Summary: The power of our ruling elites is usually lightly applied (that’s all that’s necessary for a domesticated people). But it can be seen when looked for, as it surrounds us. In the photos of your daily newspaper, which are often more important than the words. In the evolution of a political movement, as larger forces seek to mold it into more useful channels.
Contents
- Real pictures – false story
- Watch the Tea Party, feel the power molding them
- Conclusions — about reforming America
- For More Information
(1) Real pictures – false story
“That is the weakness of our Cause. Communications. Those goons were not important — but crucially important is that it lay with the Warden, not with us, to decide if {and how} the story should be told. To a revolutionist communications are a sine-qua-none.”
— Professor Bernardo de la Paz (an experienced revolutionary activist), from Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1965)
Americans get much of their information — and the positioning or context of this information — from the news media. Viral communication via the Internet reaches mostly fellow-believers.
Quickly reaching the US mass audience requires their assistance. They can position events as good or bad, depending on how they choose to tell the story. In most cases they will spin the narrative to the needs of our ruling elites — or one faction of them.
This is the naked face of power, albeit non-violent, in a modern western society.
This cute photo — with its friendly policeman — accompanies an article about the Occupy Oakland protests (see the page here). For more accurate pictures see Washington’s Blog: Egyptian Brutality Comes to America — “Police Fire Tear Gas, Flashbang Grenades and Rubber Bullets at Peaceful Protesters”. Or see the Occupy Oakland website.
Here is the Washington Posts’ explanation for this misleading photo:
Even though the story, written later in the evening, included information about the arrests and tear gas, no news images had moved by our production deadline … The photograph was chosen because it was a visual “moment” in time.
(2) Watch the Tea Party, feel the power molding them
Reducing taxes on the rich and cutting the safety net have been long-term goals of the Republican Party’s rich backer for decades. Those were steps to gathering power. As seen in the network of well-funded think-tanks and advocacy groups focused on these issues. Neither were initial concerns of the Tea Party, created to protest the bank bailouts. The application of money and skill molded them to a different purpose, helping elite groups (including the banks).
Channeling the TP’s energy into support of their goals — and repudiation of the TP’s initial anti-bank focus — demonstrated a fantastic degree of skill and resources.
The Republican primaries provide more evidence of the our ruling elite’s power, in which the candidates compete to best shift taxes from the rich to the middle class (eg, the Cain and Perry tax plans), and to slash the safety net — even to the extent of mocking the unemployed and advocating letting the poor sick get little or no care.
These things work against the interests of most Republican voters. What an accomplishment, getting people to vote against their own interests!
(3) Conclusions — about reforming America
I wonder if we are yet ready to even start on the long road to reforming America.
Street theater and dressing in costumes (or as unicorns) will not defeat the combination of power and skill deployed by our ruling elites. It’s probably a later step, when the movement has already been well-positioned in the public’s mind. Developing a strategy, organizations, funding, recruiting people with the necessary skills — there are many steps that accompany mass mobilization. Even an open-source movement (see John Robb for details) requires these things among its components — plus some form of coordinating mechanism.
How does one design an electric motor? Would you attach a bathtub, simply because one was available? Would a bouquet of flowers help? A heap of rocks? No, you would use just those elements necessary to its purpose and make it no larger than needed — and you would incorporate safety factors. Function controls design.
— Professor Bernardo de la Paz, ibid
(4) For More Information
For a full listing of articles about this see these FM Reference Pages:
- America – how can we reform it?, including articles about the TP and OWS
- Information & disinformation, the new media & the old
About political protests and reform:
- Fixing American: taking responsibility is the first step, 17 August 2008
- Fixing America: the choices are elections, revolt, or passivity, 18 August 2008
- How to stage effective protests in the 21st century, 21 April 2009
- More people participating in politics: is this good for America?, 20 June 2010
- Five steps to fixing America, 19 October 2011
- How do protests like the TP and OWS differ from effective political action?, 26 October 2011
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