Divide, distract and pacify

Mexican wall
Wall to divide America and Mexico

Although I wish that I had come up with this title, the title of this blog was taken from an article in the Free Though Project. (www.freethoughtproject.com)

It was talking about political speeches and how they all sound the same. One of the most significant political events, which has just concluded, is the RNC or Republican National Convention in America. Over the course of 3 days there have been numerous speeches by political leaders, congressmen, Police Chiefs, family members, wives, and others. This is all part of the ‘divide, distract, and pacify’ ploy.

Personally, I have never really been moved or motivated by speeches because they are just that. Speeches! Speeches are part of the pacification process.

If you really give this some thought, we have been so conditioned to speeches in our everyday lives. From parents, teachers, school mates, work colleagues, bosses, the list goes on. These ‘speeches’ are not prepared and not delivered in any particular way, other than to get the meaning across. Now when we listen to politicians, and people of similar standing, on the other hand, we tend to hear stronger, more evocative, and persuasive tones. We also hear the same words and expressions over and over again. How many times have you heard world leaders use the expressions “I strongly condemn this act of barbarism” and “the perpetrators will be brought to justice” after every shooting or terrorist attack, or “we have many challenges ahead”, as bad as these things are, the words do not roll of their tongues because they have either: no imagination, or the words have been written for them. There is a world of difference between speaking from the heart and reading words from an auto-cue. All this is done to pacify us.

Pokemon Go
Pokemeon Go. Among many things to distract us.

This moves me on to my next point. Plagiarism. This is the, not so noble art, of “stealing” someone’s work and passing it off as one’s own.This was demonstrated beautifully by Melania Trump, the wife of the Republican nominee Donald Trump. As she was making her speech, TV company anchor people were open-mouthed in disbelief as she repeated whole sentences and expressions from a speech made by 1st Lady Michelle Obama in 2008. The 2 were placed side-by-side on an edited reel and the words were ‘exactly the same’. This goes to show the extent to which people will go to avoid voicing their own thoughts and ideas.

The another point of this article is to highlight that these people, people in power, or in powerful positions, no longer speak from the heart. They have teams of writers and publicists who prepare every word they utter in public.This is also another reason why the public no longer believe what people in public life say. Fortunately for these people, there are still enough of us out there out who will still listen to and believe, anything they are told, and as long as these people continue to exist, the speeches will continue.At the RNC like many political events, the crowd were ‘managed’ so for all intents and purposes, they appeared to hang on each speaker’s every word. This is what politics is about.  Divide us, then rule us.

religious pacification
Religion, mostly used to pacify the masses.

But the flip side of this is that when ‘we’ the public, are asked to vote in an election, or decide in a referendum (Brexit June 23rd 2016 for example), we are fed by all sides, a steady stream of ‘ verbal diahorrea’ to put it mildly, in endless hollow platitudes of what ‘our party will do for you’. But, at the end of the day, the rhetoric is the same. Imploring us to vote for them with the same empty words used in elections gone by, yet we still for it. In conclusion, I hope that one day the electorate will wake up and reject this system of hollow politics, and hanker for ‘real people’ not living mouthpieces. The media also needs to wake up to the reality that brainwashing their audiences with repetitive nuances is a thing of the past, mainly thanks to technology, and social media. The goalposts are moving, and all that is needed now is to let the powers that be know that enough is enough!

TheArtfulDodger

Part-time blogger with many views that need an outlet.