Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527): founder of modern political theory and public relations for ruling elites.

Between being loved and feared, I have always believed Machiavelli was right. If nobody is afraid of me, I am meaningless. […] My job is to persuade my flock, my people, that that’s the right way. And sometimes it may be necessary not to tell them all the facts because it will scare them.

--- Lee Kuan Yew, Social Democrat PM of Singapore 1959-1990 (SMH, 6/10/1997, p. 8)

1. On Politics

Let them think
the politicians make the decisions.
Let them watch them forever
arguing how many opposition demons
fit on the head of a pin
and cast the tokens
of their impotence into a padlocked box

Let them believe
in their flags and idols
and so be led from circuses
to slaughter and back again
with ‘nation’ and ‘freedom’
on their tight and dying lips

Let them believe
in a confusion of conspiracies,
of facts and lies and half truths
as if the world were still
a personal little village run
by cliques with human faces
and not the total system
we have perfected into invisibility,
manage to our profit but
do not control

Let them be smart
and cynical of cynical leaders
even as they vote in the new syndicate

Then let them withdraw
into the even more cynical
politics of their private lives.


2. On Sex

Use it in everything.
This is your ultimate weapon.

Remember your brothers in the East
failed because their system of gulags
and queues was just not sexy enough.

Let them have as much sex as possible
so they will always be unsatisfied.
All wares and weapons must go
directly for the genitals. Build your cities
of glass as cathedrals of voyeurism.

Make sadist suited politicians
thrashing stock traders jerking
musicians licking microphones
their sexual role models. Make killing
and making a killing equally
sexual acts.

Let their skins
be eyes of flesh
forever seeking flesh
mirrors to caress and beat
their lonely drums
of longing emptiness.

Then shall your power
be within their inmost desires
even as they seek release.


3. On Religion

Like Communism it has served us well.
Like Communism it is no longer needed.

Now that we have made reality
religious, let them worship
the mysteries of the Mall,
TV transmit the Void
into every existing heart and room.
Our sky channels have slyly
crucified each fetish
in all the huts and hovels
of the holy Himalayas. Now only
we provide that Shining Void
and the Goods to fill it.

Let their lamas, rabbis, saints,
archbishops and ayatollahs
froth with envy. No jihad,
no wordy divinity can compete
with our Matter Immaterialised
into icons and images of the bloodless
Mysteries of Money.
No stinking demons could match
the sexual demonology of our celebrities
as they chant and strut our holy wares
in the colonized confines
of the peasants’ sacred hearts.

Let them believe in nothing,
in everything but themselves.


4. On the Environment

Cluster bomb them
with bits of catastrophes
fragment them with facts
exploding abstractly
from the televised skies
till their brains are so beat
and bored their nerves
so flimmering with facts
they scurry for the shelter
of their own four walled lives
now occupied by our screens

Facts are the best lies,
use them liberally.

The most convincing facts
are not the spoken
or sermonized but the ones
they can push home
in a shopping trolley:
the animal friendly nail varnish
the dolphin free corn flakes
the Choice between five hundred
sexy eco-vacuum cleaners
people will willingly learn
to prefer to the five hundred
kinds of trees in their neighbourhood.

Keep them concerned
as they consume up
their concern with more
consumption.


5. On Pedagogics

Suffer the little children
to paint certified murals
of trees and dugongs and dolphins
on designated walls.

Let them brighten up
the concrete parks for cars
with flowers, birds and butterflies
that no longer exist.

Let our Pied Piper lead them
up the garden path
of clowns, cartoons and silly tunes
selling allergies, diabetes, obesity
all the way to the Shining Mall.

Supply puffers
for wheezing lungs
occasional quality time
for tantrums, spray cans
for the odd revolt.

Always always put a smile
Into your voice.

Peter Lach-Newinsky was born 1949, grew up bi-lingually (German/English) in Sydney, Australia and studied politics, philosophy and literature in Munich and Frankfurt in the late sixties/early seventies. He was involved in politicisation and activism in the German student and anti-authoritarian movement, worked for many years as a high school and adult migrant English teacher in Germany and Australia and has been in eco-activism since the mid seventies. He now maintains a productive 20 acre small farm in the highlands south-west of Sydney on permaculture lines with his wife and also works as a counsellor in private practice.