We all know that we are in a soundbite world. It doesn’t matter if you spend your life on the phone, just read news feeds, or watch TV for a few minutes a day, we are all subjected to information in soundbites, usually given to us at lightning speed, rather like being on the wrong end of a machine gun. I have to admit I have never understood how anyone can think that such a barrage of information has any chance of being remembered in any detail. It’s gone two seconds after it first appears, and is replaced by something else that also lasts two seconds. Why any advertiser, with an ounce of common sense, could possibly think that they are getting their money’s worth out of such a system of communication, I have no idea. Clearly the cost per second has something to do with it but, balanced against the negative impact of such intrusion in our lives, you would think they would realise that the overall effect is actually negative to their purpose. The only people that gain in this communication fiasco are the advertising agencies and the media companies that are the conduit for the barrage.
That’s all bad enough, but there are consequences to this barrage of bits and pieces of information that impact our lives in many debilitating ways, some of which are downright dangerous. The technique of flooding our senses with “noise” can be used deliberately to mask what is actually happening under the radar of this flood. It is all-too-easy to use this communication method to divert attention away from underlying goals until almost any nefarious purpose has been achieved. I want to discuss one such consequence in this blog, which is related to how we have become indoctrinated to think this form of machine-gun approach to communication is normal, and even desirable. I am talking about the current antics of Donald Trump and his acolytes.
I am constantly amazed that so many people respond to questions about the legality, the effect on lives of ordinary people, the chaos caused by the tariff shenanigans, and the downright lies and intimidations coming out of the current White House by saying something to the effect of “well, at least he is getting something done”. Those sorts of responses seem to totally ignore the content of those actions and seem to focus solely on their rapid-fire approach. It seems we have been indoctrinated into believing that this approach is good for us, and worse, is normal. The constant bombardment by soundbite announcements seems to have become attractive, even desirable, regardless of how dangerous, inane or illegal they might be. In a soundbite world, it is the volume not the content that matters.
Trump has capitalized very effectively on this newish reality that has infiltrated the American electorate. The sheer volume of executive orders, the “on-the-fly” decisions, and the constant appearance on “all media, all-at-once”, caters perfectly to this new “norm”. However, there is also a nefarious strategy underlying his adoption of this soundbite approach; it leaves no time for anyone to absorb, understand or, heaven forbid, think about the consequences of his “soundbites”. That allows him to covertly implement his ideas without any checks and balances because there simply isn’t time to react. As I said, it works extremely well and leaves any opposition way behind in the dust – the U.S. Congress and the Democratic Party being two prime examples.
There is an argument that says Trump isn’t bright enough to have designed this nefarious approach by himself, but it doesn’t really matter if he is just a puppet of the Heritage Foundation’s program, or not. We are being conned on a daily basis, and the plan is working only too well. That means we could be in a dictatorship before we know it, and maybe we are by most measures provided by world history. Domestically, that might be irreversible without a civil war if we let it go on for too long – waiting for the congressional mid-term elections is way too late. Trump could easily decide, in the meantime, that elections cost an absolute fortune, which is certainly true, and therefore should be abolished, leaving him as dictator for life.
On the world stage, his antics could well result in a situation that only a world war could correct – Xi’s invasion of Taiwan and Putin’s takeover of Ukraine as the two most obvious examples.
The consequences of soundbites delivered in machine gun fashion are ominous, to put it mildly, and, potentially, downright dangerous and life-threatening to the nation. Unfortunately, a large portion of the electorate will be cheering it on, based solely on what they have become accustomed to in a soundbite world, and the fact that they think “something is happening” is positive, regardless of the content.
Here endeth my pulpit lesson for this week.
