There was a strange sense of "prescience" present in the film "V For Vendetta" - Especially so when the government begins to barrage it's citizens with all the alarmism and misinformation and doomsday broadcasts...

There's only so much shit you can put on a sensible person's plate, before the whole fucking room starts to reek of it. One cannot rule happy, confident, joyful people. They cannot be manipulated.They cannot be set against each other.

[edit: ...to be sure, one cannot rule a citizenry in which all hope is absent, as well - the complacency won't accommodate any action, other than a shrug.]

Whipping up the proles is one of the The Party's specialties. Three key elements of emotional manipulation are critical for proper indoctrination.

1. Hate: Hate the insurance companies, hate the Chamber of Commerce, hate the big corporations, hate the news networks and opinion media that question The Party, hate the greedy upper class who don't pay their fair share, hate the inequity between the rich and the poor, hate those who won't go green and save the planet, hate those who oppose diversity quotas, and, most importantly, hate those in opposition to The Party's solutions.

2. Fear: Fear imminent pandemics, fear apocalyptic global warming, fear America's reputation in the world, fear economic collapse and despair, and fear what could happen to you if you oppose The Party's solutions.

3. Love: Love The Party, for they'll save you from yourselves. They will save the common people, save the country, save the world, save the planet, and provide for you better than you could ever provide for yourself.

Incrementally, The Party's strategy is to marginalize all opposition in this manner and phase out the two-party or multi-party system of government in the name of unity. By eventually removing constitutional barriers to maintaining power as an emergency measure, the hated opposition's dastardly, devious apocalyptic schemes will never be successfully hatched, and we will all be saved by The Party.

To add to that, the right just last week were bitching and moaning about how Obama wasn't doing "enough" about the swine flu...now he does and he's bashed for it. Make up your fucking minds or at least admit that you're going to bitch about any move he makes so we can ignore you. Fuck.

Right, left, what-the-fuck-ever as if there's a difference...

It's about control. Some having it, and others bowing to it.

The illusion is choice - The same kind of choice a lab rat has in a maze...it's still their maze. And one is still forced to believe that one must "run" it.

Funny how Republicans pipe when the other guys do it but deny fiercely anything said or done by their guys that represent the same fear mongering crap. The amount of fear and hate peddling done by the right is sickening. To add to that, the right just last week were bitching and moaning about how Obama wasn't doing "enough" about the swine flu...now he does and he's bashed for it. Make up your fucking minds or at least admit that you're going to bitch about any move he makes so we can ignore you. Fuck.

What alert level are we at?

We've escalated from "That's Not Nice" to "I Don't Know If I Like You, Anymore."

We may yet rise again, to: "I Knew I Had A Good Reason To Hate You."