2+2=5
At the end of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the hero, Winston Smith, was prepared to believe this sum.
Having committed the ‘‘thoughtcrime’’ of questioning the system, Winston was rumbled. After a few days in the infamous room 101 he was so broken that he was prepared to believe anything. He was prepared to believe something was true, even though it was obviously false. This is what is called in the book ‘‘doublethink’’, where you can see no inconsistency in saying one thing and thinking another.
Sometimes, when I hear the incessant propaganda concerning the economy and the banks – which is being peddled by the same people who talked about ‘‘soft landings’’ and ‘‘new paradigms’’ a few years ago – I feel that I have walked into the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the rulers have convinced the citizens that black is white. The people who got everything completely wrong during the boom are now on television most nights bleating the mantra that ‘‘there is no alternative’’ to bailing out the banks.
Meanwhile, the entire financial community – which largely caused the mess in the first place – is united in orchestrating a transfer of money from the taxpayer to the banks in order to ‘‘preserve the credibility’’ of our financial system.
Now think about this for a minute. The ‘‘credibility’’ of our financial system is based on giving the average person the bill for the mistakes of the banking system. How can such a transfer of wealth from the innocent to the guilty, the prudent to the profligate, possibly make the system more credible?
Surely bailing out the banks makes Ireland less credible, because evidently, by pumping cash into the banks, we become a society that rewards failure? It is only credible if you have succeeded in changing the meaning of the word ‘credible’. It is only credible if you have managed to make the incredible credible – if you have convinced the people that 2 + 2 = 5.
In Orwell’s classic, the Party understood the value of language, and mangled the dictionary in order to achieve its ends. Our rulers are doing the same thing. Let’s consider the use of the word ‘credible’ when it comes to the Irish banks.
What does the word credible mean to you? To me, if someone is described as credible, she is solid, she is trustworthy, she is believable, she is the type of person who doesn’t make mistakes – and if she does, she takes full responsibility for her actions. A credible person is accountable, straightforward and capable. You believe what she says.
Given these attributes, how could our financial reputation be made more credible if we interfere with capitalism to bail out institutions and individuals that are not trustworthy, not believable, not capable, not accountable and unable to manage their own affairs?
Bailing out the banks makes us less credible, not more credible. Yet the government insists that ‘‘there is no alternative’’or that this is the ‘‘only game in town’’. So we now have a successful company, like Ryanair, and hundreds of successful small businesses which will be penalised and asked to pay higher taxes to bail out a delinquent company like AIB. What sort of signal does such a policy send to the rest of the world?
The first thing a regime that wants to obscure the truth does is to twist the language and distort the message so that things that are bad sound good. Secondly, the regime tries to silence those who might dissent by accusing them of a ‘‘thoughtcrime’’. In a ‘‘spectator democracy’’ like Ireland, mass compliance is achieved by ridiculing the dissenter – or, if necessary, ostracising the individual who suggests that the truth is being hijacked. In the struggle to bulldoze the interests of the few over the many, language is crucial in order to make bad things sound good. Take ‘‘long-term economic value’’. Now think about what these words mean. Consider ‘‘long-term’’.
When something is long-term it sounds solid, well thought out, not spivvy or tricky in any way. When someone’s actions are determined by the long term, they are usually thought of as selfless, unbiased and, almost by definition, these actions are done ‘‘in the common good’’ because they are long-term.
A bit like a gardener planting a tree, which she will never be around to see in full bloom, but future generations will appreciate. So ‘‘long-term’’ signifies good. Now consider ‘‘economic value’’. Well, if something is economic, it is usually regarded as solid and, most important, technical or even scientific. When something has the aura of being technical, it can’t be invented, it must be mechanical, governed by absolutes. So economic is, let’s say, at worst, neutral. And of course ‘‘value’’: well, value signifies worth. Something with value is valuable and is something that will make you wealthy.
So using the normal codes of language, the message sent out by ‘‘long-term economic value’’ is that it has to be, overall, a good thing. In fact, the reality is that ‘‘long-term economic value’’, the concept behind Nama, is just a makey-uppy name for fields in Athlone that are worthless, that will never be worth anything. It is not long-term, it is a short-term rescue scheme for the property/banking oligarchy in Ireland.
Frankly, it has nothing to do with what we know as the modern economy. In fact, the land-based economy which will be preserved using expressions like ‘‘long-term economic value’’ is a feudal economy based on land totally at odds with the government’s vaunted ‘‘smart economy’’, which is based on brains.
In Nineteen Eighty-Four, the distortion of language was called ‘‘newspeak’’, where one thing meant something quite different. ‘‘Thoughtcrimes’’ were there to be stamped out, while ‘‘goodspeak’’ was used to describe anything which supported the ruling party. It is hard not to think of ‘‘goodspeak’’ when you hear bankers and politicians opining on television. A great example of goodspeak is the old chestnut that ‘‘Nama will get credit flowing in the economy’’. No, it won’t. No one in his right mind believes that. The IMF told the government as much in April 2009.
The reality is that Nama will save the ‘insiders’ by giving your money to bank creditors who took a bad bet on AIB and Bank of Ireland. The reason the Irish government pays more for its borrowings than Spain or Portugal does is because the markets see through our bluff and realise the more money that goes into Nama, the less there is to invest in productive ideas.
But you wouldn’t think this from the language used by the government. We are told that bailing out the banks will create wealth. But we know that it won’t. Bankrupt banks are not wealth creators; they are, by definition, wealth destroyers. Nama first and now the recapitalisations are both moving taxpayer resources to the banks, where it will be destroyed. The €4 billlion gone into Anglo last year is gone. In fact, keeping with the Nineteen Eighty Four analogy, Anglo is the room 101 of taxpayer funds.
But the propaganda – the newspeak – tells a different story, so, for example, when things get worse it is spun that they are getting better. In Nineteen Eighty-Four, one of the reliefs from the drudgery is the weekly ration of chocolate. During the course of the book, the ration is cut from 40g to 35g per week. This, of course, is described as an ‘‘increase’’ to 35g per week. Now think about the recapitalisations of the banks. The numbers keep getting worse, yet they are being sold as better. This, of course, is a favourite linguistic trick. As unemployment continues to rise, we are supposed to celebrate when the rise is smaller than expected.
A classic example of this was the finance minister’s reaction to the GDP figures, which last week showed the worst fall ever recorded. Commenting on the figures, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said: ‘‘Excluding the impact of the ongoing decline in new house building, GDP was roughly unchanged in the fourth quarter.”
This translates as: ‘‘Excluding the bits that were falling, we weren’t falling!”
[…] David Williams yesterday chastised the government for setting about confusing us with the mechanics and objective of NAMA but is he really being fair in this instance? Perhaps we’ll be better able to judge tomorrow evening after Brian Lenihan has spoken. I hope that unlike the skywatchers in Knock we come away with the satiety that we have witnessed something of lasting value. […]
Oh come on David, yes of course when we’re in the doo-doo we expect our political leaders to take some time to describe how smelly and ugly-looking it is and to explain how we came to be in the doo-doo. But surely we expect that they will spend more time explaining how we will get out of the doo-doo and like good leaders in a difficult bind to tell us how sweet that cool lemonade will taste on the lawn on a hot summer’s day sometime in the future — that’s part of what leaders do. On a more forensic… Read more »
Who is O’Brien? that’s what I’d like to know.
Is it Lenihan, one of the very few “talented” people in the country according to Peter Sutherland?
This pretty much sums it all up, well written article. The same propaganda techniques were used during Lisbon Treaty II.
Michael Moore’s film Capitalism: A Love Story is a must see!!
Tremendous film!
Orwell is probably smiling at the current travails. His short story ‘Shooting an Elephant’ is outstanding, highlights how a prevailing ideology (colonialism) can be internalised, akin the current mantra of ‘systemic importance’ etc
Linehan is just postponing nationalisation for a second time, this slavery to the market is costing us a fortune, take them over and be done with it, it is going to happen anyway.
Shooting an Elephant (1936)
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/shootelephant.htm
This too, good from Noam…
When Elites fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Jk2kPwUj0
The movie of 1984 with John Hurt, our own Cyril Cusack and Richard Burton (who stole the show)……”my vision of the future is of a boot stamping on a human face”
1984 – Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MgOQznfFOY
Well Done David on your predictions for the nationalisations of more “banks”. . . .
I think I remember you stating that one of the major banks would face nationalisation by April this year.
So it is to be announced tomorrow (30 March 2010) – A further 16000 million is to be handed over free to bust banks. And what do we get in return – The debt to pay off presumably.
It isn’t just on the economics front that the language is completely distorted if not downright dysfunctional. If you look up the meaning of the word “Taoiseach”, it’s literal translation is “leader” or “chief”… So we have a situation here where someone who is supposed to be leading a country, hasn’t the first notion of what leadership actually is, about how to motivate people to do the right and necessary things. There is no leadership here, none whatsoever and it doesn’t take more than a quick glance at the man to arrive at the conclusion that he is indeed inept,… Read more »
Worth a read
http://www.mexicosolidarity.org/node/145
With effective nationalisation tomorrow AIB are to announce a 0.5 % increase in interest rates (fixed, variable)
Another two fingers shown by the banks to the taxpayer.
Hi David, The nightmare that is NAMA is coming down the tracks at a race of knots. The mirage that it would have been a 30% haircut somehow avoiding any semblance of market reality with failed loans is now somehow a ‘surprise’. NAMA is and will be a disaster, yet as you correctly point out it will be spun that it was a necessity AND spun that it ended up not as bad as it could have been, 20 years from now. And those that constructed it will be long-term retired. Yet, people are silent, powerless by their own volition,… Read more »
Ned O Keefe FF TD, News At One, breaks ranks, first FF td to openly attack Lenihan, says he used to think NAMA ‘the bees knees’ now thinks it can break our economy.
Also believes AIB should be should be given a few more years for their loan book to improve!
Alright he has shares in NAMA and wants AIB left alone to play the same game as NAMA.
Forget getting burnt, now they have taxpayers money, these guys want to play more and just do not want to leave the casino!
NAMA Scamarama or AIBarama Scamarama!!!!
David, have you seen that the Post Office in the UK is to offer mortgages aimed at first time buyers – backed by none other than our own Bank of Ireland.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8592974.stm
While I agree this is welcome for UK borrowers, shouldn’t Bank of Ireland’s priorities lie closer to home?
These next few hours and days we the people of Ireland are going to be bombarded with propaganda by the powers that be. The Irish government And the general jest is we know what we are doing, our game plan for the Irish economy and Irish financial credibility “Going forward “etc etc bullshit. The news media is firmly in the control of spin merchants bought and paid for by the corrupt gangsters running the country .they have been busy spinning their web of deceit for the last few months and reputably truly independent citizens like David are under attack and… Read more »
David,
The Irish are easily led and hard to push.
Maybe its time you realised that most Irish people are eternal optimists, they have a great hope and belief in the future, regardless of how bad the present is. This is the kernel of the problem, the problem being disaffection.
http://www.recombinantrecords.net/2009/05/24/amusing-ourselves-to-death/
What a lethal cocktail we’re in.
[…] David Mc Williams latest posting Big Brother walks among us Extract from David Mc Williams latest posting Big Brother walks among us […]
The article draws attention to two quite separate problems. Firstly, there’s the fools or knaves problem: those who looked at the economy and didn’t see the obvious or those who did but for career reasons stayed silent, have been tested and failed. They lack ability, integrity or both. They should now shuffle to the margins; they certainly shouldn’t be listened to or appointed to any responsible position. They’re “the wrong stuff”!
Secondly, the whole of public discourse is infected by meaningless guff, e.g. “Global innovation hub” and “catalytic environment” (An Taoiseach and Chris Horn respectively, Irish Times March 13th)
We have at least 29 (FF + GREEN, not including Independents) out of every 100 people prepared to vote for this government according to the latest Red C poll. The question must be asked, what does the government have to do to finally convince this 29% of the population that they are unfit to govern?
David:1984 is an interesting populist take on the situation but I’m a bit wary of excessive use of literary allusions on this blog. Of course, we each have to find meaning in the present dire situation in ways that makes sense to us as individuals. Some will depend on astrology, some on historical analogies, some on guidance by textbooks or Nobel laureates and some in prayer. Literature, from the bible onwards is full of warnings about the wages of hubris and the importance of clear principles of justice. I have written before about the importance of getting the judical pillar… Read more »
Excellent article. If anybody in this country wants to get clue’d in to what is happening with regard to the banks, then this would be a good place to start for them. David, something else I noticed yesterday in the Sunday Business Post – Section 2 “Money and Markets”. There is a list of the rates that banks are charging customers for credit on the Page “m7”. There is no form of credit less than 10%. None. Then pass on a few pages more, and you see a list of the best interest rates that the banks offer savers. Some… Read more »
It is not all bad, NAMA is taking loans at a 40 % writedown of loans generally and then there is the developers 30% conribution. That means a 100 million initial land deal is being aquired by NAMA for 42 million that equates to a 68% drop in value. Now when you consider that some time ago 40% of loans were performing that means that NAMA is at the moment breaking just about even. But now the bad news a 1 bed flat anywhere in Germany costs 60k but in Ireland it costs 125k suggests that the market here is… Read more »
We are the onco-mice of the EU and Lenihan is the experimenter.
Here is something important that you should all know. Advertising is not about “informing” consumers. Most advertising is about determining the emotional relationship between a consumer and a product, so that the consumer will not think about the price that they are being charged. Therefore advertising is about increasing corporate profits. In many large corporate concerns, there are ego battles between accountants and marketting people over who controls the corporation, and who can drive up profits the most, and get the highest bonuses. The media is effectively compromised in this area, as beneficiary of this situation. So you never get… Read more »
Matt Cooper talking to David and others after 5
Deco> The main point of this is a systematic effort to prop up the banks. Yes, our defunct and bankrupt banks are being kept alive at all costs to the detriment of the taxpayer. These banks should be let go, majorly reformed, managed down to their death optimally. Lance The Boil. Did I hear that before somewhere ???!!! ;-) paddyjones> NAMA is keeping property overvalued Indeed it will. Its the biggest land/property asset holder in the state and thuis will de facto have market dominance powers and will affact market prices. Now, who will be paying for these higher than… Read more »
I’ll tell you why they are bailing out banks and bondholders with taxpayers money while the economy sinks into a deep hole .
If they don’t pay up in full the bond market will not lend to FF again . The bond market will demand a change of government and it would be the end of FF . They are putting party interests ahead of the national interest .
They are now just pure criminals .
Speaking of the media and business and politics…..was listening to Morning Ireland this morning….and they gave Ahern backer and crony, Charlie Chawke ten minutes to rant about licencing laws and the fact that the laws in this country needed modernising ….(so that more booze would be bought in his pubs). Of course, being well connected, Chawke is well able to push himself onto Radio 1 at prime listening time in the morning rush hour. And he gets a fairly soft interview. And this is the sort of shite that we get in this country. Ahern’s mates telling us how Ireland… Read more »
Charting AIB, watch the jump at today’s opening (via Stephen Kinsells):
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AIB&t=5d
Question: Is it to late to mount a legal challenge to NAMA ? Would the No to NAMA group consider setting up a bank account (might be hard to find a non compromised bank) so people could contribute to such a cause in other words a Class Action Type law suit ? Would be interesting just to see what kind of heat it would draw or pressure that it could attract. David as figurehead ?
Friends,
what tomorrow will confirm is that this is a coup de’etat by the Banksters and the Gov.
It will reveal that they are glove and fist, gov being the silken glove and the banks being the fist to hammer the sh*t out of us with. They’re taking us from both sides, upping their interest rates and taking our pension funds at the same time.
Gurdgiev not happy about govt and unions:
http://trueeconomics.blogspot.com/2010/03/economics-29032010-ps-productivity-deal.html
Folks, from Karl Whelan: “Super Tuesday Leaks This post was written by Karl Whelan Tomorrow we should finally see a resolution of much of the uncertainty that has been hanging over the Irish banking system. We are being told that the estimated prices for NAMA transfers will be announced, as well as the capital requirements set by the Central Bank and the new legal framework for the Central Bank and Financial Regulator. With the news so soon to be released, there is little point in me speculating as to what is going to happen. What I would flag, however, is… Read more »
Folks, if you get a chance, you might like to add to/edit suggestions on the etherpad document, in advance of the Galway meeting:
http://etherpad.com/OwNzsgQpSa
The ministry of plenty will be operational as from tomorrow – plenty of taxpayers money will go into the black holes that are our banks. The spin will, again, be full of LTV – Long Term Viability for Banks and country.
Always preferred Thriftcrime myself. For my sins his holiness suggested I go and top myself. Well the stuttering fecker slipped off and landed the mess in the lap of his patsy, and thriftcrime will continue.
Folks, have a look at this and see what you think it means:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cizake/4474491042/sizes/o/
I wonder why the Student activists are and why are they keeping a low profile in all this. What have they done to our students? Historically it is the students movement that brought about political and social change.
Is it because we have too many foreign students who are paying big money for their studies?
Is it because our students want to finish their studies as quick as possible so they can get out of here?
I wonder why = I wonder where
David.
Very timely article.
I reckon though it is of serious consideration to keep in mind the following, tomorrow, when the gov announce the ‘great NAMA bank heist.’
And it is the case that the NAMA funding and funneling of cash into the banks is in of itself another scamarama.
The NAMA / ECB bonds for cash is a MONEY MAKING enterprise above ALL else.
Hi David
Doing a study on the potential costs /loses for taxpayers
Just wondering, is there anybody out there able to tell me exactly how much did the Taxpayers of this country paid for each of the government shares in AIB, and Bank of Ireland.
This is before the latest round of new shares they will be purchasing on our behalf?
Good Morning Today is the morning after the day before and the day that will change how we think ,about ourselves and everyone around us ,for the rest of lives .It is a day we prefer not to wake up to ,rather instead to believe that we are living in the greatest contemporary fiction created in our nation we once had. It is also a day of a Full Moon where sometimes madness prevails and that seems to be the ground print made by our Slave Trader Minister BL as he Deceives us once more puppeteering to the EU Lords… Read more »
It’s super bailout Tuesday – if you are a banker, a bond / share holder in the banks, a big property developing friend of Fianna fail, IBEC, Chamber of commerce etc / insider My theory is that today is revenge for Cowen and Lenihan if you are an outsider and had a go at them over the years. Cowen seems to be the sort who likes having his back slapped, being told what a great man he is, someone to buy him pints. That’s why he likes the Chamber of commerce bashes so much. But if you don’t think he… Read more »
Well what a surprise. The Unions completely capitulate so as to allow the Government to claim a deal on the day the Irish Times announces that the total bank bail-out (sorry “recapitalisation”) for today is € 22 billion. Certainly a great day to bury bailout news and it appears that the Union leader-insiders are complicit in covering up the deceit by allowing the Govt. to produce effectively nothing so as to pull the wool over the sheeple’s eyes with regard to the real headine today. So what exactly did the PS Unions achieve? No reversal of pay cuts (indeed there… Read more »
[…] is required to maintain the credibility of Ireland’s banking system. Credibility? Haha. Here’s David McWilliams: Bailing out the banks makes us less credible, not more credible. Yet the government insists that […]
Important to realise the taxpayer is buying an endowment mortgage today. Remember those, mortgage based on repaying over eg twenty years the interest on the loan. You paid the interest on the loan along with a payment into a life assurance type investment policy that was invested on your behalf every month. The policy would be used to pay off the principal along with a profit that would go into your pocket at the end of the loan. You guessed it, the investments never paid off and huge numbers across the UK and Ireland got burnt. The Govt hope the… Read more »
It’s a slow day in a West of Ireland town. The sun is beating down, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich tourist from Dublin is driving through town. He stops at a hotel and lays a €50 note on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. As soon as the man walks upstairs, the owner grabs the note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher… Read more »
Govt transfer payments are the only thing keeping IRL plc from sinking.Cut these and it will be a rerun of the fifties, except that there is no escape route of emigration.IRL will end up with a coup, Chile/Argentina style.Nice to see Seanie has had £40 mill of his debts cancelled!.Any chance of Mossad taking out Dave Drumm?.
Administrator just appointed to Quinn insurance-www.irishtimes.com.
NAMA means 55 billion from ECB to preserves the oligarchy in place and in control and in the drivers seat making the most money out of Ireland.