sheople, synchronicity & madness ...

  .. a Sakharov needed, or perhaps better, a Mahatma Gandhi

-=*=-

G'day Bob,

thanks for the great links (as usual), the Chris Floyd stands out here as well worth reading. Following are a few 'snips,' some with my comments added. But 1st, to sheople®; a contraction of sheep + people. I've been thinking about them recently (more accurately, thinking more about them), since I discovered the stuff on Bernays[1]. I developed the concept of sheople from my own observations some time ago now, prompted perhaps by a bit of detested Ameri-speak (spit!) - namely "dumbed down." It's obvious, of course, that the electorate has been dumbed down, and in my wonderings I concluded that TV was the culprit. Well, it is - but only in a way; it is definitely the preferred conduit for dumbing down, and benefits from a singular advantage: the sheople queue up outside the Hardly Normal's (even mortgaging their 1st born perhaps), to buy the wide-flat-screen mind-numbing monsters. Still, my sheople-theory was not well received, TV-viewers of all stripes crying "It's just a movie!"

Well, another of course, its not "just a movie" at all - the human 'audio-visual input system' has no effective filters, stuff pours in essentially un-edited - but worse and ta ra! - the programming is deliberately poisoned, by propaganda[2]. The propaganda is designed to create a warped world-view, not 'just' as an aid to crooked politicians (exactly like B, B & H, say.) Again, it's obvious - to those who look critically enough, that a lot of our news is so contaminated - I screech at the AusBC & SBS loud and long - but the really insidious stuff is better camouflaged; look no further than the TV show "24," say. Here, one can see (simulations of) torture, excused under the "if it saves lives" rubric, all presented as drama, i.e. imaginary. In this way, when the US actually tortures 'terrorist suspects' (including people who may be completely innocent, see Abu Ghraib), the sheople can (and apparently do) accept such torture being done, perhaps telling themselves "OK; if it saves lives (i.e. those of our side, but notably not them, the others')..."

My research into propaganda (aka 'public relations') was given an enormous boost by my discovery of Adam Curtis' award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self[3]. This is where the synchronicity[4] comes in; the electorate has been dumbed down by this (hideous, secret?!!) manipulation and, along with entrenched avarice (aka greed), is key to the madness sweeping the (Anglo + Israeli) world. Now to the 'snips:'

-=*=-

1. «And despite the deep unpopularity of the regime, there is still a widespread reluctance to recognize its true nature, and what it will require to restore our constitutional republic.»

(Me: The above refers to the hapless US. Here in Aus, we are rid of the Howard regime - but its replacement has yet to meaningfully differentiate itself in the respect referred to in this snip; we have only the ugly Lab/Lib twins to choose from, and neither properly represent us. The Lab/Lib twins 'ape' the equally ugly Repug/Dummocrat twins, all are (corrupt!) captives of their respective 'big ends of town' and/or M/I-plexes.)

«And truth to tell, there are a great many people uninterested in doing so. As long as the diversions keep pouring through the latest gadgetry, the monthly paycheck manages to cover the bills, and their own bodies are not subjected to the tyrant's evil, many people are happy to accept the authoritarian system. (This is not unique to Americans, of course; it is a constant in human history.) But even where there is an interest in discerning the reality of our times, and a yearning for change, again there is no broader movement to leverage an individual's dissent into a form large enough to thwart the tyrannical machine. And there is no American Sakharov on the horizon, someone to arise from the very centre of the machine to denounce its workings and call for genuine liberty, genuine democracy, genuine economic and social justice.»
[Chris Floyd/Adventures in the Poison Factory]

(Me: a) The sheople, TV-comatosed, do not care. b) Even if they did, there's no corrective mechanism available; our so-called democracies are stuffed. c) A true leader might do it, but there is none such anywhere in sight. Q: Any hope at all?)

2. (comment to Chris Floyd/War Without End) «LabDancer said:
 Good piece & timely Mr Floyd.

Juan Cole started posting something in the same vein a few weeks ago when Obama started increasing his theme of turning away from the Iraq fiasco in order to address the 'real front' in the GWoT- but then McCain started to move in the same direction & Cole's reaction has been to outsource his warnings to Professor Barnett Rubin- who now as Cole notes is blogging up a storm.»

(Me: Cole's remark here, Rubin's blog here.)

«I was barely into puberty when LBJ apparently decided to throw the Hawks of those days Vietnam as a device to placate them & buy some room & time for his domestic agenda [I have found Eric Alterman's thesis in When President's Lie compelling on this.]»

(Me: What's this? Vietnam war (50k US dead, millions of 'collaterals') as a bone to the M/I-plex?)

«To my mind that plus Russia's fiasco in Afghanistan & the possibly incomparable complexity that is Pakistan suffice to justify the concern of Rubin & Cole & of course now you, that Obama may fall into the same sort of morass as did JFK in Cuba- as did LBJ as above- as did Reagan in his mythological benign indulgence of Casey's crazed bumbling in the Middle East & Central America that showed up as Iran-Contra [merely the tip of Reagan's iceberg of state-sponsored muddling given the fumbling we've witnessed on Cheney's watch].»

(Me: This is a new perspective on 'the great game;' war as presidential routine - on the other hand, not really new at all.)

«But I'm not sure Obama is quite so vulnerable to the mind-softening effects of the Beltway Bubble bath as those of his predecessors. I also think he might be more like the first Bush & Clinton in his capacity to keep the lies coming out of his mouth from moving into his brain. The lesson from Carter is that honest rhetoric earns you an early ticket out of the White House. Like Carter in the wake of the sinking of Nixon Obama has come on stage during a serious ebb in the electorate's tolerance for imperialist adventures & reflexive xenophobia & of course an energy crunch- but as bright as was Carter [at least for a simple god-fearing peanut farmer from the South- who just happened to have advanced degrees & a huge fund of hands-on cutting edge experience with nuclear power] & as much as I am willing to concede the value of degrees from Columbia & a gold-medal juris doctorate from Harvard- there is nothing like 20 years of advanced education in Chicago politics for learning how to win at the game of POTUS.

I'll go Rumsfeldian briefly: Am I COUNTING on Obama having achieved the state of Nirvana for American presidents in being able to lie like a bandit yet keep his head out of the bubble? Nope- but it's up to folks like Rubin & Cole & you- and also me many many others- to hold him to that standard.»

(Me: This is 'our calling;' we the pro-truth & pro-justice bloggers.)

«If they- you- we succeed- then maybe US policy in Afghanistan will track more like what Rory Stewart is prescribing. There's no hope of that under McCain- but just about everyone who has spent any quality time with him says Obama listens- hears- synthesizes - & then seems almost invariably to make the smart move.»
[Chris Floyd/War Without End]

(Me: Hmmm. Know nothing about Rory Stewart, but this is a new perspective on 'all politicians lie;' here LabDancer is saying that Obama has not only to fool the sheople, but the (ruling) elite as well, to get elected and then save the world. A 'big ask,' as they say.)

-=*=-

Fazit: What a s**t system! Theory; that the voters are sovereign. Practice; that they are dumbed down - by their representatives via the venal MSM - amongst others, all over-lorded (warning: conspiracy!) by the purported (hidden!) rulers. It's a paradox; voters can't vote 'straight,' the representatives don't represent 'straight,' and the hidden rulers (the real criminals) laugh all the way to the bank. That is the current, US-led modern world. What a disgrace on humanity.

The last word: note that publicly financed broadcasters like the AusBC and SBS are virtually indistinguishable from the venal corporate conniving, lying and traitorous MSM; they all sing from the same song-sheet, 'faithfully' disseminating the propaganda.

-=*end*=-

Ref(s):

[1] Bernays' propaganda (aka 'public relations'):

«The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.»
[wiki/Propaganda_(book)]

[2] propaganda n. 1 organized propagation of a doctrine by use of publicity, selected information, etc. 2 usu. derog. ideas etc. so propagated.  propagandist n. & adj. propagandize v. (also -ise) (-zing or -sing). [Latin: related to *propagate]

[3] To investigate how the sheople are effectively deceived, one could start with a video "The Century of the Self" found here at ICH, a commentary from medialens 1st, 2nd and 3rd; here at informationliberation or here at wiki, the latter referring to an article at the guardian.

Then, if one wished to see some deception methods deployed by politicians, try The Political Mind by George Lakoff at NS.
[from 'failed noblesse oblige' in my 'the mortal danger of denial']

[4] «Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally inexplicable to the person or persons experiencing them. The events would also have to suggest some underlying pattern in order to satisfy the definition of synchronicity as originally developed by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung.»
[wiki/Synchronicity]