Barack Obama: Hope You Can Cling To
By Steven Vincent
By Steven Vincent
The American people-- through conditioning, habit and sloth --are consumers. We consume a variety of products to fulfill needs both real and (primarily) perceived. Marketers have discovered that through advertising we can be trained to decide which product to consume based on emotion rather than function. This includes political products, which are generally sold to us under the product category of "Politician". Please watch the series, "The Century of Self" which details how techniques of psychological manipulation have been used to sell us all manner of products, including the Politician.
Two dominant brands dominate the market for Politician products, the Republican and the Democrat. In the case of either brand product, intensive research goes into designing the product and its marketing to appeal to the emotional needs of the consumer. The product is not sold based on its functionality, since it has none other than to fulfill emotional desires and feelings.
Every aspect of the product is shaped to produce an effect. The smile, the tilt of the head, the gesture, the stance, the wave, the cadence and intonation of voice--all are consciously cultivated and crafted. As new market data becomes available, the product is updated to reflect the changes for maximum salability.
Barack Obama is a manufactured, packaged, marketed and sold product. If you voted for Barack Obama, you consumed the Democrat brand politician product "Obama". What is the function and purpose of the Obama product? What emotional need does it fulfill? To answer these questions, we must first identify the aims of the corporate manufacturers of the product.
At this point it's instructive to watch character Arthur Jensen's pivotal monologue in the film, "Network". Here, Jensen informs Howard Beale of the nature of the world--that the world is a business and that democracy is an illusion.
Jensen's argument is undeniable except to those who make a religious practice of denial. Those who are new to the fundamental truths of this world often experience outrage, as I did. Why outrage? Is it because we now see the injustice and tyranny of the System? Perhaps. Howard Beale was angered to madness by such revelations. But at a deeper level our anger proceeds from disillusionment because we once held the belief that government is good and beneficent and now find that belief shattered. It is not the specific facts of the System's brutality--the dead bodies, the ruined lives, the crushed dreams, the poisoned world--which truly enrages us. It is the fact that we were so duped as to believe that the System existed to protect against such outrages.
It's interesting to note that the path of the awakened and the ignorant are both ruled by emotions. In "The Matrix", Morpheus tells Neo, "You are a slave, Neo" and offers him a choice a a blue pill which will return him to blissful ignorance or a red pill which will reveal the truth.
It's interesting to note that the path of the awakened and the ignorant are both ruled by emotions. In "The Matrix", Morpheus tells Neo, "You are a slave, Neo" and offers him a choice a a blue pill which will return him to blissful ignorance or a red pill which will reveal the truth.
It is the choice between one product or another. Neo chooses based on the emotional need fulfillment particular to himself. He chooses to know truth. The vast majority, however, will pay extra for the bliss of ignorance. The System and its product design teams know this and so provide products which correspond to this reality in order to maximize sales and profit for the corporation and maintain the stability of the System itself.
Since a certain number of Neo class consumers wanted a "Truth" product which represented Hope and real Change, the free market for political product (such as it exists through the temporary crucible of the internet) eventually met this need in the form of a quiet, thoughtful doctor from Texas by the name of Ron Paul. The Truth Seekers became evangelists and co-creators of the Ron Paul product, developing it together to fulfill real needs for constitutional, accountable government, freedom from oppression, the end to war, prosperity and Hope for America. Unfortunately, the Ron Paul product was not adopted by the greater part of the marketplace for politician products and so went the way of similar superior products, such as the electric car.
The System observed the spontaneous creation and development of the Ron Paul product and was at once intrigued and frightened. It saw that there was a deep emotional need in the market for a Change-like product which inspired Hope and yet strategically were challenged by the demand for a politician of true substance. Substance is very expensive and not profitable.
They set about the task of seizing control of this market for a Change and Hope politician. They quickly designed a product, the Obama, which gave the consumer much of the same emotional gratification as the Ron Paul product without any of the costs associated with actual substance. The corporate manufacturers of Politician products realized that most consumers will do anything to avoid taking the red pill of Truth which would cause them to see the Matrix for what it is--a system of enslavement. These consumers are Comfort Seekers rather than Truth Seekers. They could however be made to buy into a product which causes them to feel as though they had attained "Truth" while simultaneously denying reality. In George Orwell's "1984", this form of mind control is known as "doublethink".
Consumers of the "Obama" politician product are buying a sense that they have bucked the System by choosing a Change and Hope labeled product. Yet they are purchasing the emotional feeling associated with the product only. In a world of brutal realities, Barack Obama is 'Hope You Can Cling To".
Barack Obama is the pasteurized, processed food substitute of politics. He gives the appearance of being real, is easily consumable by large numbers, gives a sense of momentary gratification and makes consumers feel good about themselves. Obama is a new iPod. Or a shiny SUV. Or a Double Moccachino Latte. He is a vacation far away from the hard work of reality to Fantasy Island.
Obama is a convenience that buys the consumer four more years to slumber in doublethink denial that we live in anything other than a dictatorship of elite interests led by the international bankers who bankrolled the marketing of a phony Hope and Change product all the way to #1 market share.
Tonight, the American people have purchased a bill of goods. OK, America. You bought it. Now Obama will break it. How long will the denial last?
Your Friend in Freedom,
Steven Vincent
End the Fed! Website:
http://www.EndTheFed.US
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http://www.EndTheFed.blogspot.com
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20 comments:
I'm here to end the fed. Whether or not I like Obama's plan for universal healthcare, a woman's right to chose or getting out of Iraq is not relevant. Neither candidate made ending the fed an issue. It is up to us to bring the issue out. Throwing stones at Obama serves no purpose.
I don't think that Steven is throwing stones at Obama.
He is simply observing how the system works and what the results are.
I too, noticed the shift in direction during the primary season. It was obvious what they were up to. Using Dr. Paul's movement for their own gain.
I'll send this link to others, it was very good.
Thank you,
Debbie McKee
I fear for the safety of any president that tries to enforce executive order 11110. We need a bottom up approach. We have to educate people so that there will be a mandate to change.
Well stated Steven. Obama's acceptance speech was an opaque imitation of a mishmosh of MLK speeches. So what's Obama's "promise land?" He wont say! Basically the 16th Amendment makes us tax slaves at the good graces of the federal government, and the federal government today is so FUBAR that unless Obama axes half of it, we are going to be indentured to the monster forever. No mention of ending the American Empire anywhere. Ron Paul was our true liberator...who happened to be a white male. Obama's victory is a victory for the top-down media driven political stranglehold that must someday end. -Don Wood
Obama the brand and social commodity was an evolution that is more than propaganda. Towards the end of this election, the cult fervor was worriesome. Obama the idealouge left enough to the imagination for We The People to cling to the fumes of hype.
And it is just that- hype. Once Obama's emminent humanizing clamps down in January, people will have have their withdrawls from the" hope"iates.
On the backside of that steep drop in expectations, will be mobbs of creative and sufficiently angry people who needed more than hype but would take anything to raise the standard from Bush.
I was talking with my friend yesterday, we were both RP delegates to state, and I was talking about marketing and how it is the "applied science" of propaganda. Obama, Bush, Clinton and the rest were products of a propaganda machine. I think now that the only way we may ever win is if we study and out "propagandize" the propagandists. The principle in me doesn't like the idea of manipulating but it is obviously very effective and it works!
-Crystal
Austin, TX
This is very well said.
Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different outcome.
~Chinese Proverb
And yet lots and lots of people raving about change...change...change...sigh.
Change it and of itself is empty and void of any specific direction. Change's hollow shell must be filled with the truth in order to actually get the ball running!
End the Fed!!
The "truth shall set you free". So lets see what the real OBAMA is all about. Emanuel Rahm is clintons moneylaundering bag man and with such great qualifications becomes Obamas puppetmaster. http://www.skolnicksreport.com/muzzle.html
this says it all. The Fed pulls all the strings.
Perhaps the most astute statements I've found in support of your article's assertion of 'phony hope and change' from Obama's sales and marketing team comes from this article on Axis of Logic by Morton Skorodin, M.D called called The Bush-Obama-McCain Administration .
"There's no left to speak of in the US...... The handsome prince and his foil, the wicked, but comely, queen. They're comic book superheroes- perfect for TV, the key instrument of oppression and ignorance. (Notice the immense effort to make sure everybody has digital TV by next Feb. I wish they cared that much to give water to our brethren in New Orleans.)
Barack Obama and Sarah Palin are too good to be true: Barack Obama- that name is foreign beyond foreign, mother a hippy who had a black's child, an actual African (gasp). This sounds as scary to many whites as the orchestrated excesses of the police state such as the Daarth Vader outfitted police with their North Korea style truncheons at the Republican convention seem to anxious liberals and righteous activists.
Sarah Palin - superhero mom, she'll serve milk and cookies for you while on the way to running and ruining the world. She’s not regular pro-gun, church, etc. She is the cartoon version- actually shoots wolves from helicopters; associates with, to put it a little too politely, “white nationalists”.
This dichotomy serves only the rulers. What the vast majority on both sides need are exactly the same things: peace, economic relief, and freedom from the intrusive state. Divide and conquer. The rulers have been promoting race war as a counter to class struggle since the 1600s. They are very good at it..... It’s a military dictatorship with Handsome Presidents.
The election is a joke, but more importantly, a waste of the people’s time (except, perhaps some local races). Get over it. Think and find effective ways to rebel."
My response to Steven's insightful, enlightening article is a question:
If the majority of people prefer blissful ignorance to the truth, then is there any chance of illuminating them?
Crystal's suggestion is very interesting – out-propagandize the government propaganda. But I don't think we have the money or means to do that. Still, a novel idea worth considering.
I hear a lot of experts saying it will take a crisis to wake up the masses from their slumber and face the truth. But I sense a growing feeling of indignation in this country. E.g., average citizens calling their congressmen to oppose the bailout.
Let's fan the flame until it becomes a raging fire.
this comment is not to argue the content of your post, rather to constructively call into question the tactics of this burgeoning movement.
even if the thesis is correct, to directly attack Obama at this juncture only serves to marginalize the movement to an easily managed distraction.
remember -- JFK was elected in much the same way and it took him 2 1/2 years in office to begin to see the light and take action.
as Mr. Nader said the night of the election, the President Elect will have to eventually make a choice between which Uncle he wants to be.
the most amazing thing about this issue is that it has some of the most respected Presidents in history on its side:
Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Wilson, Kennedy...many of these men are inspirations to Mr. Obama.
the more the movement can educate the people (including the President-Elect) to the wisdom of what these men saw from the inside and how they tried to warn us all as to who is really pulling the strings without unduly antagonizing people's core emotional attachments regarding the political system (which only serves to turn them off to the message), the more effective it will be.
in other words, don't give the people fish, teach them how to...
Members of Congress Representing ZIP code 60606
in the 110th Congress (1st Session)
To retrieve much more detailed biographical and contact information about a given Congressmember, click on the member's name.
Residents of the 60606 ZIP code are represented in Congress by 2 Senators and 1 Representative.
Member Name DC Phone DC FAX Electronic Correspondence
Senator Richard J. Durbin (D- IL) 202-224-2152 202-228-0400 http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Senator Barack Obama (D- IL) 202-224-2854 202-228-4260 http://obama.senate.gov/contact/
Representative Danny Davis (D - 07) 202-225-5006 202-225-5641 http://www.house.gov/davis/zipauth.htm
Stumbled across your blog tonight. Love it so far and will be back.
Kevin McGinty
www.rm235.blogspot.com
There is a new Robert Heinlein book just out (it was his first from 1930 and never printed while he was alive) that is perhaps his best treatise on government, life, economics etc in a cool "I am from 1930 and have be reborn in 2086 (and living in a house with a beautiful naked woman) format".
His two pages on how the future finally got rid of the Federal Reserve Private bankers I found so shockingly prescient I had to pinch myself.
His speculation of what happened to the world after 1930 is also amazing.
It has just been printed for the first time.
Absolutely amazing stuff. As with all his stuff he has a cool story and he discusses within the story huge ideas about a better system of living for man and governments. His examination of economic theory being taught as you are the old timer learning the new advanced ways would have probably won him a noble prize in economics if they had been written for a scholarly journal.
It was too risque to be published in the 30's when he wrote it. (too much talk about his naked woman host and the lack of need for marriage I suppose)
For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743491548?ie=UTF8&tag=emailamazon-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743491548
Can't we just focus on getting the message out about the fed, without all the Metallica-esque doom and gloom?
Hell, speaking of branding and marketing to serve a purpose, that was something that Obama achieved. It spoke to everyone. Alex Jones' bullhorning and dystopia-soaked banter doesn't really get much play in middle-america.
Try a tactic that's objective, informative, or inspiring.
Has anyone seen this site debunking financial and economic conspiracies? http://web.archive.org/web/20011129043310/members.home.com/flaherty15/index.htm It belongs to Edward Flaherty.
Sorry, part of the link got cut off. Hopefully this will takre you to Edward Flaherty's debunking site. http://tiny.cc/xwZoV
I have an online petition calling for support of HR 2755 if you guys want to advertise it. I can send you the signatures when the time comes.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/end-the-fed.html
Scot
www.theoside.com
I posted your click on my forum
Steven,
That was a most cogent, thought-provoking, piece. Thank you. I had not made the leap to considering politicians as products. You have invented a wheel, sir. And I can only marvel at it's elegant simplicity. End the fed!
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