Propaganda

Propaganda is such a powerful and insidious force. Let me quote another warning addressed to a situation similar to the early stages of our current America: What no one seemed to notice. . . was the ever widening gap. . .between the government and the people. . . And it became always wider. . . the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting, it provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway . . . (it) gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about . . .and kept us so busy with continuous changes and 'crises' and so fascinated . . . by the machinations of the 'national enemies,' without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. . . Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures'. . . must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. . . .Each act. . . is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join you in resisting somehow. You don't want to act, or even talk, alone. . . you don't want to 'go out of your way to make trouble.' . . .But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That's the difficulty. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves, when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. . . .You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father. . . could never have imagined." : From Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free, The Germans, 1938-45 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1955)
Posted by Michael Butler, Thursday, August 26, 2010

AlterNet: The Politics of Fear: How Fighting Terrorism is Bankrupting the World and Making Us Less Safe

Recently Alternet published "The Politics of Fear". Bill Swiggard, an Editor of MBCIVIC, posted it. I read it twice really impressed with the importance of its points of the centuries when fear has been used to control people. Not only in America but in so many countries and times. Liars are not accountable; seems the bigger the lie, the frequency of repetition the more credible their lies are. Currently Iran is frightening to us, though many doubt its intents, knowing that it faces certain extinction using any bomb. However the world and in particular the Iranians and Israelis live in fear. Keeping us all in fear is a certain way to exert control. It is also a certain profit center for the Military Industrial Congressional Complex. In addition how many industries and groups are supported by the War on Drugs? mb
Posted by Michael Butler, Sunday, August 15, 2010

Truthdig – Married to the Clinton Mob – Scheer

From most of us I don't think that there is much question that George W. Bush is the worst president in American history. He left us with two loser wars, terrible debt replacing an inherited surplus, and The Great Recession. However we must recognize that recession was set up by the Clinton Mob; their emasculation of regulation created the platform for banksters to game the system. Of course this was following the trend established by the philosophy of Reagan. That is frightening that Obama has put Clinton mobsters in charge of the hen house. mb
Posted by Michael Butler, Monday, August 9, 2010