austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

100 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
10. Not harassed by the Western secret police. The all-powerful
West German secret police (which inherited Hitler's organization,
people, and laws) harassed many people (especially West Germans) with
left-wing political opinions, using tactics like entrapment, spreading
false rumors, and causing people to lose their jobs (Schulz, 1982), but
the East German secret police severely restricted these illegal, harassing
activities against East Germans in East Germany. However, the West
German and allied secret police were able to tap some phones and
open some mail in East Germany (Staadt, 1998), and the East German
secret police itself did harass many of its own citizens, especially if
they applied to emigrate to West Germany (Henke and Engelmann,
1995). 6 In addition, for a large number of the annual 15 million visits
of East Germans to West Germany in the late 1980s (Murphy, 1992b),
a secret police security check was required (Diedrich, Ehlert, and
Wenzke, 1998). Nonetheless, it must be emphasized that the tactics of
the East German secret police generally consisted of openly attempting
to persuade people not to take actions that damaged the State (Riecker,
Schwarz, and Schneider, 1990), and that tactic was in stark contrast to
the West German secret police strategy of doing everything possible to
penalize people for any anti-government opinions (Schultz, 1982).
11. Not as manipulated by the Western press. The Western press
is heavily influenced throughout the world by the CIA and rich capital·
ists (Blum, 1995), but there is an especially strong manipulation by the
CIA in West Germany (Agee and Wolf, 1975). In addition, the German
media is strongly tied to the big-business-oriented Christian Democratic
Party (Der Spiegel, 1994). While the East German press was strongly
ideological and controlled by the government (and thus had its own
manipulative bias), that press provided an alternative to the propaganda
of West German television, which could be watched by most East Ger·
mans, except soldiers and about 1 5% of East Germans who were out of
the West German television range (Filmer and Schwan, 1985).
12. Not manipulated by Western marketing. Prices were determined
in East Germany by administrators largely based on cost, although
unmanipulated demand and need factors were also considered for many
products (Steudtner, Hempel, and Ulrich, 1988). As a result, there were
more rational and objective prices, since the people were not manipu·
lated by the advertisements and marketing gimmicks of capitalism.
CHAPTER 2
In comparison capitalist value and price, are determined by how much
someone can be convinced to pay for something. For instance, if someone
persuades another person to pay $1000 for something totally worthless
like a handful of pebbles, the value of this worthless item in capitalism
is $1000 regardless of whether the buyer later figures out the
stones are worthless. Although capitalist swindles are common, a much
more subtle form of distorting value occurs even more frequently (and
almost continuously) in capitalism (Furlough and Strikwerda, 1999). In
particular, through advertising, sales people, and marketing, it is possible
to get consumers to pay much more for the same product, or even
buy an inferior (or worthless) product for a higher price. One classic
illustration of this phenomenon that is glorified as a genius of capitalist
marketing (and even taught in marketing classes at USA universities)
is the case of Gary Dahl selling 1.3 million worthless pebbles for $4
a piece as "pet rocks" (Scripps Howard News Service, 1999). Another
example is with breakfast cereal. The major brandname cereals usually
cost far more than for a generic breakfast cereal of approximately the
same type, and these high-priced brandname cereals have about 90%
of the market share (Gibson and Ono, 1996). So the market "value" of
a good in capitalism can be greatly increased by advertising and other
psychological manipulation (Green, 1999), with such marketing strategies
being so effective that over 90% of the people are willing to pay
the higher "value".
As a result of such potential to exploit consumers and confiscate
their money through excess charges (Furlough and Strikwerda, 1999),
an enormous amount of resources is spent in capitalism for marketing
that manipulates people and distorts reality, with marketing (including
retailing) expenses making up half of the cost of the average consumer
�ood (Pride and Ferell, 1997). While marketing can provide valuable
� nformation, entertainment, and even positive psychological feelings, it
18 often difficult, time-consuming, annoying, and mentally disturbing
to try to differentiate the manipulative and reality-distorting aspects of
marketing from its positive characteristics. Thus, it is unclear whether
capitalist marketing creates any net positive value much less covers its
enormous cost. Nonetheless, this cost is incorporated into the price of
��s and is therefore effectively paid for by consumers whether they
hke It or not (unless they are willing to expend the enormous amount of
101