Heinous cynicism: manipulating the young and naïve into handing them power so that they could execute their roadmap for corruption

Published: April 16, 2017 at 11:09am

There are few things I abhor more than the cynical manipulation of the young, whose lack of life experience makes them naïve, trusting, vulnerable and gullible, by the cold-blooded machinations of older people for their own self-serving ends.

Young people should be championed, treated with greater care than older people, with respect and above all with encouragement for their hopes, dreams, potential and ambitions. That was and still is former Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi’s greatest and most admirable characteristic: his quite obvious pleasure in the company of young people, their comfortable response to him, and his celebration of their successes.

Which makes the terrible scenes in this video below all the more blackly ironic. Flashback to February 2013, just days before the general election, and now we know with the benefit of hindsight that what we see here is the dark manipulation of young people’s natural instinct for rebellion, the cynical manipulation of their trust and vulnerability, by the evil forces of an underworld web, a corrupt brotherhood that is Malta’s La Piovra, intent on using them, like it used others, to gain power – what turned out to be absolute power, with no checks or balances – to execute their roadmap to corruption and personal enrichment.