1984 and how we are being enslaved by Populist Promises

His voice thundered. He cursed the Oligarchs while keeping some unto himself as friends. I am not referring to a living personality. I am talking about Adolf Hitler.

I just finished reading Mein Kampf, Hitler's popular autobiography, and if I remember correctly, this is my fifth time. Hitler lived a very interesting life. From relative obscurity to global popularity to eventually, killing himself out of his self-demagoguery.

Hitler's no buffoon mind you. He was a son of a government official. He was an educated man, yet due to some unfortunate circumstances, Hitler suffered. For five years, Hitler lived in the streets of Austria as a struggling artist. He went into the military and from there, discovered his profession.

Hitler associated himself with German intellectuals and in no time at all, found himself leading a movement of change. Yes, Hitler was a change agent. Back then, those Germans who found Hitler as their champion, wanted nothing more than change their country for the better. They meant well. Who, in his right mind, would ever think of destroying one's country?

When Hitler got arrested and thrown into prison for staging a failed putsch, he got himself a writer and wrote his thoughts into a book. If you read the Mein Kampf, it was not as intellectually stimulating as, say reading Marx, Hegels, Kant or as highly entertaining as Marquez, etal but for the Germans, that book became their bible because it bared truths about their existence. It explains in very simplistic terms the dynamics of German politics, how the country was under the capitalist control of the Jews and how foreign powers were keeping German's greatness in check. Hitler painted Germany as a country enslaved by the faults of its past Leaders, yet, still possesses the right qualities to even conquer the world.

That book paved the way for Hitler to ascend the highest position of Power. His eventual ascension as Chancellor and eventually, Head of the third Reich was to some, the end result of a systematic manipulation of German nationalism. Others however, blame the geopolitics of the time. Back then, leaders of the Free World only thought of Hitler as an ordinary chap, a politician like other German politicos. Six years later, with almost five million dead and billions of dollars worth of damage to the global community, did these leaders realized how wrong they were when they underestimated a Hitler.

Is it correct to say that Hitler was the German people's curse? Not exactly. Hitler might have been perceived correctly by his own people back at the time as their savior. Honestly, we can't blame the Germans for believing Hitler. Back at the time, Hitler exactly wrote and precisely told the Germans the truth about their existence. The fault of Hitler was he led his country to the extreme, a path which only idiots and psychotics dare to tread. Had Hitler concentrated on just making Germany a prosperous country and stayed his hand against Germany's traditional enemies, history would have been kinder. That is simply the genetic fault of many Dictators-- they die by their own hand. When you give immense powers to just one man, that man will eventually consider himself as God, and his subsequent actions eventually lead him to perdition. Hitler was simply not the first of these kinds of men. Napoleon, Nero and even King Solomon suffered from the same disease of megalomania. And these men will simply not stop increasing. Expect to see these kinds of men in every generation. It is simply up to that generation if they have the collective will enough to disengage themselves from the spell and spiel of these megalomaniacs.

It's 2017 and we are facing a phenomenal shift towards populism. Many countries, not just in the Philippines, are seeing their democracies crumble under the weight of populist strong man ideas. With surveys showing how high people's frustrations are against their governments and their duty constituted authorities, politicians are pandering on popular sentiments. And the people show their appreciation thru the ballots without even thinking if that's the right thing or not. People are like consumers--they simply care for themselves.

Blame the global financial crisis for this. It created a world-wide environment of uncertainty. People react by expressing anxieties. Worse, adherents of populism tried to rationalize their actions by discrediting democratic pillars like the media, obviously promoting more confusion and more obfuscation of reality.

As people scratch their way out of the economic rut, they become susceptible to first aid talk. Most people became gullible and exploitable by sweet talking demagogues who assume the people's language while hiding their true agendum. By the time these people wake up, they are already under the spell of devious Enchanters who are themselves, oppressors, but now, people's champions.

Read 1984 by George Orwell and that book remains relevant up to this day because it exactly describes what peoples around the world are suffering from--they suffer from false belief aided by mass consumption of fantastic promises of salvation against almost any conceivable problem.

Our world right now is how the producers of Matrix envisioned the future world. Populism enabled the peoples of the world to think everything is secure and normal when the Truth is, they are being sucked dry by aliens who rely on humans for their sustenance and as energy sources.

This is our world. This is our Now. It is up to us if we decide to struggle and wake ourselves up and fight the scourge of philistinism which is slowly affecting our world.

The Way to Enlighten the Masses Against One-Woman Rule

There's an interesting thing going on over at Filipinovoices.com, a collective of Filipino bloggers. Over the past few days, there has been a flurry of exchanges between "fascists" and "anti-fascists", with the first salvo initiated by this so-called "High Priest of Smokes", who claims to be a lawyer with a big ego. His (or her?) arguments border from rational to insanely irrational. Obviously, HP is a staunch defender of the insane, err, Gloria, which, to his credit, seems understandable, given his so-called position in the administration. 

However, from all the trash that he wrote, one thing struck me as a valid observation which I'll be discussing here today--why is there no visible signs of dissent against Gloria? If we are to believe those who oppose her, the people oppose one-man rule. Yet, why is there no cogent opposition from the masses?

Yes, we hear members of civil society, former government officials and civic-minded intellectuals writing pieces against this regime. And yes, we always read stuff that reminds us of those evil times under Marcos. However, despite all of these revelations, the masses remain silent, like Orwell's sheep. 

Thinking about it, the answer lies in how civil society position their propaganda against one-man rule. Whenever we talk about "authoritarianism", "dictatorship" or "martial law", we always associate it with the former Marcos dictatorship, which is understandable, since it is the only regime that imposed martial rule. We have this penchant of always using this formula: martial rule=Marcos, or vice versa.

Yet, we fail to grasp that not all people equate bad things during the dictatorship with the Marcos brand name. In fact, over the past years, we see Marcos running just second in the list of most despicable Philippine leaders, shamelessly behind Gloria the Queen of Enchanted Kingdom. Meaning, for the masses, the concept of martial rule is not as equally bad as Gloria's rule. The People are trying to tell us something here.

What the people are trying to say is leave the brand name Marcos alone. If we are to succeed in convincing the people that martial rule or any authoritarian rule is evil, we need to associate the concept of authoritarianism with the loss of liberties under the present administration.

We need to portray Gloria as the head of a cult of fascists in barongs intent on perpetually governing a freedom-loving Nation. We need people to think and feel that their futures are in peril with the continued governance of these fascists. 

We need to tell the masses that the better concept that would at least ensure a bright future for everyone lies in the concept of the collective---that the future would be more secured if there's a group of leaders who serve as Vanguards of Democracy. The anti-thesis of the concept of one-man rule is collective governance. This concept should be explained more thoroughly to the masses to disabuse their minds that martial rule is not bad.