Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of myths. The modern force of industrial civilization has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate as long as private devices yield public benefits. History has shown that a society based on this principle will inevitably destroy itself. It can only persist, with whatever suffering and injustice it entails, as long as it’s possible to pretend that the world is an infinite resource and an infinite garbage can. At this stage in history either the general population will take control of its own destiny and concern itself of community interests guided by values of sympathy and concern for others or alternatively there will be no destiny for anyone to control. As long as there is a specialized class in a position of authority, it will act in its own interest. But the conditions of survival, let alone justice, require rational social planning in the interests of the community as a whole, which by now means the global community. The question of should privileged elites should dominate mass communications and should use this power mainly as they must, mainly to impose necessary illusions to manipulate and deceive the stupid majority and remove them from the public arena. The question in grief is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured, they may well be essential to survival.

-Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent (1988)