Uladzimir Matskevich’s video reports “Political techniques of the third generation” — Part Four

What hide the political techniques of the 3rd generation and why do they inevitably tend to invade the sphere of consciousness and the neighboring countries, reasons philosopher Uladzimir Matskevich.

Having indicated in the previous report the basic approaches, by which the political techniques of the third generation manage the protest electorate, the philosopher and the methodologist Uladzimir Matskevich returns to comparing different generations of political techniques but from a different point of view — from a perspective of the secret that these political techniques are designed to hide.

No need to be under a delusion while thinking that the normal political process, even in the most democratic countries, is fully open and transparent. The need to conceal a part of the information from political rivals and voters occurs with the emergence of political techniques as such. The political techniques of the first generation conceal plans of campaigns, tactics and strategies by which politicians gain trust and sympathy of the electorate. But, beginning with political techniques of the second generation this secret acquires a criminal tinge, and with political techniques of the third generation it turns into secreting a criminal conspiracy. The conspiracy aimed at distortion of the essence of the basic principles of public administration and public policy. The conspiracy destructing the media as an institution of freedom of speech. The conspiracy providing unity of capital, power, and information in the hands of a single entity free to provide with decisive advantage any candidate in the elections at all levels, leaving no chance to independent competitors. And the perfection of political techniques of the third generation is just that no one realizes that the entire management of the situation is operated from a single center.

The paradox is that everyone knows, for example, that there is no election in Belarus. However, the vast majority of the people behave as if they did not know that. Let’s left behind the majority; a significant part of the intelligentsia, independent media, and activists of political parties and civil society organizations also behave this way, that is, all those people who are called “opposition” in Belarus, as if they did not know what everybody knows!

This paradox can be explained in different ways, with the involvement of psychological interpretations, political science’ constructions, categories such as “mentality” — that is, it can be explained for the sake of explanation, without any practical perspective. Uladzimir Matskevich suggests starting with categories that make it possible not only to come to an adequate understanding of what is happening, but also to effectively work with the changes — the categories of “objectivity” and “reality” that are the essence of the war on consciousness generated by political technicians of the third generation.

[Please don't forget to turn the captions on for English subtitles!]

You can watch the full video report in Russian here.

See also: Uladzimir Matskevich: Political techniques of the third generation