"Repeat, repeat, repeat after me."
Newspeak
for release 10-04-05
Washington D.C.
How many times have you heard officials of the BushCo administration, from the president on down, utter this phrase: "It is important for the American people to understand......(insert bullshit here)" or "The American people MUST UNDERSTAND....yada yada yada."
To be in the power clique you probably have to take at least a semester just to master the use of this phrase. It's part of the patriarchal vocabulary that dominates the speech of those in control.
My bullshit filter goes into overdrive when I hear those words. Why? Because I know that the practical translation of the phrase is, "You have to see things my way."
George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and cognitive science, claims that the reason that the Repugnicans are in control of our government presently is because of their lockstep ability to 'frame' issues. They have learned to establish the terminology. They have been more successful than liberals or progressives at defining an agenda by using phrases again and again which provoke the type of thinking that they prefer. They would rather talk about 'gay marriage' than human rights. It has a more emotional cachet.
When Will Rogers said, "I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat," he was joking, but the reason jokes work is that they have the truth in them. And Rogers' words were never truer than they are today. The Dumbocrats have little leadership and no voice.
But the Repugnicans don't suffer from this malady. They are so organized that they speak with the same marching voice. Hup-two-three-four. "Fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here.' and 'Stay the course." and "Just cause." oh, and here's a great one--"As soon as the Iraqis stand up, we can stand down." How many times have you heard these slogans?
What Joseph Goebbels called the Big Lie and what has long been referred to as propaganda, the Repugnicans call 'talking points.' Have you ever noticed that if you flip around the channels on a Sunday morning, you can hear various administration spokesmen on the news shows and they are all using the exact same phrases? And many of them begin with. "The American people need to understand....."
This technique is taken straight from Mein Kampf. "the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie."--A. Hitler
Thus our government's invasion of Iraq for the purpose of raping their resources and establishing a strategic base in the region becomes 'a battle of liberation.' And handing over our medical care to the drug cartels and the insurance companies becomes 'health-care reform.' And resting the cost of doing public business onto the shoulders of those who can least afford it becomes 'tax-relief.' It's like magic. Linguistic magic. In this world just saying something works better than actually doing something.
And the list goes on and on. Some of my favorites: "no child left behind." BushCode for privatization of our education system. And how about "Death Tax?" Sounds sinister doesn't it? Why wouldn't you want to have it repealed? What it really means is that brats like George W. Bush can continue to be born into privilege. Oh, and then there is "Culture of Life," Sure, that sounds good to rabid anti-abortionists but try to sell it to the families of the thousands who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. When it borders on the ridiculous is when they start talking about "Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests" when they really mean "we're gonna strip mine the Environmental Protection Agency to the point where it has no balls at all and our corporate buddies can further rape the landscape." And who could leave out "Intelligent Design" which asks us to believe that the earth was created six thousand years ago when we have fossil evidence that this place has been here for four billion.
This bunch ain't foolin' around. If George Orwell was still alive they would hire him to oversee the Dept. of Newspeak.
The Poet's Eye observes that every politician worth his salt knows, it's not what you say, it's how you say it. and how often.
Over under sideways down,
(Hey)
Backwards forwards square and round.
(Hey)
Over under sideways down,
(Hey)
Backwards forwards square and round.
When will it end, when will it end,
When will it end, when will it end.
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Over under sideways down...
---Yardbirds
