus is not anymore necessary. Freedom reduced to selecting is an illusion, because the selection deals with equivalent choices from a pre arranged menu. This situation has been forecast in the past, for instance through the metaphor of the “big brother”. George Orwell, in his novel "1984," conceived of a big owner of all the media (In Italy now a reality!) with a "BIG BROTHER" controlling all mass communications. Such a situation reminds us perhaps of the so-called strong Whorf’s hypothesis: the language creates the thinking and not vice-versa. Conceivably, they (i.e. large corporations) control the language and it’s possible to think only what they want. Since images are much more effective than words when building social models, for this reason the use of TV might be a crucial technique in a design of societal control. rnWe all need to note that current democracies are managed by leaders elected by decreasing percentages of voting population. An interesting project might be one in which we might collect data about the number of voters, the percentage of voters, and the percentage of votes got by candidates in elections that took place in western democracies. rnI am very cognizant of the fact that this process is currently happening in my country. Moreover, I sense that this process is also taking place in other western countries (is it possible that it is an aspect of globalization!?). The difference between two notions (1) manipulation in order to convince (even using lies) in classic western democracies and (2) buying (and manufacturing) consensus should be seriously examined: the possibility of a discussion is just ceremonial, because the concepts and the language when buying consensus are always given in advance. We posit that in such circumstance voting is going to be just a pro-forma. This paper discusses the issues of buying consensus and related problems.