Hollywood Scripting

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

To keep the disruptive discussion of words, themes, images, agenda, and context out of the discussion of scripts-
I go away to a new thread-
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=34699&p=461788#p461788

[JackRiddler]

Rather, I agree with JackRiddler’s illustration of captured “keywords” like “freedom” and “liberty” and “democracy” being corrupted so often and compromised in meaning to become synonymous with propaganda-preconditioned import, like stars and stripes scorching of evil foreigners to cure the world of communism slavery.

Right. What Hugh calls KWH, what Alinsky calls framing (and Rove has done too well), the currently dominant religion within the consolidated bullshit industries known as branding, and the use of metaphor and emotional trigger language by students of rhetoric from Alcibiades to the current Pentagon program, are all not exactly the same thing but overlapping parts of the same thing, manipulation through language. Perhaps weaponization of words is a more apt way to put it. Examples are legion and it's a basic, vital element to all propaganda. I have no objection to Hugh's KWH idea at the most general level, that a dangerous word or concept can be defused by the diffusion of a harmless or confusing similar word, or even a homonym or a visual element. (Which is why it took years before his flood of ridiculous, discrediting examples stopped amusing me.)

I even started making a list of The 50 Most Frequently Keyword-Hijacked Words of All Time - and it's nothing original. Orwell would include most of the same words on his list:

Love
Children
Family
Country
Mother
Freedom
Truth
Justice
Peace
Democracy
Liberty
Tribe
Nation
God
Father
Good
Faith
Brother
Lawful
Government
Market
Safe
Wealthy
Prosperous
Poor
Leader
Bravery
Intelligence
Rich
Security
America
Nation
War
Defense
Dream
Right
Wrong
Left
Liberal
Conservative
Evil
Proper
Property
Crime
Scientific
Authority
Expert
Enemy
Economy
Future

and surely number one:

WE.

I include only one strictly proper name in the list, America, as the name of a country most often used as an attack word in our civilization, by all sides, and because it is itself a keyword hijack of the two American continents. Proper names and facts are not as important in this game as emotional responses; most of propaganda's force comes from emotion and generality. That's another false assumption Hugh often shows, one he shares with most of us, including me at many times, and one that you sometimes see at the climax of Hollywood movies about powerful corrupt forces: that a given fact or set of facts if revealed can fatally crack the hegemonic propaganda system. Very few facts have that kind of potential power; the truths of the JFK and 9/11 complexes would seem to. Hiding facts is not as important as making people immune to them, or swaying their emotions. Inconvenient facts are more often flooded out of view than specifically obscured. Notwithstanding the secrecy clearance system, but who the hell knows what we don't know?

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

...... I have no objection to Hugh's KWH idea at the most general level, that a dangerous word or concept can be defused by the diffusion of a harmless or confusing similar word, or even a homonym or a visual element.
.....
another false assumption Hugh often shows, one he shares with most of us, including me at many times, and one that you sometimes see at the climax of Hollywood movies about powerful corrupt forces: that a given fact or set of facts if revealed can fatally crack the hegemonic propaganda system.
.....

Allow me a respectful correction.
The US Psyops manuals declare quite clearly that propaganda effects are both cumulative and delayed.

This is why every little thing that might be potentially added to the cumulative effect is countered with counter-associations or counter-propaganda. This is a dynamic completely different from the one you have erroneously ascribed to me with exasperated disbelief and scorn.

You have repeatedly huffed over what you perceive to be a disproportionality of effort not valid in my assertions of hiow psyops is done.
BUT. Once you take into account the game theory of preventing a cumulative and delayed effect...it makes sense as a psyops strategy.

Especially where there is unrestrained financing available, an occupied media bandwith to fill up, many training psyoperators to be occupied, etc.

[Stephen Morgan]

It all must work amazingly well since I apparently share an industry affliction of mole myopia. I don’t doubt it happens, I just don’t see it in operation as such.

That's what makes them covert.

[lupercal]

^ A very good point. As I understand it the Production Code under Breen's supervision required studios to submit every script for approval, and films were closely scrutinized at all phases of production, with rewrites and retakes often required, hang the expense. Breen departed in 1955, and the Production Code remained in force until 1968, when it was superseded by the MPAA ratings system still in use, leaving a paper trail comprising "240 linear feet of papers" at the Herrick Library, and that's just one library:

http://catalog.oscars.org/vwebv/search? ... ecCount=50

But none of this was covert, and its authority basically resided in its meticulous correspondence, whereas espionage relies on its invisibility. So expecting spook operations to leave an equivalent paper trail is unrealistic. Nevertheless, what the Breen correspondence demonstrates is that minute interference in film production at all stages can and has been done.

[Wombaticus Rex]

So expecting spook operations to leave an equivalent paper trail is unrealistic.

I feel like I've been walking in this circle for years, how about you? Every Hugh conversation is the same Hugh conversation and it's a tiny little hamster wheel we're on. Absolutely no offense to lupercal or anyone else, since we're all complicit (and me more than most) and we pretty much all participate. I'm just in awe of how little territory there is to cover, and how much work has been exerted pacing these circles.

[Nordic]

Maybe a poll is in order. As to who thinks Hugh is so barking mad that he doesn't bear paying any attention to, and who thinks that even though he's barking mad that his rantings deserve study.

[Searcher08]

So expecting spook operations to leave an equivalent paper trail is unrealistic.

I feel like I've been walking in this circle for years, how about you? Every Hugh conversation is the same Hugh conversation and it's a tiny little hamster wheel we're on. Absolutely no offense to lupercal or anyone else, since we're all complicit (and me more than most) and we pretty much all participate. I'm just in awe of how little territory there is to cover, and how much work has been exerted pacing these circles.

I think part of this is a question of granularity.

1 The rest of us have not come up with a map of the film and TV production process.
2 There are at least three people on this thread who have been involved in actual real live scripts, TV or film production processes.
3 Hugh has never absolutely no idea regarding the different stakeholder roles in a film - he does not know what they are.
4 Hugh claims he is 'scientific' but never states a clear thesis; he has never said ' I thought this was a good example of KWH, but looking back it was nonsense'
he copies Erickson material which is from a personal psychotherapy context as if that means something in films? Perhaps he can give a single example of their use? Full trance induction btw is forbidden on film or TV...
7 Hugh has never explained why he didnt reply to Sepka's very polite invitation for a predictable event based on movie release.
8 Hugh has never provided a single example of any form of whistleblower "I was a Keyword Highjacker! expose"
9 Hugh has never explained why he has not also extended his work to
Art Exhibitions - huge numbers of people going to these big events but no KWH
when "BANKS-y"
Music - A hard living, touring famous Motown bassist dies... at 70!
Donald "Duck" Dunn - obvious assasination by Disney hitsquad
Theatre - Nothing about the KWH-operation of MI7 agent Andrew Lloyd Webber

[LilyPatToo]

Nordic, I think some of Hugh's instances of possible KWH deserve further study, but lately most of them strike me as really, really stretching it. I think he's brilliant, but fixated. Which isn't a bad thing sometimes, if not carried to extremes. And I've always liked him (perhaps because I rarely engage with him, so he doesn't wear on me the way he does on some of you). Overall, I'm glad Hugh's here, but I do wish he'd develop discernment, rein in his obsession and really focus in on the instances that are likely to be real examples of psy-ops in action. Because there are some...just not as many, IMO, as he believes he sees. And BTW--I understand why some people get frustrated and "badjacket" him as contributing to distraction/disinfo/muddying- or poisoning-the-waters, but I don't believe for a minute that it's deliberate on his part. It's just the way he sees the world and I'm probably closer to his POV than I am to that of Normals

LilyPat

Edited to add: as I've mentioned elsewhere, I have a writing teacher who worked undercover for the CIA in Hollywood as a writer and producer, so I know there's an intel presence there. I think it's just much, much more subtle than Hugh's version would have it.

[Marie Laveau]

^^^^

[Elvis]

I have a writing teacher who worked undercover for the CIA in Hollywood as a writer and producer, so I know there's an intel presence there.

Now this is something, LilyPat---any more details you can share as to his undercover function? And what he might have actually accomplished in that capacity to influence media? Was he with CIA before working in Hollywood? Etc. etc.?


I too, agree that CIA (or whoever in that arena) would never just leave movies and TV alone, it's the extent of spook manipulation that's a mystery.

[Marie Laveau]

Anyone who has done any cursory reading whatsover about the history of television and its clinical effects would never for one minute believe it wasn't instituted for one reason and one reason only.

'Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television' is a good one.

Marshall McLuhan. Marshall McLuhan. Marshall McLuhan. He's been discussed here enough. "The medium is the message."

As a matter-of-fact, according to the television historians, television was initially meant to be a venue of advertising, post-WWII, and the....er....programs were the incidentals, not the other way around. That in and of itself says a lot about television.

As for film, who knows? I mean, enough has been said about Disney on the internets (minus HMW) to make one wonder. All I know is, from the stuff I've read through the years, they just can't help bragging about what they are up to.

[Wombaticus Rex]

He's been discussed here enough. "The medium is the message."

Then again, if he's been reduced to that, perhaps Saint McLuhan has not been discussed enough...then again I'm pretty partial to his probe gospel.

On a related note, the search string "full trance induction" + "television" is most worthy, especially with my google settings ( -.com , 50 results per page )

[Simulist]

"I started to think I was hot stuff, until I realized one day that I was just the break between commercials." — Johnny Carson

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

:offair:

Not a single comment on my showing the decoys of the Castle Bravo nuke disaster relocation news cycle. On a weekend?

Because it's disruption, as you should well know.

More of it, and you'll be taking some personal days.

Fellow board members.
I see some of you discussing keywords, like Jackriddler.
People are asking questions. Discussing.

But my hands are tied by Jeff Wells who threatens me for positing while allowing anyone who negates and attacks.
Go...figure.