Cult Of Personality
Brad Flutey
26 May, 2020
I would like to start off by acknowledging Richard Prosser’s article - The Unpalatable Truth regarding Jacinda Ardern and the Con-vid 19 Plandemic. Richard’s original long-form articles and the emergence of much more in-depth long-form content on YouTube prompted me to get into writing again. Richard’s article is delivered in a very direct and certain way. Something that I have decided to avoid in the interests of pursuing the total reinforcement of honesty in my opinion pieces. Regardless, Richard and I agree on a few things, for example - our shared belief around our current governance direction and the role this insanely over-hyped “virus” has played in ushering in “kind” totalitarianism. First, I will get into what defines the true nature of honesty. In Dr Jordan B Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life, An Antidote To Chaos – he talks about levels of dishonesty, where there are bald-faced lies, avoidance of the truth, or bureaucratic misappropriations of the truth. To quote a section from Rule 8 –
"Taking the easy way out or telling the truth? Those are not merely two different choices, they're different pathways through life, they're utterly different ways of existing. Manipulate The World. "You could use words to manipulate the world into delivering what you want. This is what it means to act politically, this is spin. It is the speciality of unscrupulous marketers, salesman, advertisers, pick-up artists, slogan possessed utopians and psychopaths. It is the speech people engage in when they attempt to influence and manipulate others. It is what university students do when they write an essay to please the professor, instead of articulating and clarifying their own ideas. It’s what everyone does when they want something and decide to falsify themselves to please and flatter. It's scheming and sloganeering and propaganda. To conduct life like this is to become possessed by some ill-informed desire and then to craft speech and action in a manner that appears likely or rational, to bring about that end. Typically, calculated ends might include - to impose my ideological beliefs, to prove that I am or was right, to appear competent, to ratchet myself up the dominance hierarchy, to avoid responsibility. Or, it's twin, to garner credit for others ideas or actions. To be promoted, to attract the lions share of attention, to ensure that everyone likes me, to garner the benefits of martyrdom, to minimize immediate conflict, to justify my cynicism, to rationalise my anti-social outlook, to minimise conflict. To maintain my naivety, to capitalise on my vulnerability, to always appear as the sainted one..." (this one is particularly relevant)
"These are all examples of Austrian psychologist, Alfred Adler’s theory - called ‘life lies’. Someone living a life lie is attempting to manipulate reality with perception, thought, and action so that some narrowly-desired and predefined outcome is allowed to exist.”
Lying is politics, this is the way those we believe are charged with our governance, communicate towards the populace. It is no surprise to many voters and non-voters who think carefully around what a populism-based voting process might produce. It is also no surprise that this sort of communication emanating from a captivating individual, culminates a Cult of Personality around said individual. I have no hesitation in calling political science what it is - It mostly encompasses the study of manipulation narratives that promote a predictable and desirable response from those who are listening. These narratives end up being manifestations of complete fiction to hide the truth, in fear of the response to the inconvenient truth. “You can’t handle the truth” – Jack Nicholson in ‘A Few Good Men' says, however, in today's world you shouldn't get to decide whether we can handle the truth or not. Jacinda Ardern has done this and continues to do this. To campaign on transparency and then completely subvert the truth is downright dishonest, the fact that she even campaigned on transparency whilst engaging in this type of politics is completely disingenuous. “Let’s Do This”, implies that she intends for us to work together - through the utilisation of competent extended democracy to fix problems that need fixing. Yet, that is not happening, in fact, the erosion of democracy has occurred far more during this term than it did in past manipulative political manifestations. “Stay Home, Save Lives”, is a lie! No matter how many ways you look at the lockdown and the resulting economic damage that impacts our Tūrangawaewae and the lives of those who rely on the economy. The outcome of solutions will decide whether we gain more economic sovereignty and a better path forward for our country. So far, the solution outcomes for other issues that have been implemented by the entire house, have been as close to catastrophe as they can get. The buyback not only gave no evidence that it would reduce gun homicides, in fact, gun homicides increased in the aftermath of the new laws. It seems that the idea of licenced, law-abiding gun owners having open season declared on them by the government, has prompted those who disregard the law to take advantage of an opportunity. We can’t know whether that is what’s happening, yet, it is logical to suggest - that doing little that works to fix a degenerating societal culture, keeping guns out of the hands of obvious psychopaths and making law-abiding citizens unreasonably vulnerable, does not help prevent murderous psychopathy from manifesting again.
Jacinda states -that she wants to bring kindness back to government and that sounds nice, as long as it is real kindness. Yet, one might ask - what's the alternative to 'real' kindness? Is there something other than kind or unkind? Well, yes there is! There's hypothetical kindness, an atrociously dishonest version of kindness. One that seeks to create an image of kindness so that you may roll out unnecessary agendas. Agendas the bulk of the populace might emphatically object to if they were aware of the whole truth surrounding said agenda. Jacinda does not just refer to kindness on verbatim, she also reaffirms her commitment to empathy - the act of encompassing the will to understand. Yet, Jacinda has failed to understand any world view that is not her own. She ignores the values of licenced gun-owners, she ignores those who value the rights of the unborn, she ignores the values of Conservatives, Libertarians, and democracy itself. Will she ignore the right to refuse medical intervention on healthy people? There is no way that you can ascribe the word empathy to any part of the way Jacinda has conducted herself in government. So then, hypothetical kindness it is and thanks to her effectiveness in presenting an image of kindness, those who value kindness (the left) fall into the cult of personality trap.
This is better referred to as fundamentalism. Many might ascribe fundamentalism to religious groups alone, but it is rife in everything we subscribe to as being “the single source of truth”. It has infected much of science, it is all through politics, it is even what gives celebrities who know no more than you do, a more believable perspective on an issue. In many ways, I despise celebrities who use cult of personality to elevate their opinions, specifically if it has a lack of content behind it. Most of the time this is the case, why would someone who doesn’t really need a sufficient amount of content to back up their opinion, put the amount of passion and effort required to reinforce their perspective? When a few million people are going to believe them without the well-researched content anyway. This is why I admire people like Michael Jordan, whether you agree or disagree with his refusal to engage with the issue of racism and politics, is irrelevant. Michael Jordan avoided doing what so many people like Lebron James continue to do today, he did not use his cult of personality to broadcast his opinion on something he knew very little about. That is the right thing to do. Can you make the argument that he put profit before morals? Sure, you could also point out his positive effect on those who strived to be the best they could be in their chosen craft. I object to his promotion of consumerism during his career, that is why I do not subscribe to the "Be Like Mike" cult of personality. Yet, I understand that the damage of consumerism wasn’t as obvious to many in the ’80s and ’90s as it is today. Michael Jordan isn't someone who analyses the environmental impact of what he promotes, he's a Basketball player and a business owner. Maybe he should employ someone who does that, so what he endorses and invests in brings far more holistic benefit than holistic degradation.
If you think fundamentalism is a problem, then it is best you check whether you are suffering from it. I think fundamentalism is one of the biggest problems’ humanity faces. It's an incredibly destructive mental illness that you will only solve through personal growth and constant self-reflection We have a lot of problems to solve and fundamentalism prompts us to subscribe to solutions made ‘popular’ by self-aggrandising idiots and those who profit off solutions, whether they work or not. This will encourage investment in solutions that create more problems than solutions because we aren't putting it through the wringer. Every idea is a bad idea until you prove that it's not. A hop from one form of fundamentalism to another has been the story of humanity for thousands of years and it is getting to the point of no return. The technology we are developing has the potential to unlock the lid of pandora’s box, once this one is opened there is no closing it. If we do not shake free of cult of personality and question, or even forcibly object to decisions that cannot or will not be justified through robust debate. Then we will step into a chaos that has a high likelihood of being something we can no longer order ethically and mindfully. (More on this in the next article). It is a shame that all of the above was encompassed in one musical sentence back in 1988 and very few of us realised the deeper meaning behind it. “Neon lights, Nobel Prize, when a leader speaks, their reflection lies. You don’t have to follow me, only you can set you free” – Living Colour Cult of Personality.
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