Yes Ray. That is a good comparison. I hoped my satire would encourage some
readers to consider some of the actual processes of propaganda.
In my satire, we see how the dimwitted civic association leaders get whipped
up into a competition to outdo each other with their recipes and the type of
booze that goes into it. Of course, the outside reader sees the absurdity of
the leaders because the important issue is that Ross is about to be cooked.
Sassy Cassidy and the unnamed real estate agent excite the audience towards
the end vision. Sassy is the upstanding victim who just wants the people to
focus on his right to a good tasty dinner party. By generating the
excitement, the carefully selected audience is completely distracted from
the reality of what they are about to do. The skilled propagandist keeps the
focus on the vision and the excitement because he must not allow an
obstructionist like me to shift the discussion to the truly important issue
such as the ethics of cannibalism, etc.
OK. I'm glad you put a question mark in your post. Many of the readers of
this list don't have the streak of masochism I seem to have and they don't
go to the presentations of UCD and the civic gangs like I do. Consequently,
they would not recognize the local inspiration for this satire. The
excitement used commonly to mislead our community is what I call, "the wish
list community performance." If I didn't watch this technique and only read
about it, I would think it was just some absurd Bender fantasy.
You and some on the list have gone to some of these presentations called
community meetings and will understand. I think it has been well established
that the civic gangs and UCD have secret agendas, which they will go to
extraordinary lengths to guard. What their own Sassy leaders do is to demand
to keep the "meeting" focused on the grand vision. The facilitator demands
that the agenda of the public spectacle is generating the "wish list"
All the assembled people are to get excited about their 1 minute to shout
out their wishes. The propagandist facilitator has no intention of answering
any of the important questions that the people would like to know. His skill
is to silence any troublemakers and get back to the exciting wish list
before the group notices.
When the community needs to know the processes that will bring about the
grand vision of the UCD and FOCP, the people are manipulated to shout out
the following:
Propaganda pawn 1: "I want purple trash cans in Clark Park;"
Propaganda pawn 2 "Well I want a larger than life statue of Tony"
Propaganda pawn 3 "Well I want that damn basketball court out of the park"
Propaganda pawn 4 "Call on me, call on me, I want KEEP OUT signs posted"
Then the Sassy leader says, "Oh baby, now we're getting some where. Keep it
coming, I'm so excited."
When the obstructionist asks, "Who is going to make these decisions?" the
skilled propagandist uses a variety of techniques to immediately get back to
the wish list. You and I both know that the ad hominem machine against the
obstructionist is a current favorite follow up tool. Things like, "Moyer is
hotheaded terrorist" and "Ray is a damn liar and that is why we have to keep
everything secret."
One important piece of this propaganda technique that my satire doesn't
develop was demonstrated recently when FOCP refused to publish the required
meeting announcement in the UC Review prior to their presentation about
Clark Park. It is extremely important to the success of the propagandist to
secure the proper audience for the wish list performance.
Remember when UCD was doing its NID presentations in order to generate
favorable reports. I was very proud of our neighbors in this community when
they handed UCD their propaganda asses back to them. FOCP/UCD was not going
to allow that again. The audience to the wish list performance had to be the
core civic association members so that I would be the only terrorist
attending.
FOCP used every excuse possible to avoid announcing their performance to the
whole community while I bashed that issue at them on this list. At the same
time, they published a front-page article describing how their tireless
volunteers had put in a kiosk six months earlier. Isn't reality absurd when
we're told FOCP leaders are too stupid week after week to get a required
meeting announcement in the calendar but not too stupid to get a front page
self congratulatory article published? The truth is that FOCP had a wish
list performance planned and they desperately wanted to keep this away from
prying eyes from the community. They had already designed the performance
to occur during winter when park users would be impossible to contact in the
park.
Sorry for the long post but I'd like more of us to open our eyes to the
propagandists and see what they are really doing. What does it really mean
when FOCP/UCD claim that people don't feel safe in Clark Park because it's
overrun with criminals? Personally. I think this area which was our great
community is lost. I didn't want to give up on the inspiring culture we had
in Clark Park but quite frankly the department of Rec. turned our rights
over to UCD several years ago. Unless more of our neighbors open their eyes,
the little piggies will have a lot more than Ross on their dinner table.
May the ends always justify the means. Long live imperialism.
Glenn
----- Original Message -----
From: "UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "University City List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 2:27 PM
Subject: Re: [UC] Dude, Where's My Gall Bladder?
Glenn wrote:
Look Bender, hardworking district homeowners just want
the fuel to improve the district and keep the good
children safe. Why should they toil with hungry bellies?
You ranter, you had your chance to rail against this
community improvement; this so called local harvesting.
He- he-he-ha-ha-ha. Now shut up and put an organic apple
in your mouth!
Animal Farm?
Squealer --
The pig who spreads Napoleon's propaganda among the other
animals. Squealer justifies the pigs' monopolization of
resources and spreads false statistics pointing to the
farm's success. Orwell uses Squealer to explore the ways in
which those in power often use rhetoric and language to
twist the truth and gain and maintain social and political
control.
Throughout his career, Orwell explored how politicians
manipulate language in an age of mass media. In Animal Farm,
the silver-tongued pig Squealer abuses language to justify
Napoleon's actions and policies to the proletariat by
whatever means seem necessary. By radically simplifying
language -- as when he teaches the sheep to bleat "Four legs
good, two legs better!" -- he limits the terms of debate. By
complicating language unnecessarily, he confuses and
intimidates the uneducated, as when he explains that "a
bird's wing... is an organ of propulsion and not of
manipulation." In this latter strategy, he also employs
jargon ("tactics, tactics") as well as a baffling vocabulary
of false and impenetrable statistics, engendering in the
other animals both self-doubt and a sense of hopelessness
about ever accessing the truth without the pigs' mediation.
Squealer's lack of conscience and unwavering loyalty to his
leader, alongside his rhetorical skills, make him the
perfect propagandist for any tyranny. Squealer's name also
fits him well: squealing, of course, refers to a pig's
typical form of vocalization, and Squealer's speech defines
him. At the same time, to squeal also means to betray, aptly
evoking Squealer's behavior with regard to his fellow animals.
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/characters.html
..................
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
[aka laserbeam®]
[aka ray]
SERIAL LIAR. CALL FOR RATES.
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