to how things are going in the world today, I thought I would update and bring back this article I originally wrote in 2017, things have not really changed for the better. Please be aware that this article is satire and no offense is intended towards anyone except Them. They know who they are and also that I don't care...)
We live in a world which is, as most of us are aware, dominated by information. Thanks to smart-phones, smart TV's, tablets, phablets, crablets (that one isn't real) - smart everything except for people - we are connected and appraised of events from around the corner or around the world twenty-four hours a day. We never miss a single thing. If a politician farts quietly while leaving an interview, somebody will tweet, twerp, fwerp or burp about it. You can guarantee it.
In fact, you can pretty much guarantee that should you get shot, murdered, assaulted or hit by a car these days, people will, thankfully be on hand with a telephone...to record your final moments and share them on social media later with a frowny face or two...maybe even a frowny face with a tear falling from one eye if you're lucky. Did you think I was going to say that would call 999 / 911? Oh dear me, somebody has been living under a rock for a while, haven't they now? That would indeed be responsible and the right thing to do but how many likes would they get for that? How many followers? Come now! Who wants to accept responsibility these days?
This leads me onto my principle, actual point, I'll be back to social media later on, don't worry, it's important but I have other things to cover first. Social media plays a very large role in what I'm about to talk about, actually a very large part so we will be coming back here.
Lets talk about lies, shall we? Untruths. Misdirections. Misleading statements. Falsehood. Or, as they are more popularly termed - in a very nice and nonjudgemental fashion - today, alternative facts.
I believe we used to call them lies but that could be 'Russians' hacking the Merriam Webster database in order to make me think that. That is what they do isn't it? They want to destroy our freedom and replace it with their freedom which isn't even communism any more so.....well...yes...right...ah...I don't know! See that is just it, the age old trick; keep them confused and fighting while we control what they know and fight about.
Let me summarise The Rules right here;
Identify the Enemy. Ideally someone who looks a little different, acts a little differently or speaks differently. Someone who can be held responsible for everything which has gone wrong since things were better; everything from The Economy to the store running out of peanut butter last night
Identify their Agenda. They want to destroy something we consider important. Taco Tuesday for example. Those £%&*$£"* Mexicans want us to eat Tacos every day! They plan to introduce Fajita Law into America! Our Grandfather's father died in the battle of Ruby Tuesdays to defend our right to American versions of foreign cuisine on set days of the week goddammit!
Identify the Group which is "Right". Make it so that one of the Values the target population holds dear is betrayed by not supporting The Group. Identify those who have left the Group as having copulated with the wives of goats from Afghanistani muslim, lesbian, mixed race, transsexual haters of Freedom and Truth!
Identify your Stand. Choose something nebulous and indefinable. Identify how They are attacking said Value and the Group is defending it but don't tell people how either is carrying out their activity. Choose something like Freedom, the Right to Bare Feet, Freedom to sacrifice cats to Anubis every 3rd Friday evening, whatever, it doesn't matter. Just be sure to focus on the fact that Jesus or (deity of choice) is said to approve of said value.
Alternate your Facts. Now you have established that the Donut Hating, Spanish Speaking, Grey-Haired, People from Around the Corner will do anything to destroy your right to eat a donut with enough calories to fuel a battalion of horses for breakfast and will take all of your donuts from you, we can now ensure that nobody will believe anything they say. They will lie to undermine our basic right to sugary fried dough snacks, they will not attack directly, that is not their style, they will try to discredit and negatively influence people about us. They will talk about the C-word and the F-word, they will bribe doctors to talk about calories, health and life expectancy but it will all be lies! Lies I tell you!
We used to call it propaganda and it was used to manipulate perfectly reasonable people into doing rather stupid and objectionable things. Nothing like what is going on today then right?
Well, OK, the fellows on the right ARE better dressed and somewhat more organised, this is true. Both groups, however are convinced that folks who don't look like they do (for which said folks are extremely grateful each and every day) are responsible for every Ill of Society and that removal of said people (though they do not view them as people, oh no, not at all) will Make Everything Great Again, just like that. It's magic. Actually I am not joking, it is!
The Sky is Blue.
We know the sky is blue, except when it's night time or cloudy or any weather condition you would care to name. I used that example intentionally because it is very open to interpretation. There are a large number of people here who will come up with all kinds of alternatives and caveats. That is the point, an illustration for this exercise.
Let's illustrate;
The sky is blue. This is fact. During the day, they firmament surely does take on an azure cast which is rather apparent.
But what about when it's cloudy? Well, it's still blue underneath the clouds isn't it?
It might be but how do you know? Well that's what I heard and read and what they taught me.
Oh what THEY taught you? Yes, my teachers and ...
No! Servants of the Donut Haters! Eh what?
They want you not to think for yourself. How do you know the sky is always blue? It goes black at night. Maybe cloudy is the sky changing colour, right? Not all cloudy days are the same colour. Well that is true...
And the Donut-Hating Transsexual orang-utans from China don't like colours other than blue. They don't? But why?
Nobody knows. They do say that Donuts make blue look bad on people who eat them and only want people who don't eat donuts to be able to wear blue. But I like blue, it brings out my eyes they tell me. My friends and family I mean. Good Donut Eaters I can trust!
That's right! They are trying to take both out Donuts and the colour blue away from us! I have heard too that they want to change the colour of the sky in order to keep blue for themselves. They'll start with our Donuts but they'll want waffles next, then churros... No! They can't do that! Hows can we stop them?
Ok, ok I may have simplified slightly for cheap comedic cracks but the principles are sound. You've seen it today. Something will happen and the truth of the situation is obvious right? Some guys buys a load of assault weapons and murders innocent people, the answer is simple; why does no-one else see that? How could people think that living exclusively on donuts and nothing else will make you look like Arnold Swarzenegger in his prime, who could possibly believe that to be true? Then you see people who do and will vehemently defend that point of view against all detractors, defend it more viciously that they would defend their own children. They will also defend as strongly ALL opinions of their Group from anyone who does not belong to it and may be a hidden traitor. Lets us entertain ourselves with some examples from real world social media interactions but altered to protect anonymity and to add amusement;
You I think yellow frosting on strawberry donuts is just silly, Dunky-Dream are just being ridiculous....How dare you! Dunky-Dream are the defenders of donut freedom and protect us from the evils of salad munchers who will take all our blue away! What are you doing? Do you want they to be blue so that only you and your lot can eat them?
Roland Runce forcing a diabetic to eat a donut on television is evil and he really is a bad President! You hate donuts and you hate Jesus! Jesus ate 12 donuts a day, it's in the Bible, Mister, you go read that! People who don't eat donuts shouldn't be living here! Let them go back to Diabetia or wherever they come from! Hail Runce! Make Donuts Breakfast Again!
Maybe square donuts would be cool? I mean they'd be easier to box and carry around...Maybe Bob Amba has a good point...Square donuts? You are going to Hell sir! Donuts have been round since they were invented in Jesus times because the Earth was round back then . The hole in the middle is to remind us that we are always missing something, God's love! Love God and love donuts and love America! If you don't like your donuts round, get out you freedom hating, homosexual cat sniffer! Bob Amba destroyed America and now Runce will save us!
Dunky-Dream doesn't sell diabetic, gluten-free diet donuts since Runce became President. Five people have died now from mistakenly eating the wrong donut and Runce says nothing! I suppose you want all your Anti-American donuts to be blue too don't you so Ordinary Americans can't eat them, only your 1%! Runce is making donuts better for everyone, not like Bob Amba making folks eat all those fancy donuts that don't even have real sugar in them! Trying to make normal decent folks eat that evil! Thank God and Baby Jesus for sending Runce to lead us!
Blue donuts for Freedom! Runce is trying to make the blue ones evil and replace them all with yellow ones. Stop him before it's too late! God save President Ronald Ray Runce from people like you! Refusing to eat yellow donuts shows that you hate freedom and disrespect your veterans! You want us all to be muslim communists who only eat falafals or something like that! Those rich black fellows who ate blue donuts on TV during the Dunky-Dream anthem should be fired! Stand up and eat your yellow donuts with pride!
The new Yellow Donut Frosting has a chemical in it which makes us all like cats! Dog lovers unite before They try to wipe us out! You and your nasty smelly butt-sniffers can keep your nasty blue donuts from North Korea! You just want to end freedom and force your blue on everyone! You want to free up the cats so that your Chinese masters can eat them! Defend your cats and buy my special Cats for Runce yellow collars today! Miaows for Runce!
As you may see, there are crazies on both sides of the argument, those identified as the Enemy or Sympathisers of theirs, starts to pick up ideas and behaviours either intentionally contrary to those of the Group or ones the loudest defenders of the Group (or their pet politicians) say the enemy displays - sometimes just as a protest, others to be contrary. Just because they can, you know? Stockholm syndrome is incredible when you notice it actually happening. The Left is behaving in the ways the Right expect them to and vice versa.
Now I have been messing around here a fair bit but I hope you are seeing my points, right? My manner may be less than serious but my point is very serious.
We have Two Truths out there, two versions of the same facts but neither of them is actually accurate. The Left ascribes actions to The Right and accuses them of doing this, that and the other. The Right ascribes actions to The Left and accuses them of going here, there and everywhere. There is some truth to the points of both sides and the current choice for President is far from ideal, there is no denying that one. A failed business man and ex-reality TV star? Not really ideal qualifications for The Big Job now right? Right? Well...let's think about that one. Recognise this man?
Most of you will at least know what Tony Blair used to be (The Prime Minister of the UK for those who don't). Not many will know what he does now. Suffice it to say that he's set for life. I know some of your will see where I am going and say "But no! Kennedy started that!". You're right, he got the experiment going but it wasn't the right time yet. That's not why they killed him but it also was. Now we're ready. In 1997 we were ready. The internet was just taking off, social media hadn't taken off yet but communication was changing in ways no-one had anticipated. What old Tony started was what we could call "Cult of Personality Politics". We get the young, dynamic and change-bringing upstart who is going to better the world and everyone goes crazy! The year he (they're usually men) wins, voter turnout had never been higher, nor had hope or optimism. Real Change is Coming. The heavy boot of the Right is removed and Ordinary People can rise again. Isn't that wonderful? Only the change does not come. The Bright Young Man turns out be be rather disappointing and the usual crowd of old and boring politicians berate us with wagging fingers for our stupidity.
Then The Right tried it and look what we ended up with. The Saviour from Oppression was always a tactic of the Left but The Right realised they were drowning so they did something amazing; they adapted. The republican party backed a horse unlike any it had backed before. They actually seized the zeitgeist of today and it worked!
Let's take a step back and think about it;
Ask anyone for their Top 10 TV shows of today and I bet you money that 85-90% of them will mention at least one reality TV show.
Ask anyone for a way to contact them and they'll either give their email or Facebook.
If you need to locate somebody how do you do it (you use Facebook or Google at least).
What happen when you leave the house without your phone these days?
How many people, hold up your hands - brothers and sisters for you are safe here - admit to their first thought when the power goes out as being along the lines of "how will I charge my phone/have WiFi?" or something similar?
Be honest. I know I have done it. I also know I don't watch 'real TV' anymore because it's been taken over by incessantly cloned, talentless drones doing exactly what we do every day but in a exaggerated manner and in the presence of significantly more money than you or I will ever see. I admit to getting into 'Facebook Scraps" and doling out dire warnings online about the dangers of Trump, what the change he is bringing would really be. I admit it, I have done it. I have berated his 'foolish' supporters for their short-sighted blindness. I came to realise how pointless these arguments actually were. As vapid as a reality TV talent show star; here today, gone tomorrow. The world, it turns out, has developed the attention span and (an alleged fact) memory of a goldfish.
I have come to realise that it is not the politicians we need to be worried about though; they're all going to be the same from here on in because those with the real power have made us want it that way.
Think about it. Politician X does all kinds of horrible things and it gets forgotten about. If a scandal which could threaten deeper investigation and unmask the real villain too soon appears, out comes a distraction, a red rag waved in the public's face until they forget all about it. They will rage and fight both sides of the argument, they will insult each other, they will be divided and conflicted. Right where they are needed to be. You remember what propaganda is for? That's right, it's for control. Let's finish for this week by upsetting just about everyone or, at least 75-80% of you. Let's look at how propaganda was developed and used by politicians of the Left and Right over the last twenty years. How neither "side" is winning. Neither side needs to, we just need to keep thinking about sides...Left & Right, Liberal & Conservative, etc. etc...Consider this scenario. It might be fiction, maybe itr's exaggerated, it may even be the undiluted truth....you tell me. I'm a fiction writer so how could you know for sure?
Phase 1: In 1997, Tony Blair's Labour government started it. Nominally to prevent upset to minorities but soon seen as overdone, Political Correctness was born. One could not call a fat person fat, a black person black, a glass-wearing person short-sighted. One could not point out the disabilities of the disabled. The N word was relegated to where it belonged. Now a lot of this was good. Racism is NEVER acceptable and never should have been. Sexism neither. It went too far though but that was the point.
(Stage 1: Discredit the Left. Success. Left = Big Government, Nanny State, too much control, letting immigrants take over. Political rights over actual right. War on Christmas and the Church. White people less important than black, other religions less important than Christians, layabouts who don't want to work, just pop out more children are more important than working people who pay taxes.)
Phase 2: In 2009 Barack Obama became the first black man to be President in a country where black people could not even vote until the 1970's and Jim Crowe laws were still in effect until rather recently indeed. He ran on a raft of equality encouraging legislation and policy. The downtrodden and ignored dared to hope. Little did they realise that Blair did this in the UK and had left office just two years previously. He had been replaced with ineffective and pointless suits without charisma. Obama's Presidency, of course, saw improvements in the lives of black people, immigrants and the disadvantaged. It of course had a more Liberal lean to policy. He tried to bring free healthcare to all but failed. He tried to bring reforms to many areas but failed. Like Blair he promised big and delivered little. Many people say he gave America a political correctness greater than Blair gave to the UK.
Phase 3: The downtrodden are no longer ethnic minorities or people of this, that, or the other. Well, actually they are because they still don't have great jobs, prospects or mansions yet. However, other people are ALSO downtrodden, still not paid attention to and they are starting to realise it. Economic conditions created by banks and other entities outside of the control of ANY government are responsible but it's considered wiser for each side of the political spectrum to blame the other. The era of taking no responsibility begins. Assignment of blame is seen as infinitely more important than fixing the actual problem So, a saviour of the downtrodden and the ignored who also have money emerged! He would go on to polarise world opinion and politics like none before him but he would be popular no matter what he did. Why? He and those who are behind him have perfected ALL which we have detailed so far today. They have touched the vein of the people who felt left out by the inclusiveness and fairness of the previous governments. They dislike the ones said loud voices blame. They feel excluded and hurt by not being the center of attention, of having to share the stage with others. They are afraid but they don't want to show the others that they are afraid; neither side does.
Phase 4: Yet to come. A new young and dynamic saviour will come to rescue us from the excesses the last saviour and his folks. He will save the oppressed and bring us back from the brink of war and we will love him (or her) for it. The the cycle will begin again because they don't want us getting on. Oh no, that would not be good. We might start actually thinking if we did that!
So; my point today?
We know that the world is changing but most of us don't realise how drastically. We have incredibly advanced communication technology but a large proportion of the population does not know how to use it, let alone how it works.
We have accusations and, possibly, proof of agencies getting involved in politics and using our willingly shared data to manipulate our perceptions of reality.
We have both sides of the political spectrum accusing the other side of 'fake news' and the peddling of lies for their advantage. We have more conspiracy theories running wild than ever before but now they are political. In fact, the changing social environment has made everything and everyone political.
The population has been truly divided into tribes as never before in peacetime. You are either 'for' this person and those who agree with them or you are 'against' them, debate has become a thing of the past in this age of absolutes. One cannot be in the 'middle of the road' any more.
In one generation, we have had one President's policies raise one group up and his successor's blame them for all of their ills and drop them back down.
Instead of bringing us closer together "They" have pushed us further apart.
Conclusion
Some of you are writers, you make your living thinking as others do not. Some of you are bloggers, you do the same. Most of you are intelligent and therefore already know how to think for yourselves and this may well not reach the ones who will not. But for those of us who do; Left or Right; think about this; nobody is right because nobody can actually win. Think of the tic-tac-toe problem in the original War Games movie. For Left to win, Right must lose and vice versa. There is never a way to please ALL the people. Change will always be resisted, people will always want to belong to one team or another, it's human nature. Maybe though, if we pause and ask ourselves this; who is profiting most from the current state of affairs? Then you'll see who is winning and who is really in control.
How can we, peddlers of fiction, function if we don't even know what the truth is any more?
Then you'll realise our world of fighting online over stupidities is just stupid. They're just keeping you distracted from what really matters while you are bashing moslems on a forum; berating a christian on facebook; fighting homophobes on instagram. Your bill are getting no cheaper, your gas no more economical, your salary isn't increasing, your quality of life is no better, your rights as a human being is not better, your bills are rising each and every year. When are you going to realise? You are not winning and they are not here to help you?