"It is not the case as the naive might think that indoctrination is inconsistent with democracy but rather that it is the very essence of democracy. When you can not control people by force, and when the voice of the people can be heard, you have this problem where people become so curious and so arrogant that they don't have the humility to submit to a civil rule and therefore you have to control what people think. The standard way to do this is to resort to what in more honest days used to be called propaganda, the manufacture of consent. Very few people have the time or the energy or the commitment to carry out the constant battle that is required to get outside of the mainstream media's barrage of useless information. That is the way that the system of indoctrination works. Sure, the useful stuff (truth) is out there but you need to work to find it. The question is whether the privileged elite should dominate mass communication and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely to impose necessary illusions to manipulate and deceive the stupid majority and remove them from the public media arena. The question in brief is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possible phase of human existence democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured they may well be essential to survival." -- Noam Chomsky