The "marketplace of ideas," built during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, ef­fectively disseminates the beliefs and ideas of the upper classes while subverting the ideological and cultural independence of the lower classes.

Through the construction of this marketplace, western governments forged firm and enduring links between socioeconomic position and ideological power, permitting upper classes to use each to buttress the other ... In the United States, in particular, the ability of the upper and upper-middle classes to dominate the marketplace of ideas has generally al­lowed these strata to shape the entire society's perception of political reality and the range of realistic political and social possibilities.

 While westerners usually equate the marketplace with freedom of opinion, the hidden hand of the market can be almost as potent an instrument of control as the iron fist of the state

Benjamin Ginsberg, The Captive Public