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Title: Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anything
Source:
Various
URL Source: http://www.rense.com/general78/believe.htm
Published: Nov 6, 2010
Author: Tim O'Shea
Post Date: 2010-11-06 16:14:56 by Original_Intent
Keywords: propaganda, Public Relations, mind control, perception management
Views: 1188
Comments: 96
Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anything By Tim O'Shea 10-30-7 Aldous Huxley's inspired 1954 essay detailed the vivid, mind-expanding, multisensory insights of his mescaline adventures. By altering his brain chemistry with natural psychotropics, Huxley tapped into a rich and fluid world of shimmering, indescribable beauty and power. With his neurosensory input thus triggered, Huxley was able to enter that parallel universe described by every mystic and space captain in recorded history. Whether by hallucination or epiphany, Huxley sought to remove all bonds, all controls, all filters, all cultural conditioning from his perceptions and to confront Nature or the World or Reality first-hand - in its unpasteurized, unedited, unretouched infinite rawness. Those bonds are much harder to break today, half a century later. We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased. The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely regulated. Who cares, right? It is an exhausting and endless task to keep explaining to people how most issues of conventional wisdom are scientifically implanted in the public consciousness by a thousand media clips per day. In an effort to save time, I would like to provide just a little background on the handling of information in this country. Once the basic principles are illustrated about how our current system of media control arose historically, the reader might be more apt to question any given story in today's news. If everybody believes something, it's probably wrong. We call that CONVENTIONAL WISDOM In America, conventional wisdom that has mass acceptance is usually contrived: somebody paid for it. Examples: Pharmaceuticals restore health This is a list of illusions, that have cost billions to conjure up. Did you ever wonder why most people in this country generally accept most of the above statements? PROGRAMMING THE VIEWER Even the most undiscriminating viewer may suspect that TV newsreaders and news articles are not telling us the whole story. The slightly more lucid may have begun to glimpse the calculated intent of standard news content and are wondering about the reliability and accuracy of the way events are presented. For the very few who take time to research beneath the surface of the daily programming and who are still capable of independent thought, a somewhat darker picture begins to emerge. These may perceive bits of evidence of the profoundly technical science behind much of what is served up in mass media. Events taking place in today's world are enormously complex. An impossibly convoluted tangle of interrelated and unrelated occurrences happens simultaneously, often in dynamic conflict. To even acknowledge this complexity contradicts a fundamental axiom of media science: Keep It Simple. In real life, events don't take place in black and white, but in a thousand shades of grey. Just discovering the actual facts and events as they transpire is difficult enough. The river is different each time we step into it. By the time a reasonable understanding of an event has been apprehended, new events have already made that interpretation obsolete. And this is not even adding historical, social, or political elements into the mix, which are necessary for interpretation of events. Popular media gives up long before this level of analysis. Media stories cover only the tiniest fraction of actual events, but stupidly claim to be summarizing "all the news." The final goal of media is to create a following of docile, unquestioning consumers. To that end, three primary tools have historically been employed: deceit Over time, the sophistication of these tools of propaganda has evolved to a very structured science, taking its cues in an unbroken line from principles laid down by the Father of Spin himself, Edward L Bernays, over a century ago, as we will see. Let's look at each tool very briefly: DECEIT Deliberate misrepresentation of fact has always been the privilege of the directors of mass media. Their agents - the PR industry - cannot afford random objective journalism interpreting events as they actually take place. This would be much too confusing for the average consumer, who has been spoonfed his opinions since the day he was born. No, we can't have that. In all the confusion the viewer might get the idea that he is supposed to make up his own mind about the significance of some event or other. The end product of good media is single-mindedness. Confusion and individual interpretation of events do not foster the homogenized, one-dimensional lemming outlook. For this reason, events must have a spin put on them - an interpretation, a frame of reference. Subtleties are omitted; all that is presented is the bottom line. The minute that decision is made - what spin to put on a story - we have left the world of reporting and entered the world of propaganda. By definition, propaganda replaces faithful reporting with deceitful reporting. Here's an obvious example: the absurd and unremitting allegations of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction as a rationale for the invasion of Iraq. Of course none were ever found, but that is irrelevant. We weren't really looking for any weapons - but the deceit served its purpose - get us in there. Later the ruse can be abandoned and forgotten; its usefulness is over. And nobody will notice. Characterization of Saddam as a murderous tyrant was decided to be an insufficient excuse for invading a sovereign nation. After all, there are literally dozens of murderous tyrants the world over, going their merry ways. We can't be expected to police all of them. So it was decided that the murderous tyrant thing, though good, was not enough. To whip a sleeping people into war consciousness has historically involved one additional prerequisite: threat. Saddam must therefore be not only a baby-killing maniac; he must be a threat to the rest of the world, especially America. Why? Because he has weapons of mass destruction. For almost two years, this myth was assiduously programmed into the lowest common denominator of awareness which Americans substitute for consciousness. Even though the myth has now been openly dismissed by the Regime itself, the majority of us still believe it. Hitler used the exact same tack with the Czechs and Poles at the beginning of his rampage. These peaceful peoples were not portrayed as an easy mark for the German war machine - no, they were a threat to the Fatherland itself. Just like Albania in the Dustin Hoffman movie. And threats must be removed by all available force. With Iraq, the fact that UN inspectors never came up with any of these dread weapons before Saddam was captured - this fact was never mentioned again. That one phrase - WMD WMD WMD - repeated ad nauseam month after month had served its purpose - whip the people into war mode. It didn't have to be true; it just had to work. A staggering indicator of how low the general awareness had sunk is that this mantra continued to be used as our license to invade Iraq long after our initial assault. If Saddam had any such weapons, probably a good time to trot them out would be when a foreign country is moving in, wouldn't you say? No weapons were ever found, nor will they be. So confident was the PR machine in the general inattention to detail commonly exhibited by the comatose American people that they didn't even find it necessary to plant a few mass weapons in order to justify the invasion. It was almost insulting. So we see that a little deceit goes a long way. All it takes is repetition. Lay the groundwork and the people will buy anything. After that just ride it out until they seem doubtful again. Then onto the next deceit. DISSIMULATION A second tool that is commonly used to create mass intellectual torpor is dissimulation. Dissimulation simply means to pretend not to be something you are. Like some insects who can disguise themselves as leaves or twigs, pretending not to be insects. Or bureaucrats who pretend not to be acting in their own interest, but rather in the public interest. To pretend not to be what you are. Whether it's the Bush league in Iraq or Hitler in Germany, aggressors do not present themselves as marauding invaders initiating hostilities, but instead as defenders against external threats. Freedom-annihilating edicts like the Homeland Security Act and the Patriot Act - currently the law of the land - do not represent themselves as the negation of every principle the Founding Fathers laid down, or as shaky pretexts for the Takers to further loot the country, but rather as public services, benevolent and necessary new rules to ensure our SECURITY against various imagined enemies. To pretend to be what you are not: dissimulation. Other obvious examples of dissimulation we see today include: pretending like the world's oil will not be gone in 35 years To pretend to be what you are not: dissimulation. DISTRACTION A third tool necessary to media in order to keep the public from thinking too much is distraction. Bread and circuses worked for Caesar in old Rome. The people need to be kept quiet while the small group in power carries out its agenda, which always involves fortifying its own position. All actions of the present Reich since 9/11 may be explained by plugging in one of four beneficiaries: Oil Every act, every political event, every public statement of the present administration has promoted one or more of these huge sectors. More oil, more drugs, more weapons, more security. But the people mustn't be allowed to notice things like that. So they must be smokescreened by other stuff , blatant obvious stuff which is really easy to understand and which they think has a greater bearing on their day to day life. A classic axiom of propaganda is that people shouldn't be allowed to think too much about what the government is doing in their name. After all, there's more to life than politics, right? So while the power group has its cozy little war going on, the people need to have their attention diverted. All the strong men of history would have given their eyeteeth to have at their disposal the number and types of distractions available to today's regimes: - TV sports, its orchestrated frenzy and spectacle - Super Sunday - an endless succession of unspeakably boring, inane movies, short on plot, long on CGI - the wanton sexless flash of MTV with its uninspired lack of talent, a study in split second phony images - colossally dull TV programs which serve the secondary purpose of instilling proper robot attitudes into people who have little other instruction in life values - the artistic Mojave of modern music, with its soulless cyber-droning, a constant quest for the nadir of reptilian brain stimulation, devoid of lyrical competence, instrumental proficiency, or passion - the ever-retreating promise of financial success, switched now to the trappings and toys that suggest success, available to anyone with a credit card - organized superstitions of all varieties, with their requisite pseudo-spiritual trappings - the constant dramatization of crimes and "issues" throughout the world whose collective goal is the humble and grateful acknowledgement of "how good we've really got it" - dwelling for months on the minutiae of unsupported allegations of impropriety, preferably sexual, of a celebrity personality With these noisy, banal distractions the forces promoting the general decline in intelligence and awareness jubilantly engulf us on all sides. Media science holds the advantage: as people get dumber and dumber year by year it gets easier and easier to keep them dumb. The only challenge is that their threshold keeps getting lower. So in order to keep their attention, messages have to become more obvious and blatant, taking nothing for granted. Here are some indicators of our declining intelligence: - flagrant errors of grammar and spelling rampant in advertising, which go unnoticed - declining SAT scores and the arbitrary resetting of normals, which has occurred at least twice in the past 8 years, in order to cover up the how dumb our kids are really getting - increased volume and decreased speed of the voices of newsreaders on radio and TV - the limited vocabulary and cliched speech allowed in radio programs; the obvious lack of education and requisite pedestrian mentality required of the corporate simians who are featured on radio - increasing illiteracy of high school graduates, both written and spoken - the unwritten policy requiring school teachers, especially math and English teachers, to pass students who have failing marks, especially if they're a certain race or other, so that the school won't "look bad" - decreasing requirements for masters theses and PhD dissertations in both length and content - increasing oversimplification of movie and TV plot lines - absence of subtlety in conceptual and dramatic content; blatant moralizing of compliant robot values - the speed at which images on TV are flashed, giving the viewer barely enough time to recognize which sledgehammer idea they are referring to before the next one appears, about 2 seconds later. That way there is no possible way the brain can follow a train of thought in any kind of depth. From childhood the brain learns that it is not to be tasked with understanding abstractions or concepts of any subtlety from the information presented. All the brain has to do is react to the incessant bombardment of fragmented ADD-generating visual stimuli without trying to derive sense or logic from it. This is why TV should be watched only with the sound off, since it has generally the same educational value as a lava lamp. - the enormous proportion of time spent by TV channels telling the viewer what will be shown in the future, leaving no time for actually delivering what they have already endlessly promised in the recent past, which should be airing at the present moment. - newspaper articles that are not written by reporters but that are scientifically crafted phrase by canny phrase by the PR industry and placed into the columns of syndication in the guise of 'hard news' - Jerky, clumsy news clips, loaded with coarse innuendo and nonsequitur, ridiculously brief: most news clips evoke only the most superficial suggestion of events which may or may not have transpired, resulting generally in the transfer of no information - the downward spiral of the level of ordinary conversations, which are commonly just exercises in stringing together random cliché s from the very finite stock of endlessly repeated homogeneous bytes. It's as though we're only allowed to have 50 thoughts, and most conversation is just linking these 50 programmed audio clips together in a different order. Listen to what people say, the way they say it. Or worse yet, visit a chat room. PUT-UP JOB Now let's imagine for a moment that 9/11 was a put-up job engineered for the sole purpose of cementing the current regime into power and frightening the bovine populace into surrendering even more of what little freedom they have left. Hypothetical situation of course, just work with me a little here. Imagine there never were any dissident crazed terrorists representing Osama or Saddam, but instead a highly disciplined though slightly whacked-out team of military fanatics, programmed somehow to think they were doing something valuable for some faction or other. But carefully trained by agents from on high. A put-up job, from the inside. So then imagine that all the violence and stress perpetrated on the collective American psyche since 9/11 about war, bioterrorism, and security has all been completely unnecessary. And that all the billions of dollars of extra security and wasted time in airports and borders was also totally unnecessary because there never were any terrorists, except those on Capitol Hill. And all the shrill media articles and "stories" that support the few underlying events have been unnecessary, their prime purpose being self promotion. Think how much our quality of life has suffered, and how it will never be the same. What if all this stress has been totally unnecessary? Many of our best people have come to precisely these conclusions. Once you get past the initial hurdle of being able to consider the unthinkable possibility that a regime could be so obsessed with gaining political advantage that they would actually blow up 3000 of our own people, the rest falls into place. Over the top? Not such a stretch really when you compare the thousands that have been sacrificed to the whims of other murderous tyrants the world over throughout all of recorded history. Exactly how is it impossible? WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW? When it comes to a discussion of what's going on in the world, the honest individual must admit that he has almost no idea. When was the last time George Bush invited you into the Green Room for a private chat with Cheney and Ashcroft about the future of big oil? When did Bill Gates last invite you up to his Redmond digs for a wine and cheese brainstorming session about the next Big Thing? Or when did your neighbor who lives three houses away from you call you up to tell you about the unfulfilled plans of his father who just found out he's dying of cancer? How many life stories of the world's six billion people do you know anything about? This is to say nothing of fluid events which are coming in and out of existence every day between the nations of the world. What do you really know about what is really going on? Seems like much more effort is spent covering up and packaging actual events that are taking place than in trying to accurately report and evaluate them. These are questions of epistemology - what can we know? The answer is - very little, if our only source of information is the superficial everyday media. The few people who buy books don't read them. Passive absorption of pre-interpreted already-figured-out data is the preferred method HOW IT ALL GOT STARTED But wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's back up a minute. In their book Trust Us We're Experts, Stauber and Rampton pull together some compelling data describing the science of creating public opinion in America. They trace modern public influence back to the early part of the last century, highlighting the work of guys like Edward L. Bernays, the Father of Spin. From his own amazing 1928 chronicle Propaganda, we learn how Edward L. Bernays took the ideas of his famous uncle Sigmund Freud, and applied them to the emerging science of mass persuasion. The only difference was that instead of using these principles to uncover hidden themes in the human unconscious, the way Freudian psychology does, Bernays studied these same ideas in order to learn how to mask agendas and to create illusions that deceive and misrepresent, for marketing purposes. THE FATHER OF SPIN Edward L. Bernays dominated the PR industry until the 1940s, and was a significant force for another 40 years after that. (Tye) During that time, Bernays took on hundreds of diverse assignments to create a public perception about some idea or product. A few examples: As a neophyte with the Committee on Public Information, one of Bernays' first assignments was to help sell the First World War to the American public with the idea to "Make the World Safe for Democracy." (Ewen) We've seen this phrase used in every war, police action, and spoiling raid we've carried out since that time. A few years later, Bernays set up a stunt to popularize the notion of women smoking cigarettes. In organizing the 1929 Easter Parade in New York City, Bernays showed himself as a force to be reckoned with. He organized the Torches of Liberty Brigade in which suffragettes marched in the parade smoking cigarettes as a mark of women's liberation. After that one event, women would be able to feel secure about destroying their own lungs in public, the same way that men have always done. Bernays popularized the idea of bacon for breakfast. Bernays also set up the liaison between the tobacco industry and the American Medical Association that lasted for nearly 50 years. His ad campaign proved to all and sundry that cigarettes were beneficial to health. Just look at ads in old issues of Life, Look, Time or Journal of the American Medical Association from the 40s and 50s in which doctors are recommending this or that brand of cigarettes as promoting healthful digestion, or whatever. During the next several decades Bernays and his colleagues evolved the principles by which masses of people could be generally swayed through messages repeated over and over, hundreds of times per week. Once the economic power of media became apparent, other countries of the world rushed to follow our lead. But Bernays remained the gold standard. He was the source to whom the new PR leaders across the world would always defer. Josef Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda, closely studied the principles of Edward Bernays when Goebbels was developing the popular rationale he would use to convince the Germans that in order to purify their race they had to kill 6 million of the impure. (Stauber) SMOKE AND MIRRORS As he saw it, Bernay's job was to reframe an issue; to create a desired image that would put a particular product or concept in a desirable light. He never saw himself as a master hoodwinker, but rather as a beneficent servant of humanity, providing a valuable service. Bernays described the public as a 'herd that needed to be led.' And this herdlike thinking makes people "susceptible to leadership." Bernays never deviated from his fundamental axiom to "control the masses without their knowing it." The best PR happens with the people unaware that they are being manipulated. Stauber describes Bernays' rationale like this: "the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in a democratic society." - Trust Us, p 42 These early mass persuaders postured themselves as performing a moral service for humanity in general. Democracy was too good for people; they needed to be told what to think, because they were incapable of rational thought by themselves. Here's a paragraph from Bernays' Propaganda: "Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind." A tad different from Thomas Jefferson's view on the subject: "I know of no safe depository of the ultimate power of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise that control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not take it from them, but to inform their discretion." Inform their discretion. Bernays believed that only a few possessed the necessary insight into the Big Picture to be entrusted with this sacred task. And luckily, he saw himself as one of that elect. HERE COMES THE MONEY Once the possibilities of applying Freudian psychology to mass media were glimpsed, Bernays soon had more corporate clients than he could handle. Global corporations fell all over themselves courting the new Image Makers. There were dozens of goods and services and ideas to be sold to a susceptible public. Over the years, these players have had the money to make their images happen. A few examples: Philip Morris THE PLAYERS Dozens of PR firms have emerged to answer the demand for spin control. Among them: Burson-Marsteller Though world-famous within the PR industry, these are names we don't know, and for good reason. The best PR goes unnoticed. For decades they have created the opinions that most of us were raised with, on virtually any issue which has the remotest commercial value, including: pharmaceutical drugs LESSON #1 Bernays learned early on that the most effective way to create credibility for a product or an image was by "independent third-party" endorsement. For example, if General Motors were to come out and say that global warming is a hoax thought up by some liberal tree-huggers, people would suspect GM's motives, since GM's fortune is made by selling automobiles. If however some independent research institute with a very credible sounding name like the Global Climate Coalition comes out with a scientific report that says global warming is really a fiction, people begin to get confused and to have doubts about the original issue. So that's exactly what Bernays did. With a policy inspired by genius, he set up "more institutes and foundations than Rockefeller and Carnegie combined." (Stauber p 45) Quietly financed by the industries whose products were being evaluated, these "independent" research agencies would churn out "scientific" studies and press materials that could create any image their handlers wanted. Such front groups are given high-sounding names like: Temperature Research Foundation Sound pretty legit don't they? CANNED NEWS RELEASES As Stauber explains, these organizations and hundreds of others like them are front groups whose sole mission is to advance the image of the global corporations who fund them, like those -listed on page 2 above. This is accomplished in part by an endless stream of 'press releases' announcing "breakthrough" research to every radio station and newspaper in the country. (Robbins) Many of these canned reports read like straight news, and indeed are purposely molded in the news format. This saves journalists the trouble of researching the subjects on their own, especially on topics about which they know very little. Entire sections of the release or in the case of video news releases, the whole thing can be just lifted intact, with no editing, given the byline of the reporter or newspaper or TV station - and voilá¡ Instant news - copy and paste. Written by corporate PR firms. Does this really happen? Every single day, since the 1920s when the idea of the News Release was first invented by Ivy Lee. (Stauber, p 22) Sometimes as many as half the stories appearing in an issue of the Wall St. Journal are based solely on such PR press releases.. (22) These types of stories are mixed right in with legitimately researched stories. Unless you have done the research yourself, you won't be able to tell the difference. So when we see new "research" being cited, we should always first suspect that the source is another industry-backed front group. A common tip-off is the word "breakthrough." THE LANGUAGE OF SPIN As 1920s spin pioneers like Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays gained more experience, they began to formulate rules and guidelines for creating public opinion. They learned quickly that mob psychology must focus on emotion, not facts. Since the mob is incapable of rational thought, motivation must be based not on logic but on presentation. Here are some of the axioms of the new science of PR: technology is a religion unto itself Words are very carefully chosen for their emotional impact. Here's an example. A front group called the International Food Information Council handles the public's natural aversion to genetically modified foods. Trigger words are repeated all through the text. Now in the case of GM foods, the public is instinctively afraid of these experimental new creations which have suddenly popped up on our grocery shelves and which are said to have DNA alterations. The IFIC wants to reassure the public of the safety of GM foods. So it avoids words like: Frankenfoods Instead, good PR for GM foods contains words like: hybrids It's just basic Freudian/Tony Robbins word association. The fact that GM foods are not hybrids that have been subjected to the slow and careful scientific methods of real cross-breeding doesn't really matter. This is pseudoscience, not science. Form is everything and substance just a passing myth. (Trevanian) Who do you think funds the International Food Information Council? Take a wild guess. Right - Monsanto, DuPont, Frito-Lay, Coca Cola, Nutrasweet - those in a position to make fortunes from GM foods. (Stauber p 20) CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD PROPAGANDA As the science of mass control evolved, PR firms developed further guidelines for effective copy. Here are some of the gems: dehumanize the attacked party by labeling and name calling Keep this list. Start watching for these techniques. Not hard to find - look at today's paper or tonight's TV news. See what they're doing; these guys are good! SCIENCE FOR HIRE PR firms have become very sophisticated in the preparation of news releases. They have learned how to attach the names of famous scientists to research that those scientists have not even looked at. (Stauber, p 201) It's a common practice. In this way, the editors of newspapers and TV news shows are themselves often unaware that an individual release is a total PR fabrication. Or at least they have "deniability," right? Stauber tells the amazing story of how leaded gas came into the picture. In 1922, General Motors discovered that adding lead to gasoline gave cars more horsepower. When there was some concern about safety, GM paid the Bureau of Mines to do some fake "testing" and publish spurious research that 'proved' that inhalation of lead was harmless. Enter Charles Kettering. Founder of the world famous Sloan-Kettering Memorial Institute for medical research, Charles Kettering also happened to be an executive with General Motors. By some strange coincidence, we soon have Sloan-Kettering issuing reports stating that lead occurs naturally in the body and that the body has a way of eliminating low level exposure. Through its association with The Industrial Hygiene Foundation and PR giant Hill & Knowlton, Sloane-Kettering opposed all anti-lead research for years. (Stauber p 92). Without organized scientific opposition, for the next 60 years more and more gasoline became leaded, until by the 1970s, 90% or our gasoline was leaded. Finally it became too obvious to hide that lead was a major carcinogen, which they knew all along, and leaded gas was phased out in the late 1980s. But during those 60 years, it is estimated that some 30 million tons of lead were released in vapor form onto American streets and highways. 30 million tons. (Stauber) That is PR, my friends. JUNK SCIENCE In 1993 a guy named Peter Huber wrote a new book and coined a new term. The book was Galileo's Revenge and the term was junk science . Huber's absurd thesis was that real science supports technology, industry, and progress. Anything else should be thought of as junk science. Not surprisingly, Stauber explains how Huber's book was supported by the industry-backed Manhattan Institute. Huber's book was generally dismissed not only because it was so poorly written, but because it failed to realize one fact: true scientific research begins with no conclusions. Real scientists are seeking the truth because they do not yet know what the truth is. True scientific method goes like this: 1. form a hypothesis Boston University scientist Dr. David Ozonoff explains that ideas in science are themselves like "living organisms, that must be nourished, supported, and cultivated with resources for making them grow and flourish." (Stauber p 205) Great ideas that don't get this financial support because the commercial angles are not immediately obvious - these ideas wither and die. Another way you can often distinguish real science from phony is that real science points out flaws in its own research. Phony science pretends there were no flaws. THE REAL JUNK SCIENCE Contrast this with modern PR and its constant pretensions to sound science. Corporate sponsored research, whether it's in the area of drugs, GM foods, or chemistry begins with predetermined conclusions. It is the job of the scientists then to prove that these conclusions are true, because of the economic upside that proof will bring to the industries paying for that research. This invidious approach to science has shifted the entire focus of research in America during the past 50 years, as any true scientist is likely to admit. If a drug company is spending 10 million dollars on a research project to prove the viability of some new drug, and the preliminary results start coming back about the dangers of that drug, what happens? Right. No more funding. The well dries up. What is being promoted under such a system? Science? Or rather Entrenched Medical Error?" Stauber documents the increasing amount of corporate sponsorship of university research. (206) This has nothing to do with the pursuit of knowledge. Scientists lament that research has become just another commodity, something bought and sold. (Crossen) THE TWO MAIN TARGETS OF "SOUND SCIENCE" It is shocking when Stauber shows how the vast majority of corporate PR today opposes any research that seeks to protect public health It's a funny thing that most of the time when we see the phrase "junk science," it is in a context of defending something that threatens either the environment or our health. This makes sense when one realizes that money changes hands only by selling the illusion of health and the illusion of environmental protection or the illusion of health. True public health and real preservation of the earth's environment have very low market value. Stauber thinks it ironic that industry's self-proclaimed debunkers of junk science are usually non-scientists themselves. (255) Here again they can do this because the issue is not science, but the creation of images. THE LANGUAGE OF ATTACK When PR firms attack legitimate environmental groups and alternative medicine people, they again use special words which will carry an emotional punch: outraged The next time you are reading a newspaper article about an environmental or health issue, note how the author shows bias by using the above terms. This is the result of very specialized training. Another standard PR tactic is to use the rhetoric of the environmentalists themselves to defend a dangerous and untested product that poses an actual threat to the environment. This we see constantly in the PR smokescreen that surrounds genetically modified foods. They talk about how GM foods are necessary to grow more food and to end world hunger, when the reality is that GM foods actually have lower yields per acre than natural crops. (Stauber p 173) The grand design sort of comes into focus once you realize that almost all GM foods have been created by the sellers of herbicides and pesticides so that those plants can withstand greater amounts of herbicides and pesticides. (see The Magic Bean) THE MIRAGE OF PEER REVIEW Publish or perish is the classic dilemma of every research scientist. That means whoever expects funding for the next research project had better get the current research paper published in the best scientific journals. And we all know that the best scientific journals, like JAMA, New England Journal, British Medical Journal, etc. are peer-reviewed. Peer review means that any articles which actually get published, between all those full color drug ads and pharmaceutical centerfolds, have been reviewed and accepted by some really smart guys with a lot of credentials. The assumption is, if the article made it past peer review, the data and the conclusions of the research study have been thoroughly checked out and bear some resemblance to physical reality. But there are a few problems with this hot little set up. First off, money. Even though prestigious venerable medical journals pretend to be so objective and scientific and incorruptible, the reality is that they face the same type of being called to account that all glossy magazines must confront: don't antagonize your advertisers. Those full-page drug ads in the best journals cost millions, Jack. How long will a pharmaceutical company pay for ad space in a magazine that prints some very sound scientific research paper that attacks the safety of the drug in the centerfold? Think about it. The editors may lack moral fibre, but they aren't stupid. Another problem is the conflict of interest thing. There's a formal requirement for all medical journals that any financial ties between an author and a product manufacturer be disclosed in the article. In practice, it never happens. A study done in 1997 of 142 medical journals did not find even one such disclosure. (Wall St. Journal, 2 Feb 99) A 1998 study from the New England Journal of Medicine found that 96% of peer reviewed articles had financial ties to the drug they were studying. (Stelfox, 1998) Big shock, huh? Any disclosures? Yeah, right. This study should be pointed out whenever somebody starts getting too pompous about the objectivity of peer review, like they often do. Then there's the outright purchase of space. A drug company may simply pay $100,000 to a journal to have a favorable article printed. (Stauber, p 204) Fraud in peer review journals is nothing new. In 1987, the New England Journal ran an article that followed the research of R. Slutsky MD over a seven year period. During that time, Dr. Slutsky had published 137 articles in a number of peer-reviewed journals. NEJM found that in at least 60 of these 137, there was evidence of major scientific fraud and misrepresentation, including: reporting data for experiments that were never done Dean Black PhD, describes what he the calls the Babel Effect that results when this very common and frequently undetected scientific fraud in peer-reviewed journals is quoted by other researchers, who are in turn re-quoted by still others, and so on. Want to see something that sort of re-frames this whole discussion? Check out the McDonald's ads which routinely appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Then keep in mind that this is the same publication that for almost 50 years ran cigarette ads proclaiming the health benefits of tobacco. (Robbins) Very scientific, oh yes. KILL YOUR TV? Hope this chapter has given you a hint to start reading newspaper and magazine articles a little more critically, and perhaps start watching TV news shows with a slightly different attitude than you had before. Always ask, what are they selling here, and who's selling it? And if you actually follow up on Stauber & Rampton's book and check out some of the other resources below, you might even glimpse the possibility of advancing your life one quantum simply by ceasing to subject your brain to mass media. That's right - no more newspapers, no more TV news, no more Time magazine or People magazine Newsweek. ? You could actually do that. Just think what you could do with the extra time alone. Really feel like you need to "relax" or find out "what's going on in the world" for a few hours every day? Think about the news of the past couple of years for a minute. Do you really suppose the major stories that have dominated headlines and TV news have been "what is going on in the world?" Do you actually think there's been nothing going on besides the contrived tech slump, the re-filtered accounts of foreign violence and disaster, the accounts of US retribution in the Middle East, making Afghanistan and Iraq safe for democracy, etc., and all the other non-stories that the puppeteers dangle before us every day? What about when they get a big one, like with OJ or Michael Jackson or the London bombing? Or now with the Rove-Neo-Nazi aftermath of 9/11. Do we really need to know all that detail, day after day? Do we have any way of verifying all that detail, even if we wanted to? What is the purpose of media? To inform the public? Hardly. The primary purpose of media is to keep the public in a state of fear and uncertainty so that they'll watch again tomorrow to see how much worse things got. And be subjected to the same advertising. Oversimplification? Of course. That's the hallmark of mass media mastery - simplicity. The invisible hand. Like Edward Bernays said, the people must be controlled without them knowing it. Consider this: what was really going on in the world all that time they were distracting us with all that stupid vexatious daily smokescreen? We have no way of knowing. And most of it doesn't even concern us even if we could know it. Fear and uncertainty - that's what keeps people coming back for more. If this seems like a radical outlook, let's take it one step further: What would you lose from your life if you stopped watching TV and stopped reading newspapers and glossy magazines altogether? Whoa! Would your life really suffer any financial, moral, intellectual, spiritual, or academic loss from such a decision? Do you really need to have your family continually absorbing the illiterate, amoral, phony, culturally bereft, desperately brainless values of the people featured in the average nightly TV program? Are these fake, programmed robots "normal"? Do you need to have your life values constantly spoonfed to you? Are those shows really amusing, or just a necessary distraction to keep you from looking at reality, or trying to figure things out yourself by doing a little independent reading? Or perhaps from actually having a conversation with the people who live in the same house with you? What else could we be doing with all this freed-up time that would actually expand awareness? PLANET OF THE APES? There's no question that as a nation, we're getting dumber year by year. Look at the presidents we've been choosing lately. Ever notice the blatant grammar mistakes so ubiquitous in today's advertising and billboards? Literacy is marginal in most American secondary schools. Three-fourths of California high school seniors can't read well enough to pass their exit exams. ( SJ Mercury ) If you think other parts of the country are smarter, try this one: hand any high school senior a book by Dumas or Jane Austen, and ask them to open to any random page and just read one paragraph out loud. Go ahead, do it. SAT scales are arbitrarily shifted lower and lower to disguise how dumb kids are getting year by year. (ADD: A Designer Disease) At least 1 in 6 have documented "learning disabilities," which are reinforced and rewarded by special treatment and special drugs. Ever hear of anyone failing a grade any more? Or observe the intellectual level of the average movie which these days may only last one or two weeks in the theatres, especially if it has insufficient explosions, chase scenes, silicone, fake martial arts, and cretinesque dialogue. Doesn't anyone else notice how badly these 30 or 40 "movie stars" we keep seeing over and over in variations of the same few plots must now overact to get their point across to an ever-dimming audience? How they must say their lines louder and slower as time goes by? Radio? Consider the low mental qualifications of the falsely animated corporate simians they hire as DJs - seems like they're only allowed to have 50 thoughts, which they just repeat at random. The less their education, the better. And at what point did popular music cease to require the study of any musical instrument or theory whatsoever, not to mention lyric? Perhaps we just don't understand this emerging art form, right? The Darwinism of MTV - apes descended from man. Ever notice how most articles in any of the glossy magazines sound like they were all written by the same guy? And this writer just graduated from junior college? And yet he has all today's correct opinions on social issues, no original ideas, and that shallow, smug, homogenized corporate omniscience, which enables him to assure us that everything is fine All this is great news for the PR industry - makes their job that much easier. Not only are very few paying attention to the process of conditioning; fewer are capable of understanding it even if somebody explained it to them. TEA IN THE CAFETERIA Let's say you're in a crowded cafeteria, and you buy a cup of tea. And as you're about to sit down you see your friend way across the room. So you put the tea down and walk across the room and talk to your friend for a few minutes. Now, coming back to your tea, are you just going to pick it up and drink it? Remember, this is a crowded place and you've just left your tea unattended for several minutes. You've given anybody in that room access to your tea. Why should your mind be any different? Turning on the TV, or uncritically absorbing mass publications every day - these activities allow access to our minds by "just anyone" - anyone who has an agenda, anyone with the resources to create a public image via popular media. As we've seen above, just because we read something or see something on TV doesn't mean it's true or worth knowing. So the idea here is, like the tea, perhaps the mind is also worth guarding, worth limiting access to it. This is the only life we get. Time is our total capital. Why waste it allowing our potential, our scope of awareness, our personality, our values to be shaped, crafted, and boxed up according to the whims of the mass panderers? There are many important issues that are crucial to our physical, mental, and spiritual well-being which require time and study. If it's an issue where money is involved, objective data won't be so easy to obtain. Remember, if everybody knows something, that image has been bought and paid for. Real knowledge takes a little effort, a little excavation down at least one level below what "everybody knows." It's the land of the brave and the home of the free Copyright MMVII Two Trees References Ruppert, M Vidal, G Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Fact in America
Vaccination brings immunity
The cure for cancer is just around the corner
Menopause is a disease condition
When a child is sick, he needs immediate antibiotics
When a child has a fever he needs Tylenol
Hospitals are safe and clean.
America has the best health care in the world.
Americans have the best health in the world.
Milk is a good source of calcium.
You never outgrow your need for milk.
Vitamin C is ascorbic acid.
Aspirin prevents heart attacks.
Heart drugs improve the heart.
Back and neck pain are the only reasons for spinal adjustment.
No child can get into school without being vaccinated.
The FDA thoroughly tests all drugs before they go on the market.
Pregnancy is a serious medical condition
Infancy is a serious medical condition
Chemotherapy and radiation are effective cures for cancer
When your child is diagnosed with an ear infection, antibiotics should be given immediately 'just in case'
Ear tubes are for the good of the child.
Estrogen drugs prevent osteoporosis after menopause.
Pediatricians are the most highly trained of all medical specialists.
The purpose of the health care industry is health.
HIV is the cause of AIDS.
AZT is the cure.
Without vaccines, infectious diseases will return
Fluoride in the city water protects your teeth
Flu shots prevent the flu.
Vaccines are thoroughly tested before being placed on the Mandated Schedule.
Doctors are certain that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh any possible risks.
There is a terrorist threat in the US.
There is a bioterrorist threat in the US.
The NASDAQ is a natural market controlled by supply and demand.
Chronic pain is a natural consequence of aging.
Soy is your healthiest source of protein.
Insulin shots cure diabetes.
After we take out your gall bladder you can eat anything you want
Allergy medicine will cure allergies.
An airliner can be flown with professional precision by a group of crazed amateurs into a 100-storey building and can cause that building to collapse on its own footprint. Twice.
The Iraquis blew up the World Trade Center.
dissimulation
distraction
pretending like more and more government will not further stifle an already struggling economy
pretending like programs favoring "minorities" are not just another form of racism
pretending like drug laws are necessary for national security
pretending like passing more and more laws every year is not geared ultimately for the advancement of the law enforcement, security, and prison industries
pretending there is a bioterrorist threat in the US today
pretending there is a terrorist threat in the US today
pretending the Bush regime has not benefited from every program that came out of 9/11
Pharmaceuticals
War gear
Security systems
Pfizer
Union Carbide
Allstate
Monsanto
Eli Lilly
tobacco industry
Ciba Geigy
lead industry
Coors
DuPont
Shell Oil
Chlorox
Standard Oil
Procter & Gamble
Boeing
Dow Chemical
General Motors
Goodyear
General Mills
Edelman
Hill & Knowlton
Kamer-Singer
Ketchum
Mongovin, Biscoe, and Duchin
BSMG
Ruder-Finn
vaccines
medicine as a profession
alternative medicine
fluoridation of city water
chlorine
household cleaning products
tobacco
dioxin
global warming
leaded gasoline
cancer research and treatment
pollution of the oceans
forests and lumber
images of celebrities, including damage control
crisis and disaster management
genetically modified foods
aspartame
food additives; processed foods
dental amalgams
autism
International Food Information Council
Consumer Alert
The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition
Air Hygiene Foundation
Industrial Health Federation
International Food Information Council
Manhattan Institute
Center for Produce Quality
Tobacco Institute Research Council
Cato Institute
American Council on Science and Health
Global Climate Coalition
Alliance for Better Foods
if people are incapable of rational thought, real democracy is dangerous
important decisions should be left to experts
when reframing issues, stay away from substance; create images
never state a clearly demonstrable lie
Hitler
biotech
chemical
DNA
experiments
manipulate
money
safety
scientists
radiation
roulette
gene-splicing
gene gun
random
natural order
beauty
choice
bounty
cross-breeding
diversity
earth
farmer
organic
wholesome
speak in glittering generalities using emotionally positive words
when covering something up, don't use plain English; stall for time; distract
get endorsements from celebrities, churches, sports figures, street people - anyone who has no expertise in the subject at hand
the 'plain folks' ruse: us billionaires are just like you
when minimizing outrage, don't say anything memorable
when minimizing outrage, point out the benefits of what just happened
when minimizing outrage, avoid moral issues
2. make predictions for that hypothesis
3. test the predictions
4. reject or revise the hypothesis based on the research findings
the environment
sound science
junk science
sensible
scaremongering
responsible
phobia
hoax
alarmist
hysteria
reporting measurements that were never made
reporting statistical analyses that were never done o Engler
Where the less you know the better off you'll be. Warren Zevon
Disorder in the House
Crossing the Rubicon
New Society Publishers
2004
Dreaming War
Thunders Mouth Press
2002
Greenwald, R
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
documentary 2004
Greenwald, R
Unconcerned: the war on Iraq (documentary)
2004
Stauber & Rampton
Trust Us, We're Experts
Tarcher/Putnam
2001
Ewen, Stuart
PR!: A Social History of Spin
Basic Books
1996
Tye, Larry
The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays and the Birth of Public Relations
Crown Publishers, Inc.
2001
Bernays E
Propaganda
Liveright
1928
King, R
Medical journals rarely disclose researchers' ties
Wall St. Journal
February 2, 1999
Engler, R et al.
Misrepresentation and Responsibility in Medical Research
New England Journal of Medicine v 317 p 1383
November 26, 1987
Black, D PhD
Health At the Crossroads
Tapestry
1988
Trevanian
Shibumi
1983
Crossen, C
1996
Robbins, J
Reclaiming Our Health
Kramer
1996
Huxley, A
The Doors of Perception: Heaven and Hell
Harper and Row
1954
O'Shea T
The Magic Bean
http://www.thedoctorwithin.com
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#48. To: Shoonra (#46)
Another ridiculous thing that some alleged Americans seemed to think was that a Kenyan was fit to be president even though he is not qualified under our Constitution. In fact he probably wouldn't even make decent dog food.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. (4) That health care is a right, (5) That one group of people have a right to use the force of government to steal from another group of people , (6) that the government cares about you (7) that federally "inspected" food from a mass production slaughter house/production facility a thousand miles away from you is healthier than the food raised by a farmer you personally know
I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. - Benjamin Franklin
I do believe, with all due courtesy to Sir Lod, that your assessment was a reasonable prediction. One which was borne out.
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
Good post.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. And in turn I am happy to serve you well - done.
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
Yes, I have followed the exploits of bugaroo long enough to know that a polite request to elevate the discourse would fall on deaf ears. As the Toddler said one time, "Ann will a test to the crowd." LOL!
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. LOL touche.
Tough women come from New York, sweet women from Texas, prissy women from Southern California, but we NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WOMEN have fire & ice in our blood. We can ride 4-wheelers, be a princess, throw a left hook, pack heat, hunt with the men, bake a cake, love with passion, and if we have an opinion, you know you're going to hear it!! It's not the dinners that I mind; it's the lame presents that get me. At this stage of the game, if I want something, I buy it. No letters to Santa, or hints, or anything else - I just buy it and bring it home.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (4) That health care is a right, (5) That one group of people have a right to use the force of government to steal from another group of people , (6) that the government cares about you (7) that federally "inspected" food from a mass production slaughter house/production facility a thousand miles away from you is healthier than the food raised by a farmer you personally know I think I am in agreement with the worth Mr. JD. Sarah Palin receives only ridicule here so it is a non issue. She is an example of nothing more than what the article that heads this thread speaks of - she is a media creation. I don't play the tax envy game. Taxes are too high across the board and no one should have to pay more than 25% total at all levels in aggregate. Hellthcare? Is that from the same government that gave us WMD's in Iraq, the designated penis sucker in the Whore House, the Tuskegee Experiment, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Dresden, Abu Ghraib, rendition, torture, Kangaroo Military Trials of suspects captured at 15 and then tortured for 9 years till he is willing to sign a confession under duress? That government. The one size fits all price support program for Big Pharma? There are many things wrong with healthcare in America and the most glaring is government enforcement of private companies control of Hellthcare.
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
At this stage of the game, if I want something, I buy it. Sir Lod... You are showing your age now. As one ages it is amazing how ones views and feelings change. You will know when you have arrived, when you finally make your peace with your contemplated death. It will come, acceptance you might say, comes not with a flash in one moment, rather comes very gradually over a long period of time. Just one day you realize, it no longer matters, is of no concern. Very odd.
How quaint, O_I... lets review your thread basis: This is a list of illusions, that have cost billions to conjure up. Did you ever wonder why most people in this country generally accept most of the above statements? So you believe that modern science and medical FACT is refuted by some poster on Rense.com? Why is it you defend this list based upon some scumbag poster you found? Surfing the Internet? And you believe EVERYTHING on the Internet, don't you?
Socialism and capitalism must be placed on a balance scale, where one may see the worth or weight of BOTH. Capitalism is NOT all good and socialism is not all bad. It is the people that administer both that add the evil element to both.
At this stage of the game, if I want something, I buy it. No letters to Santa, or hints, or anything else - I just buy it and bring it home. Oh, so it was YOUR birthday? I hope you had a good one.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. Apologies for the b'day rant. But a some point in life, we should stop it. This was brought home to my brother and me when our parents went home. Our old bedroom in their house had packages, and packages, and more packages of gifts that we had given them over the years; just stacked up, unpackaged, unused, and just sitting there. We had the best of intentions with all our presents, but we forgot that they had all the money in the world to buy whatever it was that they needed or wanted. Long story to tell why I no longer give presents.
To the young I give green, one size fits all and they will use it. To the olde I give a visit and my respect, they take that with them.
Correct. Once we become orphans, our own mortality is brought home to us. I have recognized it, and try to deal with it daily in the very best way possible. Today is what I have, and no more is promised to me. Nor to any of us.
Taxes should be levied under the rules of the Constitution and the taxes should be in some way relevant to what they are being taken for. For example, the gasoline tax should be used for building and maintaining roads. The income tax should be abolished since it is one of the biggest frauds in US history. The government has defrauded the people for almost 100 years with that particular tax and it needs to go (and there is also the fact that a progressive or graduated income tax is the second plank of the communist manifesto).
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. He (Gordon Duff) also implies that forcibly removing Obama, a Constitution-hating, on-the-down-low, crackhead Communist, is an attack on America, Mom, and apple pie. I swear these military people are worse than useless. Just look around at the condition of the country and tell me if they have fulfilled their oaths to protect the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. To the olde I give a visit and my respect, they take that with them. What makes you think the old&young don't combine your fantastick "gifts" while laffing their asses off behind your back?
To the olde I give a visit and my respect, they take that with them. Exactly. Same here.
Your life, and your family, must be truly wretched to write such a damnable sentence. I am truly sorry for what must be the hell-hole in which you dwell.
How nice & gracious of you to show your patriotic colours. Still, can we examine how you place this following threshold? Why did you choose 25% and not 2% or some other number? What makes you think that anyone of us owes government one thin dime?
I see that asking questions is becoming a NO-NO on 4um for clarification of opin. How eloquently fitting.
The present of a hug and thank you is all they need. As I am so bitterly aware of.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" There ya go. Anyone who has made it through all this shit deserves a bit of respect.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" That was certainly a mean-spirited post, Buck, something worthy of AKA Stone. I know it's old-fashioned, but I was taught to respect my elders.
Thank you. You can start now.
Well buck, I do not have that kind of family nor friends. I have been most fortunate in my long life to have been able to display love and respect for others. In return, it is reciprocated by most, and that is always nice. I suppose it has to do with ones upbringing, mine was stern and excellent, and it has served me well these many years.
Anyone can take a snippet out of context bukkie. And you can prove each of those as facts how? The listed illusions are just that images created with lots of money. Now I know you are too intellectually lazy to bother looking into anything yourself, but the data is available. However, it would take volumes to cover each of those illusions and why they are illusions. However we both know that the point of the article was to list those as examples of items which have been sold using PR/Propaganda techniques and simple repetition. Just as we know your selective out of context quotation was in essence your attempt to blow a cloud of smoke over it all and try to create the illusion that it cannot be reconciled or understood. Maybe not by you, but thinking people who are willing to read and inform themselves can. However, the evidence is out there to support the fact that much of modern allopathic medicine is neither scientific nor healthy. You are however, welcome to your illusions.
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
How do you really know for sure? Do have a cosmic hairdresser that understands the on-goings of life all around you? What makes you think that the publick forums that you participate within, much less American society as a whole, don't share in deceit and dishonour about you or me or anyone?
But, those listed illusions are from a dead-beat on Rense.com with no reference to any factual scientific statements or references; sorry pal, you lose another one.
Capitalism is NOT all good and socialism is not all bad. It is the people that administer both that add the evil element to both. I am not an unmitigated apologist for capitalism. I have however seen the works of socialism, tyranny, effectively slavery to the government. Given a choice between wooly booly of the Free Market along with individual liberty I will opt for liberty every time. However, that freedom does not prevent us from banding together to pool our resources and take care of each other. That is basically the model that was developed in the latter half of the 19th Century and on into to the early decades of the 20th. Fraternal groups and orders provided a form of healthcare, and disability insurance. Since these were mutual aid groups they were operated upon mutual assurance, and it was a good model that was nipped in the bud by the Robber Barons who gave us state run models to replace it. The illusion of socialism is that you can get something for nothing. The reality is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Somewhere along the way the price is paid. In socialism the cost is not just in dollars but in freedom. That does not mean I am a Randite, rather I prefer something which carries with it real freedom not an illusory freedom of working endlessly to pay for inefficient and corrupt "entitlements".
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
Upbringing buck, upbringing. I was taught this... Never look down on any man regardless of his station in life, because that man knows something you do not and or can do something you cannot, therefore you can learn from him. My Father threw this in..."If you keep your mouth shut, your eyes and ears open, you MIGHT learn something". He was right, I had no education but I had mentors from whom I learned a great deal. They taught, I listened, all were men among men of this world.
All good news. Still, how do you really know what goes on around your life both intertwined with family, business and the rest of the world? Mere hope&pray, 'eh?
Those were nearly the words of Robert Owen, the Father of socialism. He was a man of great wealth, he came to realize that wealth came from the labor of young children, children that lived in the streets and had nothing. Socialism started there with the most Saintly of intentions. However, Clinton Roosevelt and Karl Marx saw it as a weapon to use against Capitalism, that is the socialism we now see, not the original that came with the best of intentions for mankind.
My Father threw this in..."If you keep your mouth shut, your eyes and ears open, you MIGHT learn something". Those truths were drummed into us for as long as I can remember. To this day, I've found nothing that disputes their truth. They cannot be disputed.
Poor buckie, as usual lost in a fog and relying upon personal attacks having no basis in the fact or science you bandy about. No, instead your entire argument is to deny the entire article based on one snippet which you contest. Did Edward L. Bernays really exist? Yes. Did he write a book entitled "Propaganda"? Yes. Not only that Joseph Goebbles is reputed to have had a copy of it on his office bookshelf. No buck you are trying to use a strawman argument by attempting to use the following logical fallacies: False Dilemma/Dichotomy/Black or White Fallacy However, you are as addicted to your use of fallacious arguments as you are to your illusions. I would laugh but watching a supposed adult throw a temper tantrum is not something I find amusing.
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
No, instead your entire argument is to deny the entire article based on one snippet which you contest. Entire list(s) of BS within your presented article is what you mean to say pal. It's OK, too... I know you are testing all of our capabilities to discern truth from fiction... and that goal is meritorious duty! You are awarded in kind.
The problem is that Owen's utopia did not work. New Lanark was a sad failure. It sounds nice on paper but in practice socialism requires fitting people to the system rather than the system to the people. There was another key difference though which I do like about Owens's model - it was a voluntary association not compulsory. Government in the end is force and government enforced socialism is nothing more than another name for tyranny. Cooperative means just that. Hershey tried something almost as daring as Owen he gave his workers decent working conditions in a modern, for the time, facility, but lacked the social technology to make it successful. The problem is not that there are not people who do not mean well as there are many. The problem is trying to fit man to an idealized theory of "how he ought to behave".
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
It was not until 1938 that child labor was finally outlawed in this country, nearly 100 years after Owen raised the question. In fact in 1916 and 1918 the Supreme Court said it was not within the Constitution for government to outlaw labor by children above age six. That 100 year lapse played right into the hands of Marx and his people.
In fact in 1916 and 1918 the Supreme Court said it was not within the Constitution for government to outlaw labor by children above age six. That 100 year lapse played right into the hands of Marx and his people. One of the problems with Marx though is that in addition to coming up with a scheme to maximize state power he was throughout the key part of his endeavors supported by wealthy men who, in my estimation, were not philanthropists. Man has yet to fashion a governmental scheme which will be all things to all people which suggests to me that government is not the correct vehicle. Government is basically force; force which can be directed to achieve an end but it has no delicacy in its actions, and its directives are enforced by compulsion. That is why I would suggest that looking to government is looking in the wrong direction. Not that I would argue that there is never justification for using force or power to compel something, but it fails when it is exercised broadly and ceases to recognize that the society is composed of individuals who have both responsibilities and rights it fails. The reason I favor a minimalist government of courts, coinage, and defense only is not because I am wealthy. I most definitely am not. By most standards I am a pauper, but that is a function of my own choices and what I as an individual value. I am responsible for my own condition. I favor a tightly restrained and small government because I like and respect people and believe that they are capable of looking after themselves. That is what you have in a free society governed by just and wholesome laws (which is not what we have now). Our current Crony Capitalism is to the free market as sewer sludge is to fine wine. it is not truly "capitalism" but a covert governance by the wealthy - a Plutocracy with the superficial appearance of a Democratic Republic. It is not in me at the moment to go to any great lengths, but part of the solution, or so it seems to me, is employee owned companies and a government tightly restrained so as not favor one over another. However, any solution to be workable must begin with recognizing that people are individuals and that each should have equivalent standing before the government, the courts, and to each other. Not that some are not brighter or more ethical but that freedom for all means all must be free and equal before the law.
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
That is all we have to understand. Also the socialism we now have is NOT true socialism. Norman Thomas ran for president about six or eight times, he represented the nearest to true socialism. After that it was hi jacked as a vehicle to enslave the masses with the elite the winner.
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Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestAmong the ridiculous things that people will believe: (1) Giving billionaires tax cuts will help balance the budget, (2) Making health care available for everyone is evil, (3) Sarah Palin is fit to be President.
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#49. To: Shoonra (#46)
Among the ridiculous things that people will believe: (1) Giving billionaires tax cuts will help balance the budget, (2) Making health care available for everyone is evil, (3) Sarah Palin is fit to be President.
#50. To: James Deffenbach, Lod (#39)
#51. To: F.A. Hayek Fan (#49)
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#52. To: buckeroo, farmfriend (#26)
I am happy to serve you well.
#53. To: Original_Intent (#50)
I do believe, with all due courtesy to Sir Lod, that your assessment was a reasonable prediction. One which was borne out.
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#54. To: Original_Intent, buckeroo, (#52)
And in turn I am happy to serve you well - done.
#55. To: James Deffenbach, 4 (#41)
#56. To: F.A. Hayek Fan, James Deffenbach, Shoonra (#49)
Among the ridiculous things that people will believe: (1) Giving billionaires tax cuts will help balance the budget, (2) Making health care available for everyone is evil, (3) Sarah Palin is fit to be President.
#57. To: Lod (#55)
It's not the dinners that I mind; it's the lame presents that get me.
#58. To: Original_Intent, farmfriend (#52)
And in turn I am happy to serve you well - done.
Pharmaceuticals restore health
Vaccination brings immunity
The cure for cancer is just around the corner
Menopause is a disease condition
When a child is sick, he needs immediate antibiotics
When a child has a fever he needs Tylenol
Hospitals are safe and clean.
America has the best health care in the world.
Americans have the best health in the world.
Milk is a good source of calcium.
You never outgrow your need for milk.
Vitamin C is ascorbic acid.
Aspirin prevents heart attacks.
Heart drugs improve the heart.
Back and neck pain are the only reasons for spinal adjustment.
No child can get into school without being vaccinated.
The FDA thoroughly tests all drugs before they go on the market.
Pregnancy is a serious medical condition
Infancy is a serious medical condition
Chemotherapy and radiation are effective cures for cancer
When your child is diagnosed with an ear infection, antibiotics should be given immediately 'just in case'
Ear tubes are for the good of the child.
Estrogen drugs prevent osteoporosis after menopause.
Pediatricians are the most highly trained of all medical specialists.
The purpose of the health care industry is health.
HIV is the cause of AIDS.
AZT is the cure.
Without vaccines, infectious diseases will return
Fluoride in the city water protects your teeth
Flu shots prevent the flu.
Vaccines are thoroughly tested before being placed on the Mandated Schedule. Doctors are certain that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh any possible risks.
There is a terrorist threat in the US.
There is a bioterrorist threat in the US.
The NASDAQ is a natural market controlled by supply and demand.
Chronic pain is a natural consequence of aging.
Soy is your healthiest source of protein.
Insulin shots cure diabetes.
After we take out your gall bladder you can eat anything you want Allergy medicine will cure allergies.
An airliner can be flown with professional precision by a group of crazed amateurs into a 100-storey building and can cause that building to collapse on its own footprint. Twice.
The Iraquis blew up the World Trade Center.
#59. To: Original_Intent (#56)
#60. To: Lod (#55)
It's not the dinners that I mind; it's the lame presents that get me.
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#61. To: All (#55)
#62. To: Lod (#61)
Long story to tell why I no longer give presents.
#63. To: Cynicom, Olde persons, 4 (#57)
As one ages it is amazing how ones views and feelings change. You will know when you have arrived, when you finally make your peace with your contemplated death.
#64. To: Original_Intent (#56)
I don't play the tax envy game. Taxes are too high across the board and no one should have to pay more than 25% total at all levels in aggregate.
Lord Acton
OsamaBinGoldstein posted on 2010-05-25 9:39:59 ET (2 images) Reply Trace
#65. To: Cynicom (#62)
To the young I give green, one size fits all and they will use it.
#66. To: Cynicom (#62)
To the young I give green, one size fits all and they will use it.
#67. To: buckeroo (#65)
What makes you think the old&young don't combine your fantastick "gifts" while laffing their asses off behind your back?
#68. To: Original_Intent (#56)
I don't play the tax envy game.
Taxes are too high across the board and no one should have to pay more than 25% total at all levels in aggregate.
#69. To: Lod (#67)
#70. To: Lod (#61)
(Edited)
Long story to tell why I no longer give presents.
#71. To: Cynicom (#62)
To the olde I give a visit and my respect, they take that with them.
#72. To: buckeroo, Cynicom (#65)
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)
#73. To: Esso (#72)
I know it's old-fashioned, but I was taught to respect my elders.
#74. To: buckeroo (#65)
What makes you think the old&young don't combine your fantastick "gifts" while laffing their asses off behind your back?
#75. To: buckeroo, Buckmonster Fullofit, Nostradumbass, all (#58)
So you believe that modern science and medical FACT
#76. To: Cynicom (#74)
Well buck, I do not have that kind of family nor friends.
#77. To: Original_Intent (#75)
The listed illusions are just that images created with lots of money.
#78. To: Cynicom (#59)
Socialism and capitalism must be placed on a balance scale, where one may see the worth or weight of BOTH.
#79. To: buckeroo (#76)
How do you really know for sure? Do have a cosmic hairdresser that understands the on-goings of life all around you?
#80. To: Cynicom (#79)
#81. To: Original_Intent, Lod (#78)
However, that freedom does not prevent us from banding together to pool our resources and take care of each other
#82. To: Cynicom, 4 (#79)
Never look down on any man regardless of his station in life, because that man knows something you do not and or can do something you cannot, therefore you can learn from him.
#83. To: buckeroo (#77)
#84. To: Original_Intent (#83)
Poor buckie, as usual lost in a fog and relying upon personal attacks having no basis in the fact or science you bandy about.
WHOOPSS!
#85. To: Cynicom (#81)
#86. To: Original_Intent (#85)
#87. To: Cynicom (#86)
It was not until 1938 that child labor was finally outlawed in this country, nearly 100 years after Owen raised the question.
#88. To: Original_Intent (#87)
it is not truly "capitalism" but a covert governance by the wealthy - a Plutocracy with the superficial appearance of a Democratic Republic.
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