“Propaganda is a monologue that is not looking for an answer , but an echo.” W.H. Auden
Always There's always a grand narrative of freedom offered as bread to the masses following some dire constriction or choke of life in which our masters become saviours in the blink of a cobbled policy touted as manna, solicited with badly dressed half truths, never wanting to kill the fatted lie in favour of living tidy deceptions, the sorcery of propaganda casting its spell over humanity as necessity while hoping the lie might come true. Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon All Rights Reserved ®
parallax 
😟😞☹️😢
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I feel you David, and yes indeed.
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Well said! It’s getting harder and harder to apply the CRAAP validity test to the firehose of information we get from all manner of media. I want in-text citations and a list tof Works Cited!
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Journos have caved in to their masters and have simultaneously become lazy, even syntax, grammar, spelling, argh
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I know just what you mean.
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🙂
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Powerfully sad Paul. I was going to cut and paste but then realized I’d have to post the whole poem and you did it so profoundly. Here’s some love and flowers to get us through the day.🌻🌻🌻🌻💖💖💖
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Much needed, coming through the worst of the worst, looking forward to the new horizon, but troubled by the world, sigh.
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sighing with you.. maybe we should sing
💖🌻🙏 but the tune feels too dark.
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It is dark, perhaps an operetta?
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sounds about right!💖
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Ha 🙂
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This is beautiful and strong
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Many thanks for that.
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You’re welcome 😊
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Sadly, telling it like it is.
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Wanting a different outcome, as well must be yearning for right now.
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Very good. Shades of Goebbels looming around everywhere…
When did we suddenly go back to the 19th century? Damn, damn, damn…
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Where’s Marat when I need him?
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Ask Charlotte?
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Hmmm, she might stab me 🙂
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As long as you don’t take baths too often you should be safe.
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Born in England, I should be safe then?! 🙂
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LOL. I thought only Continentals did that?
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Ha, no, it was a thing, the weekly bath 🙂
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I can imagine. I still remember staying at friends of my parents in London, ’71 or ’72, Easter. Bloody cold. The heater in the room worked with a penny. Memories of post war I guess.
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My parents had such a penny meter in one house, so antiquated even for the 60s 🙂
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Not surprised. Thing is, everybody has forgotten what war is. And the aftermath. The Uk in ’45 was on its knees. (So was France) Shortage of everything. Food. Coal. Those penny meters were way to make the best use of heating.
Try to explain that reality to a kid now, s/he will believe it’s fiction…
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I’ve tried, it makes no impact on them, a curiosity.
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It’s probably always been like that. Though the abundance of “produced” images probably explains it. Example: I find it very hard to watch a WWI movie, because I “know” some of the people that were in it. For today’s kids, “blood” is catsup in a Netflix production… Add the – documented – fact that they can’t count. (Studies have shown they don’t understand Millions or billions.) So you tell them “20 millions died in WWI.”
“So?”
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Good point, they are saturated with entertainment and facts, so how to break through? Take them to the front-line is my suggestion.
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Military service was a good substitute. I spent a year “playing cowboys and indians” in a real infantry combat regiment inside a Marine division. You learn about the real thing believe me. (Amongst other things that you never carry enough ammo…)
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Always carry ammo, and never ever split up.
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Absolutely. If there’s only two of you, stay a few yards apart and cover each other’s back. Not the usual movie scenario: “Let’s split up.” (And get done separately one after the other.)
Actually minimum group size would be 3 or 4. One or two covering the back…
A connaisseur…
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O yes indeed, and there was a saying in cadets – beware the second lieutenant with a compass and a map – you’re doomed was the message. 🙂
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I can relate to that. Happens to corporals too. I once “lost” my entire section (why was I charge of a section, God knows) for more than 3 hours in the woods and fields during a “compass race.” I think the Captain gave me the wrong map. 😬
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Officers can be quite dull I’m told, and quick to pass the blame I’ve heard 😉
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Like any social group, good men and… “below par”. Most non-commissioned in my regiment were a pain. Most of the officers too. But of course there were excellent people too. I remember a sergeant or two in particular I would have trusted my life to in combat. I suspect it also has to do with higher command. The colonel was not “top”. Once you’ve seen the Colonel dressing down the major in public who then screams the Captain into the ground, etc. Why should you be afraid of the Captain, right? If you humiliate your officers in front of the rank soldiers, what authority do the officers have left.
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Yes, I get that, so true of the corporate world too, don’t embarrass your seniors, my goodness what a world we live in.
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Indeed. It’s probably part of the infinite cycle that needs to be broken by war or revolution… Until they chop off Robespierre’s head to go back into some sort of balance…
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Ha, there’s a favourite recurring line in literature “cut off the head of the snake” meaning the only way to end something is to decapitate the decision function/person.
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Yep. And we’re facing a biiiig snake with nukes…
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We sure are, here we deal with snakes, but it seems the world leaders are puzzled.
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There must be baaad snakes in OZ.
And yes the “leaders” are puzzled. Out of their depth might I assume? 🤣
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We have the most varieties of poisonous snakes in the world, out of 170 species 100 are deadly. Careful where you step 🙂
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That’s even worse than Arica or Asia. Watch your step indeed. Are there snakes in urban centres or suburbs?
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There are indeed, urbanisation has disrupted their habitat and they do come into gardens and yards, have a some of our most deadliest snakes in our garden!
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One gets used to it. My BFF and I found a cobra in his garden in Nairobi once…
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Raises the blood pressure for a moment for sure.
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Yeah. We tried to shoot it but failed miserably. Then the cobra disappeared behind the hedges… Worrisome. Until a few days later it came by on the veranda, and Cook killed it with one swig of a stick…
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Yes, shooting snakes is tricky but a stick or fencing wire usually nails them 🙂
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And a good hand. If you miss… My attitude to snakes has mostly been to let them be. (Though I have killed a couple… Necessity)
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Yes, I’ve killed a couple, sadly, I too leave them be, mostly they prefer peace.
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PS. You seem to be very aware of military things…
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All my parent’s families were in the Brit military, it was constant, but my wife’s family also had relatives who served. And I did do army cadets in high school, so the lectures and exercises were fascinating.
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I remember one of your relations (uncle?) was in east Africa? Mau Mau war?
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Yes my mother’s younger brother went to Kenya, her older brother was in WW2. My father’s two older brothers went to Korea (a mess), my cousin was in the SAS and went to Northern Ireland (sad affair – shouldn’t even be there in my view) so there’s been that connection, but lots for the two world wars before, and deaths sadly.
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Your family sounds like mine… A different mess, but wars always… Damn!
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Yes, damn!!
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PS. Why Korea? They were Brits weren’t they? Not too sure, Korea was under the guise of the UN?
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The Brits – well the whole Commonwealth went, a lot of Aussies went from here, the americans called 🙂
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Force of habit right. So close to WWII. I’ll have to check whether the French went. Probably not, we had our hands full with Indochina aka Vietnam.
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Ah yes, the whole world changed, Algeria, Morocco, Indochina, it was a boiling pot – Borneo, Malaysia, Kenya for the Commonwealth, no one seemed happy.
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It was. A boiling pot. Then we had peace. Sort of.
I was very surprised at Singapore. They kept all the English names for the streets. Doesn’t bother them. Part of their history. (Singapore has done very well. Malaysia too.)
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Inscrutable lot
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Possibly. But in the case of Singapore, I was… shocked (positively) to see the first tropical (ex-third world) nation that was organized and civilized…
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Yes, amazing, though very much an oligarchy.
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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🙂
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Always a pleasure to read and share your posts with followers, Paul!! Have a great day!
😊👍✨✨🎉
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Amen.
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Thank you very much for that Julie.
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A great poem for our times
>
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Boiling my blood
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