They want tyranny.

[Anti Federalist]

No question about why nobody cares, as far as I'm concerned:

The American people, by and large, do not want freedom, do not want liberty and do not want peace.

They have made it very clear, over and over, that they want war, tyranny and death.

We are in a declining empire in the throes of suicide.


Re: Herr Panetta's Diktat

Posted by Butler Shaffer on January 31, 2012 11:37 AM

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewr...es/104900.html

Glenn Greenwald's article about Leon Panetta's open admission that the President can order the murder of anyone — even Americans — upon the CIA's and the president having declared such a person to be a "terrorist," ends on the most disturbing question: Why do so few people even care? That Republican GOP candidates — except one — and various neocon voices applaud the assertion of such authority is predictable: Those who long for power over others want no limitations placed on their actions.

To suggest outmoded "due process" considerations — such as formal charges and a trial — is to deny that the monopoly on the use of violence (which defines the state) might have limits! Meanwhile, those of us who compare modern America with Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia continue to be labeled "paranoid extremists." It is all the more remarkable that our current president asserts the same kind of "due-process-free" power to kill that once sent percaled Ku Klux Klansmen in search of their enemies!

There is a most powerful book that ought to be read by everyone — particularly those of Tom Brokaw's "greatest generation" who still like to pretend that they fought in WWII to end tyranny. It is Milton Mayer's They Thought They Were Free, a post-WWII study of the responses of ordinary Germans to the question "What was it like living under Nazi tyranny?"

I have just finished the writing of another book, to be titled The Wizards of Ozymandias. The book is dedicated to "the memory and the spirit of Sophie and Hans Scholl and the White Rose, who reminded us what it means to be civilized." The young people who worked, peacefully, within Nazi Germany to resist Nazism were unceremoniously guillotined by government officials who, not unlike their modern American counterparts, acted to kill their version of "terrorists." It would be pointless for members of this administration, the Republicans who want only to replace Obama with their unrestrained power, or the neocons, to bother reading Mayer's book. For the rest of us, however, it might provide the antidote that answers Greenwald's closing question.

[DamianTV]

People dont care anymore because every aspect of our society requires that they dont.

There are a lot of aspects of Indoctrination, but it doesnt stop with schools. It has embedded itself as the very root of our culture. A lot of people have a preconceived notion that our Public School System is nothing more than an Indoctrination Centre to create, nay, manufacture Obedient Workers. But the fallacy of that idea gives way when we look at almost every other aspect of our society. Including Charities. Give money to a charity and you dont have to actually do any of the work. That is its own ball of wax and heads the wrong direction for the purpose of this topic. The idea that people dont care is because people are not allowed to care, and are usually punished in some way shape or form if they do.

You cant have Car Insurance Adjustors that actually care that the company is trying to rip off the victim by replacing whatever it was that was damaged with something that is as cheap as they can get away with. If the Adjustor speaks up, they are 'disciplined'. Flip Burgers? Really? Ever see anyone take any pride in a burger they slap together when they bunch up several hundred an hour? Doctors end up treating the sick as if discerning a proper medical diagnoiss can be done in the same fashion as a fast-food chain operates.

No one has incentive. Our last generation is pretty much fully aware that there will probably not be a United States of America by the time they are old enough to retire. The level of confidence in our Government is the lowest it has ever been in history. People that are fortunate enough to have jobs are not keeping up with inflation. They get a "AT&T Raise" (25 cents per hour, even tho pay phones are pretty much history and now cost at least 50 cents) for a year where the price of living has gone up by a buck fifty. The people aware of this have no incentive to save money, only to spend it all immediately before prices go up even higher, that is to say, if they even have any money to spend to begin with.

The lack of incentive isnt just limited to Economics. As a nation, we are bankrupt, in much more than just the financial sense. We are emotionally bankrupt from the hardships brought upon us by War, Economy, and a myriad of personal trials, all of which amplify the intensity of the other. We are intellectually bankrupt. We take the wiggly butt kids who end up having the energy to do their homework and immediately diagnose them with a chemical imbalance and put them on antidepressants, there by taking the few kids who might have a chance of being a real leader and force feeding them pills until their brains turn into a soupy gooey substance that can easily be consumed by aliens with little more than a power drill and a straw. We are medically bankrupt. Just as we overdiagnose ADD in kids, we overdiagnose every possible illness while treating mostly symptoms of a disease, if it is even a disease at all. Doctors (pointing the finger more at Big Pharma and owners of hospitals much more than the Doctors themselves) dont make any money if people dont get sick. We are Legally Bankrupt. The US was officially bankrupt in the 1930's, and started selling off its most prominent assets, the people, by way of Capitis Diminutio Maxima. Our entire Legal System is the polar opposite of Justice with the sole intention of increasing capital for the Private Prison Owners, which to say is nothing short of Human Trafficking. Our government is corrupt beyond belief. Those who say it is not are most likely gaining some sort of personal benefit from the Government. Food Stamps are higher than they've ever been, so there are LOT of people collecting some sort of benefit. And trying to take on the system single handedly rarely stands to benefit anyone but the person standing up to the Injustice of the Legal System. Our nutrition feeds us nothing but chemical garbage. We have an even larger financial bubble in the education system even larger than our housing bubble and the people that graduate come out with a lifetime of student loan debt, a certificate of completing prescribed (like it was a medication) college courses, and are quickly becoming the dumbest country on earth. There is a big difference between being dumb and being uneducated. There is also a big difference between School and Education. We are more connected than other, but more disconnected from each other than ever. We Tweet and Facebook instead of coming over to see your neighbors newborn baby. We allow ourselves to be "connected" so we can be disconnected from our real friends and real families, and can instead be more connected with being monitored for more effective advertising where our lives of consumption follow consuming what we are told to consume when we are told to consume it. We have no time to invest into ourselves, and when time is available, we have very little drive to do anything to better ourselves or our society. We have allowed our leaders to steer the direction of our nation onto a course that heads us exactly in the direction we were warned about by our founding fathers. We have allowed Banks and Corporations to gain control over the issue of our Nation's Currency, from which I believe all of the other problems are directly (not solely) caused by.

We have no incentive because we were told not to, and to be happy with it.

But this is not the end. When people realize that it is only within Freedom that they can truly thrive, the Responsibilities of Freedom will begin to make the Benefits of Freedom become appealing again, as compared to all other alternatives.

[HOLLYWOOD]

Let me put it in Layman's terms... majority of Americans are too $#@!in lazy, too apathetic, too ignorant, and just down right too stupid. Put that on top of the 4 Branches of corrupt government at Federal and State levels. Yes, Corporate Media is the Department of Propaganda/Dis-Information, Censorship, Lies, and Control(4th branch).

[Philhelm]

People dont care anymore because every aspect of our society requires that they dont.

There are a lot of aspects of Indoctrination, but it doesnt stop with schools. It has embedded itself as the very root of our culture. A lot of people have a preconceived notion that our Public School System is nothing more than an Indoctrination Centre to create, nay, manufacture Obedient Workers. But the fallacy of that idea gives way when we look at almost every other aspect of our society. Including Charities. Give money to a charity and you dont have to actually do any of the work. That is its own ball of wax and heads the wrong direction for the purpose of this topic. The idea that people dont care is because people are not allowed to care, and are usually punished in some way shape or form if they do.

You cant have Car Insurance Adjustors that actually care that the company is trying to rip off the victim by replacing whatever it was that was damaged with something that is as cheap as they can get away with. If the Adjustor speaks up, they are 'disciplined'. Flip Burgers? Really? Ever see anyone take any pride in a burger they slap together when they bunch up several hundred an hour? Doctors end up treating the sick as if discerning a proper medical diagnoiss can be done in the same fashion as a fast-food chain operates.

No one has incentive. Our last generation is pretty much fully aware that there will probably not be a United States of America by the time they are old enough to retire. The level of confidence in our Government is the lowest it has ever been in history. People that are fortunate enough to have jobs are not keeping up with inflation. They get a "AT&T Raise" (25 cents per hour, even tho pay phones are pretty much history and now cost at least 50 cents) for a year where the price of living has gone up by a buck fifty. The people aware of this have no incentive to save money, only to spend it all immediately before prices go up even higher, that is to say, if they even have any money to spend to begin with.

The lack of incentive isnt just limited to Economics. As a nation, we are bankrupt, in much more than just the financial sense. We are emotionally bankrupt from the hardships brought upon us by War, Economy, and a myriad of personal trials, all of which amplify the intensity of the other. We are intellectually bankrupt. We take the wiggly butt kids who end up having the energy to do their homework and immediately diagnose them with a chemical imbalance and put them on antidepressants, there by taking the few kids who might have a chance of being a real leader and force feeding them pills until their brains turn into a soupy gooey substance that can easily be consumed by aliens with little more than a power drill and a straw. We are medically bankrupt. Just as we overdiagnose ADD in kids, we overdiagnose every possible illness while treating mostly symptoms of a disease, if it is even a disease at all. Doctors (pointing the finger more at Big Pharma and owners of hospitals much more than the Doctors themselves) dont make any money if people dont get sick. We are Legally Bankrupt. The US was officially bankrupt in the 1930's, and started selling off its most prominent assets, the people, by way of Capitis Diminutio Maxima. Our entire Legal System is the polar opposite of Justice with the sole intention of increasing capital for the Private Prison Owners, which to say is nothing short of Human Trafficking. Our government is corrupt beyond belief. Those who say it is not are most likely gaining some sort of personal benefit from the Government. Food Stamps are higher than they've ever been, so there are LOT of people collecting some sort of benefit. And trying to take on the system single handedly rarely stands to benefit anyone but the person standing up to the Injustice of the Legal System. Our nutrition feeds us nothing but chemical garbage. We have an even larger financial bubble in the education system even larger than our housing bubble and the people that graduate come out with a lifetime of student loan debt, a certificate of completing prescribed (like it was a medication) college courses, and are quickly becoming the dumbest country on earth. There is a big difference between being dumb and being uneducated. There is also a big difference between School and Education. We are more connected than other, but more disconnected from each other than ever. We Tweet and Facebook instead of coming over to see your neighbors newborn baby. We allow ourselves to be "connected" so we can be disconnected from our real friends and real families, and can instead be more connected with being monitored for more effective advertising where our lives of consumption follow consuming what we are told to consume when we are told to consume it. We have no time to invest into ourselves, and when time is available, we have very little drive to do anything to better ourselves or our society. We have allowed our leaders to steer the direction of our nation onto a course that heads us exactly in the direction we were warned about by our founding fathers. We have allowed Banks and Corporations to gain control over the issue of our Nation's Currency, from which I believe all of the other problems are directly (not solely) caused by.

We have no incentive because we were told not to, and to be happy with it.

But this is not the end. When people realize that it is only within Freedom that they can truly thrive, the Responsibilities of Freedom will begin to make the Benefits of Freedom become appealing again, as compared to all other alternatives.

Legendary post. I think that in a word, I would describe our society as "soulless." Hell, even our method of warfare is empty. At least people used to face their opponents head on; now we just kill people in a factory-like, mass production method.

[Pericles]

Legendary post. I think that in a word, I would describe our society as "soulless." Hell, even our method of warfare is empty. At least people used to face their opponents head on; now we just kill people in a factory-like, mass production method.

Pity that I could only give one rep for that post.

[tfurrh]

Its almost Biblical.

[Boss]

Give money to a charity and you dont have to actually do any of the work.

Damian, I enjoyed your post (for the most part). I think you should look into "postmodernism" as it seems you were unintentionally describing it rather well. However, I want to point out part of your argument that I think needs revision. In particular, this statement you made about charities.

The idea of giving money to charities presupposes that you have money to give. Unless the money was passed on to you and you had to exert zero effort to obtain that money, it is unfair for you to say "you don't have to actually do any of the work." In reality, you already did the work, and your money is the social representation of the value you have accumulated by virtue of your work.

Further, people's time and efforts have different values. Lets say a charity is comprised of young 20-somethings and it receives a donation from a surgeon who is in her 50's. This surgeon's time is worth hundreds of dollars an hour. The young 20-somethings time isn't worth anything close to that (yet). By doing acts of charity, the worth of the young people's time increases because society favors people who help others (thus, looks good on a resume), and more importantly, because of the morality obtained through charitably helping other people.

[Wesker1982]

But if a voter is not competent to decide issues A, B, C, etc., how in the world could he possibly be qualified to decide whether Mr. X or Mr. Y is better able to handle A, B, or C? In order to make this decision, the voter would have to know a great deal about the issues and know enough about the persons whom he is selecting. In short, he would probably have to know more in a representative than in a direct democracy. Furthermore, the average voter is necessarily less qualified to choose persons to decide issues than he is to vote on the issues themselves. For the issues are at least intelligible to him, and he can understand some of their relevance; but the candidates are people whom he cannot possibly know personally and whom he therefore knows essentially nothing about. Hence, he can vote for them only on the basis of their external “personalities,” glamorous smiles, etc., rather than on their actual competence; as a result, however ill-informed the voter, his choice is almost bound to be less intelligent under a representative republic than in a direct democracy.

Rational Ignorance.

[Travlyr]

They don't want tyranny. They don't know any better.

War is Peace
Indoctrination is Education
Fake Money is Real
Tyranny is Freedom

[heavenlyboy34]

I disagree that college education is in a bubble. It's always been this way (a scam). It's just that the other economic woes make it more obvious. Gary North wrote a great piece on this a while back. There are a lot of good arguments against the way 'higher ed" works, but calling it a bubble is not one of them.

College: Why It Is Not a Bubble

[heavenlyboy34]

They don't want tyranny. They don't know any better.

War is Peace
Indoctrination is Education
Fake Money is Real
Tyranny is Freedom

Ah, you too have learned to decode Newspeak/Ingsoc. You too are a threat to TPTB. You left out an important rule, though: IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

[donnay]

People dont care anymore because every aspect of our society requires that they dont.

There are a lot of aspects of Indoctrination, but it doesnt stop with schools. It has embedded itself as the very root of our culture. A lot of people have a preconceived notion that our Public School System is nothing more than an Indoctrination Centre to create, nay, manufacture Obedient Workers. But the fallacy of that idea gives way when we look at almost every other aspect of our society. Including Charities. Give money to a charity and you dont have to actually do any of the work. That is its own ball of wax and heads the wrong direction for the purpose of this topic. The idea that people dont care is because people are not allowed to care, and are usually punished in some way shape or form if they do.

You cant have Car Insurance Adjustors that actually care that the company is trying to rip off the victim by replacing whatever it was that was damaged with something that is as cheap as they can get away with. If the Adjustor speaks up, they are 'disciplined'. Flip Burgers? Really? Ever see anyone take any pride in a burger they slap together when they bunch up several hundred an hour? Doctors end up treating the sick as if discerning a proper medical diagnoiss can be done in the same fashion as a fast-food chain operates.

No one has incentive. Our last generation is pretty much fully aware that there will probably not be a United States of America by the time they are old enough to retire. The level of confidence in our Government is the lowest it has ever been in history. People that are fortunate enough to have jobs are not keeping up with inflation. They get a "AT&T Raise" (25 cents per hour, even tho pay phones are pretty much history and now cost at least 50 cents) for a year where the price of living has gone up by a buck fifty. The people aware of this have no incentive to save money, only to spend it all immediately before prices go up even higher, that is to say, if they even have any money to spend to begin with.

The lack of incentive isnt just limited to Economics. As a nation, we are bankrupt, in much more than just the financial sense. We are emotionally bankrupt from the hardships brought upon us by War, Economy, and a myriad of personal trials, all of which amplify the intensity of the other. We are intellectually bankrupt. We take the wiggly butt kids who end up having the energy to do their homework and immediately diagnose them with a chemical imbalance and put them on antidepressants, there by taking the few kids who might have a chance of being a real leader and force feeding them pills until their brains turn into a soupy gooey substance that can easily be consumed by aliens with little more than a power drill and a straw. We are medically bankrupt. Just as we overdiagnose ADD in kids, we overdiagnose every possible illness while treating mostly symptoms of a disease, if it is even a disease at all. Doctors (pointing the finger more at Big Pharma and owners of hospitals much more than the Doctors themselves) dont make any money if people dont get sick. We are Legally Bankrupt. The US was officially bankrupt in the 1930's, and started selling off its most prominent assets, the people, by way of Capitis Diminutio Maxima. Our entire Legal System is the polar opposite of Justice with the sole intention of increasing capital for the Private Prison Owners, which to say is nothing short of Human Trafficking. Our government is corrupt beyond belief. Those who say it is not are most likely gaining some sort of personal benefit from the Government. Food Stamps are higher than they've ever been, so there are LOT of people collecting some sort of benefit. And trying to take on the system single handedly rarely stands to benefit anyone but the person standing up to the Injustice of the Legal System. Our nutrition feeds us nothing but chemical garbage. We have an even larger financial bubble in the education system even larger than our housing bubble and the people that graduate come out with a lifetime of student loan debt, a certificate of completing prescribed (like it was a medication) college courses, and are quickly becoming the dumbest country on earth. There is a big difference between being dumb and being uneducated. There is also a big difference between School and Education. We are more connected than other, but more disconnected from each other than ever. We Tweet and Facebook instead of coming over to see your neighbors newborn baby. We allow ourselves to be "connected" so we can be disconnected from our real friends and real families, and can instead be more connected with being monitored for more effective advertising where our lives of consumption follow consuming what we are told to consume when we are told to consume it. We have no time to invest into ourselves, and when time is available, we have very little drive to do anything to better ourselves or our society. We have allowed our leaders to steer the direction of our nation onto a course that heads us exactly in the direction we were warned about by our founding fathers. We have allowed Banks and Corporations to gain control over the issue of our Nation's Currency, from which I believe all of the other problems are directly (not solely) caused by.

We have no incentive because we were told not to, and to be happy with it.

But this is not the end. When people realize that it is only within Freedom that they can truly thrive, the Responsibilities of Freedom will begin to make the Benefits of Freedom become appealing again, as compared to all other alternatives.

You hit the proverbial nail on the head here! +rep

[helmuth_hubener]

AF, DamianTV, there is every reason to be optimistic. Consider this passage from For a New Liberty:

We have traced the rather grisly story of the decline and fall of classical liberalism after its rise and partial triumph in previous centuries. What, then, is the reason for the resurgence, the flowering, of libertarian thought and activity in the last few years, particularly in the United States? How could these formidable forces and coalitions for statism have yielded even that much to a resurrected libertarian movement? Shouldn't the resumed march of statism in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries be a cause for gloom rather than usher in a reawakening of a seemingly moribund libertarianism? Why didn't libertarianism remain dead and buried?

We have seen why libertarianism would naturally arise first and most fully in the United States, a land steeped in libertarian tradition. But we have not yet examined the question: Why the renaissance of libertarianism at all within the last few years? What contemporary conditions have led to this surprising development?

The resurgence and flowering he was talking about was much much smaller and punier than that which we see around us today. Rothbard trumpets triumphs such as:

"Edward Clark piled up 377,960 votes for governor of California"

and

"the LP presidential ticket gained 174,000 votes in 32 states in 1976"

If he was optimistic and saw a flowering then, then surely we can be optimistic and see a flowering now. Our movement is winning. Onward, ever onward, marching to victory.

[KingNothing]

Let me put it in Layman's terms... majority of Americans are too $#@!in lazy, too apathetic, too ignorant, and just down right too stupid. Put that on top of the 4 Branches of corrupt government at Federal and State levels. Yes, Corporate Media is the Department of Propaganda/Dis-Information, Censorship, Lies, and Control(4th branch).

And all we can do about it is humbly act in the manner that we wish all others would act.
We've got to be more tolerant, we've got to be tireless, we've got to be better educated, we've got to be more pleasant, we've got to be more presentable, than EVERYONE who disagrees with us or who has yet to take the red pill.

It's all we can do.

In the long run we will win. The long run might not be this year. It might not be this decade. It might not be our lifetime. But the message of liberty, built on the foundation of individual virtue and mutual respect will win, because it has to. Our part in this is to live the way we wish others would live and lead by example.

[Deborah K]

This is a simplistic point of view but I'll write it anyway: If you look at the history of human behavior, you'll note that we behave like herd animals for the most part - it is a natural inclination. It's been a known fact throughout history. Which is why the Bible refers to us as "sheep" and the "Shepard". Those who rise to leadership levels know and understand this, and we are generally at the mercy of their intentions. Bernays understood this better than any modern day manipulator, which is why Goebbels was an ardent student, read all of his books, and even tried to get a meeting with him despite the fact that he was a jew.

Bernays discusses how in WW1, most people were opposed to the war, but by having Germans stereotyped as monsters in various news-reels, or by spreading clever, racist, anti-German ethnic jokes, he and his Committee (the Creel Committee) were able to increase public support for US intervention on the behalf of the British Empire.

Sound familiar?

What sets us (Ron Paul supporters) apart from the masses, is that we are the remnant. I truly believe that. We are the remaining vestiges of an idea, that idea being true liberty. I believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, that it is God given. And I don't think God will abandon us. However I can't say that about the ignorant masses.

[heavenlyboy34]

This is a simplistic point of view but I'll write it anyway: If you look at the history of human behavior, you'll note that we behave like herd animals for the most part - it is a natural inclination. It's been a known fact throughout history. Which is why the Bible refers to us as "sheep" and the "Shepard". Those who rise to leadership levels know and understand this, and we are generally at the mercy of their intentions. Bernays understood this better than any modern day manipulator, which is why Goebbels was an ardent student, read all of his books, and even tried to get a meeting with him despite the fact that he was a jew.

Bernays discusses how in WW1, most people were opposed to the war, but by having Germans stereotyped as monsters in various news-reels, or by spreading clever, racist, anti-German ethnic jokes, he and his Committee (the Creel Committee) were able to increase public support for US intervention on the behalf of the British Empire.

Sound familiar?

What sets us (Ron Paul supporters) apart from the masses, is that we are the remnant. I truly believe that. We are the remaining vestiges of an idea, that idea being true liberty. I believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, that it is God given. And I don't think God will abandon us. However I can't say that about the ignorant masses.

+rep

[oyarde]

This is depressing .

[cajuncocoa]

As long as the average American can sit on the sofa at the end of the day with a bag of chips, a soda, and the remote control, it's hard to get them to care about anything important. Just leave American Idol alone!!

[Original_Intent]

I had an even more depressing thought.

The biggest difference between the U.S. and foreign countries is that over there, the terrorists are in the minority and not suppported by the majority of the people, and are forced to more or less operate outside of the government. In the U.S. the terrorists largely are running the government, and are supported (knowingly or unknowingly) by the majority of the people.

Luckily, we don't need a majority - just a committed minority setting brushfires....

[donnay]

This is a simplistic point of view but I'll write it anyway: If you look at the history of human behavior, you'll note that we behave like herd animals for the most part - it is a natural inclination. It's been a known fact throughout history. Which is why the Bible refers to us as "sheep" and the "Shepard". Those who rise to leadership levels know and understand this, and we are generally at the mercy of their intentions. Bernays understood this better than any modern day manipulator, which is why Goebbels was an ardent student, read all of his books, and even tried to get a meeting with him despite the fact that he was a jew.

Bernays discusses how in WW1, most people were opposed to the war, but by having Germans stereotyped as monsters in various news-reels, or by spreading clever, racist, anti-German ethnic jokes, he and his Committee (the Creel Committee) were able to increase public support for US intervention on the behalf of the British Empire.

Sound familiar?

What sets us (Ron Paul supporters) apart from the masses, is that we are the remnant. I truly believe that. We are the remaining vestiges of an idea, that idea being true liberty. I believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, that it is God given. And I don't think God will abandon us. However I can't say that about the ignorant masses.

Well said! +rep

There is definitely a psychological war on our minds. Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud.

How to Brainwash a Nation

[Paul Fan]

They want tyranny because they are afraid. They are afraid of the terrorists, the criminals, the corporations that want to kill and maim their customers, the private schools teaching 'hate', the 'chaos' of decentralized decisionmaking, and the 'stinginess' of charitable donors who only want to give to people who are worse off than themselves. And until we address those fears, the majority of people will not be interested in liberty.

[Deborah K]

Well said! +rep

There is definitely a psychological war on our minds. Bernays was the nephew of Sigmund Freud.

How to Brainwash a Nation

This whole 'Century of the Self' documentary is worth the watch. It clarifies a lot about how easy it is to manipulate the masses.

[KingNothing]

This is a simplistic point of view but I'll write it anyway: If you look at the history of human behavior, you'll note that we behave like herd animals for the most part - it is a natural inclination. It's been a known fact throughout history. Which is why the Bible refers to us as "sheep" and the "Shepard". Those who rise to leadership levels know and understand this, and we are generally at the mercy of their intentions. Bernays understood this better than any modern day manipulator, which is why Goebbels was an ardent student, read all of his books, and even tried to get a meeting with him despite the fact that he was a jew.

Bernays discusses how in WW1, most people were opposed to the war, but by having Germans stereotyped as monsters in various news-reels, or by spreading clever, racist, anti-German ethnic jokes, he and his Committee (the Creel Committee) were able to increase public support for US intervention on the behalf of the British Empire.

Sound familiar?

What sets us (Ron Paul supporters) apart from the masses, is that we are the remnant. I truly believe that. We are the remaining vestiges of an idea, that idea being true liberty. I believe, as Thomas Jefferson did, that it is God given. And I don't think God will abandon us. However I can't say that about the ignorant masses.

Sounds like you just might be an Adam Curtis fan. Ever see Century of the Self?

[KingNothing]

This whole 'Century of the Self' documentary is worth the watch. It clarifies a lot about how easy it is to manipulate the masses.

Ha!

I knew it!

[Deborah K]

Ha!

I knew it!

Yep! That documentary is what turned me on to Bernays. I then bought his book 'Propaganda'.

[RCA]

The only thing that gives me comfort when thinking about this issue is that at the upper ranks of our society, there is fierce competition among our overlords. The longer there's a stalemate between them, then the better off we are. This sounds silly but any amount of "not bad" news helps.

[DamianTV]

Damian, I enjoyed your post (for the most part). I think you should look into "postmodernism" as it seems you were unintentionally describing it rather well. However, I want to point out part of your argument that I think needs revision. In particular, this statement you made about charities.

The idea of giving money to charities presupposes that you have money to give. Unless the money was passed on to you and you had to exert zero effort to obtain that money, it is unfair for you to say "you don't have to actually do any of the work." In reality, you already did the work, and your money is the social representation of the value you have accumulated by virtue of your work.

Further, people's time and efforts have different values. Lets say a charity is comprised of young 20-somethings and it receives a donation from a surgeon who is in her 50's. This surgeon's time is worth hundreds of dollars an hour. The young 20-somethings time isn't worth anything close to that (yet). By doing acts of charity, the worth of the young people's time increases because society favors people who help others (thus, looks good on a resume), and more importantly, because of the morality obtained through charitably helping other people.

Postmodernism is where I got it from. I do agree with you about charities, but was just trying to refer to the general attidude of people. I dont have any stats to back up my statements, but I believe there is a big difference in charities between people actually becoming dedicated volunteers (of which, there arent many) for any cause they believe in, and going out and putting a sticker on your car that says "we support <insert group / activity>". For example, a "Breast Cancer Awareness Ribbon" or a "We support our Troops" bumper sticker. I think this attitude is a result of a shift in actually supporting a group / activity / organization as real charity to a consumerist charity. We bought this bumper sticker because "We support Bumper Sticker Makers" who operate a Non Profit in a means that is Profitable for them. On a psychological level, it seems to releive people of the moral resonsibility of allowing them to feel like they have given because they have nothing else to give, which goes back to the postmodernism. I do have a great deal of respect for those who do volunteer their time, and cant disagree with yoru statement at all. I think debating charity comes down to debating for the sake of debating and arguing semantics.

What is sad is that post (for whcih I got 9 +Reps for! Wow! Thank you!) is we could pretty much take any word and use it to describe how we are bankrupt in that situation. Say something abstract. Ice Cream. As a nation, we are bankrupt because we no longer produce any real ice cream. We probably dont even make said brand or flavor in this country and if we do, it is more chemical soup than actual real ice cream. Anyone that tries has an obstacle course of legal problems to overcome before even trying to attempt to offer a free market alternative. After pointing that out, point out that there is no benefit for us to produce said word in this country.

It isnt that is my philosophy. Freedom and Liberty are my philosophies. The postmodernism generally describes our current state, which also has another desired effect, that of complacency and apathy to change the status quo, which would be exactly what those who have the real power in the world want of people.

Liberty and Freedom are the only real ways to combat the Postmodernism Effects in our Society.

[osan]

An aspect of this that is rarely if ever discussed is that of the psychology of identity and vicarious experience.

I have observed that the more powerless people feel, the more they want to feel powerful. This appears to be very rational and understandable. What is not rational is the way people proceed pursuant to those drives, which run broadly to the irrational and indeed the self- and mutually-destructive.

Given a strong desire to feel in possession of power that in fact remains elusive, people will irrationally do what feels like the next closest thing, which is to attach themselves to something that is powerful. What easier object than one's "nation" is there with which one might identify? Not too many and few, if any, to equal the power of the state, at least to casual and common eyes. We see this all the time in lesser examples including sports teams where people get very emotionally invested in who won what.

Thus we have someone feeling powerless, wanting to feel otherwise but is unable to change his circumstance in the desired way. He psychologically attaches himself like a coat-tail hanger to something he sees as powerful, and therefore worthy of his praise - the "nation" or "the state" or the "government" - all the same nonsense. Having so attached himself and given the well understood proclivities of the mean citizen with respect to the pursuit of personal power, our sad sack is in the perfect condition to cheer on his idol-government as they acquire greater power by whatever means they can manage because as it becomes more powerful, by extension so does he. It is really a very simple and readily expectable development, given human nature. Equally predictable is the destruction of liberty that results because people are not only willing to be seduced by those telling them all the things they want to hear, but demand it and will become violent against anyone threatening the comfort that it promises. All astute power mongers recognize this and capitalize on it, often with disastrous results.

Sadly, this appears to describe a very large majority of humanity.

[NidStyles]

If you want answers, just look up Puritan culture from the early Colonial days. You'll find the answer there in the midst's of their religious dogma and how they viewed their relationship with G-d. America hasn't changed much from that Era culturally.

[KingNothing]

If you want answers, just look up Puritan culture from the early Colonial days. You'll find the answer there in the midst's of their religious dogma and how they viewed their relationship with G-d. America hasn't changed much from that Era culturally.

BS.

That slave-owning, witch-hunting society is a thing of the past. I imagine that in two generations racism will go the same way. Just because human beings have a natural tendency to be obedient to authority doesn't mean the causes of individual liberty, reason, peace and prosperity haven't made made progress. Our society has changed and for a great swath of the population it has changed for the better.