I am going to continue to explore why’s and wherefore’s of our wide political divide. I want to talk about the role that provocateurs play in this divide. Provocateur is a word we borrowed from the French. You can see our English word provoke comes from provocateur which originally came from Latin, but I’d like to use this definition, “a person who acts controversially to provoke an argument or a strong reaction.” We have provocateurs on radio, television, the Internet, and even in print. This is not a new phenomenon. The Roman city of Pompeii was destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Ash covered the city so deeply that many things were preserved and among them was graffiti. There is graffiti clearly attacking people in the city and this graffiti is often reproduced in several locations and it’s not friendly. It’s clearly trying to provoke the citizens of Pompeii to do something. My favorite historical provocateur here in the US is William Randolph Hearst. I’ve never been sure in my own mind how much is acts of provocation were to influence policy or just to sell more of his newspapers. His actions and that of Joseph Pulitzer were labeled “yellow journalism.” Provocateurs can be found all over the place. Joseph McCarthy and his hunt for Communists in the 1950s was clearly are a provocateur.
Let’s turn to more recent provocateurs. It’s clear that talk radio became an excellent arena for provocateurs. I guess I should say AM radio as that’s where talk radio began. There were technical and economic reasons or starting on AM radio they are interesting but are off-track for this discussion. The first provocateur on AM radio, I remember, was Rush Limbaugh. He called himself “an entertainer.” He remains today an influential voice on the conservative side. There were attempts by liberals to use radio, but they were never as successful as the conservatives in using the radio. Rupert Murdoch thought that television in the form of the three major networks were against him and his views. In 1985, he bought the organization that would eventually become Fox news to represent the conservatives as he saw them.
I think I have established that there have always been provocateurs and our time is no different. Their effect is much quicker. In Pompeii, you would have had to walk around the streets and stop and read the graffiti. Now you can turn on the TV or search for something on YouTube and you will quickly see provocateurs of all sorts. You can’t avoid it. Think back to the definition of provocateurs and that they are trying to provoke an argument or strong reaction. They serve to widen the gap in this country and for either political or financial gain reasons. We wouldn’t listen long to someone we know is trying to provoke us, so we need to do the same with these provocateurs. I’m sure I’ll come back to this topic, but for now, I just ask you to think about the good of our country. It’s clear from the Mueller Report we had provocateurs attempting to influence our last presidential election. When you read something or hear something, think about it for a moment. Is it meant to inform or provoke? Consider these two sentences. It’s summer again. It’s a miserable summer again. Someone trying to provoke you will include words that have a high emotional content like miserable. Enough for today as I must get back to work.
