By
Cognitive Dissonance
Ultimately we all have a multitude of cognitive filters, some finely woven and carefully discriminating, other as coarse as a heavy metal screen at a stone crushing plant. We pass everything we see, hear and experience through these filters before actually computing what we just encountered. Mix in heavy dollops of cognitive bias, wishful thinking and selective hearing and the results is often a cognitive Molotov cocktail with an already lit fuse.
Now imagine engaging in an earnest conversation about an emotional issue with a terribly conflicted and self interested third party acting as the messenger/translator between the principal parties. If that’s not bad enough, now that the factions are separated by the third party, it is now perceived by all interested parties (including the ones who consider themselves the innocent victim) to employ deception, dishonesty, propaganda, feigned sincerity and abject apathy as a negotiating tactic in an attempt to leverage any and all poker chips to their side of the table.
For thousands of years, if someone wished to speak to the hive mind, his or her ‘voice’ was essentially limited to those who were within ear shot. Everyone else had to rely upon a messenger of sorts to carry the spoken word by mouth. In ancient times there were actually people who traveled from village to village acting as a verbal newspaper, living on whatever people were willing to give them in exchange for the latest news and gossip. It was also not uncommon for the ruler of the land to co-opt/bribe these ‘messengers’ to slant the news in their favor.
Heh! A man’s got to eat.
With the advent of the printing press (and later radio and TV) the task became immensely easier or immeasurably more difficult depending upon your point of view and perspective, or your desire to conceal in order to appeal via spin control and propaganda.
Beauty, as well as truth, is in the eye of the beholder.
But what if you could instantly communicate with millions, billions if they wanted to, in real time and without the traditional buffering the messaging/translating third party provides? While that day actually arrived decades ago with the introduction of radio, until now it was carefully scripted and choreographed in fear the teaming masses would catch a glimpse of the ugly underbelly of leaders being less than human, i.e. the sociopathic liars they tend to be.
After all, when in the business of peddling faith and belief, more accurately described as hope, one cannot afford to be seen as anything other than exactly as they have billed themselves…powerful, a higher authority, even god like in every way portrayed. When promoting red roses, common dandelions just won’t do.
But now there is the rapid political levitation of Donald Trump, one part business man, one part maverick and all parts ego. To say he’s breaking the typical Jell-O politician mold would be seriously understating the patently obviously. Regardless of what you may think of the man or the fact he is our next president, his ascension to the top of the political garbage heap is either divine intervention of the miraculous kind or a carefully planned and executed change of scene in the never ending divide and control elite regime.
You simply don’t gain entry to the sandbox unless you have passed muster or serve a useful purpose. To think otherwise is hopelessly naive. “We the People” do not choose our leaders; they are arrayed on the stage for us to choose from. Just as lawyers in court never ask a question they don’t already know the answer to, the elite never allow a ‘candidate’ to pass the initial vetting rounds if they don’t wish to see s/he advance further.
I have stated before there is a tipping point where, if any significant institutional reform is to be successful (the definition of which is nearly impossible to agree upon but obvious upon viewing) it simply cannot originate and grow from within. The overwhelming pressure from inside the core hive to maintain the status quo, meaning socio-economic corruption and advantage, quickly extinguishes any ‘revolutionary’ forces.
Before one is ever allowed entry into the outer bands of the corrupt core, an ongoing ideological vetting occurs which is quite successful in weeding out the more obvious non conformists and reactionaries who may have slipped past the border guards. The deeper into the center one penetrates, the more intense the vetting becomes.
This doesn’t necessarily mean there are specific assigned roles for men in black to rigorously interrogate those who pass each check point…though the more extreme and organized the ideology, the more inevitable this iteration becomes. In the softer political/ideological tyranny practiced by the west, the low to mid level selection process is mostly accomplished through social and business means, along with discrete meme minders.
Those stationed higher up the hierarchical control pyramid are careful who they allow in the front door, since these wannabes could soon become social and business associates. The vetting follows the natural ‘self interest’ path of least resistance. Since there is a degree of mutual trust already established among those stationed within the various ranks, one simply doesn’t gain entry, let alone advance, without multiple approvals at every level. As George Carlin was prone to say “It’s a big club and you ain’t in it.”
Except, of course, those individuals or small groups who show great promise in the black arts of manipulative practices or exceptional aptitude in the category of useful idiot…which doesn’t necessarily mean stupid or dumb. However, while there is a general sharing of the hive mind when it comes to financial, social and political collaborative cooperation, this doesn’t preclude competing forces within the greater power structure. In fact I would argue it encourages it absent a central strongman edict. This is presently the way of the west.
Please note the word ‘presently’.
While still in the very early stages of the ongoing evolution of the plantation state from the illusion of ‘free’ to the more realistic ‘considerably less than free’, in order for global systemic corruption at all tiers to be maintained, ‘freedom’ can no longer be preserved in its present form. But, at least during the transition, the illusion of choice must be maintained. Because of this, the metamorphous away from divided power towards authoritarian control must be accomplished through the manipulated, or coerced, will of ‘We the People’.
At some point in the near future, the last vestiges of freedom will be extinguished by popular demand and to thunderous applause. While most individuals today would balk at such a suggestion, hurrying to assure any and all within earshot they would never do such a thing, one pontificates in this manner while snug as a bug at home with money in the bank, a career to return to on a daily basis and little fear for their own personal safety. The ideological dynamic quickly changes when the stew mix is radically altered. Create some chaos and the population not only cries Uncle, but demands order via more draconian laws and enforcement.
Which brings us full circle back to The Donald and his ability to expertly, and prolifically, utilize the one mass communication tool thoroughly embraced by the masses as ‘theirs’…Twitter. Raw and unedited, complete with misspellings and regional colloquialisms, constrained to short bite sized messages perfectly dimensioned for ADHD absorption, six or seven times a day Trump booms from his gilded Temple Mount the alternative meme marching orders of the day.
The president-elect has effectively co-opted, or at least interfered with, the prevailing political memes by speaking directly to the people using the language of the people. And he has done so with vim and vinegar since declaring his candidacy early in 2015. With such a powerful tool/weapon at his command, I seriously doubt he will abandon directly delivering his stream of consciousness once he actually occupies the Oval Office. Power is rarely willingly relinquished and never the source of that power. And make no mistake about it; Twitter is the primary source of Trump’s power.
It seems to me Donald Trump is an agent of change, deliberately erected and supported using brilliant reverse psychology. If you want a child to do something, just tell them they are forbidden to do so and watch what happens. Effective propaganda 'allows' the individual and group to arrive at a conclusion the propagandist wishes to be received. In order for a manipulation to be truly believed, therefore owned, the source of the belief must be considered organic in nature.
Expect to see other maverick politicians begin the crossover to Twitter in a big way. And expect most of them to fail in an even bigger way. Because it’s not the tool so much as how the tool is used. Mainstream politicians are still stuck in the mud and will attempt to use Twitter as just another mainstream media outlet, booming spin and propaganda directly to the people. Until others adopt the Trump shoot-from-the-hip style of rhetoric, an extremely difficult feat to pull off unless done with natural bombast and sincerity, they will all be Twitter has beens and wannabes.
There is only one Trump. Long live the Twitter-in-your-face King.
12-27-2016
Cognitive Dissonance
It doesn't get any more direct than this.
