Stewart Brand has called Brian Eno a “wandering clarifier.” I like that.

and points us to a new Eno essay. Well, it’s a few weeks old now, but worth checking out.

When I first visited Russia, in 1986, I made friends with a musician
whose father had been Brezhnev’s personal doctor. One day we were talking
about life during ‘the period of stagnation’ – the Brezhnev era. ‘It must
have been strange being so completely immersed in propaganda,’ I
said.

‘Ah, but there is the difference. We knew it was propaganda,’ replied
Sacha.

That is the difference. Russian propaganda was so obvious that most
Russians were able to ignore it. They took it for granted that the
government operated in its own interests and any message coming from it
was probably slanted – and they discounted it.

In the West the calculated manipulation of public opinion to serve
political and ideological interests is much more covert and therefore
much more effective. Its greatest triumph is that we generally don’t
notice it – or laugh at the notion it even exists. We watch the
democratic process taking place – heated debates in which we feel we
could have a voice – and think that, because we have ‘free’ media, it
would be hard for the Government to get away with anything very devious
without someone calling them on it.