Buzzflash: Masterful Machiavellianism

[StClone]

If you read Machiavelli you know it's beyond sales techniques for Kirby Vacuums:

A very informative article regarding the use of language by conservatives provides some helpful insight.(1) The article's premise, based upon the studies of George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley professor of linguistics and cognitive science, is that conservatives have mastered the art of "framing" the issues. Conservatives have spent decades defining their ideas, carefully choosing the language with which to present them, and building an infrastructure to communicate them through think tanks....

Right now the Democratic Party is into marketing. They pick a number of issues like prescription drugs and Social Security and ask which ones sell best across the spectrum, and they run on those issues. They have no moral perspective, no general values, no identity. People vote their identity, they don't just vote on the issues, and Democrats don't understand that.

Conservatives use "framing" tactics to convince the public that all the policies they advocate are good for "the people" when in reality they are not. The Bush administration is quite adept at this. They apply a wholesome name to a policy and the public is somehow convinced that Bush is taking actions in their best interest."



Good read if you haven't already waded through.


http://www.buzzflash.com/southern/04/01/sou04002.html

[MissMarple]

1. Good article. More on Machiavelli from Kevin Phillips'

"American Dynasty" pp.147-148:

" "The great majority of mankind is satisfied with appearances, as though they were realities."

"He advised that "a prince must take great care that nothing goes out of his mouth which is not full of the above named five qualities, and, to see and hear him, he should seem to be all mercy, faith, integrity, humanity and religion." However, because "everybody sees what you appear to be, few feel what you are," a ruler can ignore the mob and devote himself to the interests of the ruling class, gulling the inert majority who constitute the ruled. Borgia references aside, twenty first century American readers of The Prince may feel that they have stumbled on a thinly disguised Bush White House memo."

I think Kevin Phillips is quite alarmed at George&Co.