{"id":20243,"date":"2018-03-28T23:40:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T03:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20243"},"modified":"2018-03-28T23:40:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T03:40:52","slug":"politics-as-usual-soma-in-the-electronic-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/politics-as-usual-soma-in-the-electronic-age\/","title":{"rendered":"POLITICS AS USUAL: Soma in the electronic age"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Given the current political climate \u2013 especially in light of Putin\u2019s recent huge electoral \u201cvictory\u201d \u2013 I thought it might be worthwhile to re-read all the frightening dystopic novels of my youth \u2013 Aldous Huxley\u2019s \u201cBrave New World\u201d (a favourite), Burgess\u2019 \u201cA Clockwork Orange\u201d, Atwood\u2019s \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d and. of course, the big daddy of them all, Orwell\u2019s \u201c1984\u201d.
\nHonourable mentions also to Orwell\u2019s other masterpiece \u201cAnimal Farm\u201d and Goldring\u2019s \u201cLord of the Flies\u201d. (As a side note, if you like sci fi and liked Lord of Flies, you would love Robert A. Heinlen\u2019s \u201cTunnel in the Sky\u201d)
\nWhy the depressing reading list? If you\u2019re sensing a theme, it\u2019s because I feel right now like we are existing in a bit of a netherworld, where objective reality no longer exists, where facts don\u2019t matter and where the winner of a contest \u2013 or an election \u2013 is whomever the powers that be decide it is before the contest is even held.
\nIf there is an election at all, as was witnessed by the decision in China recently to revise their constitution such that the President is president for life\u2026
\nPutin\u2019s electoral \u201cvictory\u201d is another case in point. No real challengers to his campaign for re-election except for those that posed no real threat at all. Actual competition was squelched and silenced in myriad ways, many of them allegedly violent. But, a show was needed, so there were still \u201cchallengers\u201d to his campaign. Must keep up the illusion that folks have a say in the process of governing.
\nAnd that\u2019s what government and leadership is, in many, many parts of the world \u2013 an illusion. We have been taught for generations that everyone is equal, but for most that isn\u2019t the case, actually. To quote Orwell\u2019s Animal Farm, \u201cAll animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.\u201d
\nCan we be that smug about the sanctity and strength of our own democratic institutions? I\u2019m not so sure. Yes, we all have the right to vote in elections at every level of government. And yes, we have the right to express our political views no matter how ill-informed they may be without fear of being detained or worse. We can put signs on our lawns supporting this candidate or that without worrying about a knock on the door in the middle of the night.
\nHowever, participation in these processes, these bedrock democratic processes, is under threat in this all-encompassing digital age. We are being manipulated on a truly massive scale.
\nThere is strong evidence to suggest that voters in the US presidential election as well as Britain\u2019s Brexit vote were clearly and directly influenced to vote one way and not another as determined by those that bought access to their personal information.
\nIt was reported this past weekend that a data mining firm used the personal information of literally millions upon millions of people to affect a predetermined outcome in both races. As the president of the data firm said, smirking as he spoke (and I\u2019m paraphrasing), \u201cfacts don\u2019t win elections, emotions do\u201d.
\nThat is truly frightening.
\nWe now have elections where the person who seeks to lead through informed, impassioned beliefs loses and the person spouting jingoistic gibberish wins. Why? I think we know the answer. We\u2019re being fed a steady diet of junkfood information \u2013It\u2019s easy to swallow, doesn\u2019t cost much and there\u2019s an awful lot of it \u2013 but it\u2019s making us all addled as a consequence.
\nSoma for the masses indeed\u2026Huxley must be spinning in his
\ngrave.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alison Collins-Mrakas Given the current political climate \u2013 especially in light of Putin\u2019s recent huge electoral \u201cvictory\u201d \u2013 I thought it might be worthwhile to re-read all the frightening dystopic novels of my youth \u2013 Aldous Huxley\u2019s \u201cBrave New World\u201d (a favourite), Burgess\u2019 \u201cA Clockwork Orange\u201d, Atwood\u2019s \u201cThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u201d and. of course, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5gv","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-09 14:36:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}