Wag the Dog Review

They Will Buy It
In our lives, there are many certain things we like to believe.We believe in the things that we feel, hear and mostly we see.Sometimes we find something stupid and deny its reality, and sometimes we find something very rational and accept it as it is.Like for many things, people also have some criterias for the acceptance of a belief and visual materials always take the first place of those criterias.People like to believe in the things they see, especially when they see it on someone else approval.That is why we have advertisements, news, reality shows, magazines, movies, tv series, in short it is all about media and it has been one of the biggest tool shaping our decissions, beliefs, actions, wantings.If we stop for a minute and think about the fact that %95 of the world media is controlled only by 5 companies, so would not it be acceptable to see the fact that these companies hold the possiblity of shitting with our lives? But how?
Have you ever wondered why most of the price tags end with .90? .90 pricing is called psychological pricing. It has some important effects upon people.Mostly, it gives the impression that item has the lowest price.Even people know the fact that 19.90 almost has no difference from 20.00, which could be acceptable as a high price, they find it cheaper.Additionally, according to Thomas and Morwits’s hypothesis, people tend to focus on the left digits rather than the right ones.No matter what the reason is, the question stands still there.Why do we still believe in that 19.90 is alot more cheaper than 20.00 and our shopping urges force us to buy that product? In my opinion, answer lays under our judges.Instead of giving rational reactions to the prices, we use our logical judges, which even we dont find reasonable but attractive and that is what mass want us to do, to buy it.
Not only prices shapes our decissions but also the most powerful tool of media, movies, have great impact upon our lives.We create heros, enemies, bombs, heavens or hells in movies.Some of us cannot get out of the Matrix, almost all poeple accept the 9/11 as a terorrist attack or Holy America is still fighting against the nuclear threats. The truth is these things are full of shit. America has never thought anything but her benefit, Matrix is composed of hundreds of Illimunati messages, mainly starting with the their capital city, Zion and the 9/11 attack are nothing but a lie of the mass media.On one hand we have lies, on the other hand we have some propaganda that makes the lies look like truth.For example, American citizens always feel threatened by the terorist attacks nowadays because that is what their media taught them.However, if we look past to last six decades the fact is America was only attacked by media on 9/11/2001 and it caused 2976 lives.In this sense, who should be threated? America or Palestine? No matter what your answer is, media is always there to manipulate your values by pulling your strings.We feel so attached to games of the media that even media itself cannot kick us out of it.
Wag the Dog is one of the greatest movie of all time revealing the bullshits during elections days. The mass media playing always against us, this time shows what is going on in the dark sides of the American elections.I am not sure whether they are doing this on purpose or not, but I know that it reflects the reality and telling the people that they are stupid.In the movie, Connie, who is trying to help the current president be selected again, sets up a fake event to change the flow of the votes which was negatively affected by the rumor that president’s sexual misconduct to a little girl.In order to turn the missing votes, approximately %17 of it, into favor, Connie visits a Hollywood producer.Just before the visit, he wants the rumor that B3 Bomber was sent to Albenia to be heard all over the news.To do so, he arranges a man to hold a press conferance.In this conferance, some journalists ask question about B3 Bomber in order to create question marks in people’s mind.As you know, the B3 Bomber rumor is denied.The reason of this denial is most probably to prepare the first steps of the mental campain in USA citizen’s mind.If it was accepted, people would know that current president is making some dirty preparetions for the elections.As it is denied, people do not link the rumor with the election.People ate it and president gained few more days in order to calm down the misconduct rumours.Meanwhile, Connie already made the deal with the Hollywood producer to create a make up event, however they change the event from B3 Bomber to border attack.Meanwhile, many newspapers uses war terms on their headings.It seems like everything is going well so far.This and that. I am not going deep into the movie as we have already seen it before and there is no need to lecture it.What we need to focus upon in the movie is the usage of the propaganda, especially the card stacking technique.Creating a war environment in USA turns the attention of the people from candidate to the current present.In this propaganda, people are forced to know the certain information about certain things and this let them decide upon the missing parts of the event.With this technique, applier makes the most out of it while the rival gets the negative effect.Along with this propaganda, blue box technolgy, a fake war, an emotional song, spreading of shoes, working with famous people, getting the backs up of the channels were mainly used to force the people to believe in the things that are not real, hear the things that would be emotional, follow the people they love... This list can go alot more than expected.
So what are these things for?
I really do not think they reflect the reality but the imagery of reality itself.When your skin itches, you itch it but you never think about the blood sucked by a mosquito.When your washing machine is broken, you never look for the reason of it but call for a service to fix it.When you are graduated from university, you start looking for a job not because you need it, but because you need money.As also clearly depicted in Wag the Dog, war theme is used not because people believe that there is a war, but because they are looking for a hero to win the war and vote for him.
It is very easy to change people’s mind if they are only concerned about their beliefs.Nothing else matters to them.Show them what they want, act as they like and you are their hero.All you need to do stay as a hero and you can get their votes.If you happed to lose your hero title, create another war and win it and you are a brand new hero.A hero with a huge sword and a shinny armor, rotten deep inside.Now that you are the power, sell something and they will buy it. ‘’An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.’’ ~George Eliot, Felix Holt, Chapter 5 (Thanks Julie!)