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I hate politics. Hate them with a passion that I reserve for very few other things. Politics is all about power and manipulation and propaganda. There's a great quote by Noam Chomsky that I was reminded of this past week: ...propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state (ref). These past ten days in Wisconsin we have been overloaded on propaganda. It's been a state of people with "propaganda bludgeons" trying to beat everyone into submission. Catchy slogans, rousing speeches, banners and placards covered with graphics that not-so-subtly warn of impending doom. All captured in 30-second sound bites that play well in the media.
Everyone has their own side to the story. Everyone has their own spin. Twitter, Facebook, blogs everywhere are full of "proof" that their side is the only right and just side. It all sounds good, but I don't see how it can all be right.
Take, for example, this headline that's making it's way around the internet:
Walker gins up ‘crisis’ to reward cronies
In which the author writes that the "Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million." And that Walker created the deficit just to bust the unions.
link to article
link to supporting references the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office
Wow, you might think, Wisconsin was in great shape before the idiots elected Walker.
Except I lived here during the election. I don't recall any rousing speeches talking about how financially sound the state was. No, see, I remember this:
State budget deficit swells to $2.5 billion
link to article
link to supporting references the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office
According to the documents (which come from the same place) WI went from a $2.5 billion deficit to a $121.4 million surplus to a $137 million deficit in six months. Your brain hurt yet? Which of the numbers are right? Quite honestly, they all could be, after all this is politics and accounting. It's not that people are deliberately mucking up the numbers, just that people tend to be very selective in what numbers they use.
And there's a hell of a lot of more things no one is talking about. For example: Teacher's aren't paid by the state, the local governments pay them. The same is true with county employees, firefighters, etc. What happens when the county or school districts can't pay the wages and benefits that are required by collective bargaining?
Wait, I know that answer to this one: people get laid off, teachers and educational departments get cut. Since that doesn't fit into anyone's neat little propaganda box, it gets ignored.
Me? I don't think there's an easy solution. Hell, I don't even think there's a good solution. In my town, the people you meet are most likely unemployed or underemployed or trying to run part-time business in order to survive. You can take a walk around any neighborhood in my town and see houses that are empty-- foreclosures or lack of buyers leaving the places deserted, some even without For Sale signs. Most weeks there aren't any job offers in the local papers, not even for entry level positions.
But none of that is splashing across our screens.
Of course it wouldn't. Propaganda and politics is all about image and impact. It's all about bludgeoning people with enough graphics and sound bites and insults and rhetoric that the average person just gives in or gives up.
I'm way too close to both sides of the problem. I come from a family of teachers – my mom was a teacher, three of my cousins teach, I taught. I know how hard teachers work. Since I worked for the county, I was part of the retirement fund that is as wonderful as people say and I can't tell you how much it hurt to lose the benefits that came with the job. I know that this sucks beyond measure.
But so does being unemployed. So does losing 35 teachers and entire Tech Ed departments in our school system. So do the cuts in the county and city departments that serve our community. So does not having any jobs to even apply for.
Instead of running everyone over with propaganda tanks, instead of calling names and playing politics in order to curry favor and power, instead of focusing on one or two pet causes, tell me is what you are propagandizing going to fix the underlying problem? That's what we need. Anything else, to quote Shakespeare, “is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”.
Everyone has their own side to the story. Everyone has their own spin. Twitter, Facebook, blogs everywhere are full of "proof" that their side is the only right and just side. It all sounds good, but I don't see how it can all be right.
Take, for example, this headline that's making it's way around the internet:
Walker gins up ‘crisis’ to reward cronies
In which the author writes that the "Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million." And that Walker created the deficit just to bust the unions.
link to article
link to supporting references the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office
Wow, you might think, Wisconsin was in great shape before the idiots elected Walker.
Except I lived here during the election. I don't recall any rousing speeches talking about how financially sound the state was. No, see, I remember this:
State budget deficit swells to $2.5 billion
link to article
link to supporting references the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office
According to the documents (which come from the same place) WI went from a $2.5 billion deficit to a $121.4 million surplus to a $137 million deficit in six months. Your brain hurt yet? Which of the numbers are right? Quite honestly, they all could be, after all this is politics and accounting. It's not that people are deliberately mucking up the numbers, just that people tend to be very selective in what numbers they use.
And there's a hell of a lot of more things no one is talking about. For example: Teacher's aren't paid by the state, the local governments pay them. The same is true with county employees, firefighters, etc. What happens when the county or school districts can't pay the wages and benefits that are required by collective bargaining?
Wait, I know that answer to this one: people get laid off, teachers and educational departments get cut. Since that doesn't fit into anyone's neat little propaganda box, it gets ignored.
Me? I don't think there's an easy solution. Hell, I don't even think there's a good solution. In my town, the people you meet are most likely unemployed or underemployed or trying to run part-time business in order to survive. You can take a walk around any neighborhood in my town and see houses that are empty-- foreclosures or lack of buyers leaving the places deserted, some even without For Sale signs. Most weeks there aren't any job offers in the local papers, not even for entry level positions.
But none of that is splashing across our screens.
Of course it wouldn't. Propaganda and politics is all about image and impact. It's all about bludgeoning people with enough graphics and sound bites and insults and rhetoric that the average person just gives in or gives up.
I'm way too close to both sides of the problem. I come from a family of teachers – my mom was a teacher, three of my cousins teach, I taught. I know how hard teachers work. Since I worked for the county, I was part of the retirement fund that is as wonderful as people say and I can't tell you how much it hurt to lose the benefits that came with the job. I know that this sucks beyond measure.
But so does being unemployed. So does losing 35 teachers and entire Tech Ed departments in our school system. So do the cuts in the county and city departments that serve our community. So does not having any jobs to even apply for.
Instead of running everyone over with propaganda tanks, instead of calling names and playing politics in order to curry favor and power, instead of focusing on one or two pet causes, tell me is what you are propagandizing going to fix the underlying problem? That's what we need. Anything else, to quote Shakespeare, “is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”.
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Date: 2011-02-23 12:05 am (UTC)From:as for democracy, well chomsky is more of a linguist than a political scientist (i'm doing a degree in linguistics as we speak, and previously did one in politics, philosophy & history so i should know hehe), but he does have a few interesting points. also even the ancient greeks didn't particularly like democracy, because they felt that the majority of people don't know enough to be able to have a say in how things are run.
i'm not sure i'd go that far, i think it's only right that we all have civil rights allowing participation - however i think there could be a better balance. also it depends on the nature of your democracy. if it's a representative democ, like we nominally have in the uk, it's different from certain other kinds.
but again i think most of what you're angry about (and understandably so, btw) is about media and press manipulation of politics, rather than necessarily democracy or even politics itself.
also, without knowing too much about the specific situation in WI, i think this goes deeper than just being about the deficit levels vs public employment - i think these situations (which i think are fairly similar to current protests over here about public sector provision) link so much into recent events in terms of banking crises, industry sell offs (which goes right back as far as reagan/thatcher), the fact that bankers still get huge bailouts and bonuses while public spending or to put it more bluntly, the common man, gets hit with massive cuts, the fact that it's becoming increasingly apparent just how far politics and business are in bed together, etc etc. i think people are - rightly - geting sick of it and making themselves heard.
as for the actual protests and demos themselves - well those are, to a degree, propagandising (i know people who organise them over here and of course there is a great deal of "how can we get this across loudly and simply?" - but these are issues that a great many people are just unaware of, and if a few people taking to the streets and shouting about it with placards -as is their civil right in both our nations - gets more people turned on to what's happening, that can only be for the best i think. sure the ordinary person may not do much to change laws or situations directly but if enough people make vocal protestations then perhaps those in power - who are, don't forget, our *representatives* in government (ie they are explicitly, legally mandated to carry out the will of their constituents, or at least the majority thereof) - can at least realise that they need to change things and may even do so.
the way i see it, whatever you think of democracy itself, it's what we have (I can't remember which thinker said it but someone said something like 'it's not ideal but of a bad bunch of systems it's the least bad') and that means when we vote people in we don't vote them to power (as is so often written in the press), we vote them to represent us in government. if they are not doing so then damn right we should protest - it may not always get anywhere (after all millions protested against blair taking the uk to war in iraq and the bastard still did it) but if it shakes them up a bit and makes them realise they are - or should be - accountable to the people, then so much the better.
as for propaganda, it depends who you read - the state and government produce just as much as opposition groups, and both have aspects of the press on their side. it's up to us to read/listen to both sides and make a decision.
haha yeah, when i finished my politics degree i was so relieved, i used to be so interested in it and now i'm really not so that was all a bit of a mish mash i'm afraid!