search
Gabriel Mayer

The Deplorables

This expression, when uttered by Hillary Clinton, became one of the costliest mistakes in her recent political campaign; it nailed the lid on the coffin.

But what I am addressing is not a direct political issue, but rather a thought or phenomenon that kept reoccurring in my mind while I was writing a recently published historical article. In its introduction, I argued that in today’s world, for the general population, the most used and influential way of learning history was based on the adage that, people would rather see the movie than read the book.  I went on to argue that visualizing museum artifacts and watching movies is a commonplace method of learning historical lessons and in actuality, it becomes the main source of all information gathering.

Does anyone recall Marshall McLuhan saying, that the medium is the message? Perhaps not, since his writings and theories are most often communicated and studied in written form, in print. Reading books or printed articles and newspapers is the least used manner of gathering information in today’s world unless it arrives through a short blurb based on some variation of an LCD screen.

This LCD screen has become the delivery method of information.

Thus follows an unusual spate of events. One that is open to manipulation in the hands of malevolent but technically savvy individuals.

As a starter, let us not forget, the underlying technology of the “captive touchscreen.”  This is a tactical term used to describe the instrument known as the cell phone. It is the underlying method that brilliant minds have developed into many appealing techniques such as  “the endless scroll”. Utilizing the Dopamine mediated reward system, programmers design interactions known as Reward          Prediction Error Encoding (RPE). This reward principle is a widespread method utilized by the gambling industry, and more recently, the dumbest and most malevolent president the United States has ever had. The effectiveness of the Twitter Feed is based on a chemical reward system just described, hence its popularity.

The Deplorables are spreading a contagion far more widespread than the Black Plague of Medieval times.

Ironically, the endpoint in today’s world is democracy at its worst.

It is a worldwide democracy impenetrable by customary practices of censorship and equally available for the truth as well as lies.

Thus, when the lunatic’s voice is equally as loud as that of a respected academic or government official, democracy begins to resemble anarchy.

So, why does this matter so much? It matters because a new world order is looming over the horizon and it will engulf us all. Remember Populism? It began as a variation of Nationalism. And, as dangerous as Nationalism may be-one variation became Hitler’s Nazis-it still retained a rationale, even though only when viewed from the inside.

However, the current trend leads into the world of fake news, a place where truth is no longer distinguishable from the lie.

Here, we enter the territory of the suicidal climate change deniers.

So, what’s the point? The answer comes by turning on the television news, or reading the news. The deplorables are the newsmakers; the deplorables rule the electorate.

About the Author
Born in Cluj, Romania to Holocaust survivor parents, he and the family fled Communism at age 10 and lived as refugees in Italy for about a year. Arrived to USA at age 11 A graduate of Boston University Medical School, Dr. Mayer was the lead investigator and first author for a series of published research that introduced to the world peripheral thrombolytic therapy for myocardial infarction, a first-ever event. These procedures are commonplace today and have saved millions of lives. After years of work in the USA as a clinician, researcher, and professor he moved to Israel where he earned two back-to-back MA degrees from the University of Haifa: Holocaust Studies and Israel Studies. He continues to research and publish in the fields of identity and peoplehood as related to sociopolitical events with a concentration in museal studies and performative aspects of academic learning, i.e. experiential learning. His expertise in museal studies and Holocaust historiography resulted in him being named Head Historian at Martef Hashoah Museum in Jerusalem [2015-2018] In February 2018, according to Academia.edu, he was ranked in the top 1% of researchers worldwide As a way of introducing the whole picture, some other facts need mention. During 1989, Dr. Mayer returned to his native birthplace [Cluj, Romania] and was a prominent figure in the 1989 Romanian Revolution. He was for two decades an accomplished triathlete, competing at elite international levels. He competed in three World Triathlon Championships and completed multiple Ironman Triathlons in places ranging from China to New Zealand and Canada to Europe; in addition, a mention needs to be made of the 44 marathons he completed