“The Best Democracy Money
Can Buy,” a 2002 book by Greg Palast, sums up the essence of Western-style
democracies: money dictates the rules of the political game.
The only reference
regarding funding in the Declaration on Criteria for Free and Fair Elections
https://www.ipu.org/impact/democracy-and-strong-parliaments/ipu-standards/declaration-criteria-free-and-fair-elections
4. The Rights and
Responsibilities of States
"Provide for the
formation and free functioning of political parties, possibly regulate the
funding of political parties and electoral campaigns, ensure the separation of
party and State, and establish the conditions for competition in legislative elections
on an equitable basis;"
Money buys influence. This
means that an enormous amount and diversity of resources are allocated to
projects that, apparently having nothing to do with elections, use
ideological-cultural narratives to format the collective imagination by
managing public perception.
The socio-cultural
environment is the natural environment for human beings through which
ideological-cultural narratives are disseminated, assimilated and reproduced in
the form of attitudes, behaviors and world views.
The PR industrial complex
uses the most recent knowledge produced by neuroscience and psychology added to
information technologies and language framing to plant simplified ideas in the
subconscious mind that bypass conscious scrutiny. It is not only about
brainwashing; it is mainly about the ability to tell us what to think,
resorting to repetition and emotional manipulation.
Agents accredited in
political correctness function as the leading diffusers of paradigmatic
versions of a linear reality in which everything that happens is a
one-dimensional open book.
In this context, free
elections function as if they were an athletics competition, in which we are
supposed to believe that all participants leave the starting line on equal
terms.
We should have already
realized that political parties with access to power alternate, but dominant
policies only undergo cosmetic changes.
A lot of historical fiction
mixed with some facts is used as tools for ideological radicalization,
political polarization, and psycho-emotional manipulation. This strategy does
not aim to produce political truth, much less lucid judgment about the root causes
of most structural problems that afflict society; it aims to use people as
cannon fodder for staged political wars.
Political priorities that
could contribute to solving systemic problems are excluded by the political
parties in power because the success of careerist politicians depends on their
willingness to manage public affairs in terms that serve private interests, in
the short, medium and long term.
Money and power go hand in
hand, which means that societal problems are relegated to the bottom of the
list whenever they negatively affect the interests of the ruling elites.
Money's influence in
politics goes far beyond the direct or indirect financing of political
candidates and their respective electoral campaigns. The influence of money on
politics involves financing projects in all areas of knowledge production and
high-tech research to groom the next professional managerial and academic
class.
The PR industry uses this
knowledge to develop innovative and more sophisticated propaganda techniques to
create cultural-ideological narratives to shape public perception. Most people
realize that this influence exists, but only a minority recognize its true
power because the myth of rational decision and conscious choice is accepted by
default. The belief that individual bio-cultural-ideological identity is the
exclusive responsibility of conscious individual choices is still the dominant
dogma.
Intuitively, we know that
this is not true, but we perceive reality and behave as if it were, and this is
what matters in the process of affirming the dominant implicit narratives in
how we interpret, evaluate, and respond to sociocultural stimuli.
Conscious responses emerge
from a subconscious neurocognitive process based on dominant
ideological-cultural narratives stored in the form of long-term memories.
A mixture of ideas, facts,
fiction, prejudices, dogmas, and myths are present in the elaboration of the
ideological-cultural narratives conveyed by the mainstream media as agents of
sociocultural validation of what is true, false, right, and wrong.
Individual idiosyncrasies
are defined by the symbiotic process between character, personality,
temperament and personal experience, playing a determining role in the way
different people have different opinions and attitudes when faced with
identical problems and events.
However, this does not mean
that propaganda, in essence, does not exert the influence it should have
because the aim of propaganda is not exclusively to encourage a uniform
response but to divert people from the truth by whatever means.
The extended indoctrination
process known as education is responsible for the incorporation of cultural,
ideological, conceptual and symbolic baggage that shapes us in the present and
will largely influence who we will become later in life.
Sensory perception is the
gateway for external, material, conceptual, and symbolic reality to reach the
neurocognitive systems and be transmuted into experience incorporated into
living circuits. The brain is not a computer; it is a living organ with the
“responsibility” of regulating the homeostatic process within limits compatible
with life.
The fundamental purpose of
the development of neural networks and cognitive-affective skills is to make
the organism capable of surviving autonomously.
The socio-cultural
ecosystem is an artificial conceptual and symbolic reality from which each
human being incorporates a set of structural rules for the formation of
biosociocultural identity, and there is no congenital cognitive filter to
protect us from the early indoctrination to which we are all subject.
The structuring of
ideological-cultural narratives instilled during the personality development
phase will remain with us for the rest of our lives. The experiences to which
we are involuntarily exposed, or to which we voluntarily expose ourselves,
influence who we will become.
It is essential to
cultivate strategies to have an analyzed life and be aware of the omnipresence
of narratives with the power to manipulate perception and condition behavior,
keeping us unaware of what is happening in the depths of our intimacy.
The daily revalidation of
the foundational narratives of the dominant cultural-ideological identity aims
to reinforce how we perceive and describe ourselves.
The supply of narratives
available in modern societies may satisfy the political, cultural, aesthetic
and ethical expectations and sensibilities across the ideological spectrum. It
turns out that most of those narratives spring from the underlying acceptance
of a dysfunctional societal model that requires the use of systemic violence to
survive.
The truth is not anyone's
monopoly, nor can it be found in a single narrative.
A culture of dialogue
instead of a culture of supremacy and domination is essential to build
solutions based on complementarity.
The core of democracy must
be based on governance for the common good, providing basic needs such as food,
shelter, health, education and fundamental freedoms.
Facade democracy is based
on regular electoral cycles legitimizing policies that facilitate the
accumulation of wealth and the concentration of power in the hands of a handful
of individuals, institutions, and organizations out of the merits of free markets.
The privatization of state
assets and functions (commodification of universal public services, spaces and
industries) does not produce more freedom of choice for the common citizen; it
manufactures artificial scarcity and poverty.
The State controlled by the
plutoligarchy does not need to eliminate democratic institutions as long as the
power structure feels secure. If any form of threat looms on the horizon, the
corporate State will have no problem resorting to violence to restore corporate
normalcy.
The public interest and
social justice are no longer normal functions of the State; what remains is the
police State. The State controlled by corporate power is the essence of the
fascist State. Freedom of expression and movement is increasingly restricted
and austerity is the political tool to weaken the base of the social pyramid.
Societies organized in vertical hierarchies distribute privileges, rights, and
freedoms in such a way that each class identifies easily with the class above
and despises the class below. The meritocratic myth that justifies growing
social inequality in hyper-financialized economies is clear proof of the total
disrespect that current regimes show towards the majority of citizens.
The constant barrage of
propaganda to which the public is exposed, combined with the precariousness of
living conditions, force most of us to comply with the system, even when we are
aware of the fence of lies and half-truths in which we are held captive.
Being aware of this harsh
reality is not enough to mobilize us because the need to survive and support
our families makes us think twice before acting against the powers that
be. Decades of individualism and social isolation by design are responsible
for the structural lack of unity and trust among the working class.
In an atomized society, the
sense of self-preservation makes us put values and ideals in the background to
prioritize activities and interests that provide economic security.
Most PR narratives aim to
divide, tribalize, distract, and isolate, the policy of "divide and
rule".
The more firmly we believe
that we perceive, choose and decide based on the capacity for independent
rational judgment, the more we run the risk of being influenced and deceived by
the cultural-ideological narratives to which we are repeatedly exposed.
Being aware of the power of
repeated ad nauseam narratives does not make us immune to their influence on
our subconscious. The only way to cultivate resilience is to take time to
reflect on the reasons that lead us to believe what we believe and learn to put
everything into perspective.
We should feel the need to
develop a system of ideas and values that explores beyond conventional
boundaries motivated by the need to understand the multilayers and dimensions
of reality, considering that what happens behind the scenes is more relevant
than what is shown.
In the society of the
spectacle, fiction is transmuted into credible reality as part of the essence
of the art of manipulating perception to manufacture consent.
A fundamental tool to
deconstruct the barrage of propaganda and disinformation in which we live
submerged is to learn how human neurocognitive (including cognitive linguistics
and language framing) and psycho-affective systems work.
Other areas in which it is
essential to acquire comprehensive knowledge are banking, financial, and
monetary systems.
Economics is not an exact
science. It is part of the social sciences. Orthodox (neoclassical) economists
use mathematical models designed to show the expected results. Reality becomes
a mathematical simulation and money is assumed as if it were nothing more than
a mere externality. In fact, money is a taboo topic among neoclassic
economists. How is money created, who has the power to create it, what is the
role of central banks, what is sovereign money, who benefits from the
financialization of the economy, etc? The true answers to these and many other
questions should be known by all those who want to understand the real impact
that monetary and fiscal policies have on our lives. We need to understand how
these public enemies enrich themselves while impoverishing us.
Cultural-ideological
narratives are the natural way of answering doubts, concerns, and fears humans
face to integrate the surrounding ecosystem while creating the ethnocultural
identity that regulates the community's social relations.
Public order is fundamental
to keeping society functional. Therefore, complex societies need to have ways
of intervening to restore public order in the event of disruption. Police
forces have the function of combating crime and restoring public order. But
propaganda is not always enough to manufacture consent; that is when the
argument of defending public order justifies trampling on the demos(cracy).
Propaganda is a constant in
society; it is present in all media, especially in those consumed by the
masses. Television and cinema have been privileged means of planting ideas and
legitimizing, ridiculing, or demonizing behaviors, resorting to the use of
subliminal messages.
Most realize that
advertising influences consumer choices, yet somehow we believe we are immune
to it. This characteristic is even more pronounced in ideological “choices”; we
assume that we choose to believe what we believe as part of a conscious and autonomous
decision. In fact, most choices and decisions we make are influenced by a
subconscious ballast that implicitly regulates the cognitive-affective process;
that is, the decision or the choice is made to a large extent, or in its
entirety, as a subconscious process.
The jungle has real dangers
like snakes, crocodiles, tigers, lions, etc., even if they are out of sight, we
have to stay alert to avoid deadly surprises. The type of society we live in is
a much more dangerous jungle, a range of opportunistic predators spread
ideological baits everywhere. Once incorporated into our cognitive-affective
system, they will parasitize it without compassion. Believing that it was a
rational and conscious choice does not help to expel the parasitic agent that
colonizes, exploits and can even destroy us.
The innate ability to learn
conceptual languages and use creative imagination allows humans to create
ideological-cultural narratives, the foundations of collective identity and
cohesion. This reality is not shielded against usurpation and opportunistic
exploitation. The collective good is never guaranteed; it has to be defended
with rules, principles, and laws in which the citizens, through participatory
democracy, can avoid the enclosure of the commons by opportunists (individuals,
groups, families, etc.) who, over time, will end up remaking society in the
image of their interests, which is why we have a society divided into classes
and castes, property rights codified in law and glorified through moral
narratives. Participatory democracy must apply the precautionary principle to
avoid usurpation of the collective good.
Society must have
mechanisms to protect the common good, and the main mechanism is a living
culture of democratic responsibility. Handing over the management of democracy
to political professionals means losing control of the democratic process and
transforming democracy into an empty shell.
Society will always have
opportunists willing to exploit the vulnerabilities inherent to the human
condition, take advantage of social and economic crises, or even create them to
come up with solutions that serve their disguised agendas.
We live in a society where
we are led to believe that we need others to tell us what is best for us. There
is nothing wrong with seeking professional advice and sharing knowledge and
experiences, but as we are indoctrinated to follow, obey, and depend on the
dictates of authorities to govern our lives, achieving intellectual autonomy is
a herculean effort and part of a process that will never be complete.
One of the goals of the
dominant culture is to make us believe that we depend on saviors, liberators,
influencers, gurus, etc., to discover who we are, to rescue us from evil, to
save us from chaos, etc...
Life itself is meaningless,
which does not mean that we, individually and collectively, cannot have a
purposeful and meaningful existence. Guilt, shame and the need to be accepted,
recognized and loved are widely exploited to implement norms and models that
make people feel uncomfortable taking certain stands publicly, while at the
same time, style becomes the way to show an identity that probably in most
cases is inconsistent with who people really are.
The society of spectacle
and make-believe generates alienation, denialism and cognitive dissonance. Be
aware of a culture where people value freedom of opinion more than freedom of
being. Don't get me wrong, I am all for freedom of opinion, but my opinion
counts for nothing if I have no political agency. Unless fundamental rights are
respected and cultivated, such as access to universal basic services from the
cradle to the grave, opinion only matters when your wallet can back it.
Freedom is a lifelong
comprehensive project, freedom to be, to evolve, and to change without being
penalized or destroyed. The freedom to discover and explore new interests in
the process of giving meaning to life without the need for a defined purpose.
Be unpretentiously
compassionate, empathic and honest. It might not make you rich, but it will
heal a lot of wounds.
We live in a supposedly
democratic system, which guarantees the freedom to explore ignorance, naivety,
the need to belong, insecurity, uncertainty, helplessness, material scarcity,
natural disasters, etc., to prioritize profitable entrepreneurship. A system
that exploits human vulnerabilities to serve private interests and make people
even more alienated and powerless is considered morally acceptable because it
falls within the scope of market-driven free enterprise. This is the type
of “democracy” that requires from us a single form of participation,
participatory annihilation.
The success of
indoctrination campaigns is based on narratives that exalt belonging to
something greater than ourselves.
We must realize that there
are opportunists behind everything that happens in society. At the top of this
parasitic class are the opportunists who pull the strings of financial
capitalism.
Below this plutocratic
elite that controls the strings of the financialized economy, citizens from all
walks of life try their luck to see if they are also blessed with the blessing
of accumulating wealth without producing anything. Many middle-class people
earn money in the financial markets, this does not make them better or worse
than the rest of the population, but the truth is that the greater the
percentage of the population that benefits financially from the financial
economy, the easier it is to justify the perpetuation of this form of
fictitious gangster economy that only benefits the rentier class. It is mainly
a form of rentier capitalism at home and abroad.
Among the cream of this
world of megalomaniacal psychopaths are the institutions widely known; they
dominate international investment and finance. Its modus operandi is to
sabotage any and every alternative that may serve the people, including the
citizens of so-called allied countries.
Since the beginnings of the
so-called civilization, emperors, kings, tyrants, in short, megalomaniacal
psychopaths have dedicated an enormous amount of material and human resources
to the construction of monuments, palaces, and temples as resistant as possible
to the erosion of time as a way of eternalizing their immeasurable egos. In the
present, we continue to admire the grandeur of these monuments and venerate the
celebrities, conquerors and heroes of the past as if they were the best example
of collective heritage that could have been passed on to us.
Many of these places have
been transformed into mass tourist attractions as part of the economic
development to which all countries are entitled. Then, as today, what is needed
is to keep people distracted, circus and beer.
In the past, access to
information was conditioned by relative inaccessibility. Currently, information
is available on the internet, and paradoxically, ignorance and the
mythification of reality are still the common denominator. Information is not
transmuted into factual knowledge due to the constant stimulation of our
sensory organs; the opposite is true; by being overwhelmed with constant
sensory stimulation, our cognitive abilities become blurred.
To understand the reality
in which we live, we must be careful in choosing the contexts and information
to which we expose ourselves because the function of the human brain is to
manage and maintain the organism within parameters compatible with life, which
equates to saying that at the subconscious level, information is
"processed" and incorporated into the long-term memory system to help
us respond appropriately to present and future external environment challenges.
The brain is not concerned with factual truth but with working with logical
hypotheses to respond appropriately to external challenges. This is why people
comply primarily with strategies that guarantee survival and socio-professional
success even at the expense of resorting to cognitive dissonance and denialism
in the presence of blatant injustices and systemic dysfunctions.
Complex societies are full
of deceptive and labyrinthine cultural-ideological narratives that often lead
us down to dead ends. In addition to complexity, society is compartmentalized
into asymmetrical socio-professional strata. Although information in the
Internet Age is omnipresent, infotainment and propaganda are easier to digest
than information that requires attention and in-depth study. Wealthier classes
and families with higher academic levels tend to be more careful when choosing
content and contexts for themselves and their children. Social class and
professional status continue to be a negative discrimination factor.
The working class does not
live beyond its means; it is deprived of the means to live. The working class
and all people who find themselves in a situation of deprivation must first of
all overcome any feelings of guilt and shame they feel about their situation
and condition. Class consciousness and solidarity are fundamental to getting
people out of social isolation and the feeling of helplessness.
It is essential to
understand that individual and collective interests were interdependent in
indigenous societies. This form of collectivism was based on awareness of
individual limitations. Even the most talented among their peers knew that
collective survival depended on everyone's commitment to common survival and
well-being. If those who were at their peak physically and intellectually were
able to convince others that they had the right to keep all the captured pray
while the rest were left without food, they would end up expelled or killed for
representing a danger to the survival of the community, instead of being
venerated and obeyed. When the collective allows the creation of a system of
vertical hierarchy, violent repression will become inevitable to guarantee the
continuation of the unjust order.
In complex societies, there
are parameters that define collective identity, but when it comes to the
distribution of power and wealth, a set of values, rules and legal codes are
applied to implement and protect privileges and property rights based on the
myth of meritocracy.
The web of lies
disseminated in the socio-cultural environment has the power to justify the
unjustifiable and normalize the abhorrent. The human ability to rationalize and
assume accurate and factual narratives that, despite making sense, are nothing
more than fiction, a creation of the imagination that can be used to manipulate
public perception and condition behavior to manufacture consent.
Cultural-ideological
narratives have the power to convert fiction into reality. The narratives to
which we are exposed, within the family, social environment, school, or any
other, end up being ritualized, mimicked and assimilated into everyday habits
until they literally become part of who we are subconsciously. The choices we
make and the behaviors we exhibit express this internal bio-sociocultural
reality.
The socio-cultural
environment created by human beings is constituted by the material reality
where we build human societies and from where we extract the resources
necessary for survival. We share this physical environment with a vast and
diverse number of species that depend on the same environment to survive. For
hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived in relative harmony with the
natural environment, even though some try to "demonstrate" that there
is evidence that indigenous peoples have had as destructive an impact as
today's complex technological societies.
All species have an impact on the environment,
partly constructive and partly destructive, human activity also impacts the
ecology of spaces occupied permanently or nomadically, but to equate this
impact with the so-called civilized activity in which human beings are driven
by profit and live in a commodified reality, where anything and everything that
can generate profit runs the risk of being exploited to the point of extinction
or exhaustion, it's a huge leap of faith.
Moving forward, the fictional part of internalized
reality plays as important a role as the factual part in how we perceive
reality. The accumulated information is transformed into a cognitive-affective
bio-sociocultural experience that allows human beings to attribute meaning,
communicate, and organize individual and collective existence through a common
language (symbolic and conceptual).
Virtual reality is a dimension of reality created
by artists but also by other creative industries using a multiplicity of
techniques. Art, literature, and, more recently, the entertainment industry,
the public relations industry, the mass media industry and other
socio-professional activities are responsible for producing fictional content,
contributing to new layers of complexity of virtual reality.
Virtual reality does not exist separate from the
material reality in which we live; It is part of it, and it is not easy to
distinguish which is which. This phenomenon is as old as humanity, but with the
evolution of information technologies and AI, virtual reality is increasingly
present in our daily lives, and we begin to feel it as more real than material
reality.
The central issue is not in
deceiving the senses through virtual effects but in planting worldviews in the
human subconscious using virtual "objects" (ideals, concepts,
abstractions) with the potential to assume unwanted influence in human communities.
Money is the paradigmatic
example of how a virtual “object” manages to “condemn” most human beings to
voluntary submission. When a virtual “object” begins to be used as an
intermediary to access basic goods and services, as well as to justify the
enclosure of the commons, the choice is between submission, violent repression,
or hunger.
Virtual reality is created
by telling stories, painting images, drawing symbols and erecting statues and
has the power to colonize the human subconscious with all kinds of ideas,
including the duty to blindly obey.
It doesn't matter that
money is a virtual "good"; for as long as it functions as the
lubricant of our socioeconomic life, it becomes more material than the physical
environment on which we depend to survive. This ability to attribute importance
to objects, ideas, and concepts that belong to the domain of virtual
conventions should be a ubiquitous intellectual concern, transversal to all
areas of academic and scientific research, and should be included in all
pedagogical programs.
We are submerged in an
ocean of knowledge, but we lack a comprehensive understanding of the underlying
currents. In reality, many academic luminaries are more interested in inflating
their egos and exploiting existing divisions (many of which are manufactured)
by writing articles and books with the potential to divide further and increase
the levels of collective delusion.
Anything can be used as
money as long as it is legally recognized and accepted as payment for goods and
services.
Gold, silver, and other
metallic coins have been used as religious offerings and to pay taxes and fees.
The ancient priests realized that gold and silver could be monetized and used
as a means of paying for goods and services.
The true value of gold, or
any other form of money, including digital money, is in being protected by law.
It might seem a heresy but gold is not more valuable than digital money; in
fact, digital money illustrates more accurately the true nature of money,
virtuality. Money is a concept, a useful social convention, and as such, the
use of money as a means of storing value should be restricted in order to avoid
the concentration of material power based on the accumulation of virtual
wealth. Money should essentially be a unit of account to facilitate commercial
exchanges and pay debts and taxes.
Money acquires value by
decree, whether by priests in ancient temples or by parliaments in modern
times. Money, in the form of precious metals, has value as a form of payment
(fiat currency) and as a commodity, however commodity gold belongs to the realm
of commodities while gold as currency is a conceptual “object” created and
protected by law and confined to the territory where that law applies.
This costs us dearly
because our strength is logic, not reason. If we start from a false premise, we
will reach a wrong conclusion despite it being logical.
We make political choices
based more on opinions, which are only sometimes well founded, than factual
knowledge. Monetary and fiscal policy is of vital importance, as well as the
role of the state in the economy as the provider of universal public services,
public banking, and control of sovereign money. Those who believe this is
backward communist rhetoric and belong to the working class should think twice
and realize that ideological prejudices can be used to prevent us from seeing
factual reality.
The electoral campaign aims
not to clarify but to plant and exploit real or imaginary fears. The
demagoguery of moderate and centrist politicians uses the fear represented by
extremist parties as their main political argument; the rest is more or less a recycled
stream of lies. Liberal-leaning parties easily ally with right-wing extremists
to form a government as long as they can pursue austerity policies and continue
to push to privatize social security.
Electoral choices should be
based on the electoral programs presented by the political parties because
ideological voting in the strict sense is not advisable, and voting for an
allegedly charismatic candidate or one with a successful political, corporate,
or academic career is even worse. What matters most is the will to deliver what
is promised in the electoral program.
The democracy that we don't
have but need will have to be demanded by, exactly us. Firstly, electoral
programs have to be respected and delivered. Political lies must be punished
exemplarily, the vote of confidence that voters place in a political project
must be respected, or representative democracy is nothing more than a farce
that paves the way to fascism due to the accumulation of distrust towards
mainstream politicians.
Most of what you write is
self-evident; that is, it shouldn't even be necessary to write it. However, the
obvious tends to become imperceptible or depreciated, which is more than enough
reason for me to shed light on the obvious.
The intricate complexity of
the problems we face is overwhelming; if we start by digging into what seems
obvious, we can discover ways to decode and deconstruct what seems inaccessible
or incomprehensible.
The ideological-cultural
divisions and subdivisions exacerbate the tribalism and social divisionism
which will continue to be instigated by the elites to maintain control of
society.
The eventual gains in
political agency through identity culture (woke culture) will never call into
question the current order, because, in my view, the essence of our problems
lies in socioeconomic disempowerment. The citizens forced to live in a permanent
state of economic uncertainty and social insecurity, live in a mode of
existential despair that can induce self-destructive behaviors and lead to
suicide. I don't intend to diminish the problems of race, gender identity, or
any other, but it seems clear that connecting the dots to form a systemic view
of the root of the problems should be the priority.
