...I read my copy of the Times and Transcript early this morning. And at the end, I thought, "what can I say?"
There are three ways to control people. One is to make them scared as hell. Once they're sufficiently scared, a government can do anything under the guise of protecting them from what it is they're scared of. So you need to invent enemies, dangerous enemies, evil enemies. Hitler chose Jews, gays and gypsies. Using that fear, he was able to assume dictatorial control over the whole state, depriving everybody of rights, justifying torture, and killing millions of innocent people of all ages. (Yes, of course, everybody knew what was going on. They could see the mass arrests. They could see the boxcars loaded with humans. They could see the ashes settling over their streets.) It didn't matter. If we're scared enough, we don't see what we are watching.
Another is to have two political parties which are essentially the same, but to convince voters to hate either one or the other. This goes so far as to create caricatures of each side, caricatures that thrive on images of Democrats (in the US) as spendthrift and weak, and of Republicans as realistic and more patriotic. For an example of the brainless debate this leads to, watch Fox News.
That's why the US spent billions in an election to defeat Romney who stood for more war, cutting government services to the poor, tax breaks for the rich......and to elect Obama who has stood for more war, cutting government services to the poor, tax breaks for the rich....
Of course. Both sides are financed by the same people. New Brunswick is even worse because the people who finance the Liberals and the Conservatives don't even have to stay in the background. They openly interfere with government, no matter which party is in power. And people still play self -delusionary mind games that Liberals and Conservatives are different.
A third way, used by Britain and France in building their empires, was to convince people they were doing God's work in invading and colonizing "inferior" people. Read Rudyard Kipling for that. Try, for example, "The White Man's Burden". According to Kipling, a process that murdered people, stole their lands, threw their societies into a chaos from which they have never recovered, enslaved them, exploited them..was a divinely-ordained responsibility.
The US has used all three to put government entirely at the service of big business while destroying human rights and democracy, itself. The Land of the Free is, in fact, the land of no freedom at all. It's the land in which a whole range of domestic spy agencies keep track of the private activities of every American, where millions are on secret lists as potential enemies - not just for being suspected being terrorists or even knowing one, but for any criticism at all of the government.
It's the land of torture, of imprisonment without charge or trial, the land which has given itself the right to invade other countries, to murder, imprison them, to interfere with them - all in defiance of international law. It's the land in which the police increasingly are trained not to protect the people but to fight them and intimidate them.
Many don't notice what has happened. That's because fear, racial superiority, and ignorance, much of it created by the news media, has made all this seem necessary to them - just as Germans saw Jews, gays and gypsies as making Hitler necessary.
The Times and Transcript, like most Canadian news media, plays along with this line. But it adds another factor to make control easier. It stupefies them. After I read today's paper, I could only look at the crumpled sections lying on the floor, and think, "What can I say?"
There was almost nothing worth reading in the whole paper - well, except for a story that Brad Pitt's daughter thinks he kisses Angelina Jolie too much.
There were four, good letters to the editor. It says something when the best part of a newspaper is the letters to the editor page. On the editorial and op pages, the pages for opinion, there was only one column, Alec Bruce's, that could be called opinion of any significance; and it was bland.
And we can't compensate for our miserable print media because private radio is even worse, and private TV doesn't have the reportorial staff down here. CBC is far the best but it, too, lacks adequate staff.
No wonder most people here live in a political stupor.
We don't need fear or hysteria down here to control people. Two puppet parties and a puppet press of unsurpassed triviality and ignorance do the job quite well.
There are three ways to control people. One is to make them scared as hell. Once they're sufficiently scared, a government can do anything under the guise of protecting them from what it is they're scared of. So you need to invent enemies, dangerous enemies, evil enemies. Hitler chose Jews, gays and gypsies. Using that fear, he was able to assume dictatorial control over the whole state, depriving everybody of rights, justifying torture, and killing millions of innocent people of all ages. (Yes, of course, everybody knew what was going on. They could see the mass arrests. They could see the boxcars loaded with humans. They could see the ashes settling over their streets.) It didn't matter. If we're scared enough, we don't see what we are watching.
Another is to have two political parties which are essentially the same, but to convince voters to hate either one or the other. This goes so far as to create caricatures of each side, caricatures that thrive on images of Democrats (in the US) as spendthrift and weak, and of Republicans as realistic and more patriotic. For an example of the brainless debate this leads to, watch Fox News.
That's why the US spent billions in an election to defeat Romney who stood for more war, cutting government services to the poor, tax breaks for the rich......and to elect Obama who has stood for more war, cutting government services to the poor, tax breaks for the rich....
Of course. Both sides are financed by the same people. New Brunswick is even worse because the people who finance the Liberals and the Conservatives don't even have to stay in the background. They openly interfere with government, no matter which party is in power. And people still play self -delusionary mind games that Liberals and Conservatives are different.
A third way, used by Britain and France in building their empires, was to convince people they were doing God's work in invading and colonizing "inferior" people. Read Rudyard Kipling for that. Try, for example, "The White Man's Burden". According to Kipling, a process that murdered people, stole their lands, threw their societies into a chaos from which they have never recovered, enslaved them, exploited them..was a divinely-ordained responsibility.
The US has used all three to put government entirely at the service of big business while destroying human rights and democracy, itself. The Land of the Free is, in fact, the land of no freedom at all. It's the land in which a whole range of domestic spy agencies keep track of the private activities of every American, where millions are on secret lists as potential enemies - not just for being suspected being terrorists or even knowing one, but for any criticism at all of the government.
It's the land of torture, of imprisonment without charge or trial, the land which has given itself the right to invade other countries, to murder, imprison them, to interfere with them - all in defiance of international law. It's the land in which the police increasingly are trained not to protect the people but to fight them and intimidate them.
Many don't notice what has happened. That's because fear, racial superiority, and ignorance, much of it created by the news media, has made all this seem necessary to them - just as Germans saw Jews, gays and gypsies as making Hitler necessary.
The Times and Transcript, like most Canadian news media, plays along with this line. But it adds another factor to make control easier. It stupefies them. After I read today's paper, I could only look at the crumpled sections lying on the floor, and think, "What can I say?"
There was almost nothing worth reading in the whole paper - well, except for a story that Brad Pitt's daughter thinks he kisses Angelina Jolie too much.
There were four, good letters to the editor. It says something when the best part of a newspaper is the letters to the editor page. On the editorial and op pages, the pages for opinion, there was only one column, Alec Bruce's, that could be called opinion of any significance; and it was bland.
And we can't compensate for our miserable print media because private radio is even worse, and private TV doesn't have the reportorial staff down here. CBC is far the best but it, too, lacks adequate staff.
No wonder most people here live in a political stupor.
We don't need fear or hysteria down here to control people. Two puppet parties and a puppet press of unsurpassed triviality and ignorance do the job quite well.
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