In recent years the warm and fuzzy coating has fallen away from the modern capitalist state. Or more accurately, it is being torn off. On one hand the social programs that were used to keep the lower classes happy are being reduced and removed. Where people were coaxed into docility before, the future does not have docility in the cards. As a result the state will force political compliance.
The shift has already occurred. We have slipped over the boundary into the world of the nightmarish police state. How this was accomplished was quite impressive. At this point most people still have not noticed and those that do, for the most part, welcome the change. They welcome the increased security. They like to take flights without the worry of terrorists blowing them out of the sky. They like to live in cities without the worry of terrorists bombing subways or randomly shooting citizens.
What these people don’t realize is that the enemy is not who they think it is. The enemy is actually the power that claims to be protecting us.
The fact is that if terrorists want to blow up airplanes, poison food sources, or randomly kill people in way imaginable, there is simply no way of stopping them. Those that tell you that we need increased security are not doing so in an attempt to curb terrorism. They are doing so to curb YOU. You see, you are their enemy and they know it but you don’t. They are already taking measures to prepare for a war against you and you don’t even know what is happening. In fact, you don’t even recognize your own enemy and when you do, we will likely have little room to maneuver.
Prior to 9/11 there was Seattle and Quebec. There were protesters organizing against capitalism. This was landmark. There were protest movements in the West before and they were against war, against poverty, for woman’s rights, or for gay rights. But this is the first time that America and the West has had massive and popular protests as part of a building movement against capitalism itself. This was monumental and the significance has apparently been lost on the geniuses that spin opinions in the mainstream media.
The occurrence of 9/11 couldn’t have come at a better time for those that would like to create a world-wide police state. The most disturbing aspect of this is that the keepers of the state, whether they are Republicans, Democrats, liberals or social democrats, Labour or Conservative, are all on the same page. The Labour Party in Britain, a social democratic party, has put in place draconian measures that rival the neo cons in Washington. This transcends the notion of a neo con conspiracy.
The big question, the question we all need to ask ourselves is whether or not these new laws can be used to stifle democratic dissent. The answer is clear and the answer is undeniably 'yes'. The reason that that question and answer are so very important is because the very foundation of free societies has been pulled out from beneath us. For hundreds of years societies have been evolving toward greater freedom and human rights from the Magna-Carta to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, we have been steadily going in a progressive direction. That is until recently where the war hawks have usurped the whole damn thing.
The fact is that if you live in America, Canada, Britain or Australia, you no longer live in a free society. That the difference is hardly noticeable as we go about our day by day lives is part of the problem. That reality is evidence of volume of accomplices that are working in concert, including most mainstream media, most politicians, as well as those that have designed this Orwellian landscape. They have pulled off a master coup as they had us distracted by war and rumors of war.
For the moment let us give them the benefit of doubt.
Assuming that the politicians of today (eg. Bush, Martin, Howard and Blair) are very sincere about fighting terrorism and that these anti-terrorist laws are really intended to give the police and the spooks enough leverage to protect citizens from terrorism. Let us imagine that these draconian laws will deter terrorists and safeguard society from random acts of violence. Let's also assume that these laws are not intended to stifle dissent. The question then arises about future politicians that may use these laws against politically incorrect but peaceful protest. What is to stop some future politicians from using these laws to effectively police and eradicate political dissent? What will prevent them from tossing people such as unionists, boycotters, and protest organizers in the hoosegow forever?
But, as we know, we don't have to wait for some unscrupulous future fascist leader to see how opressive these laws can be. The people that are tortured in concentration camps today will tell us that it has already happened.
The fact that the reaction to this by the media, the legal profession, as well as the pre-9/11 protesters is merely a whisper is perhaps a result of incredulity rather than antipathy. For most people the reality of crossing the boundary into a world of arbitrary authoritarianism has not sunk in. The whole thing is too outlandish, too far out and too surreal to process in most reasonable minds. It just doesn’t compute (What – we have slipped into a police state? Nah – can’t be).
Canada has not done much, relative to other countries, to make it a target of terrorism. But the shredding of the freedoms and rights of Canadians has occured nonetheless. You'd almost think it was some sort of world wide conspiracy.
Canada has passed legislation that gives the state the power to literally throw you in jail and throw away the key and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it. You can't even see a lawyer if you have been targeted.
Bill C-36 allows the state to detain people on the suspicion that they will commit a crime. The individual could be barred from legal council in closed hearings. People involved in protest movements or strikes could be prosecuted this way.
So far, it seems that it immigrants and particularly immigrants from Islamic countries that have been singled out by the New World Order. It may very well be that state oppression is selectively discriminating against this particular ethnic group to bolster public support for political repression. The propaganda suggests that Muslims are prone to terrorism.
The potential iron net is far greater however. The wording of the act permits the state to act against those who may “seriously” interfere with essential services. Threats to economic systems are deemed worthy of prosecution. This could be defined as an act of terrorism. Planning such activities could be reason enough to land you or me in jail. Surveillance may be carried out without the blessing of a judge. This bill throws out the checks and balances that are necessary for a free society.
Read what Canadian lawyer, Rocco Galati has to say regarding this bill:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/WTC_1984.htm
Other previously free societies have also passed similar laws including the United States, Britain, and Australia.
There are sufficient laws in place to check crimes and terrorism. This new reality we now live with is not meant to curb terrorism. That is merely a ruse. It is aimed at removing our freedom to organize dissent against capitalism. Stopping terrorism could be achieved if the killing and oppression would end.
As Noam Chomsky said, the way to stop terrorism is to stop terrorizing.
In the past the rationale for war has been to preserve freedom. Today, the enemies of freedom are our elected politicians and those they serve. The enemies of freedom have slipped in through the back door. It is your duty to recognize this. Otherwise, all those that sacrificed their lives for freedom in the past have done so in vain.
-----------------------------------------------------
"19 terrorists in 6 weeks have been able to command 300 million North Americans to do away with the entirety of their civil liberties that took 700 years to advance from the Magna Carta onward. The terrorists have already won the political and ideological war with one terrorist act. It is mindboggling that we are that weak as a society." -Rocco Galati
This blog is an archive of articles I've published in MWC News, Indymedia, and on Newsgroups.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Dreams Can Come True
So can lies, hysterical delusions, and fabricated threats.
The claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction turned out to be lies. The war privateers needed a war and they lied in order to have one. They told other lies. They also said that Iraq had ties to the terrorists that plowed airplanes into the twin towers.
Bush was not alone in his lies and war schemes. He had plenty of help within his administration, abroad, and in the mainstream media as well. They presented these war lies, when they did mention them, as if the President and his cronies were misled by sinister speech writers or spies or ‘sources’, such as the present Prime Minister and Oil Minister in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi.
The Bushies had deliberately taken aim at Iraq long before the invasion. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a report on the Bush Administration’s dealings with intelligence information on Iraq. They claim that the Bush administration exaggerated and lied about the Iraqi military to portray Iraq as a credible threat to the United States. For stubborn and loyal followers of the hawks, there is the disturbing and infamous Downing Street memo. If there was any doubt that Bush was intent on making war in Iraq no matter what, read the memo. The memo states, in part, “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”
This memo suggests a culture of lies. It’s not only Bush – unfortunately. It’s also the political and media elites working together against the people of the United States, Iraq, Britain and many other countries; but most especially, against the people of Iraq. The spin doctors know about the lies and do they mention it? No. We all know that these people are maintaining lies in their tacit acceptance and their uncritical posturing following clear evidence that the whole war was sold through lies. What’s most baffling is how many people accept all this with hardly a raised eyebrow.
The history of Iraq is unfolding, not as it should from the invaders point of view. But it is unfolding nonetheless. And what we can see emerge from the cocoon of Saddam’s world, a world made considerably more miserable by a decade of crippling sanctions, is a very Islamic society and likely, an Islamic state based in Islamic law. The Americans lopped the head off the monster of Iraq and what did we see? We saw the masses tear down a statue of the Dictator, Saddam. But that scene belied the reality of the head being ripped off an Islamic hydra.
Now, as we watch history unfold in that terrorized country, it looks as if some of the hype may have been prophetic in some ways.
Does Iraq have Al Qaeda connections as the Bush party claimed? They didn’t then when Bush said they did. But they very likely do now.
Is Iraq a base for terrorists? There is nothing to suggest that Iraq had been when the liars were making the claim, but they certainly have plenty of people willing to blow themselves up to attack Americans or anybody connected with them now. On top of that, the antipathy against the West in Islamic societies and the on the job training occurring in Iraq will likely have Westerners watching over their shoulders for many years.
Mark Sherman recently reported in an AP article that “An American accused in court papers of having ties to Osama bin Laden is now working for the Iraqi government’s Foreign Ministry”; this, according to U.S. officials and a former counterterrorism spook. Once the Sunnis get on board with the governance of Iraq, the likelihood of Al Qaeda connections inside the government will be far greater than it is now.
The Iranian Ayatollah, Sistani, was one of many flies in the ointment Bush didn’t count on when he invaded. Muqtada al-Sadr is another and the resilience of the Sunni resistance yet another. And there are many others. It’s hard to imagine a scenario that would better play into the hands of fundamentalist Muslims and generally, anybody that wishes to eject the USA from the region, than the one that has played out over the past several years.
The dream of building a Western democracy in Iraq was either immensely stupid or just another lie. Pick the latter, that’s the truth. There was never any such intent just like there was never any such intent in Haiti, Guatemala, or anywhere else.
The new Iraq that will emerge will present enormous problems in the future. Israel will feel threatened by the emergence of an intensely fundamentalist Islamic state in Iraq; a state that will be very close to Iran. American puppets in the region such as the Saudi government, the Egyptian government, and the King of Jordan will also feel the heat. Threats will abound for many years to come, thanks to Bush’s “war on terror.”
What follows is a list of some of the lies that preceded the war:
Al Qaeda and Iraq: The claim that Al Qaeda is connected to Iraq may have been false before but it isn’t false now. Al Qaeda may soon enjoy connections in both the government and the insurgency, if that has not already happened.
Oil: The claim that this war is not about oil is a lie and will forever remain a lie.
Nuclear Weapons: They made the claim that Iraq was on the road to building nuclear weapons and were convincing enough with their visions of mushroom clouds that many Americans still believe them. Before the invasion, Bush had claimed that the Iraqis were six months away from developing a nuclear weapon.
Threat of Attack: They claimed that Iraq had a fleet of unmanned aircraft that could be used to attack the United States.
Quantity of chemicals: They said that Iraq has 500 tons of chemical weapons.
Chemical weapons: They said that Iraq has 30,000 weapons and planes capable of distributing lethal chemicals.
Nuclear Threat: They said that satellite photos show that Iraq is rebuilding nuclear facilities.
Saddam’s refusal to cooperate: They said that Saddam Hussein wouldn’t allow weapons inspectors into Iraq.
That’s a few of them and the beat goes on.
These things will always remain lies for that time, but it’s hard to predict the future. Some of these claims may close to the truth someday just as the claim that Al Qaeda was in Iraq has come true. As long as the madmen scream for war, the threat of terrorism will remain and it will grow. And if any of those horrific things do happen, or others, we can thank the liars for making their own lies, dreams, and delusions come true.
The claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction turned out to be lies. The war privateers needed a war and they lied in order to have one. They told other lies. They also said that Iraq had ties to the terrorists that plowed airplanes into the twin towers.
Bush was not alone in his lies and war schemes. He had plenty of help within his administration, abroad, and in the mainstream media as well. They presented these war lies, when they did mention them, as if the President and his cronies were misled by sinister speech writers or spies or ‘sources’, such as the present Prime Minister and Oil Minister in Iraq, Ahmed Chalabi.
The Bushies had deliberately taken aim at Iraq long before the invasion. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a report on the Bush Administration’s dealings with intelligence information on Iraq. They claim that the Bush administration exaggerated and lied about the Iraqi military to portray Iraq as a credible threat to the United States. For stubborn and loyal followers of the hawks, there is the disturbing and infamous Downing Street memo. If there was any doubt that Bush was intent on making war in Iraq no matter what, read the memo. The memo states, in part, “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”
This memo suggests a culture of lies. It’s not only Bush – unfortunately. It’s also the political and media elites working together against the people of the United States, Iraq, Britain and many other countries; but most especially, against the people of Iraq. The spin doctors know about the lies and do they mention it? No. We all know that these people are maintaining lies in their tacit acceptance and their uncritical posturing following clear evidence that the whole war was sold through lies. What’s most baffling is how many people accept all this with hardly a raised eyebrow.
The history of Iraq is unfolding, not as it should from the invaders point of view. But it is unfolding nonetheless. And what we can see emerge from the cocoon of Saddam’s world, a world made considerably more miserable by a decade of crippling sanctions, is a very Islamic society and likely, an Islamic state based in Islamic law. The Americans lopped the head off the monster of Iraq and what did we see? We saw the masses tear down a statue of the Dictator, Saddam. But that scene belied the reality of the head being ripped off an Islamic hydra.
Now, as we watch history unfold in that terrorized country, it looks as if some of the hype may have been prophetic in some ways.
Does Iraq have Al Qaeda connections as the Bush party claimed? They didn’t then when Bush said they did. But they very likely do now.
Is Iraq a base for terrorists? There is nothing to suggest that Iraq had been when the liars were making the claim, but they certainly have plenty of people willing to blow themselves up to attack Americans or anybody connected with them now. On top of that, the antipathy against the West in Islamic societies and the on the job training occurring in Iraq will likely have Westerners watching over their shoulders for many years.
Mark Sherman recently reported in an AP article that “An American accused in court papers of having ties to Osama bin Laden is now working for the Iraqi government’s Foreign Ministry”; this, according to U.S. officials and a former counterterrorism spook. Once the Sunnis get on board with the governance of Iraq, the likelihood of Al Qaeda connections inside the government will be far greater than it is now.
The Iranian Ayatollah, Sistani, was one of many flies in the ointment Bush didn’t count on when he invaded. Muqtada al-Sadr is another and the resilience of the Sunni resistance yet another. And there are many others. It’s hard to imagine a scenario that would better play into the hands of fundamentalist Muslims and generally, anybody that wishes to eject the USA from the region, than the one that has played out over the past several years.
The dream of building a Western democracy in Iraq was either immensely stupid or just another lie. Pick the latter, that’s the truth. There was never any such intent just like there was never any such intent in Haiti, Guatemala, or anywhere else.
The new Iraq that will emerge will present enormous problems in the future. Israel will feel threatened by the emergence of an intensely fundamentalist Islamic state in Iraq; a state that will be very close to Iran. American puppets in the region such as the Saudi government, the Egyptian government, and the King of Jordan will also feel the heat. Threats will abound for many years to come, thanks to Bush’s “war on terror.”
What follows is a list of some of the lies that preceded the war:
Al Qaeda and Iraq: The claim that Al Qaeda is connected to Iraq may have been false before but it isn’t false now. Al Qaeda may soon enjoy connections in both the government and the insurgency, if that has not already happened.
Oil: The claim that this war is not about oil is a lie and will forever remain a lie.
Nuclear Weapons: They made the claim that Iraq was on the road to building nuclear weapons and were convincing enough with their visions of mushroom clouds that many Americans still believe them. Before the invasion, Bush had claimed that the Iraqis were six months away from developing a nuclear weapon.
Threat of Attack: They claimed that Iraq had a fleet of unmanned aircraft that could be used to attack the United States.
Quantity of chemicals: They said that Iraq has 500 tons of chemical weapons.
Chemical weapons: They said that Iraq has 30,000 weapons and planes capable of distributing lethal chemicals.
Nuclear Threat: They said that satellite photos show that Iraq is rebuilding nuclear facilities.
Saddam’s refusal to cooperate: They said that Saddam Hussein wouldn’t allow weapons inspectors into Iraq.
That’s a few of them and the beat goes on.
These things will always remain lies for that time, but it’s hard to predict the future. Some of these claims may close to the truth someday just as the claim that Al Qaeda was in Iraq has come true. As long as the madmen scream for war, the threat of terrorism will remain and it will grow. And if any of those horrific things do happen, or others, we can thank the liars for making their own lies, dreams, and delusions come true.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
A Little Box of Bullshit
The notion that the average citizen should take the responsibility and the privilege of being part of the decision making processes – aside from merely marking an ‘X’ every so often, isn’t really taken seriously. People generally satisfy themselves with the notion that elections satisfy the criteria for a functioning democracy. As a result we have a class of bureaucrats theoretically serving politicians who serve their corporate masters. The citizens that vote are not in this equation. The citizenry are merely the audience and real decision making occurs in a place remote from the general population.
Any notion of real democracy; that is, a society where the people have input into the decisions that affect society is a threat to this order. This order is different than medieval society only in degree, not in kind. The depressing notion that we are essentially in the same boat where we are in service to the masters is, unfortunately, true. And psychologically the servants of today in modern capitalist societies are not much different than the serfs or slaves of feudal tyranny. We tend to look to the master class for direction and find safety in their supposed wisdom. We have learned to defer to them and to psychologically depend on them. We don’t recognize the fact that it is us and not them that create all the wealth and make everything work.
A dog eventually falls in love with his chain.
The 64,000 dollar question is; how do they manage to do it? How do they manage to keep the general public in a state of docile servitude?
To study the answer to this question, it is helpful to watch the people with power and how they communicate to the general population. For example, when they want to do something that may be unpopular and could conceivably start a protest or an uprising, ideas are presented. The masters may want to start a war for instance and they will present their case as to why a war in important. They will instill fear into the general population. The war may be carried out for oil, or to grab billions of tax dollars through arms manufacturing or whatever. The real reasons are never mentioned by those with an interest in the war. What is really impressive is the way they can present the case to the serious minded pundits and intellectuals and the way those same pundits, commentators and intellectuals eat it up. That is impressive. And they, the educated and apparently ‘smart’ talking heads present a psychological hit to the general population.
Here we must examine the art of bullshit; the spinning of fine tales by the media establishment.
To sell bullshit and to have it adhere to most people, it must have the blessing of the educated. The uneducated or the less educated will naturally defer to them and accept that they know better. After all, they are educated. So with careful aim, the professional bullshitters must strike their target, the educated.
It is this class of citizens that are crucial to ensure that the rabble stay in line behind the invisible steel fences. It is the first line of defense. The second line of defense is a tangible force. They need these lines of defense to hold the social order. Otherwise, they, the rabble, may take control and who knows what’d happen then. After all, they ain’t educated.
So the educated talking heads will be paraded out in front of cameras and in very sober and serious tones they will discuss the impending disaster that will befall all of civilization if a war is delayed much longer.
They are there to convince us that the corporations and those that run them are our lifeline. They are our salvation and we need our masters as desperately as the educated talking heads need them. We are all on the same side after all and we must face the enemy.
Another poignant example is the problem of socialized health care in Canada. This is a potential bonanza for the private sector but they have been held at bay for a long time as a result of Canadians’ stubborn attachment to health care. It presents quite a problem. They have been working at its destruction for several decades now and they continue, relentlessly, to slowly destroy it. This is a job for the political class and they have been making impressive headway at times but the socialist monster is as resilient as hell. Their biggest victory has been in the mid-90s when the Liberal government managed to cut funding dramatically. At that time they were cutting public expenditure everywhere and health care didn’t escape the cuts. The system has been limping since that time. Those that have crippled it are quick to point out that it is limping and that maybe private insurance schemes would fix that problem.
Back then, the right wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute managed to persuade Canadians that there is a dangerous deficit that needed reigning in. The think tanks, the politicians and perhaps most importantly, the media, made the deficit a salient and pressing issue. Fear of the massive deficit was instilled into the minds of the average citizen to the point that almost everyone was on board. Everyone began to push in unison for the cutting of social programs and all government spending. At the same time, the same hysteria was being manufactured in the United States, Britain, and most Western societies. We needed free trade and we needed to put ourselves in a competitive position for the lean, mean economic machine known as globalization. To remain competitive we had to clamp down on social parasites like seniors, the ill, and the poor, was the cry. The talking heads convinced us.
At the same time almost 40% of tax dollars went into the pockets of investors that were owed money by governments for loaning the money in the first place. These collectors of interest made off like bandits and this interest collection scheme was never questioned. It was all perfectly legitimate and government workers and the poor and the ill were branded parasites. Government spending was the monster that would devour us all.
That was then. Now there is not much said about the crime of running a debt and borrowing from our grandchildren. There is a war in Iraq and it is costing many billions of dollars. But this money is feeding wealthy weapons manufacturers. So, where is the media? Where are the politicians that were screaming about the deficit? They are saying nothing because they are part of the same bullshit shell game. They are playing us all for fools.
They have pulled off some impressive displays of bullshit over the years beyond the two examples cited above (the need for war and the urgent need to cut social programs). In a broader context, they have managed to convince the educated talking heads, and as a result the rest of us, that the system that enslaves actually liberates and the very notion of liberation from THAT system will result in slavery. In other words, the capitalist system is touted as liberation itself and the only means of achieving freedom for mankind (sic). Any notion of wealth distribution will result in gulags and forced labour.
Capitalism is liberating for the wealthy but it is not for those that must work in order to survive and especially for those that are poor. Aside from that, it has an ostensible tendency toward freedom of expression and ideas and freedom of movement.
But as liberating as capitalism appear, its oppressive nature is obvious and ugly. It is the very nature of capitalism to control people and commodities. Both are involved in the process of exchange; the process that makes capitalism work. People need commodities and capitalism needs to provide them. If it does not do this, it perishes.
Capitalism cannot control everything we need. If it could, it would. Suppose gravity could be restricted or taken away from people. Capitalists and the capitalist state would conspire to make it a commodity. It would be illegal to manufacture your own gravity or to own it without permission. You’d have to pay the legal owners of the source of gravity for it. In a similar fashion, you cannot just put up a satellite dish willy-nilly and grab the signals out of the air even though doing so does not diminish the quantity that is available to the owners of the source or anybody else.
Commodities and services like insurance are controlled by the capitalists with the enforcement of the state to ensure that the citizen pay for insurance and for electricity.
This is the nature of capitalism. A capitalist society is touted as a free society but in fact individuals are held into wage slavery in order to survive and citizens are forced to pay capitalists for their vital necessities. This is not a system prone to freedom. They will hold up totalitarian examples and say, ‘see here, that is socialism’. This is to ensure the idea that ‘anything that is not capitalistic is less free than capitalism’ is swallowed by those that pay and the class that must work in order to eat. The selling of this doctrine is vital to their survival.
It is up to you to see bullshit for what it is. It is up to you to see a shell game and a scam performing before your eyes, especially when it affects your life and the future of your children.
When we accept ideological premises as our own, we must chew them up thoroughly before we can properly assimilate them into our psychic system. On the other hand, if we swallow whole chunks without chewing them properly, we will not digest them. They will make us insecure, defensive and aggressive because deep down we know that we really don’t know what we are talking about, just like the educated talking heads. We have swallowed bullshit whole and that is what we put out. And we know that, like them, we are phony lackeys to a remote master who is located the social stratosphere. To develop an identity that is truly ‘me’, it is necessary to question our beliefs rigorously and to have the courage and the desire to toss out what truly is bullshit and to allow the truth to develop our being. That means we must place our energy, each one of us, into the development of critical consciousness. As a result we will become truly ‘me’ and at that point, the bullshit emanating from the bullshitters will be inconsequential.
Freedom and democracy are not only noble ideals. They are very real and necessary aspects to a healthy and happy life where we have some control and where we are able to take our own initiatives. But we have been cut off from the decision making processes that affect each and every one of us and we have accepted slavery and called it freedom. The spinners and the bullshitters have presented us with a very narrow box to fit inside. But through acting and thinking outside that box, we can liberate ourselves.
Any notion of real democracy; that is, a society where the people have input into the decisions that affect society is a threat to this order. This order is different than medieval society only in degree, not in kind. The depressing notion that we are essentially in the same boat where we are in service to the masters is, unfortunately, true. And psychologically the servants of today in modern capitalist societies are not much different than the serfs or slaves of feudal tyranny. We tend to look to the master class for direction and find safety in their supposed wisdom. We have learned to defer to them and to psychologically depend on them. We don’t recognize the fact that it is us and not them that create all the wealth and make everything work.
A dog eventually falls in love with his chain.
The 64,000 dollar question is; how do they manage to do it? How do they manage to keep the general public in a state of docile servitude?
To study the answer to this question, it is helpful to watch the people with power and how they communicate to the general population. For example, when they want to do something that may be unpopular and could conceivably start a protest or an uprising, ideas are presented. The masters may want to start a war for instance and they will present their case as to why a war in important. They will instill fear into the general population. The war may be carried out for oil, or to grab billions of tax dollars through arms manufacturing or whatever. The real reasons are never mentioned by those with an interest in the war. What is really impressive is the way they can present the case to the serious minded pundits and intellectuals and the way those same pundits, commentators and intellectuals eat it up. That is impressive. And they, the educated and apparently ‘smart’ talking heads present a psychological hit to the general population.
Here we must examine the art of bullshit; the spinning of fine tales by the media establishment.
To sell bullshit and to have it adhere to most people, it must have the blessing of the educated. The uneducated or the less educated will naturally defer to them and accept that they know better. After all, they are educated. So with careful aim, the professional bullshitters must strike their target, the educated.
It is this class of citizens that are crucial to ensure that the rabble stay in line behind the invisible steel fences. It is the first line of defense. The second line of defense is a tangible force. They need these lines of defense to hold the social order. Otherwise, they, the rabble, may take control and who knows what’d happen then. After all, they ain’t educated.
So the educated talking heads will be paraded out in front of cameras and in very sober and serious tones they will discuss the impending disaster that will befall all of civilization if a war is delayed much longer.
They are there to convince us that the corporations and those that run them are our lifeline. They are our salvation and we need our masters as desperately as the educated talking heads need them. We are all on the same side after all and we must face the enemy.
Another poignant example is the problem of socialized health care in Canada. This is a potential bonanza for the private sector but they have been held at bay for a long time as a result of Canadians’ stubborn attachment to health care. It presents quite a problem. They have been working at its destruction for several decades now and they continue, relentlessly, to slowly destroy it. This is a job for the political class and they have been making impressive headway at times but the socialist monster is as resilient as hell. Their biggest victory has been in the mid-90s when the Liberal government managed to cut funding dramatically. At that time they were cutting public expenditure everywhere and health care didn’t escape the cuts. The system has been limping since that time. Those that have crippled it are quick to point out that it is limping and that maybe private insurance schemes would fix that problem.
Back then, the right wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute managed to persuade Canadians that there is a dangerous deficit that needed reigning in. The think tanks, the politicians and perhaps most importantly, the media, made the deficit a salient and pressing issue. Fear of the massive deficit was instilled into the minds of the average citizen to the point that almost everyone was on board. Everyone began to push in unison for the cutting of social programs and all government spending. At the same time, the same hysteria was being manufactured in the United States, Britain, and most Western societies. We needed free trade and we needed to put ourselves in a competitive position for the lean, mean economic machine known as globalization. To remain competitive we had to clamp down on social parasites like seniors, the ill, and the poor, was the cry. The talking heads convinced us.
At the same time almost 40% of tax dollars went into the pockets of investors that were owed money by governments for loaning the money in the first place. These collectors of interest made off like bandits and this interest collection scheme was never questioned. It was all perfectly legitimate and government workers and the poor and the ill were branded parasites. Government spending was the monster that would devour us all.
That was then. Now there is not much said about the crime of running a debt and borrowing from our grandchildren. There is a war in Iraq and it is costing many billions of dollars. But this money is feeding wealthy weapons manufacturers. So, where is the media? Where are the politicians that were screaming about the deficit? They are saying nothing because they are part of the same bullshit shell game. They are playing us all for fools.
They have pulled off some impressive displays of bullshit over the years beyond the two examples cited above (the need for war and the urgent need to cut social programs). In a broader context, they have managed to convince the educated talking heads, and as a result the rest of us, that the system that enslaves actually liberates and the very notion of liberation from THAT system will result in slavery. In other words, the capitalist system is touted as liberation itself and the only means of achieving freedom for mankind (sic). Any notion of wealth distribution will result in gulags and forced labour.
Capitalism is liberating for the wealthy but it is not for those that must work in order to survive and especially for those that are poor. Aside from that, it has an ostensible tendency toward freedom of expression and ideas and freedom of movement.
But as liberating as capitalism appear, its oppressive nature is obvious and ugly. It is the very nature of capitalism to control people and commodities. Both are involved in the process of exchange; the process that makes capitalism work. People need commodities and capitalism needs to provide them. If it does not do this, it perishes.
Capitalism cannot control everything we need. If it could, it would. Suppose gravity could be restricted or taken away from people. Capitalists and the capitalist state would conspire to make it a commodity. It would be illegal to manufacture your own gravity or to own it without permission. You’d have to pay the legal owners of the source of gravity for it. In a similar fashion, you cannot just put up a satellite dish willy-nilly and grab the signals out of the air even though doing so does not diminish the quantity that is available to the owners of the source or anybody else.
Commodities and services like insurance are controlled by the capitalists with the enforcement of the state to ensure that the citizen pay for insurance and for electricity.
This is the nature of capitalism. A capitalist society is touted as a free society but in fact individuals are held into wage slavery in order to survive and citizens are forced to pay capitalists for their vital necessities. This is not a system prone to freedom. They will hold up totalitarian examples and say, ‘see here, that is socialism’. This is to ensure the idea that ‘anything that is not capitalistic is less free than capitalism’ is swallowed by those that pay and the class that must work in order to eat. The selling of this doctrine is vital to their survival.
It is up to you to see bullshit for what it is. It is up to you to see a shell game and a scam performing before your eyes, especially when it affects your life and the future of your children.
When we accept ideological premises as our own, we must chew them up thoroughly before we can properly assimilate them into our psychic system. On the other hand, if we swallow whole chunks without chewing them properly, we will not digest them. They will make us insecure, defensive and aggressive because deep down we know that we really don’t know what we are talking about, just like the educated talking heads. We have swallowed bullshit whole and that is what we put out. And we know that, like them, we are phony lackeys to a remote master who is located the social stratosphere. To develop an identity that is truly ‘me’, it is necessary to question our beliefs rigorously and to have the courage and the desire to toss out what truly is bullshit and to allow the truth to develop our being. That means we must place our energy, each one of us, into the development of critical consciousness. As a result we will become truly ‘me’ and at that point, the bullshit emanating from the bullshitters will be inconsequential.
Freedom and democracy are not only noble ideals. They are very real and necessary aspects to a healthy and happy life where we have some control and where we are able to take our own initiatives. But we have been cut off from the decision making processes that affect each and every one of us and we have accepted slavery and called it freedom. The spinners and the bullshitters have presented us with a very narrow box to fit inside. But through acting and thinking outside that box, we can liberate ourselves.
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