Rob Ford Radio Personality

Rob Ford, the mayor of the city of Toronto, went on the air today via radio for two hours accompanied by his side-kick/brother, Doug Ford.  I can only imagine that the Mayor feels his support slipping away and is now in full campaign-damage-control-look-at-me mode.

 

The term Agitprop immediately sprung to mind as I listened to a report of the latest buffoonery from the Fords.  The term agitprop originated as a result of a department in the old Soviet Union; namely The Department for Agitation and Propaganda.  Only a regime clearly not for the people or perhaps George Orwell (in irony) could have come up with such a blatantly obvious name for a government department.

While in it's original form the Department for Agitation and Propaganda did not have any unpleasant connotations, it was later changed to Ideological Department....another autocratic brain wave.  Agitpro changed meaning later to mean any artistic or dramatic means of carrying a message to the audience.

While I don't expect the brothers Ford to know any of this, they do know what to do in order to win support for their transit program -- flood the airwaves, distract people, cajole and bully, until you get your way.  Men's men they are.

And while i'm at it, why do tyrannical governments always come up with the most grandiose and convoluted names for their governmental deparments?  Is it an attempt to cover up the real work of the departments concerned with baffle gab?  Or is it an indication of how out of touch most tyrannies are with the pavement and the people?  If any of this is the case, then all the brothers need is a catchy, and at the same time, convoluted name for their new show.