Free Island Worlds by John Maddox Roberts, Eric Kotani Page A

for government policies had been recognized. By the twentieth, every totalitarian regime made total state control of all means of information dissemination a priority, second only to control of the military. The systematic use of popular media for purposes of opinion control was first codified by Dr. Joseph Goebbels of the notorious Third Reich, who said—" Abruptly and repulsively, Fu's image was transformed into that of a ferret-faced little man in a brown, outdated uniform. In a heavy, Teutonic accent, Goebbels said: "The mass mind is far more primitive than most of us can imagine." Goebbels melted and coalesced into Fu once more.
    "This contempt for the mass audience has infused every aspect of media manipulation from Goebbels's day to this. Early surveys conducted by marketers for purposes of advertising indicated that the most effective approach to advertising on television was to aim at the reasoning power and attention span of the mind of an eight-year-old child. The result indicated, more than anything else, an exceedingly low opinion of the eight-year-old mind.
    "To the vast majority of world inhabitants, however, holovision was not a propaganda tool, but entertainment. With the profusion of satellite communications systems and low-cost holovision sets manufactured in Third world sweatshops, this mass medium became truly worldwide. Only in nations like the U.S.S R. and many of the Islamic states, which had jamming facilities, were the effects of worldwide holo programming diminished.
    "The inhabitants of Zimbabwe became samurai-adventure addicts while those of Lima thrilled to American westerns. Above all, the populace of the poorer sections of the world found in these three-dimensional fantasies escape from the drudgery of their lives. The propaganda value of even these unreal, popular fantasies had long been known, but it had been manipulated mainly for commercial purposes. In the democratic societies, it was all but impossible to gain control of these popular media save through subversion. There were limited sanctions imposed worldwide, as when the Islamic bloc pressured the U.N. Media Affairs Committee to pass a ban on internationally-broadcast pornography, since there was a possibility that pirate booster stations might be set up in their countries and their people contaminated by access to such entertainment. The suppression of pornography was successful since there was already much agitation in the West against it. Other Islamic demands were ignored, such as a ban on images of pigs or unveiled women.
    "However, the precedent made it possible to enforce other sanctions on holographic broadcasting as various pressure groups sought to force their standards into law. By tacking a rider onto the anti-pornography rule, for instance, religious fundamentalists managed to ban a great deal of formerly common language which they deemed indecent. Other groups followed suit, with varying degrees of success.
    "It is, however, the use of popular entertainment programming to influence public attitudes toward manned space settlement and exploration that concerns us here. With this background in mind, let's look at the early years of holographic programming as it paralleled the expansion of man into space. ''
    Thor switched the set off All that just as a prologue? Fu hadn't been kidding when he said he'd put a lot of work into it. He got another coffee, resumed his seat and switched the set back on. The next few hours were somewhat reminiscent of his informal survey of the day before, but with far more depth and scholarship. Fu's study involved not only the programs themselves, but also their sponsors, the political connections of their owners, the guild affiliations of the writers.
    About halfway through, Thor began making connections. As the spacer-hostile programming of the last few years proliferated, the same connection appeared again and again. It was something Fu had missed, because he wasn't a student of corporate