Glasgow North-East and Edward Bernays

Being a Glasgwegian and from a peripheral housing scheme, I know what this by-election in Glasgow North-East is all about.

It's about Edward Bernays.

Indulge me a bit:

Edward Bernays. Nephew of Sigmund Freud and father of public relations. He believed that public opinion had to be manipulated using the subconscious mind. The 'irrational herd' are dangerous and need to be manipulated so that they behave properly. Modern propaganda.

According to Father Ted dangerous libidinal energies lurk just below the surface of every individual and these should be harnessed and channeled by a corporate elite for economic benefit.

Public relations became a science. Through advertising women were conned into smoking because they were 'educated' to believe that smoking would make them equal to men. He called cigarettes "Torches of Freedom". Myths are powerful tools indeed. You can get people to act against their own best interests by pressing certain buttons.

Which brings us to Glasgow North-East. Labour have ruled there for 74 years. The resultant social degeneration is well-known: Worst poverty in the European Union, male life-expectancy worse than in war-torn Iraq etc. Wonderful people kept shackled to poverty.

Why? What good has it done Labour to keep these people downtrodden? Poverty reduces the ability of individuals to stop self-defeating cyclical behaviour. Habits are harder to kick such as unhealthy eating, drug-taking and voting Labour. The poverty is about political patronage. Keep them down and their collective power is in your gift. It's social and economic suicide but they believe in the church of Labour.

Many of these people live without hope and they think that the only influence they can have on the world is to stick two fingers up to the bosses and that voting Labour achieves that end. They identify with each other through voting Labour. People say such things as "I'm a Labour man"

I remember having a pint with a man in the West end whose family rejected him, his wife and kids didn't get on with him and he didn't go home till he was drunk. He told me he was unhappy with his life. Then I asked him if he was "a Labour man" and his answer was: "are you trying to get inside my heid?"

Yep, Labour have Edward Bernays to thank for serving up Glasgow North-East on a platter. As for the 'irrational herd'?

Poverty and Labour gang thegither.