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Mass Media Technology

The Unbalancing of Democratic Governments

American governments are now created using the same mass media marketing techniques and advertising technologies used to sell

tampons,

laxatives,

hemorrhoidal medications

and toilet paper!

One major obstacle to solving our oil problem is those who we’ve charged to solve the problems . . . the people we’ve elected to our governments. When Tip O’Neil retired from the Congress, his last words was a warning to us about the “sound biters” who were then becoming so prevalent in American politics. Those whose real skill is in self promotion . . . in using the mass media for self promotion and cultivating public images. Modern governments, what we often refer to as ‘democracies’, consist of a system of checks and balances where power is distributed among the governing people. The basic concept is to prevent an individual or a small group of people from having too much power, thereby dominating the rest of us.

The massive infusion into American governments of mass marketing and mass media advertizing techniques has serious skewed that balance of power, to the point our governments have become ineffectual. American politics and politicians have moved into the realm of entertainment, where their skills and abilities are using the mass media for self promotion.

So what happens when these elected representatives are face with real problems? They do what they know how to do best- promote and sell. They try to sell us that there really isn’t a problem or sell us that the opposition is at fault. Having educations from the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and skilled only with marketing themselfs, they have few real alternatives.

James Burke said the purpose of ‘police’ is to keep the bully boys in check so the people can get along with their business. I think that statement applies even more to the primary function of a modern government- to keep the bully boys off the backs of the people, so they can go about their business. And in doing that business, a nation is then able to advance. In particular, that also means keeping any part of the government in check and not repressing the people.

The basic goals of a modern government is to-

          1) Prevent corruption and illegal activities.

          2) Ensure capable qualified people are selected to govern.

          3) Ensure no group has sufficient power to dominate others.

The oil problem, indeed most of our problems, of are a technical nature requiring intellectual skills far above those of self promoters. Few of our representatives have the education necessary to understand and analysis the complex and technically bases problems facing our nation. This is very evident by their continual focus on automobiles as the sole source of our oil problems, while ignoring the importance of petrochemicals. They just don’t have any real understanding of the technological world we live in.

The true measure of an education is the ability to understand the world you live in.

          And in the twenty first century -

                                    That means the mathematics and sciences.

We cannot expect viable solutions from those unable to understand a problem.

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