In Reply to: Re: Get off your high horses posted by Sue on January 07, 1997 at 21:49:14:
> > I read some of the stuff in this debating room with a mixture of
> > sadness and anger. Sadness because there seem to be too many people
> > out there who think their often ill-thought-out opinions actually
> > count for anything. Anger because, quite simply, if you don't like
> > McDonalds, don't buy anything from them. Please leave other people
> > to make up their own minds. And if anyone out there really thinks
> > you should base any sort of opinion on what appears in the McLibel
> > site/literature, then you are sadder and more disillusioned than a
> > lot of your postings make out you are.> > Get off your high horses and back in to the real world. Please.
Just a quick comment on the central thesis of "if you dont like it dont buy it".
This is the standard liberal answer to these issues and is flawed in its neglect
of issues of power and access to perfect infomation on (in this case) products.
The whole point of the McLibel trial was to crush alternative marginalised
opinions on the practices of an extreemly powerful orginisation. Classic liberal
democratic theory of the most efficient way for the economy to run is to "let the
market decide" (the essence of the thesis now under discussion) is only realisable
if the individual has perfect access to all the infomation. We do not have this so
the majority beleive what they are told and McDonalds are telling us as they are
powerful which means they have the means to gain acsess to the mass media through
advertising and proffessional marketing and public relations etc. Those who
challenge the hegemony of the powerful will always have to fight for the facts,
the ideas and the legitamacy that brings acceptence by the primary definers of
what we can know in society. The mass media is the conduit of these ideas and
opinions, ask who controls the shares of international media companies and
international multinationals. They are the same people and they will fight
to remain the same puppet master of our society..
None.