Many years ago I was a young pioneer in Russia and we were in the young pioneer summer camp. We were divided into regiments and each regiment had its own barracks. The camp was a rest/entertainment camp for children; it was free and was located in a magnificent place, near the sea. As for the amenities -- those were Spartan. There were no paved roads and dirt covered the territory. There was only cold water. The toilets were cement buildings with the rows of holes in them. Those were to be washed periodically by a hose. The barracks were moldy, the linen was very old. Food was not poisonous but that was all. In the middle of the season there were no fresh fruits or vegetables. Meanwhile we had all kinds of regular activities including the morning flag -- raising and discussing the foreign affairs. It was not that bad; we were kids after all and enjoyed the sea, but it was far from perfect. It was also obvious that the Chief of the Camp- a burly man of about 50- was up to something; he drank regularly and was always busy with moving some cargo back-and - forth.
After some time several kids from our regiment complained about the food, etc. So the Chief came out of hiding and accused us of being untidy and lazy. He said that we should have been ashamed, that we should take the issue of order and tidiness into our own hands and, firstly- clean the territory from horrible hazards- the burned matches. He said that it was a horrible problem and that he would give a special award to the regiment which would bring him the most of those.
We were just kids. We decided in our regiment to get the prize and show him. We canvassed the territory but could not find any matches. Some, yes, but not many. Meanwhile to our amazement, another regiment was bringing matches in buckets, all burned, They got the prize and we were ashamed of ourselves. We did not complain much after that.
Turned out that the kids from that regiment were buying matches from the outside store, right beyond the camp, burned those and presented them to the Chief. That simple.
That was my first encounter with the patented demagogue and his powers. He won, we lost. Our cause was just but he redirected our energy to the useless and stupid enterprise. Not only that- he changed the rules of the game and in the new game he found allies, which adopted those rules of his and benefited from that. Perfect corruption score.
Patented demagoguery is a powerful political tool designated to waste the energy of good people, exhaust them so that they will have no power to address real issues, forget about those, or ideally- try to corrupt themselves so that they try benefit from the new, artificial situation. Patented demagoguery is easy, overwhelming and very effective; it does not lie, it just exploits the truth. Yes, there could be an issue of garbage and burned matches but it was much less a problem than food. The Demagogue raised the small problem to the power of ten and we then stopped seeing anything but those matches. Our good intentions were turned upside- down and we were powerless; who of us wanted to look selfish and demand good food before contributing to tidiness? Demagoguery paralyses you, makes you feel miserable and self- doubtful while wanting at the same time to feel better by immediate satisfaction of the new rules of the game.
In the world of adults the patented demagoguery is the privilege of MSM. It works on us 25 hours a day. Yes, the whole damned country is in seizure economically but we must not forget the war on women. Yes, our country is the worst possible deadly force in the world right now but how can we overlook the p*ssy Riot? No, we should not discuss the real issues which can come out even from those events, like a complicated role of the churches in different countries or the way women are craftily separated from men in the eternal struggle for survival. NO, the patented demagogues will make sure that we will push and shove on the lowest possible levels, that the result will be meaningless and that we spend on that as much time as possible while they do whatever they need to do. They will not allow us even to learn from experience; most of us, for instance, condemn the p*ssy Riot sentencing but did not offer to learn from the rather remarkable way the Russian liberals organized the defense of the people they wanted to defend.
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