The era of the self-imposed dictatorship?

Politics is a mess and a significant portion of the population are fed up with those in power. Whether someone has genuine good intentions or can create a perception of good intention, it is hard to differ from the two for most people. ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’ still has significant relevance.

Money is gained and lost on how certain aspects of society is marketed and the current societal system is fragile.

Our economy and society are based on an unsustainable system of endless growth.

Media power and control

We are living in an era of celebrity obsession and a Consumer Society, where what we look like and what we buy are more important that how we act towards other people. Rupert Murdoch’s recent bid to fully control Sky poses a danger to society itself.

Media power and control is rife, the papers tell us the ‘news’ but half of them like News Corp’s The Sun and The Times, are full of false narratives and twisted truths. We live in a dictatorship, however, not in the traditional sense.

We live in a Self-imposed Dictatorship where the media is the controlling power, it is where we get our news and information from.

But it is full of half-truths, misinformation and outright lies. This means when an outlet or individual do tell the truth, it is often claimed as a lie because it is vastly different from everything else.

Self-imposed dictatorship

What this means is as a society we have allowed consumerism and media power get out of control, and dictate vast amounts of aspects of our lives. Many use the power of the internet to this exact means by creating fake news websites to promote an opinion as fact.

A leader doesn’t impose this form of dictatorship but society itself does and it is the ‘democratic will of the people’ that cements this idea within the conscious of society. When those who supported to leave the EU, cite the ‘will of the people’ it discounts nearly half of those who voted and completely discounts those who couldn’t vote.

The decision must consider the concerns of everyone not just 52% of people who voted, where is the democracy in that? But far too many people continue to use the phrase ‘will of the people’ and this amalgamates the idea that this is how democracy works.

The media openly attacked British Judges who said that our government had to follow the law but The Daily Mail said this was an attack on democracy itself. Society is too open to be told how to think and within this consumer society we are told what to buy, what to wear and what is best for us. The regressive left is vocal at shutting down debate and right populism is on the rise again, but this is being allowed to thrive.

We live in a post-fact era where experts are disregarded as not having the ability to be impartial, and that they have an agenda.

But those who are telling us that the experts have an agenda and thus unable to be impartial, are not being questioned about the possibility of themselves having an agenda.

Taking back control?

The campaign led by Vote Leave during the EU referendum was powerful because it fed the anti-establishment rhetoric and fears that we weren’t really in control. There is truth to their rhetoric however, it was directed at the wrong organisation.

Without EU support that control fades even further from every one of us, but this was the ‘will of the people’ which means it would be ‘undemocratic’ to question the result and who gains from it. The biggest winner is Murdoch and his media empire will grow to tell us further how to think and who to blame for our issues.