This so called democracy we live in, is a world of illusions. Most people consider themselves free because they can choose from a box of goodies handed to them by unseen masters, but seem unaware that there are other boxes that they are not being allowed to see. The public's tastes and values are formed by manipulation, formed and shaped by deliberate propaganda from the media, the corporate juggernaut and state institutions. The information you get is what they want you to hear and see, and that invariably bears no relation to what is actually going on in the world. Concealment of the true workings of society is necessary for the survival of the powers that be, the greater the division between the elite, powerful controlling few and the ordinary person, the greater the illusions created. Truth would destroy this unjust and exploitative economic system, illusions must be generated and will grow at an ever greater distance from the truth.
The vast majority seem to accept that poverty and deprivation, existing alongside unimaginable wealth, is just an adjustable hiccup in the system, but fail to see that the ever increasing wealth of the few is the root cause of all that poverty and deprivation. The illusions state that the economic system we have is the best, it's all there is, and the injustice and inequalities are caused by differences in ability and effort, but can be sorted by little adjustments here and there. That is the great big illusion on which all the others are built.
History should tell us that these minor manipulations of the system to repair its little hiccups is just another fantasy to safe guard the small wealthy and powerful controllers of the system.
Of course others have been saying this for years and saying it much better than I ever could.
". . . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds. Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them. " Gerry Spence, From Freedom to Slavery.
However it is not just in America that this enslavement of the human mind is in full control, it is the existing model for the capitalist world. Though there are signs that more and more of the public at large, are beginning to see through the illusions, their eyes are beginning to penetrate the smoke and mirrors and they see glimpses of the reality of the system that has for so long heaped so much misery on the population of the world.
Illusions are meant to be part of stage entertainment, not the world in which we live. Illusions should be fun, something you know is not true, you should then leave the theatre and re-enter the real world of truths, realities and facts. When will we all leave the theatre?"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country . . . we're dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . it is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world." Edward Bernays - Propaganda, Liveright Publishing Company, New York, 2005, excerpts from pp. 9-19
