We took a boat trip yesterday, the Chicago Architectrual Tour. I expected it to be interesting, and was not disappointed. I am at a loss for words to describe the genius, ingenuity and “imagine-it-so-make-it-so” engineering ability of our fellow humans.

At the same time, surrounded by such genius, I wonder why the same people are so easily fooled by false flag events and political lies, large and small. Things we know to be physically impossible are believed with credulous blank stares. Lame explanations by authority figures are not just swallowed whole, but with great enthusiasm.

Part of it is faith. We are raised from the cradle to believe in our government and institutions. The notion that they would so boldly lie to us is impossible to accept. Doubt requires setting aside a life of fables. The implications of doing that are too severe to contemplate.

Another part was voiced by Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1830s:

It is extremely difficult to obtain a hearing from men living in democracies, unless it be to speak to them of themselves. They do not attend to the things said to them, because they are always fully engrossed with the things they are doing. For indeed few men are idle in democratic nations; life is passed in the midst of noise and excitement, and men are so engaged in acting that little remains to them for thinking. I would especially remark that they are not only employed, but that they are passionately devoted to their employments. They are always in action, and each of their actions absorbs their faculties: the zeal which they display in business puts out the enthusiasm they might otherwise entertain for idea.”

Emphasis added, or course. and keep in mind that back then most people were self-employed. Employment by others, having a “boss” in our lives, is now seen as normal but is an even more debilitating experience. We must constantly monitor our thought content to make sure it aligns with those who have power over us.

People are too busy to think here in our fake democracy. They are easily fooled by our overlords. But as seen on the architectural boat tour, there is genius among us and on display all about.

Along with his terrorist war [on Cuba], Kennedy imposed a trade embargo of unprecedented severity, barring any transaction involving merchandise “of Cuban origin” or that “has been located or transported from or through Cuba [or] is made or derived in whole or in part of any article which is the growth, produce, or manufacture of Cuba.” In the years that followed, huge resources have been devoted to monitor international commerce to ensure that the strictures are upheld …

On illustration has been provided by the treasury Department, reporting to Congress in April 2004 on the activities of its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), responsible for investigating suspicious financial transfers, a central component of the “war on terror.” OFAC informed Congress that of its 120 employees, four were assigned to tracking the finances of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, while almost two dozen were occupied with enforcing the embargo against Cuba. From 1990 to 2003, OFAC reported 93 terrorism-related investigations with $9,000 in fines; and 11,000 Cuba-related investigations with $8 million in fines. (Chomsky, introduction to Voices From the Other Side, by Keith Bolender)

In fairness to OFAC, they might well have known what the rest of us came to understand later, that by 2004 both Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were dead.

Even so, it is interesting to note the vigor with which our government fights to withhold basic freedoms from little Cuba while virtually ignoring its own self-proclaimed War on Terror.

I was raised to believe in a man named “Jesus” who lived in my mind and monitored my thoughts and behaviors. Most importantly, he loved me. I was special to him.

Such thought control devices are common. When implanted in the mind of young children, they often last a lifetime. My mother, deeply lost in Alzheimer’s, still bowed her head in deep devotion as my brother invoked the name before slipping her a wafer.

DM Murdock, author of The Christ Conspiracy and a bunch of other stuff, relieved me of much of the mystery. I had long been set free from Jesus before reading her, but she explained the origin of the symbols of Christianity – sun worship.

As with so much of mythology, the explanation is hidden in plain sight. Even so, transcending generations and language development, to this day most Americans believe in and worship the “Son.” Cue the Twilight Zone theme!

Murdock now suffers from a very aggressive cancer. She’ll soon be gone, but her body of work will long outlive her. Because this is the United States, aggressive health care to treat her aggressive cancer is unaffordable, and her friends and supporters are crowd-sourcing to finance her treatment. Good luck with that, and thanks Acharya S for living a good and useful life.
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Solomon Asch was a social psychologist who dreamed up an experiment in thought control, usually done in a classroom. Students, most in on the trick, are shown a set of lines and asked which one is longest. When those not in on the game identify the obvious choice, the group responds negatively, and later still, by group consensus, a shorter line is “voted” to be the longest.

The question is whether the subjects rebel, go along, or really get their minds right. Judging from my experience with 9/11 and other mass illusion phenomena, I am guessing that most students truly believe their perceptions are wrong and the crowd is right. We are but children, after all, and I was 38 years old before I disabused myself of that Jesus guy.
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Which brings me to the last “thought” I had this morning as reading Brian Anse Patrick’s book The Ten Commandments of Propaganda.

People react to the word “propaganda” just as they do to “shit” or “thought control.” The word causes a blockage of cognitive thought processes. Propagandists know this, and so have changed their names to “public relations” and “information” agents. That’s too bad, because the field is rich with explanatory power about all that goes on around us, just as Murdock’s revelations so easily exposed the Jesus scam.

I won’t go into detail on Patrick’s work, as people who saw the fright words in the above paragraph have already quit reading. He invoked Jacques Ellul, and offers a much more refined reading of the man than I could muster.

Ellul reminded us that propaganda gives meaning to an otherwise meaningless existence. It is not something done to us as much as something we deeply need. It validates us, makes us morally and intellectually superior to our peers and to people in other lands. It is our raison d’être.

I have come recently to understand that voting is a scam – that is, public opinion is herd management and nothing more. Actually counting votes would be an absurd practice. We have thousands of people who think they are part of the process every election day. With patriotic music in the background, public officials pretend that voting matters and that votes are actually counted.

Voting gives us meaning. It is the government telling each of us, individually, in a cubicle with a curtain drawn, that we matter, that our opinion counts.
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Anyway, thank you D.M. Murdock, Solomon Asch, Brian Patrick Anse, Jacques Ellul, my mother and most of all, Jesus, for helping me through this crazy fucking life. It just keeps getting more interesting.

Maybe I am at a crossroads or in a lull. All these years of reading have left me empty. This country, full of good but very dumbed down people, is run by a fascist shadow government. My questions now are merely how and when it came about.  Bigger yet,  is it the normal state of affairs throughout history? I suspect so.

Not to go all Godwin on the matter, but the Nazis came to power by deft criminal maneuvering. The primary tool at their disposal was murder. Once an important person is killed, and the crime goes down uninvestigated and unpunished, a cloud of intimidation sets in. All throughout the legitimate power centers there evolves unvoiced but well-understood fear. Smart and brave people who confront the hidden power source are murdered, threatened, scandalized … eventually smart and brave people exit the system, and we are left with thugs, cowards, sociopaths, and cynical manipulators. (Which reminds me, the 2016 election will be a “choice” … Clinton v Bush.) Continue reading “In search of meaninglessness” →

A certain commenter who makes the rounds is product of the age. No depth, no reading, a diet of Google and talk radio. He feigns, as most do, a deep knowledge of “current events,” whatever that means. Terms like “confirmation bias” and “anecdotal evidence” yield a revealing silence.

I’m frustrated today. I’m going to my garage. Thought control is deep and pervasive in this country. Our public dialogue is sometimes fresh and witty, and certainly strident. That it makes no difference, that we are just blowing in the wind … is lost on all.

Liberals (and “progressives”) push for their R-Democrats. Hillary Clinton, for example, is just another Neocon, but these insulated morons will support her over some other Neocon as a better “choice.” The worst part is the arrogance, the presumption of moral superiority. After all, these bastions of deep thought elected a mixed race president. Now they are going to give s a woman!

Right wingers (“conservatives”) push their openly stupid (or incredibly devious) macaroons. Who cannot look at former Texas governor Rick Perry, for instance, or former Texas governor George W. Bush or Ted Cruz (what’s wrong with Texas anyway?), and not see deeply stupid men? If it’s an act, I tip my hat. An interesting phenomenon: Saying they are stupid jacks up their vote tally. Stupid likes stupid, and defends it with vigor.

Some years back a certain very dumb but very pretty actress, I’ll not name her, decided to use her fame to serve public good, and went on a “vote” campaign … “vote, vote vote, exercise your freedom” she told us all on every forum available to her. Vote for what? That was above her pay grade. It was somewhat a relief that certain people who interviewed her, like Letterman, were only mildly amused rather than enthralled.

I am often told that since I don’t vote, I have no role to play in our fake democracy. The idea that we given no choices and cannot rely on the counting system anyway … doesn’t fly. Vote, dammit.

Just another day at the office. I’ll get better.