DOUBLE BARRELED JUGGERNAUT

 The Simpsons cartoon episode: “Trash of the Titans”

Homer: I need a catchy slogan for my new sanitation campaign.

Spin Doctor: Well, we could try “Trash Day: It’s the Day You Love to Hate!”

Homer: Eh, too negative.

Spin Doctor: Okay, how about “We’re Making Garbage Great Again!”

Homer: No, too positive.

Spin Doctor: Hmm, how about “Can’t someone else do it?”

Homer: Perfect!

In the 1990s movie Wag the Dog scene, Conrad Brean (played by Robert De Niro), a spin doctor, hires Stanley Motss (played by Dustin Hoffman), a Hollywood producer, to develop a carefully crafted storyline of a fake war to distract the public from a presidential sex scandal.

Conrad: We need a war.

Stanley: Why?

Conrad: Because it’s the oldest trick in the book.

Stanley: Which book?

Conrad: The one every filmmaker has on his shelf. We’ll create a pageant of patriotism, a circus of solidarity.

Stanley: But, uh, why Albania?

Conrad: Why not? What do you know about Albania?

Stanley: Nothing.

Conrad: Exactly. How many movies have we made about Vietnam?

Stanley: Dozens

Conrad: And what have we learned? Nothing. Look, we’ll make a war nobody can criticize.

Stanley: Brilliant.

Forged in the US, the term “spin doctor” refers to a public relations professional who is skilled at shaping the public’s perception of a particular person, organization, or issue. Many credited Raymond Strother, a political strategist and media consultant, as the first person to use publicly the term in the 1980s. He described his work as “spin control” and referred to himself as a “spin doctor” to “make the facts as palatable as possible.”

Spin doctors are often employed by political parties, corporations, celebrities, and other public figures to shape the way the public perceives them. Examples of spin doctoring might include using statistics to highlight the positive aspects of a company’s performance while downplaying any negative aspects, or framing a politician’s policy proposal in a way that appeals to a particular demographic.

The societal implications of spin doctoring can be significant. While spin doctors may be effective at shaping public opinion, their tactics can sometimes be seen as manipulative or dishonest which may contribute to a climate of cynicism and apathy.

Over time, spin doctoring has moved forward in leaps and bounds, and lately has made its way to the realm of geopolitics as laid out in the book Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21^st Century by Sergei Guriev, professor of Economics at Sciences Pro in Paris and Daniel Treisman, professor of Political Science at UCLA. Guriev sums up the whole essence of the book in an online interview as follows:

“This book charts the rise of an increasingly important authoritarian model that’s been spreading around the world in recent decades. We’re all familiar with the very brutal and often ideological dictatorships of 20^th century such as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, not to mention the harsh military regimes of Augusto Pinochet or Idi Amin. As we show in our book with data, analysis, and historical detail, the dominant model of dictatorship has changed into one where dictators don’t use mass repression, but instead, pretend to be democratic.

“Rather than imposing official ideologies and locking thousands of dissidents in prison camps, leaders such as Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin, and Viktor Orban, manipulate the media to build a base of support that’s sincere, although misguided.

“Like spin doctors in a democracy, they spin the news to engineer approval. This is why we call them spin dictators and we show how in our book how they differ from masters of fear such as Assad in Syria or Kim in North Korea and how they differ from the modern high-tech dictatorship of today’s China.

“The book is based on scholarly research [How Modern Dictators Survive: Cooptation, Censorship, Propaganda, and Repression published in 2015], but we wrote it in an accessible way aiming at a general audience. It addresses, and we think helps to resolve, one of the greatest contemporary puzzles: how dictatorships can survive and even thrive in a modern and interconnected world.”

Here’s how. A spin dictator, according to Guriev, needs to communicate to the general public that he is better than the alternative. To showcase that claim, he needs the educated class (civil society) among his people in propping up his economic performance. Guriev’s study indicates that an incompetent spin dictator can survive as long as economic shocks are not too large.

But there’s the rub. Just as this same educated class props up the spin dictator’s economic performance, so too can this same educated class discern his real attributes and communicate such reality to the general public – which, if he turns out incompetent in their hearts and minds, may kick the spin dictator out. In other words, the educated class emerges as the spin dictator’s two-edged sword. Thus, being on the horns of a dilemma, the spin dictator sets to work the following measures:

1.    Implicit Censorship

“The Manila censors were so strict, they even impounded mathematical books and dictionaries in the Aduana or Customs House until someone competent (or patient) enough came to review and clear the books for release. Aside from Rizal’s books, would you believe ‘Robinson’s Crusoe’ was suspect?” (Ambeth R. Ocampo, Inquirer columnist)

2.    Cooptation

My previous ATABAY article “Is Philippines Turning Into Information Autocracy” has delved into this subject.

3.    Bribing elites into silence

Hasn’t this constitutional violation as Inquirer columnist Joel Ruiz Butuyan wrote in his column “Pensions that violate the Constitution” given rise to the same aftereffect?

“The pension and retirement benefits of MUPs [our military and uniformed members of AFP, PNP, PCG, BFP, BJM, B of C, and NM & RIA] have ballooned to humongous amounts [that has spawned serious financial disaster for our country] because former president Duterte doubled the base pay of active MUPs, to reportedly endear himself with them, and despite opposition from his economic team.”

4.    Targeted repression

Percival "Percy Lapid" Mabasa, Leila De Lima, and Ramon Tulfo are samples of those put through this constraining measure.

5.    Shutting down communication channels

While ABS-CBN was brought to a standstill, on the other hand, Maria Ressa’s stacks of legal cases have psyched out Rappler.

The list above answered Guriev’s pivotal question, “How [does a spin dictatorship: juggernaut's first barrel] manage TO HOLD ONTO POWER (underscoring mine) without using the methods of [his] predecessors? We argue that [his] secret lies in the control of information.”

Interestingly, Philstar editor-in-chief and columnist Ana Marie Pamintuan kicked off her column “Countdown” with the following lead sentence: “This early, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. says he is already counting the remaining days in his presidency,” as if conveying this impression: “Spin dictator? Thanks to the 1987 Constitution which has specified a 6-year term limit for the presidency.”

Not so fast. But, no thanks to the Marcos-Duterte political dynasty -- juggernaut's second barrel -- that banded together for “unity” and “continuity” alliance. The handwriting on the wall of our country’s future political landscape can be foretold by the game-of-musical-chairs being played by the Duterte ruling political dynasty in Davao.

The crux of the matter: this is not about the individual spin dictator perpetuating power, but more so (to borrow Former SC Associate Justice Antonio Panganiban’s juggernaut tag) -- a double barreled juggernaut’s voracity of the deep-rooted political dynasty.

The suggested political opposition move is simplistic. Not only is the problem political in nature, it is societal, as a whole. As Guriev puts forward, the key to the solution is embedded in this two-edged sword – the educated class -- the root of spin dictator's decline.

Our country's transformation may take a miracle like a national revival; or we may grapple with the more long-drawn-out slower one-mind-and-heart-at-a-time process -- our desired fulfillment, we may not savor in our lifetime.

Head still photo courtesy of wallpaperaccessdotcom

Video clips courtesy of YouTube