It is hardly an exaggeration to claim that there are fairly significant obstacles to overcome for those who believe that the way the world is governed leaves much to be desired, and who furthermore argue that this is due to a combination of deliberate authoritarianism, greed, and manipulation on the part of the world’s power holders.
Part of the problem, of course, is that some of those who study these subjects are frustrated as a result of inner instability and see external injustices as proof that no one can be trusted and that the world is evil—which is, of course, a misunderstanding. By and large, most people are generally quite decent, at least as long as their basic needs are met and they are not subjected to excessive levels of physical and psychological stress.
The real problem is that many of the power-seekers who throughout history have risen to leading positions in both finance and politics have had—and continue to have—a defect that leaves them without a conscience, which in turn has caused suffering for billions of people. The dilemma for those who understand this and do not suffer from paranoia is that internal conflicts still arise among them. New websites, radio programs, and films constantly appear claiming that this or that person has been ”exposed,” or featuring some more or less fanatical political and/or religious know-it-all solemnly explaining what charlatans others are, while one accuses another of being unserious, counterproductive, a gatekeeper, or a disinformation agent. Naturally, pseudo-academics take this as evidence that everyone involved is a fool.
That does not mean genuine disinformation agents do not exist. As early as the 1960s, for example, the CIA developed manuals describing how the media could be used to discredit and obstruct people with ”inconvenient” views on subjects such as the Kennedy assassination and the Vietnam War. (1) In a document relating to Operation Nightingale, which aimed to dismiss critics of the Warren Commission’s lone-gunman conclusion in the JFK assassination, one could read:
”Employ propaganda assets to answer and refute the attacks of critics. Book reviews and feature articles are particularly suitable for this purpose.”
In the book Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at the FBI, the CIA and Other Tails, journalist and author William Turner compared this operation to Operation Mockingbird, which sought to shape public opinion against countries that opposed America’s political and economic agenda:
”Nightingale was a parallel to the older Operation Mockingbird, which converted journalists, authors, and television producers into covert assets for the manipulation of public opinion.”
Many people who study what has happened—or is happening—behind the scenes believe that this tactic has continued to be used in more recent decades. These individuals come from all walks of life, ranging from teenagers to retirees. What they have in common is the conviction that they have discovered something that is usually absent from mainstream literature and media except in simplified, sensationalized, or dismissive forms. There are certainly exceptions, but when it comes to systematic lies, extreme corruption, or large-scale conspiracies, political correctness acts as a kind of vaccine. Conspiracies at the highest levels exist only in fiction, and the eloquent men and women in power who smile reassuringly at us from television surely mean well and would never lie or maintain a system in which three billion people live on two dollars a day, nearly a billion go to bed hungry every night, and 30,000 children die of starvation each day. (4)(5)
Nor, of course, would they ever sponsor communist (6) or fascist dictatorships (7), assassinate foreign leaders, or launch wars under false pretenses. (8)
Such information disturbs the doctrines we have learned. Instead, we are encouraged to follow and vote for people trapped in outdated systems of thought, who feed us pamphlets, clichés, political programs, and assorted religious dogmas intended to guide us through life after a schooling process that teaches us to become good consumers and producers contributing to economic growth, rather than independent thinkers and self-actualized individuals capable of creating a just and ecologically sustainable society. And if someone points this out, they can be quite certain of being labeled an extremist, communist, anarchist, or eco-fascist.
Those who have genuinely studied the issue with an open mind and have been intelligent enough to connect the dots are faced with a choice: remain silent out of fear of ridicule and exclusion, or attempt to find ways to communicate their findings so that others can understand. This is certainly not easy. Deceived and restless, most people move through life filling their minds with the propaganda and nonsense that elites have been stuffing into their heads since birth. From an early age, their bodies and brains are saturated with fluoride, aspartame, monosodium glutamate, refined sugar, and other toxins, while they are parked in front of televisions, passively consuming one mindless program after another, as their parents struggle through lives burdened by both financial and emotional debt.
It is therefore hardly surprising if many people cannot muster enough energy, time, and open-mindedness to question a version of reality that they have been fed their entire lives. Instead, they seek comfort in money, possessions, status, and other fleeting things. Alcohol abuse, drug abuse, overeating, self-harming behaviors, domestic violence, and criminality are all, to some extent, symptoms of a society that runs counter to human neurological needs—one in which anxious and frustrated individuals attempt to self-medicate through various substances, cry out for help through slow forms of self-destruction, or direct their anger toward innocent people.
This does not mean hereditary factors can be ignored or that personal responsibility does not exist, but the rise of these problems can hardly be blamed solely on poor character or bad genetics.
The most common form of violence, however, is verbal violence. Through poisonous verbal darts in the form of disguised jokes, sarcastic remarks, and ridicule, we vainly attempt to compensate for low self-esteem by belittling others. And so it continues, week after week, month after month, year after year.
Imagine if we devoted even one-third of the time we spend sulking, slandering, and calling each other idiots to working on ourselves and educating ourselves more thoroughly. Self-esteem, insight, and health are particularly important if one intends to understand how the world works and explain to others why we see such injustices and perverse investments, for example in the arms industry. Those who seek to communicate facts that challenge the consciously and unconsciously deceptive version of history presented in schools and the media need especially solid footing and a firm grounding in reality.
To understand the present, we must know the past and understand the mechanisms that shape and operate within our current society. I also believe that we need greater self-awareness in order to understand what shapes our own thinking. ”Know thyself,” said one of the maxims inscribed at the Oracle of Delphi. When we do this, we better understand both our own actions and those of others, and we recognize how important sleep, exercise, nutrition, and proper priorities are for maintaining good health, thinking clearly, and making sound decisions.
Part of this process involves detoxifying ourselves not only from the flood of nonsense pouring from televisions, radios, and newspapers, but also from the junk that the advertising and food industries want us to consume. Ideally, this will leave us better equipped to work together to create a fairer world—a world in which all people have the opportunity to achieve self-actualization instead of being categorized, compared, graded, and ultimately ground down in the brutal mill of perpetual economic growth with little regard for environmental consequences.
A world in which everyone is allowed to develop at their own pace and is given the time and opportunity to understand themselves and their actions—and thereby understand others as well. A world in which both feminine and masculine energies can find expression without either sex being subjected to oppression or destructive polarization. A world in which everyone is seen for who they are, and where respect for oneself and others is reflected in respect for the beautiful and abundant planet entrusted to our care.
Michael Delavante, Know the world — and yourself
Sources:
(1) Susan Maret, ”Government Secrecy, Volym 19”, Emerald Group Publishing Limited (sid. 95, 99)
(2) Philip H. Melanson, ”Spy saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. intelligence”, Praeger, 1990, (sidan 143)
(3) William Turner, ”Rearview Mirror: Looking Back at the FBI, the CIA and Other Tails”, Penmarin Books, 2001, (sidan 299)
(4) Recent Facts on povery: http://www.fightpoverty.mmbrico.com/poverty/facts.html
(5) Actionaid: http://www.actionaid.se/omraden/utrota_fattigdom/
(6) Anthony Sutton, ”Wall Street and the Bohlshevik Revolution”: http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/books/bolshevik_revolution/
(7) Anthony Sutton, Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler: http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/
(8) John Perkins ”Confessions of an Economic Hitman. Se även: Justin Ervin, Zachary Alden Smith ”Globalization: A Reference Handbook”, (sidan 95)
