I am currently a Sociology Graduate Student at the University of Texas, San Antonio (UTSA).
One of my main interests is mass communication/media and comedy; how all these relate to our world and the exploration of our society.
George Carlin emphasizes the gap between "the owners of this country" and
the rest of us. Carlin states that the owners control the politicians
by lobbying to get what they want, but they also control people through
education and media. They keep the educational system just good enough
to educate people to be obedient workers but keep it poor enough so that
it does not teach people enough to be able to think for themselves.
They use the media to tell people what to believe, what to buy, and what
to think. Because people can vote, they suffer the illusion that they
have "freedom of choice." Suffering from false consciousness, they
support ideas that are against their own self interests; for example
they accept the reduced pay, fewer benefits, and less social programs
that the owners claim are in their interests. All the while, they remain
powerless to the owners. This illustrates Marx's concept of ideology;
Marx stated “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the
ruling ideas." These ruling ideas, or ideologies, obscure the
structural violence and exploitation used to keep oppressed groups in
their place. The clip ends with the statement "it's called the American
Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it," emphasizing a
fundamental ideology that legitimates social inequality and oppression.
This is from Youtube and The Sociological Cinema websites
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