Hidden Agendas

Modem democratic society is a mixture of centralized state power, a powerful corporate/finance sector, a virtually monopolized media network, and various civil institutions, the underlying ideological themes of which are the freedom of an individual to participate in the decision-making process and...

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Autor principal: Shiraz Khan
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 1999
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/b90ef5f3fad34a0caa59c073883e0729
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:b90ef5f3fad34a0caa59c073883e07292021-12-02T18:18:45ZHidden Agendas10.35632/ajis.v16i2.21242690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/b90ef5f3fad34a0caa59c073883e07291999-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/2124https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 Modem democratic society is a mixture of centralized state power, a powerful corporate/finance sector, a virtually monopolized media network, and various civil institutions, the underlying ideological themes of which are the freedom of an individual to participate in the decision-making process and to express alternative viewpoints in the political, economic, and social spheres. Freedom has always been a cherished ideal, and freedom of thought a hard fought-for reality which today symbolizes one of the outward hallmarks of modem, particularly Western, societies. Pilger's book highlights the fact that when this ideal - in essence the ability of a citizen to think, understand, and play a meaningful role in managing the public affairs of his own society - coexists alongside the reality of a set of powerful groupings working toward a different agenda within the same society, then true participatory citizenship becomes meaningless and democracy a sham. In other words, privileged elites working for their own wealth and self-interests become the leading orchestrators of plans or "agendas" to maintain skewed power distributions, keeping the reality of matters so "hidden" from the public that a smoke screen of half-truths and propaganda is created, preventing those outside from understanding reality, and therefore, acting in their own interests. These hidden agendas can take the fonn of direct concealment or by the manufacture of consent (as defined by Noam Chomsky) whereby facts are manipulated and presented in such a guise as to obtain the firm support of the individuals making up society. To the general reader, the title and subject matter of the book will undoubtedly have an almost conspiratorial ring about it, enough at least for most ... Shiraz KhanInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 16, Iss 2 (1999)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Shiraz Khan
Hidden Agendas
description Modem democratic society is a mixture of centralized state power, a powerful corporate/finance sector, a virtually monopolized media network, and various civil institutions, the underlying ideological themes of which are the freedom of an individual to participate in the decision-making process and to express alternative viewpoints in the political, economic, and social spheres. Freedom has always been a cherished ideal, and freedom of thought a hard fought-for reality which today symbolizes one of the outward hallmarks of modem, particularly Western, societies. Pilger's book highlights the fact that when this ideal - in essence the ability of a citizen to think, understand, and play a meaningful role in managing the public affairs of his own society - coexists alongside the reality of a set of powerful groupings working toward a different agenda within the same society, then true participatory citizenship becomes meaningless and democracy a sham. In other words, privileged elites working for their own wealth and self-interests become the leading orchestrators of plans or "agendas" to maintain skewed power distributions, keeping the reality of matters so "hidden" from the public that a smoke screen of half-truths and propaganda is created, preventing those outside from understanding reality, and therefore, acting in their own interests. These hidden agendas can take the fonn of direct concealment or by the manufacture of consent (as defined by Noam Chomsky) whereby facts are manipulated and presented in such a guise as to obtain the firm support of the individuals making up society. To the general reader, the title and subject matter of the book will undoubtedly have an almost conspiratorial ring about it, enough at least for most ...
format article
author Shiraz Khan
author_facet Shiraz Khan
author_sort Shiraz Khan
title Hidden Agendas
title_short Hidden Agendas
title_full Hidden Agendas
title_fullStr Hidden Agendas
title_full_unstemmed Hidden Agendas
title_sort hidden agendas
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 1999
url https://doaj.org/article/b90ef5f3fad34a0caa59c073883e0729
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