When Ronald Reagan accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, he called for “a new consensus with all those across the land who share a community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom.” Twelve years later in his acceptance speech, Democrat Bill Clinton invoked a similar set of values—“opportunity, responsibility and community”—that were watchwords of… return to article
-
subscribe to print magazine
-
email this article to a friend
-
Reader Comments (13)Page 1 of 1 pagesReagan’s ploys were well scripted to lay the groundwork for what we have before us now. Looking at _all_ the news, burning trees infested with beetles from global warming so they’re dead anyway; houses where none should be; corporations abandoning workers wholesale, cutting benetits, moving jobs to India, etc.; polar ice melting; plankton dying; etc.
Lord Acton was right: “Power corrupts. Absolut power corrupts absolutely.”Corporations have been handed a blank check and given the control rooms. If any generations survive this, may they look back upon this time as another “dark age” that descended on a primarily innocent population.
Posted by ryokan on Oct 30, 2003 at 1:50 AM Yes, ryokan, it’s the beginning of the end of this nation as we once knew it. In my opinion, anyway.
Like Rome, it won’t happen at all once and like its citizens, no one will believe it can happen.
Posted by neil on Oct 30, 2003 at 2:10 AM A picture means a thousaond words, thus the parable. Parables work because they tap into the creative side of the brain and evoke FEELINGS.
Pictures represent words. The pen writes the word. The pen is mightier than the sword.
Follow the logic? Today, it’s the WORDS, not necessarily the pen that have the might because too many people don’t read.
Uneducated and highly educated alike frequently get their news from network TV… and all those people have feelings.
The “other” side has mastered the “engineering” behind creating that picure which evokes the desired FEELINGS. The details get forgotten, but not the feelings. If we vote at all, people vote with their feelings because they can’t remember anything else...they’re too busy working three jobs to have basic necessities like: fresh fruit and vegtables along with the desired brainfood on the table, new shoes for their toddler every two months because thankfully he/she is growing like crazy, a home in a safe neighborhood because they earned it, gasoline for the car which means freedom and mobility they earned and deserve. They do these things because they CAN direct their own lives and WILL take care of themselves first.
Democrats have been pointing the finger and “blaming” people for not “getting out to vote”; which of course really pulls them out in droves (NOT). People must graps , in a few seconds of air time, why their very existence and way of life, is threatened (positive reinforcement works). The middle class doesn’t accept that it is shrinking, because we’re too busy living in the present to make the projections and calculations. The “engineers” have to do it for us, without chastisement. People predicably wants “good” feelings, not “bad” feelings. If it feels bad, we tend (naturally) to delay and avoid dealing with it. People ACT to preserve what makes them feel good, self-sufficient… powerful. No healthy minded person wants to feel bad because it equals weak.
Words...pictures...feelings
Posted by Joan Levine on Oct 30, 2003 at 5:05 AM This is great! Hysterical- Progressives actually have to be coached in how to speak!
This is like a kindergarten class!
Posted by MoooMoooo on Oct 30, 2003 at 11:56 AM No, MoooMoooo. Progressives are very well-spoken. We simply avoid manipulating others’ feelings. We are so ethical as to believe emotional blackmail (another word for propaganda) is an unacceptable practice because it is simply another form of immorally forcing one’s will upon another. Of course, YOU wouldn’t get that now, would you.
Posted by Just Me on Oct 30, 2003 at 2:12 PM In other words, Just Me, progressives need to be taught how to propagandize, which is something that just comes naturally to the Machiavellian far right.
Posted by Aaron on Oct 31, 2003 at 12:27 PM I think if you are not onboard with the Elephants than get out of the way. Jackasses will be squashed all the way around next year. We have the Media, the corporations, the churches, and the military. All Bush does is go around collecting money from a big group of elite corpoate hogs and then uses it to embedded his agenda into the public along with fear to motivate. The average woman with kids is to scared not to vote for Bush again. The Republicans are all over the average Christian. Also any redneck in middle America loves Bush because who wants to give up their guns. People don’t want rights they want to be told what to do. It is simple as that, even if they are not aware of it the average Joe wants to be told how to live. Soon we will come to domiate every aspect of life and the people with connections will be the ones with power. Propaganda works and by the time America wakes up it will be too late and all the leftie idiots will be working jobs at McDonalds with no voice left and their will beaten out of them. Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Posted by brad on Oct 31, 2003 at 1:41 PM brad from ny is a sick stingy dick that deserves whatever misery will comes his way
Posted by Ms. Monica on Oct 31, 2003 at 7:26 PM Autumn has always been my favorite season, leaves, changes… college athletics,coziness. Thereís a harmony as we await harvest. This year a dense, ugly roughage tugs our sleeves. Our people are dying in far off lands...our civil liberties appear challenged...poverty in the U.S. is unacceptably high...and the words terrorism and chad have entered the American vernacular. The Oval Office is the haunt of a guy who lost the popular vote, and our travel depots are patrolled by people with automatic weapons and guard dogs. Attempts to figure what is going on with our social fabric is challenging, spinning, tart.
Years ago my motherís mantra was, ěDonít you discuss politics or religion at parties, in bars, or at the dinner tableî. Now there’s little else but news to discuss, and it’s bad.
In an address in the presence of Kurt Waldheim, Czech President Vaclav Havel noted, ěHe who fears facing his own past must necessarily fear what lies beforeî. This should weigh on the current field of Democrat presidential candidates, a crew light on idealism.Society doesn’t generally think of evil as ěnormalî. We’re conditioned to expect our villains to be monsters. They are like Dracula. They are the ěmenî who killed Dr. King and the Kennedys. Evil is Hannibal Lector, and Klingons. In reality, if we look for classic villains as fiends, we rarely find them. There’s ě...a strange interdependence of thoughtlessness and evilî, Dr. Hannah Arendt
observed, ěremoteness from reality and thoughtlessness can wreak more havoc than all evil instincts taken togetherî. That’s the bridge between those who produce their deathfests and hail us into their valleys of evil. Thoughtlessness.It is thoughtlessness which provokes rage and screams for revenge to balance out itís remoteness. It is that rat-shit from the ether which festers and chokes off reason. It is thoughtlessness, that disconnect from the moral-political, which side steps the social order.
A chilling leap into the realization that the phenomenon of evil is not some form of other worldlness, but something common that exist in practice when we donít think out our politics, is in order. Of course weíll fumble with it...disappointed by politicos and a cauldron and linear types nice to dogs and small children who can sometimes be pleasant dinner guest.
So letís talk politics...and religion, in bars, and parties, and the dinner table… maybe you we’ll fumble on something.
Posted by jeffery mcnary on Nov 1, 2003 at 1:05 AM If we are more clear in our message, avoid rhetorical entanglement, firmly reject emotional blackmail (used a LOT by those bent on control/power), and persist in our belief that as humanity creates hellish messes, it can also clean them up and invent a better world,...there is no need for propagandizing, in my humble view.
Posted by Just Me on Nov 1, 2003 at 9:54 PM once again, whoever posted as me needs to get a life, and ms. monica, i hope that was directed at the person who was posing as me.
Posted by brad on Nov 3, 2003 at 4:55 PM Well, Brad, Joan, Moo-Moo, a recently-Republican dominated state just swept in a Democratic mayor for its capital city. A once-thought “moral” mayor resigned and plead guilty to fraud.
People are starting to read and wise up. There’s hope.
Posted by neil on Nov 5, 2003 at 4:24 AM I am not normally so “charged”, brad. But, when I see what amounts to a form of fascism, I take a strong stand. My post was directed at whomever posted his fascist, dictatorial comment. And I still advocate justice against him.
Posted by Ms. Monica on Nov 6, 2003 at 5:18 PM Page 1 of 1 pages -
register a new account »Posting Security
Also by David Kusnet
- The Hollow Man
The debates revealed just how little Candidate Bush has to offer. - Decoding Dubya
Deceptive as ever; more pedestrian than usual. - A Language for Change
Popular Discussions
- The 9/11 Faith Movement
Many Americans believe 9/11 was a conspiracy by the U.S. government
1972 posts since Jul 11 06 - What’s the 411 on 9/11?
891 posts since Dec 21 05 - Democrats: It’s the War
659 posts since Nov 1 05 - Was the Presidential Election Stolen?
459 posts since Jun 19 06 - A Fundamental History Lesson
The rise of National Socialism proved politics and religion don't mix
426 posts since Oct 10 05
© 2003 In These Times | Reprint Policy | Privacy Policy | Powered by Expression Engine | RSS Feeds
