Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What’s Happening, What’s Right, and What’s Possible
2 April 2018 – TRANSCEND Media Service — Giant corporations are raking in record profits, while millions of Americans remain scarred by the Great Recession and a recovery that has left them behind.
A man arranges bananas by the roadside in Malita, Davao City, Philippines. Photo: Kate Bacungco/World Bank
18 October 2017 – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced on Wednesday that it is working with partners to help protect the world’s banana crops a new strain of fungus, known as Fusarium wilt TR4, which can last for years in the soil.
According to FAO, the “insidious” fungus poses major risks to global banana production and could cause vast commercial losses and even greater damage to the livelihoods of the 400 million people who rely on the world’s most traded fruit as a staple food or source of income.
“We need to move quickly to prevent its further spread from where it is right now and to support already affected countries in their efforts to cope with the disease,” said Hans Dreyer, Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division. He stressed that the resilience of banana production systems can only be improved through continuous monitoring, robust containment measures, strengthening local capacities and enhancing global collaboration.
Fusarium wilt TR4 was first detected in Southeast Asia in the 1990s and has now been identified at 19 sites in 10 countries, including the Near East, South Asia and Mozambique in sub-Saharan Africa.
In our Soundcloud, UN News talks to Fazil Dusunceli, an agricultural officer at FAO headquarters in Rome, about the $98 million global programme to contain and manage a new fungus strain launched today by FAO and its partners Bioversity International, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the World Banana Forum.
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/347485507" params="color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="350" iframe="true" /]
AUDIO: FAO’s agricultural officer Fazil Dusunceli talks about the new strain of fungus that is threatening one of the world’s most favourite fruits.
The world’s most traded fruit is being threatened by a new, “insidious” fungus strain that poses risks to banana production and could cause vast commercial losses or even greater damage to the 400 million people who rely on bananas as a staple food or source of income, the United Nations agriculture agency warned Wednesday.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has launched with its partners – Bioversity International, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and World Banana Forum – a global programme requiring $98 million to contain and manage the new Tropical Race 4 strain (TR4strain) of Fusarium wilt, an insidious disease that can last for years in soils and can hitchhike to new fields and destinations through various means, such as infected planting materials, water, shoes, farm tools and vehicles.
“This is a major threat to banana production in several regions of the world,” said Hans Dreyer, Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, in a news statement.
Fusarium wilt TR4 was first detected in Southeast Asia in the 1990s and has now been identified at 19 sites in 10 countries – including the Near East, South Asia and Mozambique in sub-Saharan Africa.
“We need to move quickly to prevent its further spread from where it is right now and to support already affected countries in their efforts to cope with the disease,” he emphasized.
Without a coordinated intervention, scientists estimate that by 2040, the disease could affect up to 1.6 million hectares of banana lands, representing one-sixth of the current global production, valued at about $10 billion annually. The programme is initially targeting 67 countries, aiming to reduce the potentially affected area by up to 60 per cent.
“The long-term resilience of banana production systems can only be improved through continuous monitoring, robust containment strategies, strengthening national capacities and enhancing international collaboration to deploy integrated disease management approaches,” Mr. Dreyer explained.
The five-year programme is designed to build on existing initiatives tackling the disease and strengthen local technical capacities. It will also support developing science-based technologies and tools through researching the fungus’ biology and epidemiology, its detection and the development of resistant cultivars, among other things.
For areas where the disease is not present or first appears, inspection, surveillance and rapid response measures will be developed. Where it already occurs, improved and integrated disease management techniques will be developed along with the search for and deployment of resistant varieties.
If effectively rolled out, it is estimated that every dollar invested in the programme today will produce benefits of between $98 and $196 in 20 years’ time, according to FAO.
More on Fusarium wilt TR4
The fungus is caused by a new variant of the disease that had decimated Gros Michel banana type plantations in the early 20th century, causing more than $2 billion in damages and leading to its replacement with the Cavendish variety, which though resistant to the earlier strain has now succumbed to the new TR4 race.
The TR4 – which so far has impacted nearly 100,000 hectares according to estimations of scientists, which accounts for around half the bananas grown today, but also other cultivars that constitute key nutritional staples.
Related:
New lab will boost UN efforts to keep harmful insects at bay
” data-medium-file=”" data-large-file=”" class=” wp-image-108292 alignleft” src=”https://www.transcend.org/tms/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Political_Mind_Games_Cover_for_Kindle-194×300-194×300.jpg” alt=”" width=”168″ height=”260″ />Mammoth defense contractors push for more of everything military, while programs for the poor are on life support.
Global polluters are blocking effective responses to climate change, while the disenfranchised suffer disproportionately from environmental disasters and devastation.
Influential voices ridicule those who are disadvantaged by prejudice, by discrimination, and by dwindling resources.
All the while, our middle class is shrinking, imperiled, and insecure. This is not the America most of us want.
It’s really no secret that certain individuals and groups—the Koch brothers, Walmart heirs, some Wall Street CEOs, prominent politicians (many Republicans, and some Democrats too), big-business lobbyists, right-wing think tanks, Fox News—use their wealth and influence to pursue a self-serving agenda that betrays the common good.
Indeed, they’ve been doing it since long before Donald J. Trump moved into the White House. But what often flies under the radar is the extent to which they rely on psychologically manipulative appeals to advance their narrow interests at the expense of the rest of us.
Examples include “The dangers of global warming are overblown,” “Voter fraud is a rampant injustice,” “Workers protesting low wages are devious and dishonest,” “We’ve earned every dollar and deserve your praise, not criticism,” and “Everyone will be helpless if gun reformers have their way.”
In my new book, POLITICAL MIND GAMES: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What’s Happening, What’s Right, and What’s Possible, I explain the psychology behind the success of today’s plutocrats in marketing their false claims—and what we can do to counter them.
Offering a research-based framework, I show how the 1% exploit five fundamental concerns that govern our daily lives: issues of vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. These concerns are soft targets for manipulation because each is linked to a basic question we ask ourselves as we try to make sense of the world around us. Consider:
Are we safe? Whether as passing thoughts or haunting worries, we wonder if we’re safe, if the people we care about are in harm’s way, and if danger lurks on the horizon. Our judgments on these matters go a long way in determining the choices we make and the actions we take.
But we’re not particularly good at assessing our vulnerability. Among the ways that the 1% use this shortcoming to their advantage is by promoting alarmist accounts of the perils associated with change.
Are we being treated fairly? Cases of mistreatment frequently stir our anger and our desire to bring accountability to those we hold responsible. But our perceptions of what’s just and what’s not are far from perfect.
This makes us ripe for exploitation by those eager to shape our views of right and wrong. That’s a key tactic for today’s plutocrats, and portraying their own selfish actions as efforts to address injustice—on our behalf—is just one of their ploys.
Who should we trust? We tend to divide the world into people and groups we deem trustworthy and others we don’t. When we get it right, we can avoid harm from those who have hostile intentions, while building valuable relationships with those who enhance our lives.
But here too our judgments are sometimes unreliable. Among the ways the 1% exploit our doubts is by intentionally fostering distrust in order to divide the ranks of their adversaries.
Are we good enough? We’re quick to compare ourselves to others, often with the hope of demonstrating that we’re worthy of respect or admiration. But the impressions we have about our own worth—and the positive or negative qualities we see in other people—are intrinsically subjective.
As a result, they’re susceptible to manipulation. One way plutocrats capitalize on this is by insisting that those who are struggling to get by are simply inferior to the rest of us.
Can we control what happens to us? Feelings of helplessness can pose a substantial obstacle in both personal and collective initiatives. When we lack confidence in our capabilities, we’re more inclined to give up and abandon our goals, and less likely to show resilience in the face of setbacks.
The 1% take advantage of this inclination in several ways, including by telling us that stark inequalities are the result of powerful forces beyond everyone’s control.
In responding to these questions, today’s plutocrats are masters at using duplicitous mind games—like “It’s a Dangerous World,” “No Injustice Here,” “They’re Different from Us,” “Pursuing a Higher Purpose,” and “Don’t Blame Us”—to lead us away from a more equal and more decent society.
Their answers are designed to manipulate our perceptions and emotions while distracting us from careful evaluation of arguments and evidence. Rather than viewing concerns about vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness as guideposts for improving the general welfare, the 1% exploit them to advance their interests and derail effective opposition to their rule.
POLITICAL MIND GAMES was written with a clear purpose: to help inoculate the public against the 1%’s self-serving appeals.
When we expose and debunk their mind games, the plutocrats’ empty rhetoric loses its allure, their selfish motives are laid bare, and everyone can see clearly how a privileged few have fleeced and forsaken the country—and the people—that made their enormous wealth and power possible.
In turn, this recognition lays the groundwork for the coalition-building and collective action that can restore and reinvigorate our democratic principles and commitments. POLITICAL MIND GAMES is available today.
——-
The challenges we will face in 2017 are urgent and massive. But the good news is that when we act together, we are stronger than any government, corporation or head of state. Next year, we can’t afford to be bystanders, so let’s get moving!
Here are a few resolutions you can make to help take back 2017 for people and for planet Earth.
Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | Leave a Comment »
