Spots Electorales. El espectáculo de la democracia - Soymenos.net

Campaign Diary Roberto AlfaCampaign Diary Roberto Alfa72 73Day 14Day 16A well-aimed insert in mass culturePeople are exhausted. The media peoplehaven’t slept for three days. In everyone’s eyesyou can see the desire to get it over with, tostop talking, to shut up. I’ll do that too today.Day 15I’ll say it again: we’re going to win around twomillion votes more. I don’t know anything else.RumourRoberto Alfa used to say that rumour is the essence of apolitical campaign. Rumour has unstoppable force. Youcan’t fi ght it. Fighting it means going into a dynamic oftruths and lies that traps all reasoning and pulls it underin a spiral of insuperable diffi culties. Rumour propagatesitself with unusual speed, reaches all social,professional and cultural layers. Its snowball effect canbecome a bomb if used perversely; you only have toleave it on and see how it multiplies, where it grows,what forms it takes on and how far it makes an impressionon the set goal. By way of example the followingis one of Roberto’s favourite anecdotes, one which hewould always employ to illustrate the dangers of rumour.During the campaign in Italy in World War Two,US intelligence became aware that the German troopsat Monte Cassino had not been paid for a number ofmonths. They came up with a psychological warfarecampaign consisting of dropping thousands of leafl etson the Germans accusing the German offi cers of keepingthe money. The story was not true, but the intentionwas to generate distrust and indignation among therank and fi le, already traditionally separated from theprivileges of their offi cers. When the German offi cersheard the rumour they insisted on clearly and forcefullystating that such accusations were false via militaryradio and newspapers. The outcome was a disaster;soldiers who had not heard about the rumour found outabout it, and the suspicions of soldiers about their officers only increased to the point where a tremendouscrisis of confi dence occurred. Roberto’s comment wasthat a rumour is always supposed to become bigger andits modus operandi is getting people to talk about it.You should never respond to an insidious rumour. It canspoil the most perfectly planned strategy.Yesterday’s final meeting went well. Eventhough the journalists are as tired as we are,they were all there working away. I went upinto the top tiers of the stands in the stadium,up in the gods. I didn’t want to be surroundedby those morons who get in the frontrow and feel obliged to get to their feet andapplaud all the time. I don’t have to proveanything. Next to me there was an elderly ladywho was looking at everything coldly. She neitherapplauded nor cheered. She was obviouslyfocused on the event, snatching quick glancesat the crowd before turning back to the stage.I was captivated by her. Sitting there with herlegs together, her bag in her lap, good-lookingand wearing a touch of make-up, she exudedsincerity, enormous tranquillity. I spent a longtime staring at her, secretly hoping that shewould return my gaze. I managed it when thesmoke from one of my cigarettes wafted over toher. She did it slowly, blinking sparingly, likesomeone who looks without looking, but therewas a slight smile on her face. I couldn’t helpit and went up to her while stubbing out mycigarette. I asked her where she was from. Shegave me a long and penetrating look. Aftera while, she slowly raised both hands as hermouth opened. She moved her fingers but nota word came out of her mouth. She was dumb.“Mass culture” or “cultural industry” showed us thatthe consumer is not the subject but rather the object.The mechanism of this industry has purged its operationand distracted the masses from their real concerns andproblems by means of strongly idealised images withwhich they can identify. While all this was going on, this“mass object” was also imbued with an ideology andvalues and a conception of the world geared towards itspreservation. In this way the fundamental objectives assignedby neo-capitalism to the cultural industry wereduly met. Or was it neo-capitalism in itself that wasbrewing up whilst all of this was taking place?With this panorama, election ads have taken part inthe form and content of the liturgy of a mass culture,providing highly evolved productions and invigoratingthe eclectic nature of a cultural industry which seeks toreach as many people as possible. Its modus operandiis to shun specialisation and going deeper into issuesin favour of bringing together the largest number of elementsthat enable customers to be won over.