“In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy
and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might
be true, or the propaganda might be false. They did not foresee what in
fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies -
the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the
main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more
or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account
man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.
In the past most people never got a chance of fully satisfying this
appetite. They might long for distractions, but the distractions were
not provided. Christmas came but once a year, feasts were "solemn and
rare," there were few readers and very little to read, and the nearest
approach to a neighborhood movie theater was the parish church, where
the performances though frequent, were somewhat monotonous. For
conditions even remotely comparable to those now prevailing we must
return to imperial Rome, where the populace was kept in good humor by
frequent, gratuitous doses of many kinds of entertainment - from
poetical dramas to gladiatorial fights, from recitations of Virgil to
all-out boxing, from concerts to military reviews and public executions.
But even in Rome there was nothing like the non-stop distractions now
provided by newspapers and magazines, by radio, television and the
cinema. In "Brave New World" non-stop distractions of the most
fascinating nature are deliberately used as instruments of policy, for
the purpose of preventing people from paying too much attention to the
realities of the social and political situation. The other world of
religion is different from the other world of entertainment; but they
resemble one another in being most decidedly "not of this world." Both
are distractions and, if lived in too continuously, both can become, in
Marx's phrase "the opium of the people" and so a threat to freedom.
Only the vigilant can maintain their liberties, and only those who are
constantly and intelligently on the spot can hope to govern themselves
effectively by democratic procedures. A society, most of whose members
spend a great part of their time, not on the spot, not here and now and
in their calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other
worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy,
will find it hard to resist the encroachments of those who would manipulate
and control it.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited
Except the incumbent decides that he needs it due to the polls being too close, we should be thankful that election year has once more rolled around - negating the need for another false-flag distraction! The populace will again be fooled into thinking that one or other of two equally poor alternatives will provide the solution to their economic and social woes this time around and devote all their energies to getting their preferred choice installed in office or at least preventing the other from obtaining it. And once again the only genuine solution lies in the totally absent choice, namely none of the above! The solutions are only attainable by first understanding that the problem lies within the system itself. More rules and regulations by a 'wise' class can only bring us more of the same - widespread insanity!
The feeling that we can be protected from every economic or social ill, is a hangover from our youth! But for grown adults it is at best a sign of immaturity - and at worst a symptom of a mental disease! When we assign power to a group of people (however well-intentioned) to decide for the individual what activities he is permitted to engage in willingly under the guise of guarding him from some evil and under threat of violence or losing his freedom, we have opened a Pandora's Box of societal evils! Like any other occupation, politicians will seek to justify the need for their services by continuing to play upon the population's need to feel protected from a lifetime of 'hobgoblins' - real or fabricated - and will do all in their power to keep such fears elevated and the populace clamoring to be 'rescued'!
But as we burrow deeper down into the rabbit-hole of a crazy world founded on the illusion of choice between systems and rulers, reality slowly comes to the fore - leading to a backlash against dissent! While the last hurrah of economic growth (for a few) papers over the widening cracks in the doomed edifice for a brief time yet the world's peoples can be held in check. During such a period of relative peace legislation has been quietly passed and detention camps readied for the distracted population!
Humans share the common weakness of never believing 'it could happen to me' until it actually does! Until then they continue to place a childish trust in the ability of 'Mummy' or 'Daddy' to make it right. Meanwhile the time remaining for us all to grow up grows shorter each day - can you hear me now?
Can America’s Descent Possibly Be Reversed?
Recently by Scott Lazarowitz: Why Are Government Bureaucrats Turning America Into Nazi Germany?
My articles for LRC have been increasingly difficult and frustrating to write. More recently I have been trying to get people to understand America’s current police state. Yes, I have received some favorable emails when my articles have appeared, but there are also ones from those in denial, who refer to me as "nuts," "conspiracy theorist," and so on.
Now, to say that America is becoming like Nazi Germany is not an exaggeration. But too many people glance over such assertions in disbelief, perceiving such things as absurdities. They are in denial, and just do not want to believe what’s going on.
In my article on martial law, I emphasized that public officials are obligated to disobey unlawful orders, even those issued by the President of the United States. If the President orders suspension of civil liberties and basic rights protected by the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, then governors, mayors, state troopers, police officers and military personnel must disobey those unlawful orders. Those officials have sworn to an oath to obey the Constitution, not to obey the President of the United States.
"But we’re at war!" some people cry. No, sorry. Regardless of what the warmongers say, there is no time ever to excuse violations of the people’s rights and their liberty, during war or peacetime.
America is dangerous now, but the reason isn’t because of Islamic terrorists – it’s because of government bureaucrats, central planners run amok.
The problem is that bureaucrats who MUST have war and expanded powers, including suppression of civil liberties, will change the laws to suit their narcissistic needs for more power.
And America is dangerous because too many amongst the general population are no longer raised with a sense of moral values and personal responsibility. Americans seem to get easily swept up into a national fervor for war, for killing and death. Just look at these past ten years of destruction that our government has caused overseas, and the American people’s passive acceptance of it based on the government’s emotion-driven propaganda.
One item of evidence of America’s decline in decency and values is how America’s youngsters are so bloodthirstily drawn to the latest pop culture phenomenon called The Hunger Games, #1 on Amazon.com this week. Because of modern Americans’ craving for war and sadism, and because of their widespread support for the Bush-Obama wars of the past decade, Americans have become even more desensitized to violence.
But this series of books supposedly has an anti-war tone or message. However, I wonder how many people who have read the books (or have seen the movie) are more "anti-war" than they were previously.
In continuing their apparent militantly exceptionalist attitude, and with much ignorance as well (especially of Muslims), many Americans now seem to have an insatiable craving for violence, sadism, cruelty, torture, murder, blood and death.
Fifty or sixty years ago, when America was perhaps a little more decent and moral in general than it is now, in no way would so many parents have let their kids see this movie or read the books.
Like The Hunger Games, America has a corrupt, degenerate central government that has grown into a monstrous Leviathan, consisting of professional bureaucrats and politicians who seem to delight in pitting one group of Americans against another, with class warfare and governmental-provocation of racial conflicts, and struggles between police and civilians. It is as though Washington’s political class wants to see conflicts between armed government agents and everyday civilians, via the drug war, the "war on terror," and thousands and thousands of needless regulations and laws that could cause the most innocent amongst us to be on the receiving end of a criminal S.W.A.T. team raid.
And now, Barack Obama is taking full advantage of the post-9/11 police state apparatus that the Bush-Cheney Administration set up. This is being used, in the name of "keeping us safe" and along with the massively intrusive ObamaCare in the name of "keeping us healthy and insured," to gain even more control over the people’s lives, their fortunes, their businesses, associations and contracts.
Recent Unconstitutional Acts by Barack Obama and Congress:
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) gives the President the power to have the military arrest and detain indefinitely anyone the president says is a "terrorist," or a "terrorist supporter," without providing any evidence against the accused.
NDAA is a clear and present danger to American liberty, a codification of dictatorship, and a treasonous act of turning the U.S. military against the people. And it is the reason why author Chris Hedges is suing Barack Obama.
Some legislators are claiming that they weren’t aware that in NDAA they voted for such removal of due process of Americans, but in fact, they knew exactly what they were doing.
And just recently, Attorney General Eric Holder defended the President’s self-granted power to assassinate Americans based on the President’s own judgment of guilt, without due process, without presenting any evidence of any kind.
But every human being who is accused of something has an inherent right to require that the accuser show evidence to prove such alleged guilt. No circumstances are too important – not wars, terrorism, and not economic collapse – that the government or Presidents be relieved of their burden to show evidence against the accused.
Infowars.com recently compared these Washington policies to similar police state policies of Chile’s dictator General Augusto Pinochet during the 1970s. The NDAA law could now be considered as Washington’s reactionary and desperate response to political dissent and economic collapse.
Obama’s most recent extreme overreach was his signing the Executive Order, the National Defense Resources Preparedness (NDRP) order, which gives the President complete control over all resources within the U.S. territory including water and agriculture, energy, transportation and food, during war or emergency. But this revised version gives the President such supreme powers in peacetime.
In this new example of totalitarianism the President also seizes control over the nation’s labor forces, and it is not merely a demand to conscript Americans into the military, but to conscript Americans to serve in other non-military labor capacities, and during peacetime as well. (Hmmm. Sounds a little like communism, if you ask me.)
And with the FEMA camps, there is plenty of evidence that the U.S. government either foresees or is planning for some sort of catastrophic event, economic collapse, or civil unrest. In an intensive investigation by former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and Alex Jones, the investigators found one "residential center" (video here, starts at about 25 minutes) with locked doors, barbed wire fencing facing the inside of the property, and a children’s playground. Officials at the center refused to give information about what the place was for. Investigators also found stacks of hundreds of thousands of coffins and plans for mass graves. Investigators found plenty of evidence that camps and rendition sites are to be used to deal with possible massive political dissent in America. (more here, here, here, here, here, and here)
Analysis
No doubt many readers dismiss all this as "conspiracy theory," and FEMA probably has its explanations such as preparations for possible biological warfare, mass epidemics, and so forth. (And we all know, after Katrina, just how competent FEMA is in managing disasters.) That all these acts by federal U.S. government bureaucrats – NDAA, NDRP, the power to detain or assassinate Americans without showing evidence against the accused, the FEMA camps and prison-like facilities – could actually be meant for devious purposes by political power-grabbers is something that most people just would not want to acknowledge. The thought that the U.S. government and U.S. military could be designating the American people as the enemy is a frightening thought.
Now, some people believe that Obama is using his new military dictatorship and detainment camps on behalf of various left-wing groups, such as the Weather Underground, to "transform America" into communist rule. But many of these police state policies and Homeland Security intrusions were begun by the Bush Administration and even by previous administrations, such as Jimmy Carter who first signed FEMA into existence, and the Reagan Administration that included Oliver North acting out of the White House basement and who eagerly called for martial law at the drop of a hat.
However, we also have seen testimony from the 1970s by an FBI agent who infiltrated the Weather Underground, and who described how academic types such as Bill Ayers were allegedly plotting to bring down the U.S. government to make way for foreign communist regimes to occupy America, and that resisters and dissenters would be "eliminated." Here is a brief video of the FBI agent’s descriptions:
Now, here is what I would say if I were really conspiratorial: I would suggest that the neocons’ aggressions overseas, with invasions and occupations, sanctions, and destroying Muslim countries to create blowback against America and to expand U.S. governmental powers abroad and at home, were to intentionally weaken America’s security and economy to help those leftist organizations. But I’m not saying that. (Although, those incompetent neocon central planners sure have been useful idiots for those leftists, at the very least).
But then, there really could be reason to suspect the neocon architects who screwed up the Middle East as having possible communist sympathies, given that several founding members of the neoconservative movement had been unapologetic "former" Trotskyites who seemed just as devoted to spreading their vision globally as were the communists.
These Cheney-Wolfowitz-Kristol neoconservatives are certainly not "conservative." Their policies are fascist, with their passion for coveting the wealth and natural resources of foreigners and seizing control over so much property and resources in their own country.
But in my opinion, fascism is really communism with a mere façade of "private property." Like the communists (and the Nazis), the neocons have been invading country after country (as has been their plan, especially in the Middle East), some covertly. Since 1990 the invasions and occupations have been more overt and for the purpose of expanding U.S. government bureaucracies and military and for U.S. government hegemony worldwide. (Hmmm. They sound like communists to me.)
Ben O’Neill’s recent article on the West’s economic structure tells us of the government-corporate complex, the breakdown of the rule of law, and how the political elites strive to maintain and strengthen their political and police powers at all costs.
The one major commonality between the neoconservatives and the Obama leftists is that both groups love central planning. But it is central planning that has been the cause for much of the destruction of modern civilization, in the Soviet Union, the current European Union and the United States. The left and the neocons have their utopian views of the ideal society, both being authoritarian, with total government control over the people.
As O’Neill points out, the central planning elites use war and conquest to foment nationalist fervor from the masses to get them to passively accept the elites’ massive intrusions, predations and crimes against them. The latest hysteria is the rush to war with Iran, based on propaganda that the government spoon-feeds the masses, despite Iran’s being completely surrounded by U.S. military bases and Israel having hundreds of nukes.
Obama has taken on the neocons’ warmongering abroad and domestic police state, combined with his seizing control over just about every aspect of daily life in America (e.g. ObamaCare). Now many Americans are leaving the country in droves, even though the government has been making it difficult for the people to leave, just as it was with the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.
This East German-born woman describes how the communists took everything away from the people and attempted to indoctrinate them to love the communist State. America was not meant to be this way.
Conclusion
The way out of this is to accept the fact that compulsory central planning leads to tyranny, and that we must decentralize America in order to save it. The Soviet Union learned the hard way.
But at least some states are trying to defend themselves from federal tyranny through nullification, of ObamaCare, and now of the NDAA law especially. So at least there’s some hope. (In this video, Hans-Hermann Hoppe explains the dangers of centralization and the advantages of small states.)
In our current situation of de facto martial law, now is a good time to remind governors, mayors, police, national guardsmen and military that any federal orders to arrest or detain Americans without charges or evidence, any suspension of one’s civil liberties and right to due process, are unlawful orders that military, state and local officials are obligated to disobey. If you know you have done nothing wrong, you have a right to defend yourself against unlawful arrest or detainment, and a right to resist being brought against your will to rendition camps.
March 30, 2012
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