I’ve been thinking about how we were domesticated… and how they could domesticate us again. Part IV
Exaggeration and Distortion
We often use the term “hysterical” to refer to people with a theatrical personality. They are the kind who “make a storm in a teacup,” turn something trivial into a drama, or take what we say out of context. In politics, this is what Goebbels defined as the “Principle of Exaggeration and Distortion.”
How is this principle defined?
It consists in turning any simple event into a serious threat or a sign of danger—exaggerating its importance dramatically, distorting what it really is, so that this dramatic reaction impacts the masses and creates in them fear, indignation, or emotional adherence, as desired.
How have we experienced this principle on our island?
To begin with, for years we had in Fidel Castro who was a histrionic leader: his gestures, his tone of voice, his ability to transform any event either into a triumph or into a threat was well known.
Thus, for example, any comment coming from the United States was enough to unleash paranoia about an “imminent invasion”—an argument that was the basis for countless “marches of the combatant people,” and even that collective hysteria of “building shelters” for when the bombings arrived… which, of course, never did.
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I’ve been thinking about how we were domesticated… and how they could domesticate us again. Part IV