Don't tell the truth, tell what they want to hear...

Sometimes you glean some interesting facts from that scourge of today, called the Internet. Like most things, the Internet has a good side but also a bad side. It goes along with what people want. Anyway, I read something interesting about fascist teaching. Mussolini, the dictator of Italy from the Twenties to WW2, according to him the foundation of fascist ideology is two things:

1. People are intelligent individually, but are hypnotized in a group.

2. To manipulate a group of people, don’t tell them the truth, tell them what they want to hear.

This is rather interesting as I have thought very similar things, especially about point 1. I am a member of a political party and when I compare what I feel to what I hear, I must admit from time to time you will note a change of ideas. Take Independence. Independence of Wales. I just felt for a long time that Wales could not be independent, since there were no industries of note except coal and iron. Coal mines galore including what I call ‘rape of the country’ and one or two iron/steel manufacturing plants (Port Talbot). Rape of the country meaning the enormous environmental impact of mining and its spoil heaps. I could easily see that this was not sufficient to declare independence. But in group political discussions you would quickly hear the emotional side of things. The ‘nasty’ English who down-changed Wales, trying to destroy the language (Welsh NOT), who even today are infiltrating Wales. Simply because housing is far cheaper. Plus so-called holiday-homes attainable to more prosperous people from over the border. 

Whilst true it would not make a fair base for independence, I think. But the blood gets hot and yes, some hypnotic action makes the brain accept that perhaps independence is a must. Throw the English out, let’s take charge of our own affairs. When you look at point 2 this is exactly what happens, because as it stands you do not hear the truth from any politician, merely platitudes. Just what the group wants to hear and then go home happy. So, what is the reality? Has it changed? Well, the mines have gone, iron/steel is tottering, the economy is weak all over the UK. Comparing income levels and standards of living you would quickly note quite a difference! The income levels in Wales are some 15% lower than in England. I hasten to add that it is rather difficult to obtain a fair idea as some of the governmental websites are incomprehensible and you would need a Cambridge degree in Mathematics to understand them.  

London and its immediate environs has a completely different economic view than the richest South Wales area (the Cardiff-Newport-Swansea line). Talking about those differences in a group quickly will become emotional, particularly when highlighting the Coal mining era and accompanying public deprivations. However, it also has to be said that most Welsh people are pragmatic, dealing with things sensibly and realistically. That sounds good you might think, but it can also mean to submit too quickly to someone else’s demands or ideas. In other words subservient thought processes. In the end we might have to consider that the two points made above are true, especially viewing the actions and words of people like Mussolini and Goebbels but in the end will completely fail when people compare the words with the actions and results! Hence, the political state in the UK will now be more understandable.