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ATAVISM

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Message Vi Ransel

There's a price to be paid for knowing there's a future,
and the price is living with anxiety about it.
But we also know how to sidestep many disasters
by foregoing short term gain for long term benefit.

And while control of many bodily functions
is shared by different parts fo the brain,
the parts that lie benenath the neo-cortex
still operate in ancient hardwired ways.

At the core of the complexity of the modern brain,
the R-complex still performs its simple reptile duties
because it's woven so deeply into the fabric of life
it can't be bypassed or discarded with impunity.

     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

If you control the means of communication,
and five mega media corporations do,
you control the view The People have of world events
and can make public opinion a mirror of your views.

All of the vehicles for transmission of "the news",
newspapers and radio, magazines and TV,
will only give exposure to your side of the issues
and create the world the way you want it seen.

This manipulation is particularly insidious
when you know that your views, if stated openly,
would be voted down, rejected by The People,
so you make them unwitting accomplices in your story.

First, you create a problem -
an assassination, a terrorist attack, a war,
an economic collapse - it could be anything,
and then you get your media to report it.

And now that you've created the problem,
you also have to set up a scapegoat.
Again, this could be anything or anyone,
as long as it furthers your original purpose.

Communists, "illegal" immigrants, liberals,
single welfare moms, drug users, gays and lesbians,
affirmative action recipients, pacifists -
but let's go with Middle Eastern Arab Muslim men.

This provides the further advantage
of tapping into reliable latent racism,
fear of strange languages, peoples and religions
and revenge based on jingoistic nationalism.

The People will be eager to attack this scapegoat,
who's also the designated Fall Guy/Boogey Man,
created to get The People to ask you to do
what was originally unacceptable to them.

Crank up faux-balanced pundits and talking heads
reading talking points off scripted teleprompters.
Dumb down public opinion by using oxymoronic phrases
spouted by "reporters" who are neo-con stenographers.

Using talking points to dumb down national discourse
by shrinking the range of what it is that's talked about,
is like using a, b and c, but not the rest of the alphabet,
and refusing to entertain any reasonable doubts.

"They hate us for our democracy and freedoms."
9/11.       Al-Qaeda.       Saddam.
"If you're not with us, you're with the terrorists."
Yellow cake.     Aluminum tubes.     Smoking gun.

"Fight 'em there, or fight 'em here.  War on Terror."
9/11.       WMD.       Saddam.
"Mushroom cloud."     "Islamofascistic jihad."
Slam DUNK.     Cake WALK.     "Bring 'em on."

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Vi Ransel Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Vi's works appear widely both in print and online. She conducts Poetry Workshops and gives readings in Central New York. Her latest chapbook is "Sine Qua Non Antiques (an Arcanum of History, Geography and Treachery).
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