Mar 212013
 

Educate or Unfriend? That is the Question … or at least one of the questions to which Duncan Harley explores possible answers.

Unless you were a resident of that far off planet Mars, it would have been difficult to avoid all the media coverage regarding the events surrounding the recent election of Pope Francis.

The radio and television news fed a constant stream of comment interspersed with iconic views of the Sistine Chapel chimney emitting various shades of smoke according to how the latest voting had gone plus interviews with commentators explaining the secret voting process and providing background information to what is a fairly major event for the estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world.

The Catholic Church claims just over four million members in England and Wales and another 695,000 in Scotland.

Out of a total UK population of about 60 million, that means about one in 12 people in Great Britain and around 7.5% of the population of Scotland are Catholic. Significant numbers indeed!

On the day after the election of the new, media coverage of course switched to new topics such as the upcoming budget in the UK and the rather unusual decision by the Cypriot Parliament to commit economic suicide by imposing taxes on bank deposits.
The tabloids and broadsheets of course lagged behind by one day since the nature of printed news means that it is often out of date even as the presses are running.

Newspapers such as the Guardian ran with “Buona Sera, Pope Francis” as a leader and Aberdeen’s Press and Journal somewhat predictably led with “Crashes and chaos as thick snow sweeps in” under a banner reading “Hats off to the ladies” and “Fun times roll for Olly Murs”

All good informative and jolly stuff really!

Then social media sites such as Facebook began to fill up with posts referring to the new pope. Some were polite and informative, some were humorous but good mannered and some were very nasty indeed.

The first two categories I think are generally acceptable in that comment and humour go hand in hand with democracy and hopefully informed debate. The latter kind of comment is simply unacceptable in any civilised country. I suspect that the “unfriend” button on many folks walls may need replacing following unexpected comments by folk they thought they knew.

The UK and indeed Scotland have many ethnic and religious minorities and from time to time evidence of bigotry emerges against many of these. Immigrants, blacks, Jews, gays and Muslims all get the odd verbal battering from the misinformed within our population.

Bigotry can be defined as the state of mind of a bigot. Someone who, as a result of their prejudices, treats other people with hatred, contempt and intolerance on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, language or socio-economic status.

In an attempt to address such issues we in Scotland have the much criticized “Offensive Behaviour Act” covering football grounds, public places and pubs and clubs.

It’s difficult to evaluate the success or otherwise of such legislation, but at least the existence of the act recognises that there is, or has been, a problem.

In addition the UK press is now likely to adhere to certain standards when publishing news and comment or face the wrath of the courts. Leveson for all its failures in implementation has at least exposed certain segments of the press to severe scrutiny.

But what about the internet?

The net is an area largely ungoverned and uncensored. There are systems in place which allow censorship, and recent closures of file sharing sites point to the fact that where money is involved, sites can be closed down. The blogosphere in particular is awash with individuals and organisations commenting on anything you could possibly think of and indeed lots of things you had never even thought of!

There is a quotation attributed to Herman Goering which reads as follows:

“it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

If you look at the internet in the light of the above quote it should be clear that the ball game has changed big time and that the masses now have a very loud voice indeed. The London Riots and the Arab Spring have in their opposing ways proved the point that social media is a powerful force for action and change. Neither would have been likely to have gained momentum without the communication means now available to ordinary folk.

Gone are the days when a slogan painted on a wall proclaiming “No Proddies Here” or “English Out Remember 1314” was a call to action or intimidation and thank goodness indeed.

The laptop and the mobile phone can reach out across the globe though. It would be a shame if the folk who write and digitally publish poisonous and inflammatory content caused a contraction of freedom of expression via censorship.

The motivations for censorship can of course range from well intentioned desires to protect children from unsuitable content to authoritarian attempts to control a nation’s access to information. No matter what the censors’ reasons are, the end result is the same: access is denied to “unsuitable content”

Internet censorship isn’t just a parental or governmental tool. There are many software products on the market designed to limit or block access to specific web sites. Most people know these programs as Web filters. Censorship opponents have another name for them: Censorware.

The internet may be a crucial stage at present. Control of content is still largely in the hands of the users. However if we allow the offensive content to increase it is certain that censorship will increase and possibly at a very fast rate.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said:

“The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract”

But Ogden Nash said:

“The door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.”

I don’t know which view is correct but it might be time to reflect on whether to “unfriend” or try to educate the bigots of this world.

Sources:

Catholic Numbers: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-21443313 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11297461
Population figures: http://www.scotland.org/about-scotland/the-scottish-people/population-of-scotland
Offensive Behaviour Act: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/14/scotland-religious-hatred-football-law
Quotes: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/21729-the-door-of-a-bigoted-mind-opens-outwards-so-that

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Mar 302012
 

Midway between that referendum and the forthcoming council elections,  Old Susannah takes a look at the nature, effect and effectiveness  of propaganda. By Suzanne Kelly.

Tally Ho! The weather in Aberdeen has been glorious; half of the town seems to have been at the beach or Torrymelinos this past Sunday; even the dolphins showed up to add to a beautiful spring day. I just finished reading Adam Ardrey’s book ‘Finding Merlin’, which I review elsewhere in Aberdeen Voice.

Ardrey makes some interesting observations in this book. Between this and a thread on Facebook where a city employee set out to defend the City’s publication ‘Our Green Times’ which uses (whether deliberately or not) several propaganda techniques, Old Susannah has been thinking about ways in which people are being manipulated by those in power.

Ardrey’s book and other works show that what little we think we know today about Merlin and Arthur had been deliberately garbled by the propaganda arm of the young Christian church. There was a huge power struggle between the existing druidic tradition (where education was prized, men and women were largely equal) and the new Christian movement.

The church needed to seize power and to instil fear and respect in the populace in order to survive and become supreme. The old ways favoured a system of meritocracy for choosing kings; the church used politics and propaganda, and chose to favour hereditary government. The church could not allow any alternative religion or opposition of any kind to exist.

So the druid Merlin was referred to as a madman and a conjurer in Christian-controlled texts of the times, and non-Christians were lumped into one group called ‘pagans’ and ‘heathens’.

The Christian church’s use of propaganda was skilful, and it pretty much ensured druidic tradition was purged from the records. Only in coded form or in ridicule would the church allow its opponents to be referred to at all. The new religion’s propaganda was sometimes brutal, sometimes subtle – but in the end it won.

Thank goodness today people come to positions of power and influence because of their abilities and not because of money and connections. Take Donald Trump for instance (please – just take him), or some of our amazingly-gifted local politicians and ACSEF members.

They don’t rely on connections, money or propaganda; we love them for everything they’ve done to us – sorry,  ‘for us’. We can rely on our governments to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Sure we can.

Just look at the fantastic Phase 2 consultation for the tree planting.

No one objected to the scheme! Result! Of course no one knew at the time there would be a deer cull and most of the trees (89,000 plus) would be plunked on Tullos Hill (as the info had been deliberately withheld), but there you go. And surely no one in power would use ridicule to discredit or suppress vocal opponents?

  we are constantly being bombarded with subtle propaganda tactics, which can be quite effective

It’s not as if the work of weapons expert Hans Blix was in any way devalued when he said that Iraq did not have secret stashes of ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ (this expression, ‘WMD; is itself an example of creating a propaganda phrase which caught on).

Dr. Kelly (RIP), the government advisor, was labelled a ‘Walter Mitty type’ by government mandarins for his courageous stand against the propaganda that led to the Iraq Invasion. Dr Kelly paid for his principles with his life. In fact the whole case for this bloody war was based on a dossier that was ‘sexed up’ – i.e. blatantly amended and turned into propaganda. This was done by the top propagandists of our times: Blair and Campbell.

But we are constantly being bombarded with subtle propaganda tactics, which can be quite effective. Believe it or not, this even happens here in Aberdeen! Perhaps our kindly, benevolent government just wants to help us by digesting facts for us, skipping the ones that might upset us, and painting a rosy picture for us to swallow without question. Quite nice of them, really.

One person, however, wants to analyse the secrets of the propagandist and ruin the party.
See: http://history.howstuffworks.com/historians/propaganda1.htm

Time (finally) to get on with some propaganda-based definitions…

Fear: (noun) state of alarm or terror. In propaganda terms, ‘fear’ is deliberately employed to influence people’s thoughts and actions.

Surely no one would ever employ fear as a propaganda weapon against the good people of Aberdeen? Well, there was the little matter of fear-based propaganda over the gardens: build them or no companies will come to Aberdeen to set up shop was the message that pretty A3 colour flyer and the BIG partnership put about.

Of course BiG is really, really subtle when it comes to propaganda, as we’ve seen recently. While you got this message in a Technicolor brochure, your employer may well have been writing to you to say you should vote for the web. The combined message was: ‘Worried about money? Then you better support the web and we’ll all be rich and have jobs.’

Fear was used on us – and it was used by the secretive group Vote for the City Gardens Project which was accountable to no one – but which certainly put out a nice quantity of propaganda. Old Susannah has copies of the lovely A3 colour leaflet, and is considering whether to frame them or recycle as a cat tray liner. I’ll get back to you on my decision.

Here’s a decision which I have made.

According to my sources, some of those who participated in and/or financed and/or were connected to the secretive ‘Vote for the City Gardens Project’ included:

Stewart Milne (no introduction needed)
Mary Martin (of the Douglas Hotel)
Sandy Clark
Mike Wilson
Colin Manson
Tommy Dreelan

I am sure these modest heroes who helped voters choose sides won’t mind my mentioning them now. However, if any of those named above writes to deny any involvement with VFTCGP, then I will be more than happy to remove their name from my list and issue an apology. If any other VFTCGP supporters or financers who wish to step up to receive the grateful public’s thanks, then please do get in touch. But on with our definitions.

Stop Government Propaganda Now: (noun) American legislation supported by GW Bush (really) which sought to make it a criminal offense for government to influence media to push particular stories, skew the truth, or to hide information.

Has anything like that happened in Aberdeen? Would the local media allow itself to be used? Would local media favour its higher-spending advertisers? Hmmm.

But the city government has its own periodicals including ‘Our Green Times’. The supporter of this periodical who was flying its flag on Facebook quite rightly pointed out that the thing costs time and money to create (taxpayer money mind).

Old Susannah was in an interesting Facebook thread with a city employee who is involved in the publication of Aberdeen City’s PR ‘newspaper’, ‘Our Green Times. Consciously or not, the person who made these posts used several more types of tools straight out of the ‘Propaganda For Dummies’ handbook. The first was:

Name-calling: (noun) Propaganda tool which seeks to both deflect attention away from any actual issues, and create a negative stereotype to brand groups of people with. Name-calling can become widely used (the word ‘CHAV’ being a good example), or it can be something subtle.

The Facebook defender of Aberdeen City’s publication, ‘Our Green Times’ somehow came up with a category of people he called ‘campaigners’, and the implication was made that campaigners were failing to see all the good things going on in the city, and focused on the negative.

Gee. ‘Campaigners’ – the word evokes right-on, aggressive militants with placards, if not extremists. Yet when it comes to issues such as Union Terrace Gardens, the Tullos Hill situation, and the swingeing budget cuts, there is no wider cross-section of ‘campaigners’ to be found. I call them ‘people’ myself. But he’s tried to establish that there is a negative group of people, and they are to be lumped together and called ‘campaigners’ for criticising the city.

Card-stacking: (noun)to present only information which makes a positive public impression – and in so doing gives the impression – whether deliberate or otherwise – that there are no negative issues.

This is in many ways the most serious form of propaganda weapon. In the words of the author of the article published in ‘how stuff works’ in the above link:-

“… the bad stuff is left out entirely. …. this type of propaganda technique presents a lopsided and unrealistic viewpoint that is dangerously deceptive.”

Sorry, but the above description fits exactly with what ‘Our Green Times’ does. In its pages there are no deer culls, no high pollution figures for Wellington Road, and no urban sprawl issues.

By now the Facebook discussion thread was growing by leaps and bounds. Another poster asked our man from ‘Our Green Times’ about several environmental issues. The reply that came back? ‘FFS’. (Old Susannah is told this is a rather rude expression, but I certainly have no idea what it means and no intention of defining it).

Yet another poster showed up to defend ‘Our Green Times;’ she ridiculed the guy who’d asked the questions.

Ridicule: (noun) to belittle by poking fun at something or someone; in propaganda terms, this is an old standby favourite. If you can get your opponent laughed at, then you are on your way.

Old Susannah will put her hand up: I have actually believed one or two people in power in our fair city deserving of a bit of ridicule; some readers may have seen small traces of this in previous columns. Historically, the English literally belittled Napoleon – he was jokingly called a small man. Truth was, he was taller than Nelson.

Old Susannah could go on about other propaganda tools such as ‘transfer’ and ‘Greenwash’ (to pretend to be greener than you are to win acceptance ), but you get the idea.

We were blitzed with propaganda over the City Garden Project, and in the run up to the May elections, we will be bombarded with yet more. I’d just like to suggest strongly to everyone to take on board that these techniques exist, and to be alert for when they are used on you.

By all means apply the same criteria to everything you read in The Aberdeen Voice too.

The Voice will take articles and writing from anyone on any subject, so long as it meets legal requirements for publication. The Voice has no agenda of its own; it has printed items on both sides of issues such as the Menie Golf Course and the AWPR. It has no advertisers to keep happy, only readers to hopefully inform, entertain, and amuse.

Mar 292012
 

Aberdeen Voice received an advance copy of Adam Ardrey’s book, ‘Finding Merlin The Truth Behind The Legend’.  Suzanne Kelly read the work and found not a sword-in-the-stone work of sorcery, but a well-constructed case for Merlin’s being a historical figure – from Strathclyde. Suzanne explains.

‘Merlin’ is a very compelling work which attempts to unravel the famed tale of Merlin and Arthur.

Virtually every corner of the UK lays claim to being the true home of the actual historical figures which were morphed by time and embellishing writers into the heroic figure of Arthur and the magical figure of Merlin.

The emergent Catholic church played a significant role in what was and what was not recorded of the Sixth Century world of Merlin. If you are looking for a tale of Camelot or a mystical account of the age and its people, you will be disappointed.

If on the other hand you have some curiosity as to what forces shaped the era, who were the key players and what motivated them, and if you are receptive to new theories as to whom Merlin may have been, then you’ve found a great resource in this book.

The author has a legal background, and has the ability to conduct research on a wide range of subjects. Ardrey offers impressive, thought-provoking, logical theories and clearly explains the rationale behind his well-constructed conclusions.

He notes that spellings varied greatly and were largely phonetic; he examines literature and fiction from several centuries, and offers insights into what truths may be hidden behind allegory and myth. He takes fantastic tales of fantasy, strips away the clearly impossible elements and seeks grains of truth using wholly reasonable deductive logic. There are coincidences in his family name, Ardrey, and some of the areas he comes to research which make the work all the more personal and intriguing.

If as the author suspects Merlin and his sister Langoureth were born in Strathclyde, then he has also found many jigsaw puzzle pieces to support the claim. Explanations of the term ‘Pendragon’ are offered, suggesting that this was a title and not an individual’s name. The influence of St Mungo and his evangelical, ambitious promotion of the young Christian church come into direct conflict with the older way of life championed by Merlin. All this religious conflict was set in the age of constant warfare between the British people and the Angles.

If the author is correct then Merlin had a formidable sister in Langoureth, queen of Rhydderch; she was well-educated and powerful, and likely used great diplomacy to balance Mungo and the new church with Merlin and the old ways.

It would be unfortunate if the author is correct and a burial site which may have been Merlin’s was opened nearly 200 years ago and its contents are now lost. But I found myself buying into many of Ardrey’s theories, and unfortunately I think he may be correct on this point as well.

For me ‘Merlin’ was an absorbing, thought-provoking read; one I can happily recommend.

More Info –  Finding Merlin The Truth Behind The Legend

Buy ‘Merlin’ at Amazonwww.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Merlin

Image credit:  http://finding-merlin.com/