Photo by John Fraim / Downtown Pittsburgh

Peace Piece / Bill Evans

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The latest on my application of symbolism to political slogans that subliminally excluded two voting generations. The opening of a recent post of mine:

Whatever one thinks of Donald Trump, the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” uses symbolism in an interesting manner. The quote asks a few questions. Is there a time in your memory when America was great? Yes, for the baby-boomers thus Trumps appeal to his own generation thinking back to the booming years of America. In the 1950s after the war. Those who remember when America was great are then asked if they want to see a return to this by the last word “again.

One of the problems with this slogan was that it simply excluded at least two of the voting generations from voting for Trump. And interestingly, not because they were really against Trump. Rather, for the simple reason that they had no memory of a time in their lives when America was great. They were immediately not engaged in Trump’s asking them to go to that place when America was a great nation. In the 1950s and 60s. They had no connection to the word “again” in this respect. 

(See link to Midnight Oil article above at end of this article) 

Is it a valuable endeavor (in the name of a new force of attraction and unity) to suggest that the key needs of various voting generations are important to consider in forming the platform for a modern leader? The question of even considering generations is outside the boundaries of the large, context, medium, that the populace is allowed to consider. It is dangerous when the populace thinks about these large questions of life. They have escaped from the fencing of our political censors today. Thinking about big things. In terms of McLuhan’s idea of “mediums” and environments rather than all the distracting “messages” within the medium.

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Is there a way to pull collective psychological forces together outside the playing field government has created for everyone to play on? The government and those in control today would certainly have us believe that this is not possible. The government considers areas that divide rather than attract. For attracting members of the populace always presents a threat to controllers in society. Distraction and separation are the key forces in government control. An attraction and commonality to some standard outside the one created by the government, always a threat.

These ideologies are no more than the “messages” or distractions of culture McLuhan and Postman warned about. In effect, “messages” within a containing “medium.” These messages serve as distractions. (Like pieces of distracting meat McLuhan once said.) Ideologies constantly distracting us from the larger issues of life. Life outside the fishbowl that many (most?) live in and want to escape from. 

Seeing the world in terms of generations as the great divisions of culture more than anything else can provide one with a new viewpoint, a new perspective on life. In the Intergenerational Leader idea, time is the greatest symbolic divider of groups of people, a commonality all have to this “clock of one’s life.” The suggestion of this idea might be a unifier of various political groups within a particular generation. A bond to the time one has in life. Today, there are five periods of this bondage, five American generations. 

Five great symbols of the five generations today. Five different world, all living in the present. 

Might one of the great goals of our nation at this point in time be to attempt to unite these generations. To understand their key concerns and symbols and to see how they relate to the above information on the four other generations. 

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I’m getting good at separating those who charge into life with open arms to those who approach their days by cowering in some dark corner of protection, afraid more than anything, of the great ship’s movement forward in time. To distract from understanding the context the content of their back-and-forth messages are contained within.

A similar way of control Aldous Huxley argued in his Brave New World of the 1930s. (As opposed to George Orwell’s 1984, a novel not about distraction but physical confrontation. The environment is always invisible is one of the quotes of McLuhan followers. Or we’re not 100% sure who discovered water but we’re pretty sure it was not fish. Meaning, we are the last to understand this medium or environment that permeates everything today. 

Certainly, the continual pumping out of the narrative of the government today to divide more than unite the populace. It certainly is not in their interest to unite the populace. The key narrative of the government is disunity rather than unity. This is the subtext of their message, the medium of their overall communication. 

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It is one thing to identify between the messages (content) and their medium (context). Such important philosophical ideas embodied in the great texts of philosophy. Said the same over time but by different languages and times. 

Our government is so good at continually dividing the American populace into smaller and smaller ideological groups. But division is no more than another form of distraction. 

I know about the techniques of distraction today. But there are also forces of attraction. And it is so much more positive to study these than those of distraction. In other words, forces that draw people together rather than distract them into smaller and smaller segments. As one who has studied symbolism, I might initially phrase the search for a symbol as “One which had identification with the five voting generations.” Or, which of the current group running for President represents the most generations. And, a campaign strategy to appeal to these generations.

The real question – it seems to me – is what type of symbol might attract all five generations to vote for that symbol. Perhaps the greatest natural attraction to people in a particular generation are, not surprisingly, other members of their generation. They show it in physical appearance but also in the symbols of their common generation. Certainly, a common language understood and meant to be understood by generation other members of their generation. 

In effect, attraction of generations puts huge issues of a particular generation on the table in a campaign platform. These issues should exist on the table with the other key issues of the other generations. Five groups of information and data and people are the key research people for a new type of leader in the world. Not a uniter of present ideologies but so much more important, a uniter of different age groups with different perspectives of life. 

The new Intergenerational Leader. In America and perhaps in the World. In the campaign platform, a mixture of the key issues and symbols of the five generations. As expressed by their leading spokespeople, social influencers with the most followers, YouTube posters. Podcasters. Substack Bloggers. 

Mixed with the help of AI computers. Perhaps give AI the task of finding commonality within the generations. Of course, these generations will have different goals and ideals and heroes and heroines from other generations. The task though is to build communication between members of the five voting generations. Best, via a website that serves as a gathering place for the five-generation community for discussion with other generations. The insight of the community is important for strategy of the campaign for the Intergenerational Leader. 

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Thinking in terms of larger groups today – like generations – is an immediate path to pull together important levers of the cultural power of key generational symbols. There are other cultural symbols and factors that unite many in the populace. Crossing all types of political bounds. New maps of the nation will be needed to show these larger attractors of the voting populace, like membership in one’s own generation.

I think one of the lessons of this is to open one’s mind to large thinking rather than small thinking. (Large thinking McLuhan’s medium and small thinking his message). Like those great blocks out there today called generations. Floating in present culture with their own interests and desires and hopes. Might it be important for new leaders of America to hear these voices from generations as a whole? For the first time. See the images and events and music of these generations. Find the commonality in all of them.

A pipe dream?

Take out the pipe adjective and let’s call it just a dream against a non-dream. A dreamer against a non-dreamer. I think the different is so great.

Such a great division between the two groups. Yet, another way of looking at large groups in the voting population today. Great symbols that might attract like strong magnetic forces rather than repel with the same magnetic forces.

The group of dreamers out there today versus the group of non-dreamers. An interesting way to group the populace but perhaps a much better way of grouping than the government has done.

Might there be in the future Generationalist Parties? Hopefully, the words Democrat and Republican will continue to fade in importance as identifiers and labelers of people. It seems to me that they have long outgrown their usefulness for identifying any political power base these days. There have been such shifts in popular culture that have brought voters together on issues in much greater solidarity than simply their political parties.

Of course the source of power today, in effect a type of medium of power, is the two party structure. It is set in stone and party members are not allowed to wander too far outside the gates of party structure. The government, or those in control, need the populace to focus on the paradigm of a two party structure. Everything exists today within the ecology of this two party world today. Rather than outside it.

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Anything outside of it offers a threat to its current dual party system of control.

Such as a new political party with a goal of uniting generations more than anything else.

The threat is always there to those in control. What will it be that might unite the populace. In spite of all the programs they’ve conducted to divide the populace.

A story more speculating about uniting symbols in culture rather than dividing them. An offshoot idea, the greatest symbols in culture are symbols of American generations.

Unless you can think of a greater symbol.

Perhaps it has reached the Ayn Rand type condition of a grand division in culture and society now to simply thinkers and non-thinkers. Not between different types of thinkers, a focus on content and message. The division between the great categories of Thinkers and Non-Thinkers in the world is a battle dynamic in mediums or contexts of the world far above the divisions they’ve imposed on us.

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The Intergenerational Leader first posted to Midnight Oil Studios on 2/1/24. This post is a comment and continuation from the linked post.