Categories: Stories

Are Zimbabweans being manipulated?

Linguist and media critic Noam Chomsky has listed 10 strategies used by politicians to manipulate the people. Chomsky a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology might as well have been talking about the United States and how it manipulates the media. But could they also apply to Zimbabwe.

Here is the first strategy:

The strategy of distraction:

“The primary element of social control is the strategy of distraction which is to divert public attention from important issues and changes determined by the political and economic elites, by the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.

“Distraction strategy is also essential to prevent the public interest in the essential knowledge in the area of the science, economics, psychology, neurobiology and cybernetics.

“Maintaining public attention diverted away from the real social problems, captivated by matters of no real importance. Keep the public busy, busy, busy, no time to think, back to farm and other animals”….

Does this apply to Zimbabwe?

 

(175 VIEWS)

This post was last modified on October 8, 2017 6:02 pm

Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

Recent Posts

Zimbabwe third among the least free countries in SADC

Zimbabwe has been ranked third among the least free countries in Southern Africa but it…

May 24, 2026

Why I had a girlfriend two months after my wife’s death- Take 1

I had always considered it a curse for a wife to die before her husband.…

May 18, 2026

Why I had a girlfriend two months after my wife’s death

This is a true story about the challenges and loneliness I faced when my wife…

May 17, 2026

Coming soon

My first long-form article in booklet form: Why I had a girlfriend two months after…

May 16, 2026

Insider Publisher starts whatsapp channel

The editor and publisher of The Insider, Charles Rukuni, has started a whatsapp channel through…

May 15, 2026

Who propped whom: Masiyiwa vs Nyambirai?

A friend who knows about my legal battle with Zimbabwe’s richest man, Strive Masiyiwa, way…

May 1, 2026