There has been a movement in Europe and America towards a capitalist state, which reached a crescendo in the late 20th century, and is still with us. This mechanism of capitalism consolidates ownership of the land, and industry, increasingly in the hands of a small aristocracy that own everything.
The group in control of the means of production are the modern bourgeoisie. Through cable television, and other outdated mediums such as regular radio fed television broadcasting, paper newspapers, etc. have been used for propaganda purposes by this aristocracy.
It is easily accessible, and paid for by capitalist advertising, a form of propaganda that if nothing else portrays a smiling face in the marketplace, the privately owned reality forced upon the ignorant worker. Its political bent, due to the presence of the people who pay for the broadcasts, the ownership of the companies attempting to sell commodities by advertising, who are all capitalists, and support the more extreme form of them , the Republican bourgeoisie, as this is encouraged by the economic system of modern capitalism.
Often the industry promoted is not metric, like gasoline powered automobiles from Detroit, a product of an industry intact still in a 20th century condition. The bourgeois press directly uses propaganda when it is time for suffrage, and the broadcast is not in the metric system. The local political leader is on in 30 second attack ads when the worker wants to see local television news.
This system uses ignorance to promote a vision of capitalism that is not in tune with reality. In Europe, the concession of suffrage to the workers is used to justify expropriating employee owned shops. Once political leadership can overcome the pressure of its workers, who for one reason or another have slipped back to capitalism, through the mechanism of ignorance and cable television, employee ownership is targeted and removed by the Republican bourgeoisie.
Without employee ownership, democracy doesn’t really mean much. Given the factory is where the worker finds himself most of the time, democracy would seem to be in order there. But where is the suffrage for the manager? Or the owner? It is no longer present after employee ownership is removed.
The European Union is best at this expropriation process, all the while suggesting they are expanding democracy.
The ignorant worker, who tunes into the cable television broadcast, the station is also owned by the bourgeoisie, receives his social conditioning through this medium. The internet is gradually removing this old system, corroding the cable television monopoly; ad block technology, and paying for the news rather than the free enterprise method of advertising paying for news is becoming the dominant model.
The internet is a revolution. The tech giants are trying to control the system, but can only do so much. The Washington Post costs 10$ a month, you pay for it. It is owned by Jeff Bezos, not the journalists. The New York Times and Reuters are similar, you pay them directly. Youtube is another one worth paying for, the purpose of this is so there are no advertisements.
Society is materially changing, the main mechanism of control is ignorance. People are being told to believe things about subjects they need to find out about for themselves, by reading books. Philosophy and political economy in particular; many people have feelings about what socialism represents, yet have never read Marx’s Capital, even just volume One. Or have feelings about the ancient world and have never been exposed to Aristotle or Plato.
The internet again is coming to the rescue; Amazon Prime delivers new and used books we had a hard time getting before, like works by Marx and Engels now accessible by internet for low prices.
Giving up the cable subscription for the internet saves money. People are paying a hundred dollars a month for cable, and at best we can say it includes the internet. An internet connection costs about 50$, and it is advertisement free when you pay for it.
As the material conditions change, outdated ideas resort to outdated technology to transmit their messages. Cable television, radio broadcast television, AM radio, are all examples of outdated industry dominated by the Republican bourgeoisie. Control of cable television consumes these people. It is their main prerogative, and they control the companies advertising, and even have their political leaders on the station when suffrage occurs,to give us their bourgeois propaganda.
It is a little harder to control the internet. It is more advanced, and cheaper to use and produce than the outdated mediums. You have to be able to read and write to use it.
It doesn’t look like it’s going away any time soon, the dinosaurs of 20th century capitalism look unable to stop the march of material and social development, which are leading to an ecological and economic awakening.
Nicholas Jay Boyes
Milwaukee Wisconsin
American Democratic Republic
12 31 2025
Ecological Era 