Human consciousness serves as a filter with which to surpass the primitive tumult of the emotions by refining them and reassigning them to that quest for harmony which potentially characterizes human development.
By contrast, giving the upper hand to emotion can blind consciousness and create the kind of obscurity in which the giant squid falls upon its prey. Such is the working method of clientelism and notably of populism, the present vogue for which reflects the decline of proletarian consciousness in favor of a plebeian mind-set. Such is the approach of pundits, demagogues, communications specialists, or rapacious journalists ever in search of the sensationalism that sells papers. Information is reduced to deception, to “scoops,” and words are exploited in a systematic way that puts them in the hands of power. Nothing is easier than stupefying and abusing a public about which, once it has been boiled down to statistics, it may be said—after the fashion of despots of every age—that the people are satisfied by bread and circuses.
Religious, ideological, commercial and cronyist propaganda always needs brutes whose faith blindfolds the intelligence of the senses and that of the critical faculties alike. The totalitarianism of money goes beyond brainwashing by instituting the absolute reign of mindlessness.
The adulation of mediocrity and insignificance has always been a feature of authoritarian power. Its modalities, however, differ considerably. Tyrannies of old exalted divine splendor and royal pomp to show the “inferior” classes in what subjection they deserved to be held. Our corrupt democracies do the opposite: the stupidity of the most recent heads of state and their entourages is presented as a model for supposedly imbecilic voters. Mediocrity has become the best of bedfellows for resentment. There is no greater threat to genuine human feeling than disgruntled servility, for slaves invariably ape their masters by oppressing those even weaker than themselves. Think of those idled workers, targets of opprobrium, who spew racism and xenophobia without the slightest awareness of how the multinationals, solely responsible for their plight, must rejoice to see such a fortunate redirection of enmity.