Power to prevent people from having grievances

Steven Lukes:

Is it not the supreme exercise of power to get another or others to have the desires you want them to have – that is, to secure their compliance by controlling their thoughts and desires?…Is it not the supreme and most insidious use of power to prevent people, to whatever degree, from having grievances by shaping their perceptions, cognitions and preferences in such a way that they accept their role in the existing order of things? (Power: a radical view, 2nd ed, p27, 28)

This fits a theme of mine concerning the ability of the elites to create the illusion of freedom of choice in the people’s acquiescence to oppression. And of course the exercise of agnotology is a means to that end. The power elite works hard to insure that the people, who after all do have the vote, are unable to recognize their own self interest. As a result we can only vote for one of the alternatives offered by the major parties who are wholly owned subsidiaries of the elites.

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