ry of music video offers the illusion of being connected to cultural currents sweeping across the world, but this has little to do with the consciousness philosophers from Kant to Marshall McLuhan have dreamed of, an identification with the whole human species and the welfare of the planet itself.
This increasingly powerful global corporate entertainment industry has great power over political systems. Local and national leaders recognize the profits possible from cooperation with the corporate entertainment giants, and as a result political leaders give in to corporate needs and alter policies to maximize profits without regard for human consciousness and values. Two examples will suffice.
Singapore is a small nation whose harsh political system is being made even more inhumane by its commingling with the global corporate entertainment industry. Singapore is
totally dependent on exports. Its authoritarian government has gone out of its way to cooperate with the music giants by enacting a draconian copyright law that provides for five-year jail sentences and $50,000 fines for possession of pirated tapes with intent to sell. Teenagers can earn up to $150 by acting as informants for the police.
The cultural impact of economic globalization and political dissolution in the entertainment realm in Singapore and other nations, both developed and under
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