The illusion of democracy

At the Confindustria meeting, Mario Draghi received the standing ovation as an Olympic athlete after gold, as a pop singer after the performance, as a violin virtuoso after the concert. A politician adored by the intelligentsia, the media, even the masses (according to polls) inevitably makes headlines, like the famous dog bitten by a man. So, one wonders why. Are we really facing the man of providence, or is there more to investigate, and to understand? Let's turn on the second one and try to explain why.

Just start, as always, with a (further) question: Draghi enjoys a good press because he is a champion, or does he seem a champion because he enjoys a good press? The question does not necessarily have to be limited to the premier. It can be vastly extended: is Covid terrifying because it is a lethal disease, or because it is portrayed as such? Is vaccination a categorical imperative because our conscience tells us it, or does our conscience tell us it because the advertising rigged by science has suggested it? Is the European Union desired because it is a wonderful idea or does it seem a wonderful idea because the entire mainstream universe has been repeating it to us for years? Is the euro in our pockets because we wanted it, or did we want it because they educated us to accept it?

For these, and other similar questions, the answer is simple, and everyone knows it, although (almost) all deny it, even ignore it, indeed refuse even to ask the previous question. A good part of the "important" things in our life are only so by virtue of learned conditioning. Just like the saliva of Pavlov's famous dog who had an appetite at the sound of a bell, instead of the appearance of a bowl, just because the scientist had "programmed" it like this. In our case, the programming is managed by the mass information circuit which, in reality, is a permanent "training" system of consciences. First of all, because the major newspapers, especially television, are not free and independent (an essential requirement of any journalism with ambitions of truth and honesty). In secundis, because they are owned by (often hidden) financial and power centers. The same ones from which the script is written on which the man in the street must literally "build" his own world of meanings, his own horizon of meaning, his own reservoir of prejudices.

In other words, we live in an inverted, and therefore subverted, world. It is not man who evaluates the facts with his own autonomous conscience, it is the facts (masterfully told, and almost always falsified) that shape man's conscience. Which would be such interesting news that it deserves the front page as the aforementioned man biting the poor dog. But this does not happen because those who should inform us too often have the mission, if not the vocation, exactly the opposite: misinforming us in order to "form us".

From this point of view, one wonders whether it still makes sense to speak of democracy in such a context. And, therefore, if we are not all victims of a collective enchantment, of a work of black magic. An alchemy capable of guiding the (overwhelming) majority of us not towards the greater good for all (of which, according to democratic logic, most should be custodians), but towards hidden objectives that are good for very few and very harmful for all others. . It comes to mind the phrase of one who meant democracy (and how to suppress it), and how. Thus Benito Mussolini spoke of it in a letter to the master of all mass manipulation, Gustave Le Bon: "Democracy is the regime that gives or tries to give the illusion to the people of being sovereign". Written ninety years ago. Never as true as today.

Francesco Carraro

www.francescocarraro.com

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The article The illusion of democracy comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/lillusione-della-democrazia/ on Sat, 25 Sep 2021 08:02:31 +0000.