As the campaign now becomes media-centric the media shows no evidence of shame or contrition after misreading the New Hampshire Democratic race and sliming the motivations of voters to explain it. In fact, now that the horse race is on their turf they seem to be saying that it is their race to call and they say it is all about race and gender. Before we assume that this will poison the motivations of voters we should review recent history.

What do these data points have in common: the continued popularity of Clinton in the face of impeachment, Gore’s popular majority, the reversal of Bush’s popularity after 9-11 and the Democratic congressional victories in ’06?

They all were contrary to the dominant media narratives. When they were reported they were consistently downplayed and misinterpreted. One possible explanation of the surprise in New Hampshire is that some of the electorate was reacting against the media in it’s late swing to Clinton. One of the reflexes of the left is to assume that we can see through the biases and pettiness of the media but the electorate at large cannot. The evidence suggests that a majority is very skeptical of media narratives.

If you haven’t seen Adam Curtis’ 2002 four-hour BBC documentary “The Century Of The Self “ you can see it here; http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8953172273825999151

It is a sweeping view of the use of psychoanalytic theory and propaganda in capitalism’s march through the 20th century. The central figure is Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays, who published, popularized and utilized Freudian theory to promote corporate interests in America through public relations, a profession that he created. You don’t have to accept the foundations of Freudian theory or the theories of crackpots like Wilhelm Reich, Werner Erhard and Dick Morris to appreciate the vicious arc of commercial and political propaganda through American culture that Curtis portrays. It is not difficult to imagine the parallel story of the few families who learned the arts of rhetoric, persuasion and propaganda in the security services of the World Wars and the Depression and then used those skills to create the dominant firms of Madison Avenue which then helped create the booming demand economy that followed.

The logical conclusion to Curtis’ vision is that business will take over government because it is better at fulfilling the emotional needs of people. Bernays admitted as much in an interview when he was 100 years old and implied that he may have created something of a monster. But as compelling as this story is, it is too simplistic to explain the ability of humans to find new ways of being. We thrive because we don’t just adapt to a niche, we can adapt to almost any niche or we create our own niche. We are adaptation machines but we will not survive by trying to adapt to a fouled nest.

What happens to a population after being stewed in soup of propaganda, deceit and manipulation for over fifty years? Most adapt by developing immunity to the constant barrage of cultural cues and codes that encourage mindless consumption and conformity. Call it cynicism, skepticism or ironic distance. Those who don’t adapt develop metabolic syndrome and various psychiatric disorders that require medication and constant rhetorical reinforcement from El Rushbo.

Russert and Mathews and the rest will continue to pontificate and whine because some of the people can be entertained with divisive tripe some of the time and advertisers will pay big money for that demographic. But the century of the self is over when the self understands that the niche they are selling is a sewer. It is only natural to be skeptical of that.