Are you being manipulated or just a victim of all the propaganda?
In my 10+ years writing for The AIMN, the world has changed significantly. Governments worldwide have shifted to the right or have other undemocratic systems, from forms of grey communism to outright dictatorships.
The rise in the advocacy of female equality is fighting a brave fight, while men are blindly chasing everything narcissism offers. But are we becoming better nations, more caring, more equal, more just and less corrupt?
In Australia, I care about how we are managed as a society, including those things necessary for social cohesion. All communities are controlled by laws, systems or regulations, including the philosophy of whatever party is in power at the time.
The word ‘manipulated’ is used repeatably in my text to emphasise the point, so read on and please contribute to the comments section.
I contend that the world changed significantly in the period of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. There was an abrupt turn to the right of politics, which worsened people’s lives. The conservatives within their parties sprang into action and also headed to the right. When one looks back, it not only changed our lives, but it opened the doors to mass manipulation.
In debating some of the following issues with colleagues and friends, I have also noticed and agree with the observation that:
“… the Fox [and Sky] viewership is marked by a sort of collective personality disorder whereby the viewer feels almost like they’ve been let into a secret society.”
In the US, President Reagan took away responsibility for social services from the Government budget and gave the money to the churches to do what the bureaucracy did. Religion entered politics, and the US political system slowly fell apart.
Conversely, in England, Prime Minister Thatcher determined that there was “No such thing as society”, and their country also began to fall apart. Thus began the days of the two-income family. A decline in marriage with more divorces, bigger houses, and empty hearts. And a proliferation of kids with single parents. Ask any state schoolteacher, and they might suggest that around 70% of their pupils come from single parents.
Poverty has increased worldwide to the extent it is today, yet those of a conservative ilk insist they have done nothing wrong; “American exceptionalism still exists“. Later, an era of Trumpism developed when the masses became manipulated to the point where one wondered if they were ever educated.
Yet he hopes to overcome many lawsuits and have another crack at the presidency. His lies and hatred for those who desire equal opportunity and fairness know no bounds. He is manifestly the most incredible narcissist in the world of politics.
“Because they mistakenly believed in their own righteousness,” Churches have manipulated people into believing love and morality are exclusively religious.
They never allowed their own immorality to stymie their self-righteousness. Added to this, the manipulation of minors by some men of the cloth was exposed, and the whole world turned against them.
Sometimes, it is good to stop, think, evaluate and formulate one’s own opinion instead of being manipulated by the media and other vested interests.
We have become obsessed with celebrities and the media, who – with the help of the media – manipulate us into believing that people of little virtue, talent or character are somehow important. More often than not, they have acquired notoriety through wealth or influence.
The battle for wealth, whether corporate or individual, has intensified and divided us into sections: those with and those without.
We have been manipulated into competitive living (making money for money’s sake) while, at the same time, we have forgotten how to laugh or even volunteer. Now, what was the name of that family across the road? We need to comprehend the difference between manners and civility.
Well, our kids don’t. Narcissism is rife, and men are particularly prone to it.
Enormous advances have been made in medicine, and future discoveries will increase enormously. Artificial intelligence has arrived on many fronts. They will further change a world now stressed out with advances in technology.
More drugs are available for many illnesses, but the large drug companies manipulate who gets them and the price paid. The vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic are a case in point. A vaccine was found in record time, but the wealthiest nations were the most advantaged.
Acquiring a wage has become a necessary function of survival or at least having a reasonable standard of living.
There is much less wellness. Mental illness, at last, has been recognised. Still, men have succumbed to domestic violence, where men manipulating women has become a pastime, resulting in at least one death each week in Australia.
Record amounts of money are thrown at the problems, but no evidence of success results.
Australian Aborigines are a case in point. The voters were so manipulated at the recent referendum that they were confused between right and wrong or didn’t know the difference.
“If you don’t know, vote no.” (Seriously.)
The right of politics manipulates women to maintain a perceived physical, academic, corporate and sexual dominance. History records their manipulation and the ongoing incompetence of extremist right-wing Government. Those of Howard, Abbott, Dutton and Morrison. In Australia, we have experienced the extremities of these men, their ignorance and corruption, to the point that their parties should not be allowed to stand in the next election in their current form.
People may live longer but, in my observation, are less happy, and the incidence of mental health has become a social problem.
We mumble a lot without saying much, we seldom love meaningfully, and the joy of sex has degenerated into casual opportunism where women are manipulated.
It is a time of enormous profits, little leadership, shallow thinking and superficial relationships. It is a time in which technology is making extraordinary advances, but our intellectual reasoning seems only able to appreciate its capacity for good with the word ‘profit’ attached.
We are conquering outer space and diseases yet polluting our environment and souls. We have been so foolish as to allow ourselves to be manipulated by the fools who, once proven wrong, repeat the dose at every opportunity.
We allow ourselves to be manipulated by exaggerated, flamboyant rhetoric designed to heighten a sense of alarm or simply gain our attention. Think Andrew Bolt, for example.
The First Nations referendum was another example of this nefarious manipulation of our democracy. The uneducated on this crucial matter was exploited with propaganda to vote no, and its unfairness was wrong, but the conservatives say it’s just politics. They always do.
Unscrupulous people manipulate our social behaviour, and the young fall victim to the persuasive influence of debilitative drugs.
We know beyond doubt that climate change has surpassed all predictions, yet few countries remain concerned. Gloom is upon us because they lust for power and wealth.
And the purity of our playtime, our sport, has been manipulated by the corrosive effect of gambling money and drugs.
And the cheats, in turn, manipulate us with their lies.
Because of the rise of far-right Neoconservatism, I am currently reviewing my thoughts on the future.
My thought for the day
We dislike and resist change in the foolish assumption that we can make permanent anything that makes us feel secure. Yet change is, in fact, part of the very fabric of our existence.
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26 comments
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K -
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Clakka -
Steve Davis -
MR David A Spry -
Steve Davis -
K -
Clakka -
Michael Taylor -
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calculus witherspoon. -
Steve Davis -
leefe -
Andyfiftysix -
calculus witherspoon. -
Zathras -
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Terence Mills -
Canguro -
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A Commentator -
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Douglas Pritchard -
Zathras -
calculus witherspoon.
Return to home pageA stark analysis. I don’t think much has changed over time, despite progress in many fields, in the echelons of power. And to put the blame for declining engagement by the general public at the feet of Reagan and Thatcher is a tad presumptuous -they did not make the rules, they used them to their advantage, based on their beliefs… They meant well, at the time, based on their limited understanding of many issues. Thatcher in particular I feel history is unfair on. She was a woman in power at a time when few were visible. History places her at the centre of some vey poor decisions, but she would have had male advice, all the way throughout her career. Does anyone blame them for the rise of Thatcherism? No. No one even remembers their names.
Friedman economical theory is largely responsible for the exportation of the greed is good mantra, worldwide, let’s be honest. Although, by all accounts all he and his ilk did is exploit a niche market, fill a gap.
I could throw in a reference to patriarchal systems and colonialism and their prevalence, but why bother? It is what it is. Those same values ( and undervalued position of women’s roles in society, other than breeders and someone to clean up the mess) are what make the media’s scape not just in Australia, such a toxic contributor to social discourse. I include such women as Credlin in this opinion. They are enablers, in the guise of feminists. Although there are obvious positives about widespread access to multiple viewpoints, pure entertainment wins, every time. Targeting base fears of the general population (propaganda) and manipulation have worked for centuries to keep certain cadres in power, why change now? I’m aware this is a gloomy outlook. Their goal has been achieved. History (herstory seems to have been overlooked) favours the brave.
For those capable of critical thought (and there are many), the old systems are failing humanity. The idea that we need politicians to manage the rise of AI and set guidelines for the ethical use is laughable. Where were their ethics when climate scientists warned of global environmental catastrophe decades ago? Policies are delivered by media in click bait, and sound bites, devoid of context, hence the success of the No campaign on the Referendum, and the subsequent post-mortems on the reasons for its failure. Ignorance is bliss, and the LNP sells that message like a drug dealer on a street corner. To that end, maybe instead of illicit substance use, they can test for stupidity at the polling booth? Hope they’re proud of their achievements!
Throwing money at any cause, however fair and just, doesn’t work, never has, if you’ve got idiots and arsekissers running the show. But they are, unfortunately, the people whose opinions matter, at least to those who crave power for powers sake, and are in a position to make back room deals. I’ll scratch your back on this bill, if you scratch my back on that one. There’s no shortage of candidates for this. But I get we have to make rules to service the majority…
I don’t know what the solution is to change the disengagement of most. If you think of a solution, by all means, let us know.
As a species we haven’t come too far have we ? Just look at the slaughter happening in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Some would say, at least there’s one bright spot in our sales driven capitalist society : the arms manufacturers, particularly those in the US are having an absolute ball, providing plenty of employment, keeping shareholders happy and their major customer as always is their own government so no worries about non-payment or bad debts – the system’s working as planned.
And, of course the spin-merchants will turn every outrage into a convenient package to suit a compliant media and a manipulated consumer : bomb an ambulance or a hospital or a block of flats, just say there was a baddy in there and the thousands who die horrible deaths as their homes, families and lives are wrecked – well that’s just collateral damage so it’s OK !
K, you’ve raised many good points. I think they can be condensed to a single sentence.
Parliamentary democracy has passed it’s use-by date.
The corrupt players have refined their techniques to the point where they are untouchable, as in your “I’ll scratch your back on this bill, if you scratch my back on that one.” As well there’s the contracts for mates, contracts without tender and so on. It’s progressed from corruption at the level of the individual to corruption at the class level. The days of Joh’s brown paper bags are effectively over.
Another problem with parliamentary democracy that is evident in your reference to Thatcher and Reagan, is that the party system promotes the mediocre and the uneducated. We promote those who are cunning enough to work the party system. I cannot think of a single leader of a Western democracy that could speak intelligently for five minutes on political history or political philosophy.
Take Albo as an example of a slightly different flaw in the system. A person of good intentions and high principles who, by the time he got the top job, was thoroughly institutionalised.
In those countries that the West sees as rivals, (they are not,) education is a prerequisite for advancement. The writing is on the wall.
Parliamentary democracy is a mongrel dog, but it’s the best we’ve got.
Why is it a mongrel dog? Because, after the dogs of war have settled, a new mongrel breed ultimately rises up to take the celebrity mantle of the inevitable despots the madding crowd seeks to facilitate its abdication of responsibility. The monied aristocrats and mercantilists just love to pat and feed such mongrels.
It is usually tied to religion / gospel / god reinvention and false paradise manufacture, or out-and-out fascistic self-centric didacticism. It’s certainly been going on for millennia, but for us, I agree with Denis on the turn point with Thatcher and Reagan.
Of course, the dogs of war never quite settled, and Thatcher and Reagan could be seen as an interbreeding of the dogs of war and mongrel dogs. And so it has continued, sometimes more and sometimes less surreptitiously, to the tune of the controlling monied aristocrats and mercantilists.
Since the advent of the www, the dogs and their controllers have increasingly been seen by the lazy as an amorphous melange and by others as a structured evil empire. But of course under the burden of the dysfunctions of the manufactured paradise, the lazy prevail.
Oh, but as we’re seeing, and as has been many times before the entire tryst is self-defeating. It’s currently gone nearly all the way to hell. With the only cure being the politicians legislating for de-corruption.
Trouble is, how to recognize a dog catcher?
Clakka, everything you say is true, but if others have a superior system in the sense that education is a prerequisite for advancement and leadership, then we will be forced to adapt, or wither into irrelevance and a struggle for survival.
Steve Davis tells us that Parliamentary democracy has passed its use-by date, but does not offer us a preferable alternative. If you deny citizens a role, they can become vulnerable and lose everything.
We have to work with what we have. The concept is not irreparably flawed, it is the manner in which it is manipulated.
John Lord has given us Liberal party examples of leaders who have followed conservative right wing policies to our detriment, and I have no problem with his characterizations or in fact with the general message of his article.
However, he does not deal with the significant role that the deterioration of the ALP has had in leading Australia to its present parlous state – which includes a move to the Right.
The recent death of Bill Hayden has reminded me that he was the last Labor leader determined to live by his principles – a position that caused his political demise.
Bob Hawke was a pragmatist who wanted ‘to be saved from men of principle’, and who led his party and the country to closer collaboration and involvement with the conservative establishment. As the much-vaunted Wages Accord showed, Hawke and his government were prepared to do deals that helped some of the workers and their industries, but left many others without redress or standard of living security.
Those working in hospitality, agriculture, health and others currently experiencing hardship from their inadequate remuneration are doing so, in part, because the Accord did not give them protection and the attendant legislation also removed straightforward paths to redress. I am aware of the arguments that can be advanced to downplay and excuse these policies, but the facts remain that Hawke/Keating and all their successors abandoned the principle of fairness for all in the name of compromise.
While accepting that compromise can be a necessary part of negotiating solutions to contested issues, a very important consideration is to what extent parties are limited in the future by the compromises they make.
To say that someone or thing is compromised is not a positive statement and is confirmation of a weakened position.
Commitments to the coal and petroleum/gas sector has slowed the ALP response to climate change for over 30 years. Playing ‘lets pretend coal is not a problem’ in the Hunter Valley to keep a seat while doing nothing to educate the electorate about the climate change facts is political pragmatism at its worst. The argument that maintaining seats so that they can get into government to effect change falls over when their track-record in government shows that they still failed to act.
There are unfortunately many examples of how far the ALP has moved away from being a ‘people’s party’ and donned the garb of being a facilitator of capitalism.
Current members of the Labor Government may hold personal principles but the party machine will always insist on them being suppressed if they differ from the ‘agreed’ strategies of the party.
The party has made so many deals with ‘stakeholders’ that they have given away power and the ability to be flexible in dealing with new issues objectively.
I have predominately voted labor for some 50 years and regard the Whitlam government as the pinnacle of the ALP’s achievements. I studied law and went into practice in the 1970’s and was fully aware of the benefits to the Australian people of withdrawing from Vietnam, starting universal health care, reforming Family Law, introducing responsible Trade Practices and more. It was transformative for the people of Australia.
I have never voted Liberal or National or for any conservative party, but I struggle to feel support for the ALP in its current form and with its current mis-steps, particularly in relation to climate change.
I completely agree that the conservative parties are a wholly negative influence on our country and its people, but until we have our focus redirected towards fairness, equality and quality of life for all our inhabitants we will continue to have our current mess.
It greatly saddens me to say, but, on current form the ALP is too weak and compromised to make the necessary changes to combat the damage being done to us by the conservative establishment.
The ALP won’t listen to reality, so where do we look for answers?
Mr Spry, you say that I have not provided an alternative to parliamentary democracy.
It’s not up to me to provide that answer.
We will only move forward when we all start looking at the problem.
But if you read my comments again you’ll see a hint as to my thinking on the matter.
I had a pithy response to Steve Davis all ready to go, on education, and it’s historical context, but my device had an apoplexy, and I lost it.
It included patriarchal notions of recognised degrees, and peer reviewed academia.
I’ll leave it up to you boys to figure out the fine details. Afterall, no woman’s opinion is of any consequence, unless she plays by man’s rules. That’s society for you. Educated or otherwise. Well done, on your awakening that there’s more than one gender involved, as a general rule. I’ll just take my shoes off and head back to the kitchen. Lucky for me, I’m menopausal, so not fit to breed.
Yes Steve Davis, I hear your inference loud and clear.
Education is indeed a fine thing. But history will prove that it is no guarantee for the turning of heads from humanity’s inherent corruptibility in the face of opportunity or threat.
But still, we must try.
K, I found your other comment in the Sunak post. It has been retrieved.
Clakka, I agree entirely.
Education has its own flaws. One of those is that knowledge has become so specialised now that expertise in one field can prevent even average competence in others.
As you said, but still, we must try.
” Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer.
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”
If you keep the public in the dark , this year shows what can happen under false assumptions, when in the deliberately withheld absence of fact…
A dark age beckons?
CW, nice work.
Even the prose was poetic.
Still, men have succumbed to domestic violence
Can we not do this? The way you speak about an issue matters. It isn’t an illnness, it isn’t a virus that attacks an otherwise healthy body and makes it operate in suboptimal ways; it’s a choice. Yes, that choice can be affected by externalities, but it is still something over which the individual has ultimate control.
Domestic violence is not an inevitable result of mental illnenss (if it were, the perpetrators would not be overwhelmingly of a particular gender, especially for the more physically severe cases), nor is mental illness its main cause. It is primarily about entitlement, about socialisation, about ego.
Mr david aspry. The reason labor has drifted is because they had to drift to get elected. The only way to drift back is to keep getting re elected. Keep saying you won’t vote for them and the diminishing pool of labor votes won’t help the drift to the other side. Be careful what you wish for.
Democracy is a dog because the stupid enable the narcissists. 30% of the population should never be allowed to vote because they they are the enablers. I don’t see a solution to this dilemma. Hahaha
So if the narcissists are to be enabled, we need to keep them on a short, very short leash. This is another monumententail failure of the system, they get away with bad behaviour. At least in communist countries, they disappear. But that’s another story.
The debate about how education can fix the problem is lost. On the evidence, it failed miserable to solve that problem.
We need more female politicians with female values. No more Thatchers or Cash who just followed male patterns of behaviour to get ahead. That’s why the Libs have shunned quotes, just look at the caliber of what they have. Even Archer, why the hell did she think the Libs was her calling? Mental dissonance at work.
Thanx Steve.
You know that WAS a good piece from John Lord..
Chomsky’s “manufacturing consent” notion has never been as evident as it is now, as is the enormous power of Corporatism to protect itself at the expense of everything else.
Humanity’s epitaph will likely be that we chose not to save ourselves because it simply wasn’t commercially viable.
Zathras, well put.
It might seem extreme to say this, but I’m surprised Chomsky has not met with an accident. He’s been relentlessly exposing the machinations of the cultural managers since the invasion of Vietnam.
It is quite disturbing to see how Israel have effectively excluded all media outlets from entering or reporting from Gaza. The only news getting out is coming from trained IDF spruikers who refuse to answer the questions put to them and who just deliver pre-prepared public relations waffle.
The IDF have recognised that if you can control the news and neuter independent reporting you can win the PR war.
In effect we have no idea what is going on with the invasion and destruction of Gaza.
TM, one of the other contributors quoted Aeschylus a few days ago, with the attributed observation that “In war, truth is the first casualty.”
If ever there’s been a trope that’s been trotted out with dismal regularity I’d like to see it, but anyway, I’d expect that you know this to be the case, as I’m also confident that the rest of the observant and attentive readers of this website would.
I take your point but I disagree with you entirely… why should it be ‘quite disturbing?’ It’s business as usual. Of course, to the large community of soapbox orators who need to maintain an audience, the use of dramatic and evocative language is always an asset, as I’m sure you’d agree.
Those who control the narrative have an edge over those whose voices are excluded, a truism that has been in play for possibly millennia and now utterly ramped in this age of immediate messaging.
But perhaps you were unaware that this is the case, a bit like someone finding out that their wife’s been having an affair behind their back for the last twenty years and that it was common knowledge to everyone but themself, and hence your disturbance at finding that the truth is manipulated and biased by those in charge of the lines of communication, and that those nasty apparatchiks of the IDF have too latterly become aware of the power of controlling the narrative, latecomers that they are to one of the oldest games in the book.
SD, re. your surprise that Chomsky’s still kicking… yeh maybe. The USA has form when it comes to knocking off dissidents but I don’t think ol’ Noam’s in the same category as say, MLK or Malcolm X. He’s 94 now, and perhaps the assassins for hire that would be sitting on the CIA’s payroll have just a scintilla of conscience that suggests that it’s not ok to knock off venerable nonagenarians.
Canguro, yep, they probably thought age would do it for ’em !
The ICJ didn’t think the invasion was a suitable decision
By Order of March 16, 2022, the ICJ has already indicated among its provisional measures that “the Russian Federation shall immediately suspend the military operations it began on February 24, 2022 in the territory of Ukraine”.
AC is on the wrong thread.
The order of the ICJ is not a legal decision. It is a standard response to any outbreak of armed hostilities.
And if the ICJ did not issue a similar order when Ukraine began its indiscriminate shelling of the Donbass in 2014, then that tells us quite a bit about the ICJ.
Its disturbing that vested interests seem to have the power over our minds with manipulation of the media.
It happens.
But equally its concerning over who seems to have control of our money, and those who benefit from war are having their way with us.
We are being, right royally, shafted.
In Sydney there was a bunch dining out on our money debating how it should be spent…some “defence” junket.
While the RBA was cranking up the cash rate.
We want MORE war toys.
But I did find some time to watch John Meirsheiner talking very recently about the same subject and elaborating on how China is reluctant to “invade” Taiwan. Its an incredibly difficult strategic exercise.
And meanwhile we are bankrupting ourselves to the “China Threat”(carefully non specific about what the threat actually is), and Albo is feasting in the Great hall.
In the background our closest strategic partner is simply coming apart at the seams.
All too stupid, but its a democracy.
According to the media this all started spontaneously on October 7th with no comment on the decades of dispossession and brutality that lead to that moment, although social media is doing the coverage of Gaza for them,
Now we are seeing Netanyahu (aka Benzion Mileikowsky)’s end game – a likely permanent military Israeli presence in Gaza and maybe settlers will eventually start moving in.
Because of our short news attention span many have forgotten how Israel provided wounded Al Qaeda fighters (ie Muslim Terrorists) with medical aid along the Syrian border, how he promoted the political rise of Hamas as a way of eliminating the PLO, how he claimed the Holocaust was actually done by Muslims who instructed Hitler to “burn” rather than deport Jews and when he more recently displayed a map of the New Middle East that did not show Gaza at all,
All he has really achieved is to create yet another generation of future terrorists that somebody else will need to deal with.
Hamas are simply the grown-up version of children who suffered a previous military action.
Zathras,
Little doubt a real situation has emerged.
But it is also yet another US proxy war, allegedly concerning China, on a Big Game rationale over trade routes and control of oil and minerals.
Benzion is an unspeakable human being.
Australia and Israel are just stationary aircraft carriers (in substance), unfeeling links in chain, meant to embargo anyone outside the charmed oligarchic glee club.