12 Days of Christmas Apologies

12 Days of Christmas Apologies

By Paul Buchheit
Common Dreams
December 23, 2104

If Christmas magic were real, America's political and business
leaders, the people with power and money, would speak on
behalf of the nation they've debased:

1. To Our Most Neglected Citizens

By the time the Koch brothers wake up on Christmas morning,
the wealth the two men will have accumulated throughout the
night could get a room for the night for every one of the
633,000 homeless Americans.

To Americans without a place to live, we apologize for a society
that allows almost all of its new wealth to be redistributed to
people who are already rich.

2. To Our Most Vulnerable Citizens

Eight years ago 2 out of every 100 children were homeless.

Now it's over 3 out of 100, a stunning 50% increase.

At the other end of society, elderly people are the most
unequal group among us.

Even though almost all the new wealth from 1989 to 2007 went
to people 55 and older, almost half of retirees report less than
$10,000 in savings.

3. To the "Broken Windows" Victims

The rationale is that punishment for trivial offenses will
discourage more serious crimes.

In New York City in 2012, the most common offense was drinking
alcohol in public, and 85 percent of the citations were given to
Blacks and Latinos.

Bank executives don't break windows.

Their crimes are a billion times worse.

Yet not a single banker was prosecuted for contributing
to the mortgage collapse.

4. To Our Students, the Newest Products of Business

Numerous studies have shown the importance of pre-school,
where social and emotional needs are first nurtured in a
peer environment.

But pre-school funding has been drastically cut.

In its place, business leaders see profits in our children, especially
if education can be automated, standardized, and commodified.

5. To Our Soldiers

We celebrate you in TV commercials, at football games, in holiday
parades. But we should be saying "sorry" instead of "thank you."

Bill Quigley puts the facts together for us:

One out of twelve Iraq/Afghanistan veterans with PTSD

57,000 homeless vets

Veterans much more likely than the general population to commit suicide

Unemployment much higher among post-9/11 vets

6. To the Victims of Our "Exceptionalism"

Greed knows no boundaries.

Our history of disregard for weaker nations seems never to end.

Drone strikes by 'pilots' at computer terminals have killed
hundreds of civilians in Pakistan alone.

The use of torture, once considered inhuman and un-American,
is now standard procedure to many of the people in power.

It gets even worse.

Thanks in part to the xenophobic emotions stirred up by
government and the press, the American public shows
widespread support for both drone strikes and torture.

How can we ever apologize for that?

7. To Those To Whom Nothing Ever "Trickled Down"

Perhaps the biggest scam in economic history is the contention by
Arthur Laffer, gleefully adopted by the super-rich, that lower taxes
on the wealthy would stimulate the economy and eventually lift the
fortunes of everyone.

But even though the wealth gap in our country is worse than ever
before, and despite ongoing present-day evidence that Laffer was
wrong, the big winners unapologetically continue their charade.

8. To People Who Believe in Society Over "Winner-Take-All"

One of our country's greatest needs is public infrastructure repair.

But the super-rich have little reason to support mass
transportation, as long as their pilots and chauffeurs
aren't significantly delayed.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that $8 trillion in new
infrastructure investment will be needed from 2013 to 2030.

This is the same amount by which U.S. wealth has increased each
year since 2011, but most of it has gone to America's richest 10%.

9. To the Victims of Free-Market Capitalism

After 35 years it's clear that poorly regulated free-market
capitalism doesn't work, except for people who know how
to manipulate the system.

We've been duped by Ronald Reagan's "Government is the problem,"
and by the "starve the beast" mentality that followed, which left
government underfunded and inept, and drove American citizens
into the clutches of the "invisible hand" of the free market.

Big business is largely unregulated.

It prospers through its partnership with Congressional members, who have fallen out of touch with average Americans.

Charles Koch, one of the major beneficiaries of government subsidies, had the temerity to say:

"This growing partnership between business and government is
a destructive force, undermining...the very foundations of our
culture."

10. To the People Who REALLY Built the Technology Industry

Economist William Lazonick says it well:

"The iPhone didn’t just magically appear out of the Apple campus
in Cupertino. Whenever a company produces a technology product,
it benefits from an accumulation of knowledge created by huge
numbers of people outside the company, many of whom have
worked in government-funded projects over the previous decades."

11. To Those Who Have To Defend the Best Government Programs
in U.S. History

It has been estimated that the richest 1% increased their wealth by
at least $3 trillion last year, far more than the budget for Social
Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the entire safety net.

Social Security and Medicare have worked for decades,
keeping nearly half of our seniors out of poverty.

But these vital programs are continually under fire by many of
the same people who grabbed a chunk of that $3 trillion last
year.

12. To the Most Generous, and Least Appreciated, Among Us

These are lower-income households, making $50,000 to $75,000 per year, who give 7.6 percent of their income to charity, while those earning $100,000 or more give just 4.2 percent.

Yet inordinate attention is paid to big-money philanthropists who
get tax breaks for supporting operas, art museums, symphonies,
and alma maters.

Good causes all, but of little value to Americans worried
about food and rent.

And If the Super-Greedy Refuse to Apologize and Make
Amends for Their Treatment of Less Fortunate Americans?

Let Visions of Occupy II Dance in Their Heads.



Paul Buchheit is a college teacher, an active member of US Uncut
Chicago, founder and developer of social justice and educational
websites (UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org),
and the editor and main author of "American Wars: Illusions and
Realities" (Clarity Press).

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/12/22/12-days-
christmas-apologies

The Christmas Truce of 1914

The Forgotten Christmas Truce of 1914 and the Unlearned Lessons That Could Have Prevented the Century of War 1914 - 2014

By Gary Kohls
Lew Rockwell.com
December 21, 2014

It was exactly 100 years ago this month when the Christmas Truce
of 1914 occurred, when Christian soldiers on both sides of the
infamous "No Man’s Land of the Western Front" recognized their
common humanity, dropped their guns and fraternized with the
so-called "Enemies" that they had been ordered to kill without
mercy the day before.

The truth of that remarkable event has since been effectively
covered up by state and military authorities (and the embedded
journalists at the time) because they were angered (and
embarrassed) by the breakdown of military discipline.

In the annals of war, such “mutinies” are now unheard of.

The generals and (as well as the saber-rattling, chest-thumping
politicians and war profiteers back home) rapidly developed
strategies to prevent such behavior from happening again.

Christmas Eve of 1914 was only 5 months into World War I, and
the cold, weary, homesick soldiers found themselves not heroes,
as expected, but rather miserable, frightened and disillusioned
wretches living in rat and louse infested trenches.

Most of them had dreamed heroic dreams when they had signed up
to kill and die for King and Country a few months earlier, and hey
had been fully expecting to be home for the holidays.

Lower echelon officers on both sides of No Man’s Land, who were
suffering right along with the troops, allowed a lull in the war, just
for Christmas Eve.

Then they allowed the troops to sing Christmas hymns, and many
of the not-yet hardened soldiers started to recognize the humanity
of the demonized “other” that had been fingered as sub-humans
deserving of death.

And so the merciful spirit of the season came upon them; and they
disobeyed orders that forbade fraternizing with the enemy by laying
down their weapons and mingling with them in the area between the trenches.

Unknown to the higher echelon commanding officers, who were
enjoying good food and drink in their warm bunkers out of the
range of the artillery barrages and machine gun bursts, the grunts
on either side of the battle line suddenly sensed the stupidity of
killing someone that was just like them and who had never done
them any harm.

Many of the men that experienced the moment knew that
something deeply profound had happened: a spiritual experience
of mutual respect and love that epitomized their mutual Christian
upbringing and they refused to fight and kill when the war was
ordered to re-start.

Some soldiers were punished for their disobedience and many of
them had to be replaced with fresh troops that had been in the
reserve trenches the day before (corporal Adolf Hitler was among
the ones who did not experience the front line fraternization.)

The Christmas Truce of 1914 had come close to ending the futile
and ultimately suicidal war that destroyed 4 empires and an entire
generation of young men that had been bamboozled into joining up.

The truce had occurred at various places up and down the triple
parallel lines of trenches that stretched through France for 600
miles from Belgium to Switzerland.

The vast majority of the soldier that experienced the unauthorized
truce did not survive the war.

Many of them had just experienced a bloody battle that had killed
tens of thousands of troops on either side, with essentially no
territory being gained by either side, and they now knew that they
were in for a long war of attrition.

They would not be home for Christmas.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/12/gary-g-kohls/the-christmas-
truce-of-1914

Torture Impunity and Police Shootings

Torture Impunity and Police Shootings

A danger from the “war on terror” was always that it would
encourage the spread of an authoritarian U.S. state, ignoring
international law abroad and constitutional rights at home, a
process that is now growing more apparent with impunity for
both torturers and police who kill minorities.

By Nat Parry
Consortiumnews.com
December 16, 2014

The international fallout from last week’s long-delayed release of
the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 500-page executive summary
of its still-classified 6,000 report on CIA torture could hardly be
more intense, with calls coming from the United Nations, foreign
governments and the human rights community for prosecutions
of those who carried out or authorized the torture techniques
described in the report, including senior officials from the Bush
administration.

But judging from the self-assured comments of CIA and former
administration officials, there is no real concern over the possibility
of any criminal liability, a lack of accountability which has led to a
palpable arrogance among those who would be behind bars if laws
were actually enforced on an equal basis in the United States.

The above-the-law sense of entitlement was perhaps most clearly
on display in former Vice President Dick Cheney’s appearance this
Sunday on “Meet the Press,” stating that when it comes to using
torture, “I’d do it again in a minute.”

When presented with gruesome details from the Senate report on
torture – for example the newly revealed “enhanced interrogation
technique” of “rectal feeding,” i.e., anal rape – and asked for his
definition of what might constitute “torture” in a legal sense,
Cheney retorted that torture is “an American citizen on his
cellphone making a last call to his four young daughters shortly
before he burns to death in the upper levels of the Trade Center
in New York on 9/11.”

Short of this rather high bar, nothing, by definition, that
the United States does to its detainees could conceivably
be considered torture.

Similarly, when asked about the large number of innocent people
(26 out of 119 CIA detainees, according to the report) who had
tragically been detained and tortured in error, for example
Gul Rahman – a victim of mistaken identity who was chained to
the wall of his cell, doused with water and froze to death in
CIA custody – Cheney stated indifferently that these individuals
essentially don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

The only problem that Cheney had was “with the folks that we
did release that end up back on the battlefield.”

“I’m more concerned with bad guys who got out and released
than I am with a few that, in fact, were innocent,” he said.

Taken to its logical conclusion, Cheney’s reasoning would seem to
hold that it is preferable to indefinitely detain and torture a million
innocent people than to allow one “bad guy” to slip through the
cracks.

The implications of this logic are, needless to say, chilling (not to
mention completely at odds with the legal principle of presumed innocence).

A Courtroom Defense

At times, watching Cheney make these cold rationalizations on
“Meet the Press,” it may have occurred to viewers that the more
appropriate venue for this interview would have been on the
witness stand of a courtroom.

After all, what Cheney was defending was not just controversial
policy choices, but clearly defined crimes of torture and murder.

Although he was sure to emphasize that “All of the techniques
that were authorized by the President were, in effect, blessed
by the Justice Department,” the fact remains that providing the
cover of law to a crime makes it no less of a crime.

This is a point that UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
and Counterterrorism Ben Emmerson specifically made last
week following the release of the report.

In a statement, Emmerson said, “The fact that the policies
revealed in this report were authorized at a high level within
the U.S. government provides no excuse whatsoever. Indeed,
it reinforces the need for criminal accountability.”

Emphasizing that all individuals responsible for “the criminal
conspiracy” described in the Senate report “must be brought to
justice, and must face criminal penalties commensurate with the
gravity of their crimes,” Emmerson noted that “international law
prohibits the granting of immunities to public officials who have
engaged in acts of torture.”

Judging from Cheney’s arrogant display on “Meet the Press,”
however, there appears to be very little appreciation for the
niceties of international law such as its expressed prohibition
on official immunity when it comes to the crime of torture.

He seems to be quite confident, indeed, that official immunity is
unnecessary when there is an implied unofficial immunity that is
granted to public officials in the United States, this being the case
whether it pertains to CIA torture or police brutality.

Police Shootings

The same arrogance that Cheney is so casually displaying can also
be seen in the closely paralleled story of the recent spate of police
shootings and killings of innocent or unarmed African-Americans,
and the remarkable wave of demonstrations that has taken hold
across the United States in response.

With large-scale protests happening in most major American cities
over the past month – particularly since grand juries decided not
to indict the police officers who killed Michael Brown in Ferguson,
Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York City – one might think that
cops would be extra careful these days not to come across overly
arrogant or obdurate.

This, however, would not be the case.

In response to the NFL’s Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver Andrew
Hawkins taking the field on Sunday wearing a T-shirt protesting
recent police shootings in Ohio – reading “Justice for Tamir Rice
and John Crawford” on the front and “The Real Battle for Ohio”
on the back – Jeff Follmer, president of the Cleveland police union,
claimed the shirt was disrespectful and he disparaged the very
idea of athletes holding opinions about anything other than sports.

“It’s pretty pathetic when athletes think they know the law,”
Follmer said in a statement. “They should stick to what they know
best on the field.” In other words, keep your opinions to yourself,
boy, and just play football.

Follmer also demanded an apology from the Clevelend Browns
organization, which to their credit, the Browns did not extend.

Instead, the Browns fired back with a statement saying the
organization endorses the rights of players “to project their
support and bring awareness to issues that are important to
them if done so in a responsible manner.”

Hawkins also weighed in with comments to the media that
revealed, in fact, a deep knowledge and understanding of
what law and justice mean (or should mean), contrary to
Follmer’s condescending remarks.

“Justice,” he said, “is a right that every American should have.
Justice means that the innocent should be found innocent. It
means that those who do wrong should get their due punishment.”

His six-minute locker-room monologue to reporters ended with him
choking up while drawing a parallel between his own young son and
the tragic death of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy shot by police in
Cleveland on Nov. 22 while holding a toy gun.

“My number one reason for wearing the T-shirt was the thought
of what happened to Tamir Rice happening to my little Austin.
And that scares the living hell out of me,” he said.

Protests and Fears

This genuine, personal fear of police violence is one that has
been widely expressed over the last several weeks of protests
taking hold across the country.

As Democracy Now’s Aaron Maté reported from New York’s “Millions
March” on Saturday, one of the dominant themes being expressed
on the streets was “a sense of not feeling safe, not feeling safe
themselves and not feeling safe for their loved ones, people of
color in heavily policed communities.”

Interviewing protester Darrell Greene, Maté asked him to explain
his sign, which read “Me, my father, my son. Who’s next?”

Greene responded, “At this point, I know I’m a productive citizen,
and I don’t feel safe in my own community. I’ve never been in
trouble with law enforcement. And from what I’m seeing on the
news and what’s been going on, I really wonder: Am I next?
I’m wondering if the people in my community are next. We’re all
productive citizens, and we’re in fear for our life. We feel like it’s
open season on all minorities, and we want to know if we’re really
safe.”

Protester Nilan Johnson echoed these sentiments.

“I’m here because Americans, period, are being preyed on, right
now,” he said. “African-Americans are once again fighting for the
right to be human, and I think that’s horrible.”

Asked whether he feels, as a person of color, whether he is unsafe
in his community, Johnson replied, “That’s – I feel that daily, so
I feel that’s a preconditioned nature now. I feel threatened and
marked and cornered. And everybody here feels the same way.
And we’re trying to keep our humanity.”

If not a direct byproduct of the war on terror’s excesses and the
impunity that law-breakers at the highest levels of government
enjoy, this feeling of powerlessness, insecurity and injustice is
certainly closely related.

Indeed, as far back as 2007, civil rights leaders were drawing these
connections, in particular in a report prepared for the United
Nations entitled “In The Shadows Of The War On Terror: Persistent
Police Brutality and Abuse of People of Color in the United States.”

Since 9/11, the report explained, “there have been dramatic
increases in law enforcement powers in the name of waging
the ‘war on terror,’” while simultaneously, counter-terrorism
policies have “created a generalized climate of impunity for
law enforcement officers, and contributed to the erosion of
what few accountability mechanisms exist for civilian control
over law enforcement agencies.”

This has led to an erosion of public discussion and accountability
with respect to the use of excessive force against people of color,
while at the same time, “systemic abuse of people of color by law
enforcement officers has not only continued since 2001 but has
worsened in both practice and severity,” according to the report.

As a representative of the NAACP put it, “the degree to which
police brutality occurs … is the worst I’ve seen in 50 years.”

Troubling Trend

Even establishment publications such as the Wall Street Journal
have noticed the troubling trend of rising police violence and its
connections with the war on terror.

As a feature article in WSJ put it in August 2013, “the war on drugs
and, more recently, post-9/11 antiterrorism efforts have created a
new figure on the U.S. scene: the warrior cop – armed to the teeth,
ready to deal harshly with targeted wrongdoers, and a growing
threat to familiar American liberties.”

This threat to liberties is compounded when the justice system
fails to hold accountable those who break the law and violate
people’s rights.

Whether it is Eric Garner in New York or Gul Rahman in
Afghanistan, the victims of injustice must have redress,
and “those who do wrong should get their due punishment,”
in the words of Cleveland Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins.

As human rights advocates and civil libertarians have warned since
the early days of the “war on terror,” human rights violations of
terror suspects will eventually set the United States on a slippery
slope in which authorities deem it optional whether to respect the
human rights of anyone, including U.S. citizens.

At that point, anyone is fair game, and all of us, including
law-abiding Americans, may find ourselves at the mercy of
an unsympathetic authoritarian state.



Nat Parry is the co-author of Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency
of George W. Bush.

https://consortiumnews.com/2014/12/16/torture-impunity-and-
police-shootings

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

By The Last Boy In Line
December 12, 2014

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy is choking me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy makes me live in poverty.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy is raping me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy makes my life a misery.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy is shooting me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy makes me look like the enemy.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy is dropping bombs on me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy makes a living by killing me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because you say I am supposed to love and pray for my enemy.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy obviously does not love
and is obviously not praying for me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy truly hates me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy wants to live in a world without me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy just won't let me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy only wants to bring about the death of me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" because my enemy will always be a threat to me.

Lord, "I Can't Breathe" unless you please, please, please, help me.

Lord, in the last and in the final words of brother Eric Garner, Lord:

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

"I Can't Breathe"

Masters of War

Masters of War

By Bob Dylan
Metro Lyrics
December 11, 2014

Masters of War

Come you masters of war
You that build the big guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs

You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks

You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy

You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly

Well like a Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe

But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain

You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
And then you sit back and watch
When the death count gets higher

And you hide in your mansion
All the young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud

You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world

Oh for threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins

How much do I know?
Oh to talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned

But there's a one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do

Well let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Oh will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could?

I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

And I hope that you die
And your death will come soon
I'll follow your casket
By the pale afternoon

And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
Till I'm sure that you're dead



Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and writer.

http://www.metrolyrics.com/masters-of-war-lyrics-bob-dylan.html

Silent Killer

TV Propaganda And The Mind Control Culture

By 21wire
21st Century Wire
December 8, 2014

Few subjects present an undisputable window into modern society
than the electronic version of reality that is dispensed through
television broadcasts.

This technology does not require interactive skills or critical
thinking acumen.

Just watch and fall into a daydream trance.

TV is the stealth killer that penetrates 114.7 million American
households.

According to the Nielsen ratings organization, the 2012 Universe
Estimate (UE), reflects a reduction in the estimated percent of
U.S. homes with a television set (TV penetration), which declined
to 96.7 percent from 98.9 percent.

Should this turn down suggest promise or is it merely a result
of internet substitution?

With the proliferation of cable channels and 24 hour programming,
the landscape of TV addiction vastly impacts perception and
dramatically excludes normal interpersonal relations.

Researcher Melissa Melton cites the following in her article,
TV: Your Mind. Controlled.

“According to last year’s Nielsen report, the average American over
the age of two years old watches more than 34 hours of television
per week, plus at least three more hours of taped programming.
The report also noted that the amount of time we spend watching
television increases as we get older.”

This overwhelming intrusion into and over personal time and space
are often called entertainment.

Broadcasts that bill themselves as news or business shows claim to
provide useful information.

Sport coverage makes no pretense of presenting socially significant
content.

Yet, vast segments of the public are wrapped up in the childish
exercise of false hero adoration.

TV AS A POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING TOOL

Television’s reporting on politics is miserable by any coherent
standard of journalism.

The business of television has little to do with an accurate chronicle
of events or the meaning of decisions and actions.

In order to understand the objectives of the content producers and
the basic purpose behind the cultural soothsayers, a review of Mind
Control Theories and Techniques used by Mass Media, which is a
well documented source that outlines how the mass media really
operates, is useful.

Examine the specifics and draw your own lessons.

“Mass media is the most powerful tool used by the ruling class to
manipulate the masses. It shapes and molds opinions and attitudes
and defines what is normal and acceptable. This article looks at the
workings of mass media through the theories of its major thinkers,
its power structure and the techniques it uses, in order to
understand its true role in society.”

The conclusion of this account is a valid summary.

“Lippmann, Bernays and Lasswell have all declared that the public
are not fit to decide their own fate, which is the inherent goal
of democracy. Instead, they called for a cryptocracy, a hidden
government, a ruling class in charge of the “bewildered herd.”
As their ideas continue to be applied to society, it is increasingly
apparent that an ignorant population is not an obstacle that
the rulers must deal with: It is something that is DESIRABLE
and, indeed, necessary, to insure total leadership. An ignorant
population does not know its rights, does not seek a greater
understanding of issues and does not question authorities. It
simply follows trends. Popular culture caters to and nurtures
ignorance by continually serving up brain-numbing entertainment
and spotlighting degenerate celebrities to be idolized. Many
people ask me: “Is there a way to stop this?” Yes, there is.
STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP AND READ A BOOK.”

Such a sensible solution as turning off the misinformation screen
is not an option for most of the typical dullards that think of
themselves as normal and informed citizens.

Society is populated with marginally functional and enthusiastic
compliant serfs.

Contentment is judged by actions not merely by sentiment.

An unquestioning and obedient populace perpetually distracted
from serious issues and unaware of comprehending the linkage
and ultimate aims behind world events, has always been the
goal.

The most profound use of these media techniques usually deal
with War & Peace: Media and War.

Stanford University publishes this account by Johnnie Manzaria &
Jonathon Bruck, Media’s Use of Propaganda to Persuade People’s
Attitude, Beliefs and Behaviors.

“Propaganda is so powerful because everyone is susceptible to it.
This is true as explained by Robert Cialdini, an expert in influence,
because people exist in a rapidly moving and complex world. In
order to deal with it, we need shortcuts. We cannot be expected
to recognize and analyze all the aspects in each person, event,
and situation we encounter in even one day. We do not have the
time, energy, or capacity to process the information; and instead
we must very often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb, to
classify things according to a few key features and then to respond
without thinking when one or another of these trigger feature are
present (Cialdini 6). While this makes people highly susceptible to
a propagandist who understands persuasion, in general it is the
most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply
necessary. Additionally, propaganda includes the reinforcement of
societal myths and stereotypes that are so deeply embedded within
a culture that it is often difficult to recognize the message as
propaganda.”

The attitude that such practices are “most efficient form of
behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary”, is most
disturbing and certainly fits the mold of how TV operates.

The examples cited in this case study deal with foreign policy
issues. However, the summary on How to Defend Against
Propaganda, is worth a look.

“As a result of our increasing sophistication and to build our
civilization, we have created and environment so complex, so
fast-paced, and information-laden, that we must increasingly
deal with it in the fashion of the animals we long ago transcended.
Thus, from the case studies on how the media uses propaganda,
we can understand that the media does more than presentation
facts and information. The media has the ability to exploit
persuasive tactics to the specific definition of propaganda:
the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose
of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person.”

Now ponder the disclaimer from this academia project:

“We are not advocating that propaganda is wrong; we have tried
to show, that overall it is usually helpful to respond to messages
mindlessly, and that the truly only way to defend against it is to
be more aware of the tactics being used.”

Also referenced in this study is Phil Zimbardo.

1) Be aware of the general perspective that others use to frame
the problem or issue at hand, because accepting their frame on
their terms gives them a powerful advantage.

2) Be sensitive to situational demands however trivial they may
seem: group norms, group pressures, symbols of authority, slogans,
and commitments. Don’t believe in simple solutions to complex
personal, social, and political problems.

3) In the end, it must be remembered that it is not enough to
dissent vocally — one must be willing to disobey, to defy, to
challenge, and to suffer any ensuing consequences of these
actions.

Relate this thinking to the television broadcasts and series
that occupy the gratuitous viewing of the general-public.

It may be functionally realistic not to expect current event
discernment from the mediocre crowd, but what motivates these
distraction deprived viewers from absorbing the brainwashing
message?

Escape from reality probably is the most adept answer.

Nonetheless, the dependency on relinquishing individual
responsibility and living under the principle of personal
integrity is too difficult for most.

The easy way out is to believe the junk fed from the TV screen.

Newspeak has become the dominant culture and TV is the chief
vehicle for spreading the lies and deceit.

Jack Blood provides a succinct summary in, TV = Mind Control
(Why do you think they call it Programming?)

“Once again the system is at work, knowing how easy it is to
control the minds of a dumbed down population that has been well
trained, and some might say socially engineered, to never question
authority, never think outside the box, never seek accountability
and never think for itself.

Easily manipulated, millions of people are conditioned to believe,
from a very early age, that anything emanating from television is
sacrosanct.

Thus, everything they watch is reality and anything they hear is
truth.

Anchors and reporters become trusted personalities voicing reticent
opinions whose veracity are seldom, if ever, questioned.

The Establishment has perfected its machination of propaganda,
creating the realities it wants into society, forming whatever truth
that will be of the greatest benefit, not to society, but to itself.

Whatever reality it wants to create and disseminate is quickly
absorbed by a population eager to feed off the mammary glands
of television.

The Establishment, the corporate world and government have for
years told us how and what to think, how to act, who to obey and
where to follow, condemning our minds to obedience, our lives to
conformism and silent acquiescence.”

Is it not time to make a clean break from this self-induced
imprisonment of images and sounds that spills out of the
television machine?

http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/02/11/silent-killer-tv-
propaganda-and-the-mind-control-culture

The Paradox of Our Times

The Paradox of Our Times

By The Dalai Lama
Swaraj.org
December 5, 2014

The Paradox of Our Times

Is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers.

Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but we have less.

We have bigger houses, but smaller families.

More conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sense.

More knowledge, but less judgement.

More experts, but more problems.

More medicines, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We have learned how to make a living, but not a life.

We have added years to life, but not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back.

But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We have conquered outer space, but not inner space.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted our soul.

We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We've higher incomes, but lower morals.

We've become long on quantity but short on quality.

These are the times of tall men, and short character;

Steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare.

More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces;

Of fancier houses, but broken homes.

It is a time when there is much in the show window,
and nothing in the stockroom.

A time when technology can bring this letter to you.

And a time when you can choose.

Either to make a difference .... or just hit, delete.



- His Holiness The Dalai Lama

http://www.swaraj.org/paradoxdalai.htm