Smoke Signals
By: teleSUR English
June 17, 2024 Hour: 6:36 pm
In Venezuela, pollsters predict a giant smoke pot-sized opposition victory
The verb came first. And the verb was the only thing that existed. The verb was next to God, and the verb was God. Then the smoke came immediately.
RELATED:
Venezuela Rejects the Dispossession of Citgo by the US
Smoke is something that accompanies the verb, the word, since this was God. A shadow, a verbal ghost that wants to appear reality, without being.
Selling smoke is a way of showing reality to others´ eyes, as if this thing is not what is it. Fictionalize it to the extreme, presenting it with extraordinary edgings, without literary or histo-riographic purposes, but only for self-interest.
The God Google says that the vendehúmos -also known as smoke pot assembler- is the one that promotes or promises something that in reality lacks value or substance, and does so in an excessive, excessive or fallacious way to obtain personal benefits.
If the truth sets us free, the pot of smoke is the one that turns credulity-faith in the liberating word-into a matter of deceit or mockery. And although the sale of smoke does not involve only a lie, there is always a lie behind it. That’s why their lie is quite big. “Maduro does not last three months”. And when they failed, they offered him the stupid illusion that, if a wimp stood in a corner and made himself president, the dictatorship” would fall in hours. Tongo sold smoke to Borondongo and Borondongo sold it to Barnabas. Smoke works like the free market under the invisible hand: it is only sold if there is a buyer willing to buy. There is a faith in the smoke that precedes the sale of this, and that gives it anthropological, almost spiritual strength. What Gabo calls the mentality prone to superstition. Today, in Venezuela, in the middle of the electoral tournament, we see an enormous humiliation arise.
Polls and pollsters stubborn failures in previous electoral forecasts-are on social networks selling smoke from the top. And it is not that they predict an opposition victory (which is what the electoral campaigns are for), but the size of this gigantic pot they are offering to incautious, uninformed and sick: “90 to 10, for the short”. And the assurance with which they issue the prophecy. It’s going to happen for the sake of it. It’s written. “Good people” and… all the polls. They’re the usual sellouts, with new merchandise. They have convinced a group of Venezuelans that there is a huge victory coming from the opposition. Oenegés created antenoche, numerologists and wandering analysts, unpublished X’s Nostradamus unflattering and promising the instant future on July 28, the arrival of the comet. What will happen when the vows are counted, if the prophecy is not fulfilled, if the smoke dissipates and the result does not resemble the promised paradise?
And here’s the key of the matter. The smoke salesman is only looking to get something in exchange for the smoke. Verbal forgeries are plenty in the story. Big and small fumes that hide in the trust that the word gives us. God’s initially. Moses was the first great seller of smoke. What if the sea opened for the elect to walk by; if he turned a rod into a serpent and then again into a rod; if he cast upon the wicked Egyptians a storm of insects; if he turned the rod into a serpent, then he cast upon me the divine laws. What if this or that. Biblical smoke, pure and hard. The concepts emitted in the pages of opinion of the always, therefore, sell pots of smoke became resource that historians and writers have taken advantage to dazzle and politicians and influencers to deceive.
José Arcadio Buendía founded Macondo with tricks and mythical promises that only existed in his head. Sir Walter Raleigh -who was not a character of García Márquez, but he could be- sailed the rivers of “las Guayanas” and heard the natives talk about a city with towers of gold built in the center of a lake. In love with his queen, the pirate bought the myth of El Dorado, sank in the Amazon and then became the most furious salesman of that feverish vision in the English crown. Delirium led to his death.
Once Gabo said that his stories did nothing but exploit the Caribbean mentality, so prone to superstitions and omens. Since ever, then, selling smoke pots became a resource that historians and writers have used to dazzle and politicians and influencers to deceive.
ELECTION SMOKE
The smoke for sale consists of passing through imminent reality, inexorable, an illusion. Therefore, the vendehúmos is one of the most common specimens in politics. Demagogue, fallacious, illusionist or trickster, the merchant of the false always presents himself with epic edgings.
He is always a hero (or a heroine) endowed with a vision superior to human. Without reading Goebbels, the false prophets have discovered that it is more obvious that they will sing fraud. But then what? I do not ask because I am interested in the fate of the Vendehumos, who always disappear behind the smoke.
Trump came to the presidency saying he would “make America bigger” and is about to return to the White House saying that “now he will make it bigger, again!”. What a hum. Milei, the most successful right-wing shopkeeper, sold the smoke that would annihilate the caste and, what he has done is to impose in Argentina a new caste of financial and political mercenaries, even more quick and rapacious.
Trump, by the way, not only sold, but bought and swallowed good smoke. Bolton, Pompeo, Abrams, López, Borges, Rubio, Guaidó, Machado-the bunch of losers he surrounded-sold him the smoke of sanctions. “Maduro can’t take three months”. And when they failed, they offered him the stupid illusion that, if a wimp stood in a corner and made himself president, the dictatorship” would fall in hours. Tongo sold smoke to Borondongo and Borondongo sold it to Barnabas.
Smoke works like the free market under the invisible hand: it is only sold if there is a buyer willing to buy. There is a faith in smoking that precedes the sale of this and that gives it anthropological, almost spiritual strength. What Gabo calls the mentality prone to chicanery.
Today, in Venezuela, in the midst of the electoral tournament, we see an enormous humazon rising. In-hills and pollsters -contumaces failed in previous electoral forecasts- are on social networks selling smoke from the top. And it is not that they predict an opposition victory (which is what the electoral campaigns are for), but the size of this gigantic pot they are offering to incautious, uninformed and sick: “90 to 10, for the short”. And the assurance with which they issue the prophecy. It’s going to happen for the sake of it. It’s written. “Good people” and… all the polls.
They’re the usual sellouts, with new merchandise. They have convinced a group of Venezuelans that there is a huge victory coming from the opposition. Oenegés created antenoche, numerologists and wandering analysts, unpublished X’s Nostradamus unflattering and promising the instant future on July 28, the arrival of the comet.
What will happen when the vows are counted, if the prophecy is not fulfilled, if the smoke dissipates and the result does not resemble the promised paradise?
It seems obvious that they will sing fraud. But then what? I do not ask because I am interested in the fate of the Vendemos, who always disappear behind the smoke.
I say this for the disappointed buyers. Will there be a new wave of violence, of de-stabilisation? Will they migrate? Or will they return to the nets for more smoke? What will happen to the unsuspecting ones who have swallowed until exhaustion this toxic smoke and ex-tremista? What country will remain for these scorched souls of false promises, hatred and frustration? Watch for the smoke signals.
Autor: William Castillo Bollé
The opinions expressed in this section do not necessarily represent those of teleSUR