Dear Sir,

I have always expressed to you my fascination with the process and functions of psychology and just how important the subject matter of psychology is when it comes down to learning and understanding the finite details as to how people think and the reasoning behind their thinking.

Mr Editor, those who have studied the political and social demographics of Bermuda have long ago well understood the most detailed characteristics of the island’s racial divide and social mindset that make up the different ethnic groups that reside in Bermuda.

Every country has its own built-in national demographics and localised issues that differentiate each country from another, and no doubt they would differ from that of Bermuda. Thus, those pollsters that understand and know the above, would know just how to use the game of mind manipulation, and through the use of the local political technocrats and their social stratification planners, they would know just how to draw up the blueprints and the crafting of words to draft the types of questions needed to receive the types of responses they are looking for from the public.

Mr Editor, to design a foolproof plan of any kind, one must have the raw data needed to work with at the same time. If you don’t have the necessary data, then it may well be almost impossible to put a firm handle on any situation taking place on the political landscape that may bring social unrest in the future. I’m quite sure that the political technocrats of today are quite aware of that.

Mr Editor, it has become most difficult for me these days to believe that any real changes that were to take place in Bermuda were going to take place under the format of any real democratic process. To me, the whole exercise of carrying out elections is seen as nothing more than a cooling down of the rhetoric and emotions of the people for the moment; after which we can then get right back to business as usual until after the next four years is up. Then we can restart the same old repetitive process all over again to bring us right back to where we had already long ago started — that’s going nowhere.

Mr Editor, the perception that has been going around since the beginning of time immemorial is that the power of politics rests in the hands of whatever the political party is that had control of the House of Assembly. But as time has since marched on, I have recognised that certain important political issues that affect us all, which should have been attended, have yet to be dealt with.

Since which, Mr Editor, I am now beginning to have these very strong, deep-down feelings and doubts over whether or not the power to make real changes really does rest with the government — no matter which political party controls the legislature.

Of course, Mr Editor, I will continue as a taxpaying Bermudian subject to stand on the proverbial soapbox and make all necessary noise needed for those who wish to listen. Of course, you do know that I am not alone on this and other issues. Bermuda’s political position is not that much different from any of those former colonies of the British Empire.

Before most of them went independent, the psychology of fear had been heavily pushed into the psyche of the people in those islands. The same tactics being used in Bermuda to frighten people should be seen as nothing new; what they did there they could do here or anywhere else in the world.

So the next time the pollsters start to clog up your phone, remember this: the opinions you thought you were expressing from your mind may not have originated from you. It may well have been something that came straight out of the blueprint of the pollster’s manual.

E. McNEIL STOVELL

Pembroke