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Children are the political tool of choice in the hands of shameless propagandists

Policy-making has been with us since the dawn of humanity and generally its rules are timeless. Governments, heads of states, diplomats, religious leaders – whether they are part of the establishment or in opposition – have employed various instruments in a bid to tip the balance of the power play to their advantage. These included propaganda, finances, religions or ideologies and – the most powerful of all – emotions. It is, however, the twentieth century that made extensive use of… children. Not that the instrument was not known earlier: the reader will have remembered the Children’s Crusade of the Middle Ages, for instance.

With the advent of the visual mass media – photography, film footage, television, the internet – this present-day biblia pauperum, the lay and religious leaders alike have learnt to how make a highly emotional appeal to the public through children. The effectiveness of this instrument cannot be overrated. Why, we are – men and women – biologically hardwired to positively respond to a child’s facial expressions. If you want to gain support for aid directed toward a far-away country, you post pictures of children’s lovely faces, now sad, now smiling – whichever better suits the purpose at a given time and place – and the hearts and minds of the receivers of the message are sure to be won over. That’s the power of an innocent child’s face, as we are accustomed to saying.

Nowadays presidents, prime ministers, monarchs – some of them intentionally childless! – and popes like to be filmed with or photographed in the company of children. The message is clear: someone who likes children is good, intends no harm. The little ones are not only used to elevate a politician’s image but also to advance and advocate a policy.

Case in point: Engelsina Markizova. She ran up to Joseph Stalin during a state celebration, he picked her up and gave her a hug, and the images of this even showing in a simple manner the humaneness of the top communist leader were later popularized throughout the Soviet Union. Continue reading →

The revolution of the petty bourgeoisie

The 2008 financial disaster marked the beginning of a deep identity crisis in the West. After the collapse of American Lehman Brothers, governments around the globe began to support their financial institutions with unlimited amounts of tax money. Small and middle size companies would bankrupt and people in the United States continued to be evicted from their houses while the financial elite would receive a handsome amount of public support. In other words: socialism for Wall Street, capitalism for Main Street. It became painfully clear that the free market and capitalism did not work for the banks and financial institutions.

Then followed the euro crisis, with Greece’s debt at its centre. Particular European economies are suffering from the imbalance between income and a rising public debt. In 2015 it was apparent that the European leadership had no solution for Greece let alone for similar problems that will soon inevitably emerge in Spain, France and Italy.

Gefira Financial Bullletin #30 is available now

  • The portents are not good
  • Possessed by an ideology: The re-emergence of Marxism
  • The Green Party, Communists and Governing Corporations

During the 2008-2015 time frame there was a widespread opposition among the common against the financial establishment, European governments and the monetary system. The resentment was stoked by the perception that the whole system was unfair against the normal working man. In 2015 radical left-wing politician Alexis Tsipras took office in Greece and socialists like Yanis Varoufakis, Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders became the protectors of the middle and working classes. The political climate seems perfect for the socialists and yet socialist parties are declining.

It is not merely inequality that matters. Most Western countries are implementing a redistribution of wealth from the middle to the lower classes. For example, in the Netherlands a family with one working adult and a yearly income of 20 thousand gets 7 thousand euros in subsidies, thus pocketing 27 thousand, whereas a person having a 31 thousand income must pay 3 thousand euros in tax, and since he receives no subsidies, he lands up with 28 thousand euros. For all practical purposes 10 thousand difference in income comes to naught.

In 2015 Europe was confronted with an invasion of immigrants of biblical proportions. Sweden had been replacing its own shrinking population with people from the Third World for a long time earlier, but it was in that year that suddenly the common people began to realize that this demographic process, slow though it may be, has become unstoppable.

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Macron – No taxation without representation

Source: Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock.com

The mass protests on the streets of French cities recall the first years of the American War of Independence. In the years before and during the American Independence Movement, the resentment that independence advocates harboured was that the Thirteen Colonies were obliged to pay taxes to the British Crown without being represented in the British Parliament by their own elected deputies. The slogan of the founding fathers of American democracy at the time was “No taxation without representation”. Nowadays it could be inscribed on the flags of the Yellow Vests, the movement that opposes additional taxation by Macron’s government. The government represents the interests of the Brussels technocrats, i.e. bankers and large corporations, and not those of the French people. Brussels does not allow holes in the state budget, does not tolerate anyone who does not abide by its fiscal guidelines. The French were persuaded that they retained sovereignty, although for years the princes from Brussels (commissioners of the revolution against sovereignty of states – Timmermans, Juncker and others) have been setting the course for France. Although the French deputies allegedly represent their people in the European Parliament, they are not proposed directly by the people, but by the parties. Most voters have swallowed the bait for years that the parties act in their interests, but even the dimmest dummy gets wise over the years. Voters in the 21st century must not be treated as they were in the 19th: the first cracks in the beautiful image of the handsome president, whom the German media describe as “visionary”, appeared when he reduced property tax on real estate. French citizens could not swallow it. Though the move was supposed to keep money in the country, Macron was denounced by low earners as the “president of the rich”.

The riots on the French roads are mainly due to the standard of living. The more abrupt the drop in the standard of living, the more violent the riots. What happened in a welfare state that was Greece 20 years ago also seems to be a future scenario for France: a gradual impoverishment of society until the outbreak of the next social and political revolution. Even now, 3 million unemployed people in France live on the subsistence minimum, and the proponent of Merkel’s refugee policy and ex-investment banker from the Rothschild Bank, who strangely enough turned into a quasi-socialist, claims that in France “just walking across the street is enough to find a job”.His idea of additional taxation of the fuel was the last straw that broke the camel’s back after thirty, forty years of the failed politics of the Paris elites. The commuters from the outskirts of the city and the losers of globalisation in the province who spend a large part of their income on fuel would hardly make ends meet with the new prices. The lord of the Élysée Palace doesn’t care. He orders a porcelain set for 500,000 million eurosand the Élysée’s budget of 109 million euros a year is three times higher than that of the German Chancellery. Continue reading →