by system failure
Here are
some methods and tactics of disorientation of public opinion from the
systemic establishment during the Greek crisis. Of course, they can
be called “conspiracy theories” from those who do not believe
them.
Contrived disagreements
Contrived
disagreements between government partners. Are used to give the
impression that since there are disagreements between government
partners, there is a factor inside the government coalition that can
impose red lines and negotiations at least on some issues in order to
maintain some benefits for the people, and also give the impression
that there are no pre-decided facts. In this case, the role of the
“bad guy” must be played by the ex-liberals and current
neoliberals of the Greek Right-wing, against the more “sensitive”
to people's rights “Socialists” and moderate Leftists of PASOK
and Dimocratiki Aristera (Democratic Left) respectively.
Contrived
disagreements between government officials and representatives of the
troika. Are used to persuade the public that the government resists
against some of the troika demands without saying “yes to all”.
Since all the measures that the creditors want have already decided
and agreed, the troika representatives will possibly quit from some
of the additional measures that they demand, in order to help the
Greek government to stabilize its position by giving the picture of a
government which is negotiating and resisting at some level. The more
the creditors will gain, the better for the full success of the Greek
experiment. In this case, the role of the “bad guy” must be
played by the representative of IMF Poul Thomsen, a role that the
Greek media gave to him, in order to present him as the most
relentless between the troika representatives, as if he is taking
decisions alone without any guidance.
Contrived
disagreements between the troika representatives. Are used to give
the impression that the troika representatives often take decisions
independently due to their knowledge and experience, and that they
express freely their disagreements, and also, that there is no group
of specific interests at least in a European level that promotes
specific policies by guiding them. The disagreements have passed
currently at a higher level between the European creditors and IMF,
in order to justify the supposed different approaches of the
creditors. However, at this higher level, it is the European
creditors that appear more relentless, demanding more cuts in
pensions and wages than the IMF. All these bad tactics and
misalignment between the creditors and the Greek bank-occupied media
of systemic propaganda, reveal for one more time, that the only goal
they have is to promote specific neoliberal policies for the benefit
of the big capital and banking interests. Besides, Christine
Lagarde's recent statement about the need for more cuts in wages in
Greece in the name of competition, as well as the troika's demand
that the Greek government should not ask now the nearly 500 million
euros from the Greek banks which they owe to the Greek state only
from the first bailout package back in 2008 but proceed to further
cuts in wages and pensions instead, reveals clearly the full
alignment between the troika parts which are dedicated to their real
goal.
Methods
of disorientation
"Cleaning"
operations of illegal immigrants from the government. Are used to
disorientate the public from the new cruel measures. Through this
tactic, the government aims to regain the part of the society which
is most vulnerable to the repercussions of illegal immigration, by
giving the impression that is determined to deal directly with the
problem. In this case, the role of the mainstream media is also
critical.
Disorientation
of the public opinion through the mainstream media news and stilted
discussion shows. The systemic journalists are using phrases-cliche
like “the people cannot bear any more”, “the rich must pay”
etc, giving the impression that are sympathize with the majority,
while on the other hand, they announce continuous cuts in pensions
and wages and refering to the inability of the state to proceed in
the so called “structural reforms”, which refer exclusively to
the shrinking of the public sector and the privatizations. In this
case, they are usually using the phrase “small and flexible public
sector” suggesting in reality more job cuts in the public sector
avoiding to support this straightly. On the other hand, the pressure
for privatizations is used as a blackmail, since the same journalists
support that, if the privatizations had been made fast, the
government could avoid the pressure of the troika for more cuts in
pensions and wages. But they are hiding the fact that the fast-track
privatizations in reality mean, for a start, basically three things:
further job cuts in the name of the viability of any private
corporation, further tax cuts for the big capital as an exchange for
undertaking the “problematic” public sector businesses and
services, and selling at extremely low prices - much below their real
value - the public sector businesses to the big capital that supports
government, among which can be found the owners of the largest
private media for which the systemic journalists are working.
Additionally,
the mainstream media “discover” every day various cases of deceit
and corruption which refer exclusively to corrupted public sector
employees, people that do not have the right to receive pension, or
other similar cases, giving the impression that the problem comes
exclusively from this type of corruption, in order to hide the big
responsibilities of the banks. On the other hand, they are using a
language of triumphalism when a new bank merging is about to happen,
supporting that this is good for the economy. While in reality, the
bank mergings create “Too Big to Fail” banks, stronger bank
cartels that will demand more and more bailout packages at the
expense of the taxpayers, putting the national economy at an
increasingly worse position and loading the future generations with
more debt.
The
hypocrisy of the bankers is remarkable since they announce that they
are willing to pay the 500 million that they owe only from the first
bailout package, while on the other hand they are mobilizing their
connections and influence inside the troika so that the troika now
asks from the Greek government not to “disturb” banks by asking
them to pay, but to proceed instead to further cuts as an easy
alternative source for the equivalent amount.
Recent
examples of disorientation operations
On 27 July
of 2012 the big scandal of “selling” the healthy part of the
public bank Agrotiki to the private bank Piraeus is finalized. Just
three days before, on 24 July of 2012, Panagiotis Roumeliotis -
ex-representative of Greece in IMF and currently vice chairman at
Piraeus bank – in a statement to NY Times supports that: “We
knew at the fund from the very beginning that this program was
impossible to be implemented because we didn’t have any successful
example...”. The statement was spread rapidly from the Greek media.
With this “honest confession”, Roumeliotis says something that
nearly everyone knows: that the IMF policies have been followed
dogmatically since they have been unsuccessful everywhere they
applied. The bankers are playing the card of IMF, knowing that nearly
noone believes in its good intensions anyway, in an attempt to
distract the pubic attention from the big scandal which is about to
come three days later.
However, it
seems that during the next days this tactic was about to fail, since
a significant part of the opposition in the Greek parliament as well
as several indepentent Greek blogs and websites were speaking clearly
about a big scandal refering to the “selling” of Agrotiki bank to
Piraeus bank, while they were revealing all the details of this
action, something which the mainstream media rushed to hide through a
simple announcement. Next, as more and more people were focusing on
the real scandal, Roumeliotis was called to testify to the
authorities in order for his statement to gain officialy the
appropriate importance, in a new attempt to distract the public
attention. The official state was fully co-ordinated with the banking
establishment to distract the public attention, while normally, the
state authorities should have call the architects of the real scandal
to give explanations about the fact that the healthy part of a public
bank was given to a private bank with the money of the taxpayers and
the “garbage” remains were loaded to them.
Ghost lists
of names involved with political corruption. The government is trying
to appear as determined to fight against the political corruption and
the big tax fraudsters which sent illegally their money abroad.
Therefore, there is a possibility of contrived supposed leaks or real
blackmails between politicians and people who involved with political
corruption. But, as usual, noone knows nothing. Politicians are
making public statements-cliche like “deep research must be done
immediately” or “everything must be revealed” etc, in order to
appear as they have nothing to hide. However, the unwillingness of
the state to chase the tax fraudsters is quite obvious. The
government is trying to find excuses, more than two years now,
claiming that the lists of the tax fraudsters came through
interception and therefore it has no legal right to check their
deposits, or, that the authorities of Switzerland do not allow the
checking of the bank deposits, or various other excuses. Therefore,
this disorientation tactic fails dramatically.
All the
above are just an example. Anyone can find much more to add.
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