SPINNING GOLD FROM WORDS>

It recently was stated on some news show that the people that were really running the nation were not the politicians but the speech writers and campaign managers and assistants and lobbyists.  I was dumbfounded.  What an idea--the whole political process nothing more than an illusion. (shocking to me, but basically being a somewhat paranoid realist, I survived the jolt.)  Could it be true?  Wholly true, partially true, or merely some attempt to make me feel even more powerless in my own life?

What makes us all tick in unison?  Is it the news?   The latest hot story?  We have all been affected by buzzwords, new bands with gold songs, authors that are suddenly being interviewed everywhere we turn?.  does that affect us?  Does it change who we are even a little bit?

I know I am not the same as I was 40 years ago, my beliefs have changed about the world around me if my values have not.  And how I view the world, that is not so rosy as it once was.  It is also not such a trusting view or as simple.  At this point, every story seems to be webbed to every other subject in my world.  A person is murdered, and it isn't just a bad person killed someone, it is the childhood of the person that chose to kill and the victim, and what the victim represented to the person that killed them and the news the day before and the stock market the week before and the housing market and what we spent on education and the unemployment rate and the cost of a loaf of bread.  No single event exists.  Everything is tied in to every other thing.  Our choices, the decisions about those choices, our beliefs about who we are regarding those choices, everything.  One thing.

The people putting out the news have a big influence--is the car wreck with no one hurt news?  Is it a "feel good story" or is it only filler if nothing better shows up.  Do we side with the gun buffs or the gun control when there is a modern shoot-out at the local drive-in.  Each news program knows who they cater to and they know the hierarchy of grabbers of our attention.  Warriors are not the only ones that appreciate a body count.  Younger, more innocent, is more sympathetic than older, seamier, and scarier.  Politics is simple, they know who they back, then paint their side positive and the other negative.  Of course, a good, steamy scandal is always good about either side, just figure out how to frame the blame.

But what about those speech writers, campaign  managers and lobbyists. Well, we have all heard good speeches, and while the opposing side will always find fault at the time, those of us that suffered the assignments of memorizing past speeches can tell you that twenty years later, the naysayers kids are memorizing the same ones and everyone recognizes the way they pull at the heartstrings and prod the person toward action.

Campaigns, lobbyists, money people, those individuals that are in the background deciding what the rest of us will see and not see, hear and not hear, those people might be the most powerful of all.  They are why activists, scientists, and attentive citizens are important.  If a lobbyist with bottomless pockets comes to your state, you may not have a single person on the ballot that is not in their debt.  If the campaigns are being run by people with close ties to a cause, or a business, then the campaign will be aimed at the success of that cause more than the success of the candidate. And the easiest way to control it all is to make sure that both sides are for the same thing.

Our state doesn't need that yet.  We have a firm majority going one way and almost no one trying to fight them.  But if we were a purple state, those lobbyists would be wining and dining twice as many people.  So money gets to decide what is important enough to come to the public's attention.  And words are used to capture our attention, our imaginations, our hearts.  Words have two purposes, one is their definition, but the other, the one that serves a more important purpose is the nuance of a word.  If you want to influence, you need those nuances.  If you would lie, sway, make people sympathize, scare them or egg them on, the choice of words is important.

If I say that someone passed away last night in their home,  a picture forms, it is sad, and sympathetic and will incite feeling about our own losses.  If I use a different word, say, killed, or stabbed, or tortured to death or consumed by fire or even "suffered a heart attack after years of drug use",  that picture changes.  I may be less sympathetic, less sad, more judgemental of the victim.  Or I may be scared for my own safety or my families safety.  I may blame it on the local leadership or law enforcement.  I may suddenly decide to deport everyone ties to some other country. 

There are words that are without much emotional load, and words that are very emotionally loaded.  Words like lover, hate, terrorist, loyal, criminal, extreme or extremist, funny, patriotic--all those words have an emotional load that can be used to increase or decrease the response to a story.  We don't call international groups that are currently bombing or kidnapping people patriots or loyal or funny, although individuals in those groups can be any of those things.  And we do not call our favorite people in our  personal political party extremists or hate-filled although both can be true.  We choose words that paint them in a better light.  We use words we view as positive to describe what we want others to view as positive and words we view as negative to describe people we want them to view as negative.

What?  Do I really want terrorists and criminals and hate-groups and murderers to be viewed in a more positive light?  I personally wish no one would ever do anything that could be called those things.  But it really is all about perspective.  I have many ancestors that have served in the armed forces.  I know that they may have killed in that capacity.  I also know that the families of the people they killed did not look at them as heroes.  Our nation has committed atrocities and war crimes, our leaders have been caught in scandals and in acts of corruptions, our news stations and journalists have used non-neutral words to describe the actions of the people they want me to like and the people they want me to hate.  Is it propaganda?  Of course it is.  Is it a well organized plan to make us think the world is different than it is, maybe, maybe not. 

We know a lot about psychology now.  We know a lot about marketing.  We know how to use words and campaigns and advertising and fashion and style and education to alter how people react to situations and respond to events.  And that means that we can all know.  A magic trick is only magic is you don't know how it works, and puppets are only amazing if you never see behind the curtain to the puppet master. 

We all need to start peeking behind the scenes and translating the words and viewing more than one source.  Be informed and think.  Unless you really do just like being led by the nose or only take in what confirms your own hates and prejudices. 

Get a world view that means something real.