“Not every item of news should be published. Rather must those who control news policies endeavor to make every item of news serve a certain purpose.” ~ Joseph Goebbels

What’s most important?

It has to look good.

It has to send the correct message, one carefully crafted and tuned to support the political agendas and create the right impression.

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

It doesn’t even need to be accurate, especially since facts are mutable and a matter of perception.

Most of us can recall a time when the truth was all important. We grew up with the George Washington and the cherry tree fable. When did we lose touch with reality?

Don’t answer; it’s a rhetorical question.

When we lost touch is not as pertinent as that we did…

Politicians call it optics, the vernacular term for how it looks or appears; in other words – perception.

* Perception: a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.

You’ve heard that looks can be deceiving…

Never judge a book by its cover…

Beauty is only skin deep…

And other cautionary platitudes.

These colloquialisms deal with the superficiality of perception because what you see is NOT what you get.

Grampa Lonnie called it a “pig in a poke,” although that implies buying something sight unseen, but isn’t that what we do by taking things at face value? Failing to check or investigate is the same as not knowing what we’re buying.

Doing nothing to challenge the lies only reinforces, strengthens their resolve, and empowers the liars. We’re permitting them to perpetuate the lies and take control.

“I’m not upset that you lied to me; I’m upset that from now on can’t believe you.” ~ Friedrich Nietzche

America is a plethora of examples, so many in fact that it’s difficult to choose. However, to make my point, I’ll select a painfully obvious one and one less apparent.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, and the entire administration maintains that America’s southern border with Mexico is closed and secure. He’s repeating his lie to reinforce the perception it creates to sell the deception. After all, he is a government appointee just doing as he’s told. It requires specialized skills and talent to be a convincing liar. Politicians are masters at this craft. Most of them have a Ph.D. – Piled High and Deep – BULLSHIT, that is…

I don’t care where you go for information about our country. I refuse to call it news since it’s more propaganda than anything else. Much of what you hear, read, and see is meticulously crafted to support the particular political agenda delivered by the Mainstream Media Mafia, High Tech oligarchs, and Bicoastal Elites who finance this madness.

It’s not the situations that I find maddening; we’re not told the truth about any of the decisions made by our elected misrepresentatives. Executive-level lying requires significant effort to unearth the truth; even then, the information you discover is suspect.

The vexing question is – who do you trust?

Who fact-checks the fact-checkers?

I use a technique I learned by reading and studying; it’s called Occam’s Razor – also known as the law of parsimony – it’s a philosophical tool for ‘shaving off’ unlikely explanations. Essentially, when faced with competing explanations for the same phenomenon, the simplest is likely the correct one.

So, to my first example:

If over five million new known illegal aliens and over one million unknown illegals slipped in undetected, is America’s southern border closed and secured as claimed? It’s easy to pass off these outlandish numbers as inflated by anti-American partisan rhetoric and plots to undermine the administration.

Have you ever wondered why our government chose to ignore our constitution and why they blamed the previous administration for this disaster?

Why they did it is less important than what they did!

So, who do you trust?

Half of Americans are super-uber-ultra-mega-MAGA republicans, and therefore anti, America and the others are American loyalists. It’s the “If you ain’t with us, you’re agin’ us.” These comments conjure the image of a rift between the two main parties – a feud like the Hatfields and McCoys of Appalachian legend.

Will we ever heal this wound?

Will Americans ever learn to trust the government again?

I suppose that depends on which party captures your interest.

Here are some sobering statistics about American expectations:

* 64% think America’s power will shrink worldwide

* 64% think Russia’s power will decline

* 73% think China’s power will increase

* 80% foresee economic struggles

* 85% predict International Discord

* 90% expect political conflicts

* DemoSocs are more optimistic than Republicans about 2023

I imagined that political parties attracted people by age. I surmised that the DemoSocs would attract younger voters and the Republicans would attract a more mature crowd. My assumption was wrong – the ages and demographics seem evenly distributed.

Could it be ethnic or another factor? Nope… That’s pretty even as well. It must be that people are susceptible to a good story with pretty pictures. Yes, we are programmed to believe what we see. We base decisions on perceptions, not facts, which is the idea behind managing perceptions.

It’s funny – not humorous – that speaking with rank-and-file citizens, we’re not that far apart in our views. Our objectives are similar; the major difference is the approach to attain them. But… We all want the same things, don’t we, or do we? Yet, our perceptions of America are diametrically opposed if you believe what you hear and see.

Why is there a perception of conflict between these invented factions, and what possible purpose does this serve?

Here’s another brain teaser for you…

Why do our elected representatives – more correctly, misrepresentatives – feel the need to lie?

I’ll give you a moment to consider the possibilities.

I think the Roman poet Juvenal has the right idea. He used the phrase “Bread and Circuses” in his 100AD poem “Satire X,” where he says: “The Rome that used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything, curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only, Bread and Circuses. Give them Bread and Circuses, and they will never revolt.”

* Bread and Circuses – offering something as extravagant entertainment and a practical means of pacifying discontent or diverting attention from a source of grievance.

Now replace Rome with America – reread Juvenal’s quote…

Isn’t what we see from our government an extravagant exercise to convince us that everything is well and we have no worries, or do they create a problem to which only they have the solution?

Isn’t that our perception?

I’m tired of the circus; the bread is stale!

The whole thing is revolting!

In a political context, the phrase “Bread and Circuses” means to generate public approval, not by excellence in public service or public policy, but by diversion, distraction, or by satisfying the populace’s most immediate or base needs, by offering something comforting: for example, food and entertainment for the mind. American politics refined the solution; it no longer needs to be practical; it only needs to look good.

PERCEPTION!

We’re controlled by what we see… is the less obvious point I mentioned at the opening of this article.

We’re keyed to specific colors. Red means danger, yellow means caution, green indicates all clear, and white is the color of purity.

Isn’t the Devil usually red and the angels white?

Don’t the good guys in cowboy movies always wear white hats, and the bad guys wear black?

Those are all simple but effective visual cues.

As you watch the evening presentations of daily events (the news), look closely at the background on the set. What color is it? Does it change according to the story?

Look for visual clues and cues. They are there; you just don’t notice them. It’s called subliminal programming.

Movie theaters used to flash images of popcorn and cold drinks on the screen during the films to suggest a trip to the concession stand.

Mainstream media uses similar subtle tactics. Have you ever noticed the crawler – the continuous stream of information across the bottom of your screen? It diverts your attention from the talking-head reading the story.

Remember Biden’s speech on September 2nd 2022, when he demeaned half of America and polarized the other. His staff chose a RED background – some of the media called it hellish…

What message did that send?

How did You perceive that spectacle with the two Marine Corps guards standing at attention flanking the podium? Regardless of your political affiliation, didn’t it seem a little apocalyptic, maybe even Satanic, certainly demonic?

It was a clip from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.

It’s estimated that –

* only 2% of Americans have never seen television

* 98% have televisions, and most of those have multiple sets

* less than 7% have never used the internet

Where do we get our news

* print media – 16%

* social media – 20%

* radio – 26%

* news websites – 33%

* TV – 49%

In case you checked the math… The total is 144%, indicating that some people use multiple sources – like me

The media is an extraordinary player in America’s perception. They shape every facet of this country, from appetites to xenophobia.

They elect our representatives. They control what we see, and our government knows this.

It’s not just the DemoSocs; every political faction uses the media to sell their perceptions.

The media are the ultimate power.

We’re programmed to respond to visual cues. It’s advertising in the purest sense. We’re trained – programmed – to believe what we see. Our immediate impulse is to accept the message as factual.

Therein is the problem.

It takes a conscious effort to disbelieve and challenge these messages. It takes even more effort to discern the truth.

There are about 450 hours of advertising per year, so you’ll suffer through over 35,000 hours of commercials in your lifetime, roughly 1,450 days.

Advertising is a $73.3 billion industry, and $14 billion comes from political parties.

Doesn’t this figure demonstrate the importance of presenting their message and controlling your perception?

“This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it.” ~ Joseph Goebbels

Inundating America with propaganda from every direction is the process used to ensure we don’t stray too far from the intended perception. Goebbels said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people begin to believe it.

Isn’t that what we’re dealing with here – propaganda?

Propaganda is indoctrinating, teaching, or inculcating a doctrine, principle, or ideology, especially one with a specific point of view.

I hope you’ll be aware of these cues on your next excursion into the information metaverse.

Here’s a takeaway…

“We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this bear’s work, that is its affair. We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come.” ~ Joseph Goebbels

January 19, 2023

~ The Author ~
Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam war, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.

He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; we’re not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.

Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.

In addition, Charlie is a retired blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This was his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… but alas… life goes on!

That’s Charlie… a proud, opinionated, and passionate American.