Although I'm going to be focusing on some issues that may seem intractable and outright depressing, I want the reader to know that I'm not doing so because I'm a pessimist about the future, about the ability we have as citizens to live in a decent, sane, and prosperous society.
To the contrary, no matter how hard things get, no matter the difficulties, I am and will always be an eternal optimist. Throughout history there has been a constant tug of war between would-be oppressors and the people. And one thing that has always been consistent is that once people become aware about the actual causes of oppression and unite in common purpose and solidarity against the oppressors, they always succeed.
What is important to the average citizen? Well, of course, we are all different in many ways, but there are certain basic things I think we can agree on. Health is important, because without it we are very limited in what we can do. Work is important since it allows us to make a living, to provide for our families. Education is very important since it opens up opportunities, and also helps us fulfill our civic duties better.
We cherish health, being able to make a living and provide for our families, and education for our children. We want to be able to breath clean air, drink clean water, eat healthy food, and live in safe neighborhoods, among other things.
In our society, most of us understand the concept of balance, of proportionality. In our economic system we pretty much understand how it works. Is based on free market economic principles. There are small businesses, corporations, government agencies which employ people in order operate, to fulfill their missions, their goals.
We understand all that. And we understand that in order to keep some sort of balance if one is to have a healthy society, we expect government to set certain basic rules when it comes to the free market system.
There are certain rights for workers, rules against the formation of monopolies ad oligopolies, against predatory and fraudulent practices, etc. There are also rules that prevent the exploitation of children, that protect employees against abuses, and that allow workers to form labor unions in order to be able to engage in collective bargaining with employers.
So those things help in setting the stage for a leveled playing field where businesses can succeed and thrive and workers are able to earn enough to be able to make a good living and provide for their families.
And of course, in a decent society, we collectively set up a social safety net to help those who can't take care of themselves, the sick, the old, and those who don't have the emotional and mental capacity to function normally in society.
It seems to me that that's a pretty accurate archetypal of the type of society most of us think we should live in.
However, it is also truth that throughout history there have been those who do not believe in the principles of democracy, the rule of law, fairness, and justice.
You know, tyrants, slave holders, unscrupulous employers, oligarchs and plutocrats. Some people refer to this type of individuals as sociopaths because they are utterly incapable of understanding or caring about the suffering the cause with their actions.
This type of individual is always among us, in every society. When it comes to the body politic, they could be seen as a cancer, a parasite, an infectious disease, and the reason for that is because being the sociopaths that they are they never give up trying to dominate, oppress and exploit people and the natural environment.
Thinking people have always recognized this. That is why we have a Constitution, and a democratic system, and the rule of law. Those things protect us from the predations of sociopaths, of tyrants, of oppressors among us.
As long as the U.S. Constitution is fearlessly defended and the rule of law is followed, then the sociopaths who are always among us are kept in check, and thus the body politic, society, can be relatively healthy.
But that's only the case if the Constitution is fearlessly protected, and if citizens understand that that requires constant and eternal vigilance.
The reason for that is because would-be-tyrant sociopaths are not like you and me. They live 24/7 concocting plans to manipulate and exploit their fellow human beings, and they act as if ramming at the gates of the edifice of democracy and freedom, non-stop, relentlessly, rabidly, day after day, year after year, generation after generation until they get their way.
Unfortunately normal people don't have that type of single-minded obsession when it comes to what to some is seen as the abstract notion of fearlessly protecting our constitutional rights. Normal people being normal, care about all kinds of things; they work, they take care of their families, attend PTA meetings, do volunteers work in their communities, etc.
And so here we are. We as a society got a little too complacent, appeased with the fruits of rampant consumerism and bread and circuses, and now the edifice of democracy, the rule of law, and freedom has been badly damaged by the battering ram of the would-be-tyrant sociopaths.
And now they have taken over all the levers of power.
How do they do that? Well, it was actually pretty easy. All they have to do was to find a way to influence politicians and public officials one city council, one state house, one federal agency at a time.
And one of the time-tested ways in which the moneyed elite of every era has been able to do that is through bribery.
And so campaign contributions, special favors, lucrative lobbying jobs for themselves, family members and their social circles, became the mechanism through which to funnel the bribes.
One good example of this phenomena is ALEC:
Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations.
In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state.
And so these corporations,
a handful of billionaires and the bought off politicians and public officials around the country make up what is today
the American Corporatocracy, which as a whole represents
one of the most dangerous threats to freedom and democracy the world has ever seen, given the modern-age tools at their disposal.
House Members Voting to Continue NSA's Dragnet Surveillance Received Twice as Much From Defense Contractors
Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power.
-- Chris Hedges / "Rise Up Or Die"
The Surveillance Police State
And just like any other corrupt Oligarchy or oppressive regime in history, once implanted, it seeks to perpetuate itself, to protect itself, so it can proceed to subjugate and exploit the population and the natural environment, fueled by rapacious and unquenchable greed.
That's how we got to today's Surveillance Police State. Although now that it has been fully implanted, we are beginning to see some indications of its brutality, thus far it can still keep the mask (of democracy) on as long as the population remains fully unaware of its existence and its machinations.
And in that regard, just like in any other oppressive regime in history, it needs propagandists.
Enter Cass Sunstein, member of the panel which will be reviewing the surveillance practices of the National Security Agency (NSA), as reported by The Washington Post.
Mr. Sunstein co-wrote a academic paper which could be considered one of the most frightening propaganda manuals in history: Conspiracy Theories
I read the entire 29 pages of the paper and I found it to be one of the most intellectually-dishonest arguments I've ever seen.
It is basically a dishonest rationalization which jumps over all kinds of logical inconsistencies in order to justify one of the most despicable and dangerous propaganda activities a government can engage in: cognitively infiltrating social justice activist groups around the country.
In it, Mr. Sunstein and his co-writer purport to argue that their main concern is the ability for the government to infiltrate conspiracy theory groups which could present a danger to public safety and order. And so he goes to the most extreme examples such as the 9/11 truthers, and those that led to the Oklahoma City bombing.
Who would argue with that? But then he seeks to equate or relate that type of extreme conspiracy theories to others which are more plausible, thus setting the stage for the justification of "cognitive infiltration" of all kinds of groups.
My point? It is obvious that this logical pretzel's purpose is to justify the infiltration of social justice activists groups... More on that later.
A conspiracy theory posits that a social outcome evidences an underlying international order, overlooking the possibility that the outcome arises from either spontaneous order or random forces. Popper is picking up on a still more general fact about human psychology, which is that most people do not like to believe that significant events were caused by bad (or good) luck, and much prefer simpler casual stories.
Yes, but of course, for an organization like
ALEC it seems to me that it would be better for people to think that cookie-cutter stand-your-ground, or "Right-to-Work" legislation was introduced in several states because of "random forces" or "good/bad luck." If it is bad luck that caused it, then there is no reason to point the finger at ALEC.
- CMD identified 466 ALEC bills from the 2013 session. 84 of these passed and became law. ALEC bills were introduced in every state in the nation and the District of Columbia in 2013. The top ALEC states were West Virginia (25 bills) and Missouri (21 bills).
- Despite ALEC’s effort to distance itself from Voter ID and Stand Your Ground by disbanding its controversial Public Safety and Elections Task Force, 62 of these laws were introduced: 10 Stand Your Ground bills and 52 bills to enact or tighten Voter ID restrictions. Five states enacted additional Voter ID restrictions, and two states passed Stand Your Ground.
- CMD identified 117 ALEC bills that affect wages and worker rights. 14 of these became law. These bills included so-called “Right to Work” legislation, part of the ALEC agenda since at least 1979, introduced in 15 states this year. Other bills would preempt local living or minimum wage ordinances, facilitate the privatization of public services, scrap defined benefit pension plans, or undermine the ability of unions to organize to protect workers.
You see, because if people realize that the politicians they think are serving them are actually colluding with their corporate paymasters to keep wages low, to undermine constitutional rights, to privatize public education, to enact increasingly oppressive and draconian laws, that could create a dangerous situation, wouldn't it?
However, to Mr. Sunstein, not all conspiracy theories are harmful:
Within the set of false conspiracy theories, we also limit our focus to potentially harmful theories. Not all false conspiracy theories are harmful; consider the false conspiracy theory, held by many of the younger members of our society, that a secret group of elves, working in a remote location under the leadership of the mysterious “Santa Claus,” make and distribute presents on Christmas Eve. This theory is false, but is itself instilled through a widespread conspiracy of the powerful – parents – who conceal their role in the whole affair. (Consider too the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.) It is an open question whether most conspiracy theories are equally benign; we will suggest that some are not benign at all.
I would not be surprised if Mr. Sunstein would consider the conspiracy theory about the United States being a functioning democracy to also be benign, just like the Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy conspiracy theories.
And the reason for that is because of the truly astonishing and extraordinary measure being used by the government propaganda apparatus to manipulate the population into believing that we have a functioning democracy.
And many of those measures come straight out of the pages of Mr. Sunstein's propaganda manifesto.
What can government do about conspiracy theories? Among the things it can do, what should it do? We can readily imagine a series of possible responses. (1) Government might ban conspiracy theorizing. (2) Government might impose some kind of tax, financial or otherwise, on those who disseminate such theories. (3) Government might itself engage in counterspeech, marshaling arguments to discredit conspiracy theories. (4) Government might formally hire credible private parties to engage in counterspeech. (5) Government might engage in informal communication with such parties, encouraging them to help. Each instrument has a distinctive set of potential effects, or costs and benefits, and each will have a place under imaginable conditions. However, our main policy idea is that government should engage in cognitive infiltration of the groups that produce conspiracy theories, which involves a mix of (3), (4) and (5).
The emphasis is mine
And the government is doing just that:
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
-- Michael Hastings / RollingStones
An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.
The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the independent Broadcasting Board of Governors, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee’s official website.
-- Michael Hastings / BuzzFeed Politics
And of course, corporations are also playing the game:
Corporate-Funded Online 'Astroturfing' Is More Advanced and More Automated Than You Might Think
Every month more evidence piles up, suggesting that online comment threads and forums are being hijacked by people who aren’t what they seem to be. The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns, which create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public.
But that's not all. Aside from the extraordinary efforts being taken by the government/corporatist alliance to manipulate the public with sophisticated propaganda methods, equal attention is paid to those who seek to expose it:
As more individuals are entrusted with access to and oversight of vast troves of personal data, this information necessarily becomes more vulnerable to misuse, whether by the parties gathering and analyzing it or by foreign governments and private multinational corporations. Because this data literally contains information related to people's entire lives, it is ripe for bullying, blackmail, threats or other improper uses.
But this "top secret" information is already being used by our own government for reasons that have little to do with combating threats to national security. Ownership of this information affords the administration unlimited power to suppress dissent, inhibit free speech and intimidate would-be critics into adhering to the status quo.
-- Heidi Boghosian - "Spying on Democracy"
And this is way as citizens we should be concerned about both, day-to-day practical issues as well as government corruption and a run-away total-information-awareness surveillance police state; one this is for-profit and corporate-run.
This is where we are today. We've already crossed the Rubicon into a Surveillance Police State. One that is increasingly Orwellian, where up is down, where 2+2=5:
The phrase "two plus two equals five" ("2 + 2 = 5") is a slogan used in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four as an example of an obviously false dogma one may be required to believe, similar to other obviously false slogans by the Party in the novel. It is contrasted with the phrase "two plus two makes four", the obvious—but politically inexpedient—truth. Orwell's protagonist, Winston Smith, uses the phrase to wonder if the State might declare "two plus two equals five" as a fact; he ponders whether, if everybody believes it, does that make it true? The Inner Party interrogator of thought-criminals, O'Brien, says of the mathematically false statement that control over physical reality is unimportant; so long as one controls their own perceptions to what the Party wills, then any corporeal act is possible, in accordance with the principles of doublethink ("Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once").
And that's why we are under this constant barrage of massive propaganda: because the truth is politically-inexpedient, and as such, it must be suppressed.
We live in a nation where doctors destroy health; lawyers destroy justice; universities destroy knowledge; governments destroy freedom; the press destroys information; religion destroys morals; and our banks destroy the economy.
- Chris Hedges
Where is my optimism? There is only one thing that prevents us from freeing ourselves from this increasingly oppressive system, and that is having a clear understanding of its true nature. Once we do in large enough numbers, that's when we will be able to once again beat back the tiny little group of corporatist sociopaths that have taken over the levers of power. And so to do that all we need to do is stand up and speak truth to power, as it has always been the case.
In a Time of Universal Deceit — Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act
-- George Orwell
Note: Please know that in none of my writing I ever advocate not participating in the electoral system. To the contrary, I share the the goal of electing more and better Democrats, and my approach is to try to expose and focus on the corruption where it exists, so we can collectively, as citizens, work on cleaning up and reforming the system by removing the corrosive influences.
P.S. I welcome spirited debate about this topic, and I'm especially interested in hearing from people who do not agree with my position. However, I will not engage in discussion with people who write personal insults, or engage in disruptive behavior. I ask other serious people to do the same. To learn more about this subject, please visit the following links: New Community Guidelines / The 15 Rules of Web Disruption / Thirteen Rules for Truth Suppression / Disinformation: How It Works.
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