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Deliberate mis-education, indoctrination via entertainment
and news that’s actually public relations,
reduces communication to slogans and symbols,
and markets policy, politics and politicians
like brands used for consumer indoctrination
supported by stories which evoke strong emotions,
repeating buzzwords and slogans ad nauseum
’til we give up and buy the Scott, the Marcal,
the Cottonelle, the Angel Soft or the Charmin
because they don’t give us the time to think,
just project our values on the product they’re selling,
so all that’s left for the people to do
is click their heels three times, say “Yes we can”
and hope for the change we can believe in,
in the ongoing electoral extravaganza.
Reality has nothing to do with it
and there’s a reason we remember advertising slogans.
They paid doctors of psychology billions to create psyops,
and if it didn’t work they wouldn’t spend money to do it.
As a consequence Americans are the last ones to know
what their country is actually doing,
while the rest of the civilized world stands appalled
at the depth of our ignorance and imperial hubris.
Marketing personality and image to distort the anger
people feel at the two-party duopoly’s regressive policies
in service of the oligarchy and corporate control
has reached its apex in Barack Obama.
Three weeks before he was elected, He was named
“Advertising Age’s” Marketer of the Year.
He beat out Apple, Coors and Nike,
going from unknown to president in four years.
His $745 million dollar marketing campaign
allowed him to surround himself with ad men
who have a (firm) grasp on the people’s psychology
due to their expertise in marketing and branding.
While he was initially sold by ad agency AKP&D,
when he won the primary he hired an entire stable,
including Murphy Putnum Media,
Shorr Johnson Magnus, Dixon Davis Media,
Squier Knapp Dunn Communications and SS&K.
And contrary to his media-promoted image,
just one-quarter of that 745 million came from small donors.
And he established himself as America’s leading brand,
and an iconic label the whole world over.
Through his advertising slogan “Change we can believe in”
and the hint his skin color meant radically different polices,
he’s chosen a right-wing cabinet and advisors
who are pro-foreign wars and domestic austerity.
He’s appointing the architects of the economic collapse
who engineered it through deregulation
and deceiving the American people into believing
that the status quo is actually a change.
And as he disarms them with genial disingenuity,
they’ll lower their guard and acquiesce
to programs Bush would have been pilloried for
which savage the interests of the American Working Class
while funneling more of their hard-earned money
to the rapacious financial pirates manning the banks.
His checkered voting record highlights his capitulation
to the Democratic Party and the profit system it defends,
but people cling to the hope that he’ll deliver other than
what his past words and actions have proven him.
His candidacy, his entire career, was designed
as a means of effecting tactical changes
in pursuit of US imperialist interests
while masking a rightwing political agenda.
Anyone who paid attention to what he was doing and saying,
and looked at his voting record is not at all surprised.
And the “Left”, the Democrats and the mainstream media,
will to go to any length in order to provide
