Mommy, why is there fog on the TV?

Among the wide range of interpretations allowed by One Flew over Cuckoo’s Nest is to view the ward and its happenings as an extended metaphor for a political scenario, more specifically, United States politics. In the metaphorical context, the fog would represent media and mass manipulation phenomenon, meaning the attempt from authority to silence and distract the people from important matters by manipulating and censoring media. This is a phenomenon better explained by the work of the American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, historian, political critic, and activist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky’s study of mass and media manipulation directly relates with several passages of the book dealing with the topic of fog. In fact, it brings light upon them by further explaining the causes and effects of “fog” in our society.

The roles of the characters in the book’s political metaphor are clear: Nurse Ratchet exemplifies the various figures of oppressive authority, while the patients are its subjects, the people, or as Chomsky ironically refers to them, “the bewildered herd”. In page 112, Chief Bromden talks about the presence of fog in a situation different than the ward.

“Whenever intelligence figured there might be a bombing attack, or if the generals had something secret they wanted to pull-out if sight, hid so good that even the spies on the base couldn’t see what went on- they fogged the field.”

 It’s clear that fog’s first and foremost purpose is to hide whatever facts the authority feels shouldn’t be known by the common. In the next quote, Chomsky explains how media (or fog) is used by the controlling powers to fulfill the previously mentioned purposes:

"Remember that the media have two basic functions. One is to indoctrinate the elites, to make sure they have the right ideas and know how to serve power. In fact, typically the elites are the most indoctrinated segment of a society, because they are the ones who are exposed to the most propaganda and actually take part in the decision-making process. For them you have the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, and so on. But there’s also a mass media, whose main function is just to get rid of the rest of the population—to marginalize and eliminate them, so they don’t interfere with decision-making. And the press that’s designed for that purpose isn’t the New York Times and the Washington Post, it’s sitcoms on television, and the National Enquirer, and sex and violence, and babies with three heads, and football, all that kind of stuff."

When surrounded by fog, the Chief feels lost, yet “safe from the enemy, but … awfully alone.”(pg.113)  which is exactly the effect fog aims for. As Chomsky puts it “The purpose of those media is just to dull people's brains.”

In his study “10 Strategies of Manipulation Bythe Media” Chomsky further explains the methods of media manipulation that in his own words

“turn them [the public] into passive obedient consumers who don’t try to get out of their way, [and] pay attention basically to what [are] called the superficial things of life like fashionable consumption; trap [the public] into consumerism, isolate them from one another, atomized, control their beliefs.”

One of the methods for numbing patients in the ward is Electro Shock Therapy. For Chief Bromden it gets increasingly difficult to remove himself from “the bewildered herd” as the fog permanently surrounds him and he receives more EST treatment.

“…they kept making the fog thicker and thicker, and it seemed to me that, no matter how hard I tried, two or three times a month I found myself with that door opening in front of me to the acid smell of sparks and ozone. In spite of all I could do, it was getting tough to keep from getting lost.” (pg.114)  

The fog, ultimately, and sadly, works -“Being lost isn’t so bad.”- (pg.114) Chomsky says,

“I think there's a good reason why the propaganda system works that way. It recognizes that the public will not support the actual policies. Therefore, it's important to prevent any knowledge or understanding of them.”

After all, and like we saw in the ward, authority can and will convince people of their own stupidity, of their incapability of understanding important subjects. Just as many of the patients are “volunteers” and therefore convinced of their own insanity, we see a great majority of the public, unaware of their position in society, ignoring and delegating to others what directly concerns them.

History has showed us that there will always come a McMurphy, and in account, the fog will get thicker, but choosing to get lost in it is a matter of personal determinacy. In the words of Noam Chomsky:   

            

“The issue is ... whether we want to live in a free society or whether we want to live under what amounts to a form of self-imposed totalitarianism, with the bewildered herd marginalized, directed elsewhere, terrified, screaming patriotic slogans, fearing for their lives and admiring with awe the leader who saved them from destruction, while the educated masses goose-step on command and repeat the slogans they're supposed to repeat and the society deteriorates at home. We end up serving as a mercenary enforcer state, hoping that others are going to pay us to smash up the world. Those are the choices That's the choice that you have to face. The answer to those questions is very much in the hands of people like you and me.”