Who are the Villains?
It’s Not Who We’re Scapegoating
The powerful within our oligarchy would always have you believe that the utterly powerless — the poor, the homeless, and immigrants — are the ones we should fear.
Bull ____!
For the love of God, they are the powerless, penniless, and despised. They don’t influence the world or make big decisions that affect everyone’s lives. Pay attention instead to the bankster gangsters, the predatory money lenders, the Wall Street gangbangers, the financial thugs, and the corporate aristocracy.
Who do you think runs the world?
Certainly not the little guy picking your vegetables alongside his child who is also picking your vegetables. Puh-lease! I have an idea. Maybe it’s the guy with offshore accounts who lives above the law and is never held accountable for anything?
Why is it so difficult for a huge portion of the country to grasp this?
This social dynamic is as old as the hills. Kings, noblemen, emperors, and even our forefathers made sure that people knew their place in the social hierarchy. Our brains have been imprinted with this way of viewing civilization because it’s been going on for so long. There must be someone at the top who wields the power. Those who are allowed to rub shoulders with these chosen individuals also reap benefits. It was always better to live inside the castle wall even if all you did was shine the king’s shoes. Your chances of a few crumbs falling from the king’s table were much higher than if you were a serf toiling outside the castle wall with little to no hope of ever changing your position in society.
Consequently, the rich were the decision-makers.
The serfs had zero power. The rich had all the power and the rich used the serfs to fight their wars and toil in their fields for little to no rewards. It worked. It made the rich richer. They enjoyed the kind of privilege and power that the poor would never experience. They could pass laws that secured their positions for life and beyond, leaving a legacy to their offspring who would go on to reap the same benefits through family connections.
Nothing has changed.
Well, there was a slim chance that things might get better for more people with a democratic approach to running a country but our glorious forefather spoiled that dream by excluding a long list of the powerless. They needed to preserve their positions of wealth and power.
Eventually, we did make an attempt to tweak their democratic experiment to include more people but it was a long, hard fight.
My quarter still doesn’t buy me much when compared to what the one percent can donate to protect their future of wealth and power. Our dwindling middle class, a modern concept that helped to define a first-world country in the 20th century, has little to no power to speak of these days. I suspect if you’re a middle-class person reading this then you already know that. Right?
On second thought, maybe you don’t.
Why? Because the propaganda machine has done a damn good job of shifting blame and scapegoating the most powerless among us. The propaganda machine spins lies in an endless quest to influence the way you vote by camouflaging the goals of those truly in power. Money talks in America. If you want to find the power, follow the money. I contend that even political leaders aren’t wielding the power. They are bought and controlled by those with a lot more money.
My handful of crumpled dollars doesn’t buy me anything.
Until we open our collective eyes to the enormous lies that have taken root in our society perpetuating harmful myths about the powerless posing a threat to our very existence, we will never stand a chance against the true power mongers.
In case you’re wondering, the concept of propaganda dates back to ancient times, but its first widespread use occurred during World War I.
The warring powers used propaganda to motivate their citizens and weaken the enemies will to fight. it became an essential method to convince the opposition to surrender. We live in the age of propaganda, however, unlike anything our ancestors could have imagined.
The internet has allowed the use of propaganda to explode.
Consequently, scapegoating a powerless group of people has become the go-to method of distraction as well as the number one way to divide and conquer. So far the powerless have done a poor job of uniting in order to expose those among us who are deliberately spinning untruths and creating distractions to confuse and divide. There are more of us than them but the only chance we have against them is to pool our resources and our energy, get on the same page, and quit falling for their propaganda. Until we can do that, the story won’t change.
Are we destined to waste our time and precious energy going after a fake enemy?
Quite likely, yes. The psychology behind how propaganda works is pretty predictable. Since we understand human behavior much better than we used to, very effective campaigns can be launched using tactics that almost certainly guarantee a mass response that ultimately benefits the king.
Nothing has changed.
So the rich and powerful continue to rule over the poor and powerless even in a supposed democratic society. The rest of us concentrate our energy and limited resources fighting with one another. It is a highly effective way to ensure that the decision-makers keep doing what they love to do.
They make money while the rest of us fight wars and toil in their fields.
Teresa is an author and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
