Tactics And Agendas… Mass Media, Blogging, TV And Movies, Etc.
Astrology in real life
The soldier and I were discussing a current story in the news and he shared his view of it…
“I see. That’s some tactic,” I said. “I don’t think people realize other people have tactics and agendas they are committed to advancing. They just don’t think about this at all.”
“I know.”
The soldier is a tactician. He is particularly interested in war tactics but he’s interested in tactics in general and I have picked up a lot from him over the years.
This came up over the last days when I was writing in the comments of how the press manipulates people. They write things to deliberately intended to provoke fervor and a flurry of comments, the point being to grow their audience or the traffic to their site or whatever. I used Rush Limbaugh as an example but this goes on most everywhere.
I encountered this up close when Frontline came here to interview me and my daughter. They were putting together a show and looking for families to showcase and it was very apparent to me their criteria for selecting people was far from random. It’s like advertising that features a kid of every race. The company is manipulating the audience to position themselves and/or create an image. Same with Frontline. They were creating a show a specific (provocative) angle they felt would be most marketable and this is is nothing new. 30 years ago, if you wanted to be picked for a game show, you would show up, enthusiastic, and effervescent and over the top as the morose contestant does not make for good TV.
I avoid using tactics like this on blog although I wonder sometimes if this is not only a mistake but a stupid mistake. If you have any questions about this, the fact I become particularly repulsive on a basis that is routine even if it is not predictable should really reassure you. I threaten to send my business right over the cliff and don’t think I don’t know it.
The thing is to me, authenticity is everything. There is nothing in world worth being fake or superficial for. No person, no amount of money. Not that others would not find it this worthwhile or entertaining, I just don’t so I wind up with people appalled and it is never deliberate.
This blog (since 2001) has always been written based on what is going on in my life at the moment. It used to be very centered on my children. Later I was focused on storytelling.
I wrote about my ex, The AMF for 3 years and when he an I separated and I went from an artist to a soldier, the blog changed.
I hear my blog is changing now. “You were writing about a love affair… then a wedding and lately your blog has been dark…”
I want to say, there is nothing I can do about it. Well, there is something I could do about it - I could become a manipulator. I could become deliberately provocative which seems to be a common denominator of many blogs that grow huge but I just don’t want to do it and I’ll tell you why:
It’s because I want a higher end reader here. I want brainy people. I want people who know when they are being manipulated and reject it.
It reminds me of the show, E.R. I used to watch it when it first came out but realized at the start of the 3rd season, I was being manipulated to a degree that was intolerable. This is, every show had these certain element… a baby or a pregnant mother dying for example. I realized I was watching the show with a tight jaw and as often as not, tears running down my face so I decided to tune out.
It’s no better then those testosterone movies, usually starred in by Nicholas Cage, where they have BIG FIRE fill the screen every 16 minutes or so.  Each explosion is beyond the one before and once you’re on to the patter, what’s the point?
So anyway, I am real and committed (Saturn) to staying that way which means if I am in a bad mood, screwing a soldier, in love to the point of dipshitness, pissed off or whatever else I might be then that’s what I am and if I go out of business then I go out of business.
I am coming back on the topic of tactics and agendas. It’s a good one all right.
21 Responses to “Tactics And Agendas… Mass Media, Blogging, TV And Movies, Etc.”
I don’t consider authenticity to be a “tactic”. It is going out in the world as you are and letting people make their own decisions as to your worth. That is not a tactic, that is living. There is not a formula on this blog but it is cohesive in this way: I write about whatever I am thinking about or feeling in the moment.
I have managed get the forecasts up regularly lately which is a real feat. satori does the year ago posts, I would not be able to manage at this point but what I am trying to say here… is to respond to remarks my blog has changed or is getting “fill-in-the-blank”.
I am a person in motion, I don’t think anyone would deny - I am mutable, I do have a strong Jupiter streak so going to the future always even if it leads me into the abyss.
I have to think of these other things though because people bring them up to me but what I realize is this: I am not cut out to be Perez Hilton, creating controversy all the way to the bank. Not that there is not anything wrong with that - I could care less what another person does but I don’t like the kind of people that are that easy to manipulate and so this method (bring regular) is the best one for me.
Elsa, I always believed you were authentic when I started reading this blog in early 2008.
Instinctually I knew. I just knew and know.
The first thing that came to my mind when I was reading this is the “hysteria” over the “pandemic”,lol.” Sales are down we need to stir up fear and sales for the pharmacutical company,lol, I know lets do mass vacinations, yes that is the ticket.”hehe.
I never thought about you being giddy or dark. That is not why I come here. I come here because you are REAL and this is LIFE. It isn’t all hearts and flowers,lol. It is up and down and sometimes blah, well at least my life is.
Elsa I do appreciate all the hard work that goes into the blog. xoxo
I don’t watch ER because I always ended up crying over it but hadn’t realised it was manipulative until I read your post.
I think your style of writing is raw and gutsy… and that’s a compliment in case you were wondering 
That show set a hook in the first 3 minutes and had various tried and true components that showed up in every episode at right about the same place. After awhile you just say, “I am too smart for this.”
Same with the astrologers who write for google… various other tactics. People with brains catch on. I do not want to be mass market. Spy Magazine all the way.
That show set a hook in the first 3 minutes and had various tried and true components that showed up in every episode at right about the same place.
That’s one of the reasons I don’t have a TV. Even watching (online) the one show I like, I realize when they cut the interviews and behind the scenes, that they’re carefully edited and cut for effect.
Me? I just wanna see the dances. *chuckle*
I was thinking about this the other day when you wrote on the other post and I have wanted to respond and so here goes..
This forum reflects you and who you are. If you try to curb your authentic self than that will be a dis-service to yourself and subsequently to the rest of us. It is one thing to allow and encourage others to feel free to express themselves and opine on different subjects — that is admirable on your part. But to stifle yourself and your true beliefs and feel not able to express them openly here so as to not upset the apple cart is another thing altogether.
This site, meaning you, are dedicated to astrology and telling us the “real” facts. That is what I admire and find more and more appealing about you as I read on your daily entries. I want to hear and read YOUR opinion based on YOUR perspective of the upcoming trends, transits, events, and how YOU think we, individually and globally will be affected. And I want the truth as YOU see it. This is your spin (which I think is based on what is real) on astrology — this site bears YOUR name. You may lose some people, but I believe you will gain many more. I trust what you say and believe you are telling me what YOU believe to be true.
You are not out here telling us to use BRECK shampoo because it makes your hair shiny and full……you are out here telling us you use (whatever shampoo you do use) because it cleans your hair, you like the smell and it does the job for you. Period.
However you wake up in the morning….happy, sad, beautiful, tired, cranky, up, down……it doesn’t matter, that is the person I want to see…you being you.
Well that’s why I’m here. I don’t watch TV or hackneyed films, read the mainstream media, or hang around stupid. You’re consistently REAL and your intelligence and thought is rooted in the earth, it doesn’t hang in the air to drift or dissolve with a change in the weather. I value that intensely. Got your back for good Elsa, you cannot be duplicated or replaced.
“The thing is to me, authenticity is everything. There is nothing in world worth being fake or superficial for. ”
I agree.
You and the blog and boards are authentic–that’s why I read here so much.
Keep up the good work. This blog is better than anything on tv.
ER is sooooo 90’s! Ha ha ha.
Ha ha, well that was the last time I got involved in a TV program. ::shakes head::
The soldier likes NCIS and has a crush on Abs. Abs and Rachel Ray are my competition. Martha Stewart bad mouthed Rachel Ray and he came on unglued! 
Yes, this is basicly it. I took Film and Television Studies at the University, with quite vague idea about wanting to work at the business.The freshman year I got very disillusioned, and even slightly depressed studying the French structuralists and poststructuralists practically saw every human efford as a tactics. I simply didn’t want to go that far.
But it’s true that the mainstream media and entertainment is very structured and thus a bit predictable. Especially the American network primetime television fiction. And that’s a problem. People do, eventually, see the patterns and get bored. Only shows with a very strong storyline and/or very well written characters can keep the audience interested for more than a couple of 22-23 episode series. ER actually did pretty good job with the main characters, I never missed an episode as long as the Dr. Ross and Nurse Hathaway were around, was quite a regular viewer until the season Dr. Greene was written off and saw an episode here and there up until Dr. Carter left.
denamaria- that was beautiful! I feel the same.
Elsa- authenticity is your middle name, but if you want to try some pyrotechnics now and then, I would be OK with that.
I don’t think that you should listen to anyone’s opinion about your blog. Just keep doing what feels right.
I experienced a lot of opposition when my blog was an infant, but I fought hard and shook the fleas off (if you know what I mean). The online world isn’t an easy one. Courage goes hand in hand with authenticity. I don’t care if a reader disagrees with me. But if a reader disrespects me, he/she needs to go bye-bye to another of the zillion blogs out here…
They write things to deliberately intended to provoke fervor and a flurry of comments, the point being to grow their audience or the traffic to their site or whatever.
Sure. If you got all your news from cable TV news, you’d think that your most likely fate, should you choose to leave the house and go to the 7-11, is to be jumped and raped by land sharks, followed by being taken to the hospital and killed for your organs. Especially if you’re a young white female.
In reality, if you’re a young (or old) white female, the most likely big problem you’re going to have will be getting ripped off by insurance card companies while you try to keep up with your bills after losing your job (or more likely, after your SO loses his higher-paying job).
But that’s boring. Man bites dog, because dog bits man is way too common.
The soldier likes NCIS and has a crush on Abs.
Hell, I have a crush on Abs, but then, I have a crush on Ziva too. I can’t decide. Guess I’ll have take ‘em both. It’s only fair. 
max
['I wouldn't want anybody to feel left out.']
Whoo hoo, yes, real real real. That’s why I’m here. I also want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Elsa. Reading your defense of your blog and your forums really taught me a lot. I am, in the last few months, in charge of the forums for my SO’s site and my decisions and opinions in our discussions about how to handle things on our forums and what kinds of standards we want to set are VERY influenced by what I’ve watched and read about here. What it has allowed is for me to make it through a very scary time period on our forums where I had to be the bad guy every day. I felt like I was kicking people out right and left and was wondering if anything would be left in the end. And the answer is YES, after the shit has been kicked out the very high level discussions have begun. We are attracting the industry people we want and wow. It has been a relief and what kept me going was watching what YOU - ELSA did. Thank you thank you thank you. (and no, I don’t follow every word you say without my own thought and opinion but boy, you’ve got a lot right)
they spend lots of money paying for high tech psychology to figure the best way to work themselves around logic to the irrational side of our brains.
it seems extraordinarily demeaning and insulting.
but it works.
Im late on my reply as im catching up on post I missed during my college exams. I believe the reason i like this blog is because it raw and real. Sometimes its light funny and romantic eg: getting married but other times its dark, raw and heart wrenchingly emotional. Its just a wonderful woman telling her stories and thats that, no ploys, no lines and I like it. Something like that is hard to find.
NCIS is one of my favorites too. Although I like the boss Gibbs and Ziva. Why does the solider like this one? Is an escape for him hollywood style or does it actually reference proper investigation tactics used according to his knowledge of such things?
Skye, he LOVES the show. He watches it every chance he gets, likes everybody on it but ESPECIALLY Abs who he talks about incessantly.
Abs and Rachel Ray are his other girlfriends, the fuck.
If they ever came over there would be a murderous slaughter here, LOL. And these poor women wouldn’t know what hit them.
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Hey Elsa,
The thing that sets you apart from other bloggers is your authenticity. That’s why I come here. Shoot, I’ve been reading your blog for over a year. Your take on astrology and “the real world” is fresh and honest. Don’t be afraid of using tactics. Those ideas or “tactics” should be pushed out into the world. It counters those “tactics” that don’t make sense or are harmful to the greater good. It is not manipulative when you are asserting your essence and that which is true.