In Canada we are not different from the States and for us it is always a matter of catching up with what happens south of the border. Just yesterday, 55 Canadian journalists from the Montreal Gazette protested the running of "national editorials" written at the headquarter of CanWest Global Communications Corp. in Winnipeg. The journalists contend, and they are right, that a centralized editorial board common to all the corporate newspapers would undermine the independence of each individual newspaper's editorial board and as a consequence Canadians would be deprived of a variety of opinion, debate and editorial discussion.

The machinery of brainwashing people continues at a frenetic pace so that we people can be reduced to a homogeneous rational consumer, what neoclassical economists call homo economicus, where the natural laws and consequential mathematical formulations created by the Chicago School of Economics, Free Market, can be applied.

I just want to point out that there is no such a thing as homo economicus, that is a person who always maximizes the utility of anything he purchases in the market place for a 'price.' The behaviour of people can be rational, emotional, can be altruistic, can be greedy, can be catastrophic and so forth; the behavior of people and their interactions is different and cannot be predicted by mathematical equations, unless, unless we have the brainwashing media telling us what to buy and how to behave.

We have been attacking the fallacy of the Free Market preached by the Chicago School of Economics, yet we have a recalcitrant publishing establishment who rejects the publishing of educational and economic books with innovative ideas. Australian economist Hugh Stretton has published an introductory book in economics where he challenges the neoclassical mathematical formulation of economics phenomena, and he makes economics a moral science as firstly envisioned by Adam Smith. Stretton had 17 rejections from publishers until Pluto Press in London, in association with University of NSW Press, came to the rescue.

Reputable academic publishers quite liked Stretton's text, but their marketing staff advised against going ahead with buying the rights and going against mainstream economics. We have a brainwashing media and a sanitized publishing environment rejecting any relevant book providing a diversity of opinions to our conventional societal understanding. And the latest case of rejection is the book "Stupid White Men and Other Excuses for the State of the Nation" by Michael Moore. Harper Collins had already printed Moore's book when at the last minute they decided not to sell and distribute the book for being 'intellectually dishonest.'

And as the Free Market goes on, so the media brainwashing goes on.

References

The Need of an Alternate Media, by Mario deSantis, November 30, 2001 http://www.ftlcomm.com/ensign/desantisArticles/2001_400/desantis495/alternate.html

How Tinseltown sold out to George Bush, Inc., By David Blomstrom, November 24, 2001, The Invisible Republic http://www.geobop.com/Education/911/hollywood/index.htm

How CanWest is threatening press freedom, December 11, 2001, The Globe and Mail

Refuting the Big Lie, review by Doug Dowd of the book "Economics: A New Introduction" by Hugh Stretton http://www.monthlyreview.org/301dowd.htm

Michael Moore's New Book Isn't, Ann Sparanese <sparanese[at]englewoodlibrary.org, December 3, 2001 http://www.libr.org/Juice/issues/vol4/LJ_4.44.html#15