This was posted today on a personal blog called cominorepublic. I don't know the blogger but this post sums up precisely what's going wrong in the Maltese psyche. This is the link to the original. I am copying here because it's everyone's must read.
The Taghna Lkoll Protocol
1. Joseph Muscat’s movement, whose seeds were sown almost four years ago with his “Inhobbkom” announcement to an already fawning public has finally reached full cult status. The absolute obliteration of values other than those that contribute to the neutering of the mind is manifest with every step the movement in government makes. The only universal values of the movement are (a) We are not political (read divisive), (b) We are proud Maltese, (c) We are all-inclusive.
2. Elsewhere this has been described in different terms (Prozac Nation was one of them) and what this amounts to is really an opiate of the kind described by the bearded fella from Trier. For although the cult does have “values” they are not the kind of values that we could expect a political party to build its programs upon. The values serve solely to lure new converts to the cult by whitewashing elements that have carefully been identified as the culprits of previous low levels of attractiveness.
3. The cult works in crowd thinking. It pits much of its work on the notion that there is a huge gap between what is said and what is done – and that if you have strong enough crowd convincing skills you can actually convince them that what you say is what you do even though there is no actual doing. By the time the acolytes and converts work themselves up into a frenzy and have been sufficiently indoctrinated to repeat the Mantra there is much less of a chance of using normal logic to get them to snap out of their hypnotic stance.
4. Converts passed through different phases. The first four years were spent convincing the converts of this cult that they were living on a hell on earth. Everything bad that happened to them would suddenly be ascribed to the evil lot in government. If you had too little sugar in your coffee… surely it’s the fault of the government. Then as the election hit home the cult went into hyperdrive and hyperreality. The angry converts had been honed for the next step : Anything was better than the current lot. The missal shoved down converts throats in between repetition of the mantras was simple: no plans, no concrete calculations – simpler still… it will be the same government, only those ugly, evil people will go away. And they loved it.
5. At just about that time we saw the cult convert to the neutral, virgin all-encompassing umbrella – a perfected form of the early Frankenstein that was GonziPN. Here was an excuse to be everything to everyone. Here was a cult that could promise change for the better while committing itself to more of the same (if not worse) with squatters, hunters and businessmen. The usefulness of the “non-divisive” value became immediately clear. If you dared criticise or logically engage the movement you would be denounced as a pariah leftover of the old regime. You would be told that you do not understand “Dear Leader” and that you are not in harmony with the values of love, unity and inclusiveness.
6. This protocol created a cult that thrashed the incumbent at the polls. The cults members exploded in jubilation and genuinely believed that the nation was now “of the people”. With Dear Leader installed in the hallowed house of power the mask began to crumble as of day one. It was inevitable as much as it was predictable. For it is one thing to promise and another to do. Inclusiveness and meritocracy were kicked in the teeth while the appointment of the cabinet of bishops only proved the emptiness of the caravan of bandwagons that had been paraded for so long.
7. The Taghna Lkoll protocol served Muscat’s cult creation brilliantly. It is still serving him in the early hours of government. Accolytes and converts were sufficiently injected with the mantras and codes to be numbed for at least a few months into the government’s tenure. They still refuse to question. They still prefer to accept blindly any sort of rubbish thrown at them by a government that is ironically still in “opposition” mode. Meanwhile one of the first declared victims of this superficial change will be the basic laws according to which our society ticks.
If the Taghna Lkoll Protocol is to be applied to reforming our Constitution, what with all the relativism, populism and lack of historical and legal perspective we can only expect a rough and damaging ride.
In Comino the pigs have taken to attacking the swill with a vengeance. Apparently the new regime that has taken over had been absent from the swill troughs for too long. No queues, no order, simply anyone who was anything to the new pig leaders is doing his damned best to get his snout in at the deepest end possible.
Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition. – Umberto Eco
The Taghna Lkoll Protocol
1. Joseph Muscat’s movement, whose seeds were sown almost four years ago with his “Inhobbkom” announcement to an already fawning public has finally reached full cult status. The absolute obliteration of values other than those that contribute to the neutering of the mind is manifest with every step the movement in government makes. The only universal values of the movement are (a) We are not political (read divisive), (b) We are proud Maltese, (c) We are all-inclusive.
2. Elsewhere this has been described in different terms (Prozac Nation was one of them) and what this amounts to is really an opiate of the kind described by the bearded fella from Trier. For although the cult does have “values” they are not the kind of values that we could expect a political party to build its programs upon. The values serve solely to lure new converts to the cult by whitewashing elements that have carefully been identified as the culprits of previous low levels of attractiveness.
3. The cult works in crowd thinking. It pits much of its work on the notion that there is a huge gap between what is said and what is done – and that if you have strong enough crowd convincing skills you can actually convince them that what you say is what you do even though there is no actual doing. By the time the acolytes and converts work themselves up into a frenzy and have been sufficiently indoctrinated to repeat the Mantra there is much less of a chance of using normal logic to get them to snap out of their hypnotic stance.
4. Converts passed through different phases. The first four years were spent convincing the converts of this cult that they were living on a hell on earth. Everything bad that happened to them would suddenly be ascribed to the evil lot in government. If you had too little sugar in your coffee… surely it’s the fault of the government. Then as the election hit home the cult went into hyperdrive and hyperreality. The angry converts had been honed for the next step : Anything was better than the current lot. The missal shoved down converts throats in between repetition of the mantras was simple: no plans, no concrete calculations – simpler still… it will be the same government, only those ugly, evil people will go away. And they loved it.
5. At just about that time we saw the cult convert to the neutral, virgin all-encompassing umbrella – a perfected form of the early Frankenstein that was GonziPN. Here was an excuse to be everything to everyone. Here was a cult that could promise change for the better while committing itself to more of the same (if not worse) with squatters, hunters and businessmen. The usefulness of the “non-divisive” value became immediately clear. If you dared criticise or logically engage the movement you would be denounced as a pariah leftover of the old regime. You would be told that you do not understand “Dear Leader” and that you are not in harmony with the values of love, unity and inclusiveness.
6. This protocol created a cult that thrashed the incumbent at the polls. The cults members exploded in jubilation and genuinely believed that the nation was now “of the people”. With Dear Leader installed in the hallowed house of power the mask began to crumble as of day one. It was inevitable as much as it was predictable. For it is one thing to promise and another to do. Inclusiveness and meritocracy were kicked in the teeth while the appointment of the cabinet of bishops only proved the emptiness of the caravan of bandwagons that had been paraded for so long.
7. The Taghna Lkoll protocol served Muscat’s cult creation brilliantly. It is still serving him in the early hours of government. Accolytes and converts were sufficiently injected with the mantras and codes to be numbed for at least a few months into the government’s tenure. They still refuse to question. They still prefer to accept blindly any sort of rubbish thrown at them by a government that is ironically still in “opposition” mode. Meanwhile one of the first declared victims of this superficial change will be the basic laws according to which our society ticks.
If the Taghna Lkoll Protocol is to be applied to reforming our Constitution, what with all the relativism, populism and lack of historical and legal perspective we can only expect a rough and damaging ride.
In Comino the pigs have taken to attacking the swill with a vengeance. Apparently the new regime that has taken over had been absent from the swill troughs for too long. No queues, no order, simply anyone who was anything to the new pig leaders is doing his damned best to get his snout in at the deepest end possible.
Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition. – Umberto Eco
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