Influence: Les armes de la com

Saw this documentary at the Movies That Matter 2021 festival, usually in The Hague but now 100% online. It demonstrates the truth in the festival title, as the stories behind this movie really matter, despite the first quarter feeling a bit caleidescopic with a series of short fragments, seemingly not connected with each other. But soon we arrived at two pièces de résistance, one about UK/Margaret Thatcher and one about South Africa/Nelson Mandela, both telling consistent stories about hidden influences on behaviour of the masses and more particular the outcomes of elections.

After Vance Packard's 1960-ies bestseller The Hidden Persuaders, we already should know the truth of the following quote from this movie "Understanding individual's behaviour is very tricky but understanding group behaviour is very simple because of certain criteria that are perfectly measurable. (...) We moved advertising and marketing out of an art form into a science." We deemed that relatively innocent at the time, and (of course) it did not work on ourselves, seeing right through such tactics. But is it so small scale and harmless?? A more ominous statement, also heard in this movie, is the quote "Now it becomes a controlled democracy, maybe available to the highest bidder."

Those two important parts of the movie are followed by more anecdotical stories about Iraq and other political changes around the world. It becomes caleidescopic again, and it is not easy to follow everything and decide about its merits. I assume all statements are properly researched and documented, but still, it is a lot to digest when it is even half true. In passing, we learned that Russia and particularly the KGB is 30 years ahead on us about influencing in the broadest sense of the word, which includes steering the elections in other countries in the direction they prefer. The modern word "influencer" in terms of Facebook and Instagram pales in comparison.

All in all, this movie showcases several recent political developments, putting some important influencers in the spotlight. That said, it could have gained some more power and effectiveness by constraining itself to fewer cases. At the end you feel exhausted, being force fed with so many talking heads and overloads of name dropping.

For all of the innocents of the world, the innocents who feel that democracy is the only way, I have some advice.... Watch this documentary!

I know from my pretty extensive reading of political histories and personalities that there is no limit to what people will do in the pursuit of power, but this project gets inside the highest levels and actually lets us see a bit of the truth for once. We all know that truth in politics is like a unicorn, you can draw one, you can make a model of one... but you'll never see a real one

With all of the fuss about Russiagate in the States and the sleazeball Oligarchs from the Ukraine you'd be forgiven for thinking that this stuff only goes on in those nasty communist countries and their satellites.

However, the Western World sees places like The Middle East , Africa, South America and some of those refugee oligarchs, as the motherlode for selling their psychological science and expertise and Bell Pottinger was in like a dirty shirt..

There's so much money there that you don't have to bother with the rest of the landscape. Jobs for the boys abound, money laundering schemes can be read from a menu ............. you name it and they'll do it for you.

And so we have the story of that same Bell Pottinger, an amoral advertising turned PR firm, that offered its services first at the national level by successfully shaping Maggie Thatcher's image and getting her elected

They then piggy-backed on that to gain access to the bigger movers and shakers in the worlds of business and nation building, charging fantastic sums for their dubious advice.

No matter that it's dubious , if it's successful for the players then nobody asks any questions and you can up your fees to astronomical levels... which Bell Pottinger did with alacrity. Once you get a name for yourself as an impressive fixer then all of the worms come out of the woodwork to hire you for their own propaganda ends.

Enter the Pentagon, who gave them a contract for $540 million ( yes that's million) to dupe the Iraqis into thinking that democracy was the best course for them and kept on paying them even when they knew it wasn't working. I have to ask... who authorises this madness?

And then who should show up but that international basket case "South Africa".

South Africa went from wealth to chaos in the blink of an eye, with the new government stealing money faster than it came in .

That same international basket case, despite all of the looting by its ministers, still has enough money to hire the most expensive PR firm in the world to find a way to solidify their crooked reign. Who else but Bell Pottinger?

Like all greedy and amoral enterprises, Bell Pottinger bit off more than it could chew with this one and they choked on their own arrogance.

They bit the dust, but you can guarantee with a mortgage on your own home that these sleazebags are still operating, just in a different form.

As I said, there is no limit to what people will do to attain power and there is no limit to the number of opportunists who will abandon moral principles to help them get there.

For once , a good CBC documentary.