While the coin is palmed

Two familiar points –

Firstly, arguments hardly persuade anyone. Some kind of advantage is what persuades. There has to be some advantage to any standpoint in any argument even if the advantage is an illusion, which in the political arena it usually is.

Secondly, things go on behind public narratives, not because of them.

These two points are linked of course. Politicians don’t emit all that yaketty-yak in the hope of persuading us. They know we are not persuaded by argument. They certainly aren’t persuaded by anything other than personal advantage so why should they think we are any different? They don’t. The yaketty-yak is designed to prevent us from understanding what is happening until it happens.

Elites have never told us what is going on, so why should they start now? They have always known about carrots and sticks too. All they ever do is update the language to fit whatever new imposition is being concocted and add a spoonful of illusory sugar to help the medicine go down.

It’s all conjurer’s patter – the misdirection while the coin is palmed.