scapegoatWe can be trained or can train ourselves not to use our common sense on different issues or to protect ourselves from involvement using word triggers.

Like when president Obama was being accused of being a socialist? The world looks around wondering – so what? Chance would be a fine thing But to a whole lot of Americans, this is an outrageous insult, not so much because of what the word describes, but more what it symbolises to a highly indoctrinated section of the American public.

Part of the process of dis-empowering folk from being active politically is vilification. Terms such as radical, Marxist, class, lefties, activist, communist, socialist, anarchist and such like can be used as terms of abuse at any given moment for no other reason than to deflect attention from the issue or the point of the debate. whingeing lefties, politicos and such like were favourits of Margaret Thatcher

We can protect ourselves from being involved through using the above terms as vilification, to disconnect ourselves; a kind of protective scapegoat that we can banish into the wilderness of indifference.

Hearing folk say. “I’m not political.” This is a symptom of the process of indoctrination, it is a statement carrying no rational understanding of what politics means. It is also very worrying that this statement is so pervasive in western society today and a reminder of the work that needs to be done in building a new one.