Name: _______________________
List names of principles; Please add notes for each of the 10 principles about information shared
in the documentary.
#1 Reduce Democracy (7:00-13:00)
- The clash between economic classes, the Lower class (wants more freedom and
democracy), Higher class (wants more domination and control)
- Bill of Rights
- James Madison was a firm believer in democracy
- Democracy: a system of government by the whole population or all the
eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives
- Wanted this designed to have power in the hands of the wealthy/rich, as they were
seen as more responsible
- During this time, the Senate had the most power
- Those in the senate were appointed, not elected
- Appointed the wealthy/rich
- Setting up the Government, to prevent democracy
- Electoral votes/College
- This was set up because the government was worried the poor
would take from the wealthy/rich, specifically the rich land
- Welfare state
- Try to reduce equality
- Democracy vs. Freedom
- 1960’s
- Sectors that are more passive began becoming more involved in
government, standing up against inequality
- Race (Black Americans Rights), sex (Women's rights),
environment (Protecting Earth), violence (Against war)
#2 Shape Ideology (13:00-16:40)
- Lobbying
- Powell
- Businesses were losing control of society and wanted to be more involved in the
law-making process which would affect their work
- Private businesses can have a lobbyist
- The Crisis of Democracy
- Liberal Nationalists
- Appalled by the 1960s
- Called it, an excess of democracy
- Believed education was indoctrinating students
#3 Redesign the Economy (16:40-27:00)
- Shift the economy
- Increase the role of financial institutions (ex. Banks, investment firms, insurance
agencies)
- 2007
- Financial institutions had 40% of the corporate profits
- Stock Market crash
- 1970’s
- Moving money around rather than producing
- Business more than production
- Competition
- Working people working against each other
- Wealth/rich are protected
- Praised and protected, not working against one another
- Concentration of wealth and power
- If you criticize state/corporate power, you are against society
- Anti-American
- Concentration of power
- Critics mistreated
#4 Shift the Burden (27:00-32:20)
- American Dream
- Partly symbolic, Partly real
- Social mobility
- 50’s & 60’s (Golden age)
- Biggest growth period
- The bottom ⅕ and top ⅕ of society are improving similarly (at the same
rate)
- Welfare state measures
- When the U.S. was producing, it was more concerned about the population
- Now; Profit, even if it's based on manipulation
- Taxes
- Tax on the wealthy and corporations were taxed more in the 50’s & 60’s
- The tax system has been redesigned
- Taxes on the wealthy were reduced
- Taxes on the rest of the population increased
- The revenue from taxes for the U.S. has decreased
- The major American corporations shifted the burden of sustaining the society on
the rest of the population
#5 Attack Solidarity (32:20-37:15)
- Attack on Social Security
- Social security comes out of your payroll check
- Fund those in need
- Defund something, then it won't work and people will look for something else
- Attack on public schools
- “I pay taxes, so kids can go to public school”
- What's being pushed
- “I don't have kids in school, so why should I pay taxes?”
- GI bill of rights
- Allowing veterans to go to college for free
- Debt now burdening students from families that are not rich
- The ’50s could sustain free college, even though the government was considered
poor
- In today's age, the government cannot sustain having free college, even
tho it is considered to be a richer society
-
#6 Run the Regulations (37:15- 43:55)
- Regulations initiated by those who are being regulated
- Businesses have the upper hand
- They know that they could/can take over the regulators
- 1970’s
- Lobbying expanded;
- seek to influence (a politician or public official) on an issue.
- influencing or attempting to influence legislative action or nonaction
through oral or written communication
- Deregulation happened
- More stock market crashes
- Nixon
- Last new deal president
- was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms,
and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the
United States between 1933 and 1939
- 1999
- Commercial and investment banks separated
- Rich getting bailed out by the taxpayers
- Instead of the business being shut, bankrupt, like a capitalist ideology would
prefer
- Rules for the rich
- Opposite rules for the rest of the population
- Neoliberalism
- “Narrow sector of wealth, narrowing, putting power back in the wealthy's hands”
#7 Engineer Elections (43:55-48:12)
- Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power
- Corporations became persons under the law
- 14th Amendment; no person's rights can be infringed without due process of law
- Ex. Illegals are not people, but General Electric is a person
-
- 1970’s
- Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
- Courts decided money is a form of speech
- Corporations can buy elections with little restraint
- CBS is given freedom of speech
#8 Keep the Rabble in Line (48:12-55:02)
- Corporate tyranny
- Anti Unions
- In elite groups, ideology
- Labor rights
- Long and violent labor history
- 1920’s
- Truck driver strike
- Union v. Police
- Mid-30’s
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Sympathetic Government/ Rise in Activism
-Reagan
- Siding with the corporations
- Those who were on strike, he stated could be fired as they did not
go to work, as they forfeit their right to continue their job
- Massive decline of Unions
- Increase in inequality of wages
- Wage labor is similar to slavery, but only temporary
- The government doesn't want the poor to know that they are oppressed
- The notion of class at this time was defined as;
- Who gives orders and who takes/follows them
#9 Manufacture Consent (55:02- 1:01:17)
- Control couldn't be done by force
- But by beliefs and attitudes
- Fabricating consumers
- Fabricating wants
- Direct them to superficial things
- Distract through advertising
- Control society
- Obama
- Given an award for marketing, his election
- Did Not make promises during his campaign
- Uniformed consumers that will make irrational choices
- Uniformed electorate that will make irrational choices, often against their interests
- Pushing the interest of those who funded the presidential campaigns
#10 Marginalize the Population (1:09:17-
- Study between public attitudes and public policy
- 70% of the population does not have an influence on public policy
- Attacking each other
- Makes the public vulnerable
- Make people fear each other, pin them against each other
- Only looking out for oneself
- April 15
- The day you pay your taxes
- Dreaded, day of mourning
- Instead of celebrating, donating toward agreed-upon groups in
need
