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Republican National Convention

Historically, the foremost weapon of choice wielded against a perceived enemy has been hate, applied in the form of propaganda. It is used to solidify mass perception against an enemy, so that when actual actions are taken against said enemy, those actions can thus be justified by citing the hate propaganda, and if public perception is swayed by the propaganda, then dissent is quelled, anti-action may commence and no one will know the facts until after the fact. It’s a tried and true tactic: Dehumanize the enemy in order to exercise all options, most specifically, extreme prejudice. And, in established ideological structures, for example, the right-wing movement in the United States, defining the “enemy within”, “those who oppose”, “traitors”, “seditionists”, what have you, is also an established practice. History is rife with such movements, from Babylon to Berlin. The language used to convey such “sentiments” is often couched in less than direct references. The mass killing of Jews and others by the National Socialist Party in Germany was officially and publicly referred to as “evacuation”. “It is important to know what words mean.”

Indeed, for example, when someone uses the term “blame Bush”, in reference to criticism of President Bush or policies practiced by the current Administration, it is a thinly veiled propaganda term used in the same breath as “traitor”. The idea being, to propagate the idea that criticism of a sitting president is an act of treason, thereby stifling all criticism and dissent, and, ultimately, the dismantling of the left by cutting off it’s ability to criticize. The chosen language is guarded, in order to hide the overt truth, but reap the affect. Standard propaganda technique. The argument from the right states that since the United States is at war, (the open-ended and as yet undefined war on terrorism) that such criticism of the president is disrepectful, counter-productive, and unpatriotic. This ignores, of course, over two hundred years of criticism of numerous “War Presidents”, from Lincoln to Nixon, nor does it acknowledge the fact that criticism of almost ten different presidents was considered the norm and practiced during that other open-ended, undefined war- the Cold War. The argument is, of course, the worst kind of partisan arm twisting propaganda.

Granted, such tactics have been used by all sides of the political spectrum. And, the real truth is, both the left and the right have radical fringe elements which seek the destruction of the other side. No big secret there. The left for example, is an expansive and immensely diverse group. Unorganized, undefined, and encompassing everyone from the radical hate filled anarchist to the inocuous run of the mill Democratic Party stalwart. And, the same can be said of the right. The reality is labels such as left and right don’t nearly begin to define the real social political establishments that currently exist. Labels as woefully inaccurate as “left”, “liberal” or “right”, “conservative” only serve to confuse an already distracted issue. Such diversity, lack of definition and chaos on both sides and all around is ripe for manipulation and generalizations that benefit the miopic “struggle for preeminence” of one side over the other in the battle for public opinion, financial loyalty and the ultimate prize – power.

To be sure, there are elements on both the left and the right which succumb to the hatred and advocate the destruction, by any means, of the other. Not an entirely progressive, nor historically successful practice, for either side. For, once “supressed”, movements never actually “go away” permenently, they simply fade away for a few years or decades, then come back ever the stronger, ever the more filled with anger and hatred for those who disagree as well as having nurtured an ever more fervent, tangible, and truly palpable fear of the “evil” they so ideologically believe their “enemy” represents. Meanwhile, civilization, or what remains of it, continues to struggle and collapse from within, it’s best and brightest often stuck in an endless loop of reacting and attacking the “other side”. Decay from the core out is the most fatal of diseases.

As students of history know, once the propaganda has been stripped away, the reality comes forth, and more often than not, a higher truth is revealed that has absolutely nothing to do with the ideas so ardently believed by so many at the time in the past. The truth always lay somewhere beyond propaganda. But, of course, at the time of engagement, those immersed in the hateful disinformation will go to their deaths claiming they are right, they believe, they know the truth, and they will kill others to defend that which they believe to be true, the ideology which they fear is threatened, without having the benefit of a single moment of real experience, the crucial element, in which to back up their fervent actions. It is an equation of antiquity. Ideology trumps experience.

The affects of this cultural manifestation may be witnessed running it’s course currently within the blogsphere, left and right going at it in an effort to define current “reality”, to define the disinformation. And, the practices of each side, are rather telling.