Only the Jester is allowed to tell the truth

The UK election campaign is telling us some interesting lessons. The so called mainstream i.e. corporate media are not allowed to tell us what is really going on but mainly dispense neoliberal propaganda. We and the UK electorate are increasingly turning to the jester Russell Brand to hear the truth.

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This would be the hallmark of an authoritarian feudal system of government and if we look closely at the present political and economic structure this is exactly what we have got.
In this system the rulers rule. In the UK presently the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequers (Minister of Finance) and the Mayor of the by far largest city of London are all class mates from the most elitist private school of Eaton. And like in the Middle Ages the rest of us know our ‘station’ and bow and put up with it.

But what about democracy ? Aren’t we having an election right now with more choice than ever ? Won’t there be change if the voters don’t return the Tories ?

Sorry folks, there is no tooth fairy at the bottom of the garden and there will be no fundamental change as the result of the election even if the next Prime Minister is different to the present one. The only thing the UK can hope for is some changes around the edges, which might be very important to the people affected and which I don’t want to belittle. However the juggernaut of the reigning neoliberal economic ideology will move on destroying everything in its path.

What about people not voting for radical change because they don’t want radical change ?

Sorry again, there is no realistic radical option to vote for. The present political and economic system, which includes the mainstream media setup does not allow for it.

Let’s just have a look at Britain’s mainstream media for a moment on the eve of their election. Our Fairfax media gives a nice overview with the various headlines and endorsements. The Daily Mail stands out :

Daily Mail

This is just one example worth a little analysis. The message is clear. If you don’t vote for the status quo you are not only insane but also unpatriotic.

This is directed at the main opposition Labour Party. You can imagine how the smaller more ‘radical’ parties fare. Fairfax again draws the comparison to New Zealand.
The vilification of smaller parties (remember how the NZ Greens became the devil-beast), and the undermining of the legitimacy of a Labour-led Government have some of the hall-marks of National’s 2014 campaign. And, whaddya know, the Nats and the Tories share a consultant: Australian Lynton Crosby (of Crosby-Textor, the spin doctors for neoliberal governments around the world).

The for me most striking New Zealand example of almost everybody swallowing the anti-Green propaganda hook line & sinker was the policy of quantitive easing (printing money instead of borrowing) advocated by the Greens prior to last years election. It was widely ridiculed by the government as lunatic even as ‘lunatic’ central banks around the world like the US Federal Reserve, the EU Central Bank, the Bank of England and even the “so revolutionary” Swiss Central Bank were all practicing it at the time.
Instead we were told to trust the economic nous of our great helmsman who’s only credentials are that he enriched himself to the tune of 50 Million dollars gaming the foreign exchange markets playing with other peoples money.

The media setup in the so called liberal Western democracies is so much more insidious than the censorship regimes of authoritarian countries like China or Saudi Arabia. There you know if something is kept from you when access to the internet is restricted or journalists are flogged.
In our system we are allowed dissent – like this little blog – as long as the system does not allow it to become mainstream. We formally have freedom of speech and therefore can sleep easily. The result is the same. The status quo is protected.

The jester is even allowed to publish his book.

Book_Cover-_Revolution_by_Russell_Brand

And we all can have a good laugh.

However I wonder who will have the last laugh after the intervention of Brand in the UK elections. Today on radio NZ one contributor wondered who will have had a more deciding influence on the UK election Rupert Murdoch’s old mainstream media or Russell Brand’s new internet media outlets.

For us to keep quiet and keep at our ‘station’ and not challenge the status quo we are given wars. The ‘cold war’ against an ideology, the ‘war on drugs’, the ‘war on terror’ and many more where they came from just to keep us scared and distracted.

Which reminds me :

war&revolution

The present system tries everything to stop us from figuring it out. But let us not despair.

its only a matter of time

by Hans B. Grueber

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