Part Two Of Dominating You

And The Rest Of The World

Yeah, don't get the impression that you're anything special.  Just so we're clear.  

     For we are now on Part Two of Stephen Kotkin's rather prescient analysis of How Dictators Run (or Ruin!) their nations, following on from Part One, where we covered: Violence & Repression; Cash Flow; Demobilising & Counter-Mobilising Opposition.  Art!

Nuclear-powered potato.  Just because.

RULE 4: Controlling Life Opportunities.  Simplifying and satirising somewhat, Ol' Steve mentions that life in South Canada has three life trajectories: College and then University; the Army; prison.  That's a pretty bleak worldview, Steve.  What he wanted to get across was that the state can provide opportunities for people to get forward in their lives - or, as in the case of a dictatorship, block them.  Art!

Your beret skills are weak, Ruffia, they're weak

     In the Sinister Union people joined the Communist Party, not because they felt any ideological leaning that was, but because it opened up employment and accommodation opportunities unavailable to the rest of the proles.  Today in Mordorvia the state is using electronic summonses to force male citizens to register.  If they do not, there are consequences: inability to leave the country, fines and potential imprisonment, inability to own property, a ban from taking out loans.  Thus are life opportunities exploited.  Another example Ol' Steve gives is that or Kuwait.  You may not view it as a dictatorial dystopia, but in Kuwait 90% of all jobs are state-controlled, which again gives the state a great deal of leverage over it's citizens.   Art!

RULE 5: Control Over State Media Including Television And The Internet.  In the past, pre-Second Unpleasantness, the 'media' in question were radio, newspapers and films, one of which you see above in the case of Nazi Germany.  In the early years of the Sinister Union, where literacy rates were extremely low, the Bolsheviks found that film was an excellent medium for pushing their propaganda. Art!

"Battleship Potemkin"

     Come the Fifties, dictators also had to contend with television, which had to be state-controlled in order to get their message out to the world.  In Mordorvia, there are no independent media, only state-controlled papers and television.  Control over the printed medium is actually less than complete, because Putin's regime understands far more people watch television than read papers.  

     For all this state apparatus, getting their view, and their view alone, across is the primary function, the secondary one being to scotch the opposition's view.  There are weaknesses inherent in this system, because 'Russia Today' cannot react to new or unusual events before it has been told what attitude is the correct one.  The correct attitude is determined by Bunker Midget, who usually ignores bad news as along as possible before confronting it.  Art!

     This is 'scheduled maintenance' or 'panic buying' affecting Ruffian petrol supplies.  Nobody is allowed to mention Ukrainian drone attacks as That Would Apparently Make Putin Appear Bad - TWAMPAB.

     The latest arena for dictators to control is the internet, which needs to be 100% controlled by the state, lest the true state of affairs begins to become apparent.  The FSB has tried to ban or forbid people from posting film of Ukrainian drone strikes, and edict that seems to have been pretty well ignored - hence the photograph above.  The Ruffians and The Populous Dictatorship pour hundreds of millions of dollars into pushing their narrative on social media, both to lie to their domestic population and to subvert their external opponents.  Art!

RULE 6: Creating A Narrative And A Threat.  The memorial plaque above is from the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall attack, which was carried out by Tadjik extremists.  The Ruffians immediately blamed Ukraine, on absolutely no evidence, because they couldn't accept or acknowledge that there might be unhappy ethnic minorities within Mordorvia.  Any such event is treated as foreign subversion, not restless locals.  It's always NATO, or the CIA or MI6 - that last a real bugbear to the Ruffians - and never internal dissidents.  Or the IMF or NGOs or naive liberals if you're Hungary or Slovakia.  With Nazi Germany it was World Jewry, who were the enemy without. and any Jews inside Germany, who were the enemy within.  These threats then become the rationale of creating an oppressive and intolerant regime.

     Phew, heavy stuff indeed! and I'm glad I broke this up into 2 parts.

You What?

Who knows what hideously complex and subtle algorithm works to propel such items into my news or Facebook feeds.  Art!

     Okay, let's break this down.  'Goliath' is the brand name.  'Pallet racking' must mean the  - you may be ahead of me here - racking of pallets, probably carrying stores.  Why would an 'Upright Repair Kit' be necessary?  No, I don't have the original item's link that would have explained this, so a bit of digging is needed.  Art!

     So!  This is a method of proofing uprights against damage caused by forklifts or other pallets, which seems to be a persistent problem in warehouses.  Art!

     This is pallet racking, lest ye be unaware.

     Hardly riveting stuff, but at least we know more than we did five minutes ago.

Back To Bovvie

Yes, again!  Don't whine or complain or the next 10 BOOJUM!s will be nothing but BOVINGTON TANK MUSEUM.  We have the content, I assure you.  Art!

     No, this is NOT a tank!  Yes, it has tracks and turret but it's one of the wartime expressions of South Canadian armour doctrine: a tank destroyer.  The hull front and tracks & suspension look the same as those on a Sherman, but the sides are angled, not flat.  You can't see it from here, but there is no top to the turret, leaving it open to the elements.  The armour was thinner than on a Sherman, to save weight and because it wasn't intended to charge bravely across the battlefield.  Art!

     In British service, the original South Canadian 76 mm gun was replaced by the 17-pounder, a far more potent anti-tank weapon.  They were manned by the Royal Artillery, rather than the Royal Armoured Corps, and were used as quick-reaction anti-tank guns, able to get onto a position and be ready to defend instantly, rather than the 6 - 12 hours for a towed 17-pounder.

  

Hmmm I May Get Back To You On This

I note that there's a lot of chatter about 'KPop Demon Hunters' across teh Interwebz, and was curious enough to check out an item on the BBC News webpage.  Art!

     It seems to have broken all sorts of records on Netflix in terms of viewership and how successfully the pop songs within it have performed.

     Conrad recalled the tagline for another Sork drama, where the cast were something like office cleaners or ramen delivery drivers by day, but took on demons by night.

     More demands on my limited spare time!

An Item I Saved A While Back

Which is being put up now to bring us up to Count.  Art!

     I should explain that whatever this series is about, it does not remotely interest me, so I shall not be watching to see whether it's as bad as the Irish critics claim or as wonderful as the South Canadian critics claim.  

There is, however, a snag: Irish critics hate it. They hate the depiction of Ireland’s history, hate the dialogue, hate the costumes, hate the lighting. Netflix announced that it was the first show to have Irish subtitles and still Irish critics hate it.

     The 'Irish Independent' came up with a cool yet caustic summation of the series: 

“The producers do point out that their series is fiction, but then the majority of our popular history is fiction, and quite dangerous fiction at that. We don’t need any more of it.”

     Savage!

     Still not going to watch it, mind.  Art!

He has jaundice.