The Golden Mouth

 I won’t try to interpret Miles Aldridge’s photo above. The title Bold Gold #2 hints rather than tells what Miles wants to say. I will however use the image as a starting point for the thoughts it awakens in me.

We are living in a global village. Events anywhere in the world can reach us with the speed of village gossip. All the gossip in the digitalized global village comes from the mouths of the rulers who speak with one voice. That one voice pours from the golden mouth. It speaks and speaks and speaks all day long. It speaks from radios, TVs, newspapers, magazines, films, books, posters, shop windows and the internet. It says very little, but says the same thing all the time everywhere. It says, “Buy! Fear! Trust us! Obey!”

That’s it. That’s all the golden mouth says,

“Buy! Fear! Trust us! Obey!”

Of course it uses gazillions of words and pictures for each of these commands, but the message is always the same. Think of all the words and pictures to say “Buy!” for example! Surely there is evidence of the buy-message around you right now. And what about “Trust us!” with its backside, “Don’t trust yourself!”

Trust us! Don’t trust yourself!

Why would anyone swallow such a message? Because the golden mouth keeps repeating: We are the experts. We are the authorities. We are the educated. We are the knowledgeable. We have the intelligence. Trust us! You don’t have the knowledge or intelligence to deal with the situation, issue, problem, whatever. Leave this to us! You are not good/knowledgeable/intelligent enough.

And it works. Despite the world of violence, poverty, conflicts, destruction and death the rulers have caused while ravaging the resources of the earth, polluting the air, contaminating the oceans and heating the atmosphere, the people still take what they say seriously. These liars, thieves and murderers with expensive smiles and fancy titles are still treated with respect because of the golden mouth.

Witness what they’ve done with the seasonal flu! They’ve turned it into a tsunami of fear and cause many times more deaths than can ever be attributed to their celebrity virus by dismantling societies throughout the world causing mass isolation, bankruptcies and unemployment with desperation, poverty, homelessness, suicides and criminality in its wake.

And by the way, the four commands, Buy! Fear! Trust us! and Obey! are variations of  one basic command, “Gimme!”

Gimme!

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”Instead of speaking truth to power, speak truth to the people. When enough of the people have learned the truth, they will deal with power.”
Dartwill Aquila

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The West Bank is now the Judea-Samaria area.