By Larry Romanoff for the Saker Blog
An earlier essay titled, “If America Dissolves . . .” formed an introduction to the series on Bernays and Propaganda. This essay functions as the epilogue.
I will briefly repeat here several observations I made earlier, in order to develop a point that requires some elaboration.
In the essay titled The Utopia Syndrome, I mentioned Elizabeth Anderson’s theory of what I call ‘The Propaganda Mask’, which states that when political ideals or the ‘official story’ diverge too widely from reality, the ideals or the official narrative themselves become a kind of mask that prevents us from perceiving the gap. When the tenets of the propaganda are too far removed from factual truth, the victims lose their ability to separate fact from fiction and become unable to recognise the discrepancy between their ideals and their actions, or between their convictions and the truth. In the same essay I outlined that Americans are guilty of what I call ‘the Utopia Syndrome’, comparing themselves not with the real world of their actions but with some utopian standard of ideals that exists only in their own imaginations, a world of fancy and illusion divorced from reality. Next, I noted the black and white mentality that pervades America, the result of their Christianity and the work of Bernays, whose methods of manipulation of the public mind created a kind of binary mentality. Bernays claimed the excessive emotional loading in his propaganda could produce only a limited range of powerful emotional responses in his victims, forcing one’s emotional switch into a binary ‘on or off’ mode, with no other choices.
Within this binary framework, it is interesting that Americans are of two minds with respect to their treasured democracy. On the one hand, they preach glassy-eyed and fervently that their multi-party political system is the pinnacle of human evolutionary development, a universal value gifted to them by their god and representing the yearnings of all mankind, while on the other hand vehemently condemning that same democracy as hopelessly corrupt and its politicians less trustworthy than snakes and used-car salesmen. Thus, Americans seem to have two brains which are apparently unconnected and unable to communicate with each other. We have one brain stridently preaching the utopian fiction of a beautiful mansion on a hill, while the other dismisses with contempt the reality of a cracked foundation and leaking roof, sagging floors and faulty wiring, and all the rest. Yet the brain’s owner is seemingly unaware of these two successive and starkly contradictory realities.
These behavior patterns are not difficult to understand if we assume that Americans really do have two unconnected brains, not physically but mentally. Like all schizophrenics, most Americans exhibit what researchers call a ‘splitting of mental functions’, a mental disorder characterised by a failure to recognize what is real, the most common symptom being false beliefs. This derived schizophrenia appears to share the stage with a variation of what is called a ‘multiple personality disorder’, “a mental defect characterised by two distinct but dissociated personality states that alternately control a person’s behavior, accompanied by memory impairment not explained by ordinary forgetfulness.” This combination summarises to a people (a) holding totally false beliefs, unable to distinguish fiction from reality, (b) displaying two distinct but dissociated and opposite mental states, and (c) exhibiting little if any memory overlap between these two states. Odd as all this may seem, this describes Americans too perfectly to be an irrelevant coincidence. I should note here that both these mental disorders are diagnosed more frequently in the US than in any other nation.
Americans have been overwhelmed with utopian propaganda from infancy, an insidious New Testament heavily loaded with religion and emotion, indoctrinating them with a belief in their own moral superiority endowed upon them by their god, resulting in the Propaganda Mask where they can no longer recognise the vast discrepancy between their ideals and their actions (or the actions of their government). Their evangelical brand of Christianity endows them with the conviction that they are “good” and that all their actions, however evil, are also “good”. It then follows that they compare themselves not to the real world of their actions but only to their programmed utopian ideals. It is logical that Americans appear blind to this stark discrepancy due to the memory impairment when shifting personality states, the explanation lying with Bernays and the ‘on and off’ switch that controls the two brains. The issue is simply that both brains (or personality states) cannot be “ON” at the same time.
The condition and its states are easy to observe. In moments of unthreatening discourse, most any American brain can switch to its reality state and recognise democracy and capitalism for what they are, with all the open sores and unlanced boils readily apparent and heartily condemned. In these unguarded moments, many Americans will release a tide of criticism and moral condemnation of their capitalist system, with at least intuitive if not factual understanding of the criminal character of their corporations and banks, and the fundamentally unjust nature of their legal and judicial systems, as well as the failings of their vaunted multi-party democratic system. They know full well their Wall Street bankers are predatory vampires, that their courts are neither of law nor justice, that their democracy is corrupted beyond redemption, and that most of their politicians and corporate executives belong in prison. They are mostly quite aware of the devastating injustices of their capitalist system, and surprisingly aware of the futility of their great ‘democracy’. It can be startling to see their clarity of vision and harsh judgments of these failings.
But on occasions when these fundamentals are threatened, or when exposed to an emotionally-nourishing propaganda stimulus containing an opportunity to ‘feel good to be an American’, the reality brain switches off, the utopian brain switches on, and we are subjected to a sometimes frighteningly religious flood of nationalistic nonsense. I wrote earlier that much of what we attribute to American hypocrisy may in reality be due to a peculiarly American kind of mass insanity, which would appear to be precisely the case.
No other nation in the world has been exposed to political-religious brainwashing propaganda on such a massive scale. Patriotism in America is neither natural nor spontaneous; it has been planned, programmed and instilled in all Americans from birth, at least all white Americans. It is often so foolish as to be comical and open to ridicule, but simultaneously rather frightening. Consider this example:
The media topic is that fewer Americans are buying live Christmas trees in favor of artificial ones that are less bother and are re-usable. The live tree industry feels a long-term threat to its survival. No politics here, no religion. But then this is America and things are different here. The problem, according to the US media, is not the change in consumer tastes but rather is China, specifically “China’s cheap, fake Christmas trees”. China is “threatening our authentic American trees” and, even more importantly, China is also threatening “the patriotic Americans” who supply the authentic American trees. The media article therefore advised these threatened Americans to evidence their patriotism by going out into the forest to find “a God-grown tree”. When you read this, do you laugh or cry?
This tragic combination of serious mental imbalance and distressing emotional immaturity creates an existential problem for these hysterical pre-pubescent Americans. On the one hand, they desperately must feel good to be an American because it is their only source of emotional sustenance. But on the other hand, the fact of being American contains nothing in itself to make anybody feel good about anything. Even worse, it isn’t sufficient for them to merely feel good about themselves; it is crucially necessary to feel they are better than others, which is why they need an external comparison to illuminate their superiority. In spite of their imaginary exceptionalism and professed overwhelming moral superiority, there is also an inner recognition that these claims are false, evidenced by their constant attempts to prove a superiority which, if real, should be so obvious as to require no proof.
But Americans have nothing valuable of their own, not in themselves, nor in their national identity, history or culture, so they compensate by denigrating those who do have. This is why they so vigorously blind themselves to their own faults, crimes and atrocities, and focus only on the sins of others – even if they have to create imaginary ones. This is in part why hypocrisy has become a defining adjective of Americans: they cannot permit their national identity to collapse from a revelation of their current faults and historical crimes. When overlaid with their malignant Christianity, this combines to produce their imaginary and marvelously-warped self-image of moral superiority. The end result is a nation with little intrinsic self-worth and few genuine human values, unable to see itself as it really is: empty, superficial, vacuous, ignorant, mean-spirited, hysterical, envious, aggressive, self-obsessed, and hypocritical.
This is what Lippman and Bernays (and their European masters) did to the American people – reprogrammed an entire nation in equally as brutal a fashion as did the US with the Philippines, and the UK with Hong Kong, in this case creating an entire society of deluded, hysterical, and profoundly sick killer-consumers with a totally fictional history. It is probably fair to say that these men had good and fertile material to work with, a composition of the worst features of Christianity, native ignorance, and insatiable greed, but still we need to give credit where credit is due. Americans have always been racist and violent, but it was Lippman and Bernays who turned them into serial killers celebrating their Afghan “bug splats” (1) in the national media. And it was in this fertile and evil soil that American Presidents, Secretaries of State and Defense Secretaries so lushly sprouted into the longest string of sociopathic genocidal killers in history. Democracy never had a chance.
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Notes
(1) For those who don’t know, a ‘bug splat’ is both the sound and the result of a large insect like a grasshopper impacting the windshield of a car at high speed. Americans were renowned for shooting children in Afghanistan (usually in the head) with high-powered weapons, and referring to the resulting explosion as a ‘bug splat’.
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Introduction – If America Dissolves… https://10.16.86.131/if-america-dissolves/
Bernays and Propaganda – Part 1 of 5 — https://10.16.86.131/bernays-and-propaganda/
Bernays and Propaganda – Part 2 of 5 — The Marketing of War — https://10.16.86.131/bernays-and-propaganda-the-marketing-of-war/
Bernays and Propaganda – Part 3 of 5 –– Democracy Control – http://10.16.86.131/bernays-and-propaganda-democracy-control/
Bernays and Propaganda – Part 4 of 5 –The Transition to Education and Commerce – http://10.16.86.131/bernays-and-propaganda-the-transition-to-education-and-commerce-part-4/
Bernays and Propaganda – Part 5 of 5 — Propaganda Continues Unabated — http://10.16.86.131/bernays-and-propaganda-propaganda-continues-unabated-part-5/
Epilogue – Captain America –The Man with Two Brains
Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 30 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’.
His full archive can be seen at https://www.moonofshanghai.com/
and http://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/
He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com
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Two minds? No, not at all. These two things, that our system is the best (for us) and that the current regime is corrupted beyond redemption, are not mutually exclusive at all. They can, and do, co-exist within our reality.
Our form of constitutional government is absolutely the best form of government for the people who founded it and their progeny. But even this brilliantly conceived system cannot survive the introduction of hostile alien elements that are allowed to supplant our domestic elites and gain control of our institutions. No system can survive under those conditions.
We have many problems to deal with, but the most urgent one is to regain control of our institutions and cast out this hostile alien elite. Until we make progress in that direction, there can be no meaningful progress against the other existential crises which confronts us.
So yes, our constitutional form of government is wholly suited to the purposes of the founders and of their present day progeny…and yes, the current regime in Washington is riddled with scoundrels, pedophiles, traitors and foreign agents that nobody should trust at all. Either our constitutional form of government, and our nation, are to be swept aside or the demographic battle must be fought and won to re-establish the American nation as supreme within our borders.
What now White man?
Would someone please explain to Bob what the “founders and their present day progeny” have really done on Turtle Island for the past few hundred years? They were the “chosen ones” who came to this continent to first of all displace the indigenous, to rape and pillage their way from “sea to shining sea”, committing genocide and grabbing their land and resources in much the same way as the Ashkenazim have done in Palestine. Manifest Destiny equals Zionism equals racism, pure and simple. If you don’t believe me, ask any Native American or Palestinian. They will say as you did, “What now White man?”
The question today is not about moral purity, but about our survival as a people. We Americans are being told we don’t exist as a distinct people (just like Palestinians). My family has been building this country since about 1720. My ancestor Anvil was born in VA and fought in the revolution. In 1776 the overwhelming part of the population was native born. At no time in our history have foreign born made up a greater part of our population.
We have been voting against immigration all my life … And I’m an old man. Yet here we are. So yes, the question of the day is absolutely, what now White man?
“At no time in our history have foreign born made up a greater part of our population.” We are all foreign born except for the indigenous/aboriginal people who first lived here. Are you saying that of the 330 million ‘Americans’ living today that 165 million of them are ‘foreign born’? Does not sound realistic.
Your arguments tend to reinforce the duality concept of the original essay
“Our form of constitutional government is absolutely the best form of government for the people who founded it and their progeny.” This “brilliant” form of government was formed to keep factions i.e. the people and their interests out, and to keep the then revolutionary oligarchy in place so they could harvest the wealth of the continent for themselves rather than for the British oligarchy. So yes, the best form of government for an oligarchy.
Just some thoughts….
No, I’m not saying that a majority of the population today i foreign born, but that a greater percentage of the population is foreign born today than at any time in our history. 25% of the current workforce in the USA is foreign born. Over 25% of the population of Mexico resides within the US borders. Biden had declared open borders and invited the entire third world to come on in.
It is a big lie that this is a “nation of immigrants”. This has never been true, ever. Like I said, at the founding of this country, the overwhelming majority of the population in the new USA was native born. By the time of the founding, the colonies had been here for over 150 years! We were hardly new comers. Please spare me the nonsense about indigenous peoples and how I’m living on stolen land. EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD LIVES ON LAND THAT ONCE BELONGED TO ANOTHER PEOPLE. I have card carrying tribal members in my family…and guess what? They thing pretty much like I do. They have native heritage, but they are culturally American through and through.
We now have higher real unemployment than during the great depression, we do not need or want more immigration, PERIOD. These people Biden is inviting in are all either going to burden our social services or take jobs from Americans, or both. They have no right to come here and Biden and the dems have no right to invite them.
All very interesting — the comment about everybody living on someone else’s land is very interesting —- first because, you prove the author right about your schizophrenia. How? Why are you complaining about other immigrants coming to US, if your original ancestors did what the current immigrants are doing? Even more so since they are not genociding the “current natives”. Secondly, what makes it acceptable for your ancestors to do what they did but unacceptable if “others” do exactly the same by migrating to the US? Thirdly, isn’t their immigration caused by a large part by ‘your’ role in making their countries shit-hole countries and plundering their wealth?
I could write some more but I would really be interested to hear your response, for indeed this is the very hypocrisy bring pointed to here or a god-given right to invade, subjugate and plunder but don’t nobody else dare do such despicable acts because they are only reserved to the “holy and righteous”.
Well in reality the Constitution which was to form and run our country under that Constitution was not that great to begin with written by the aristocrats of that period and for their benefits with the people coming last, and yes my ancestors came over here in the early 1600s fought in the French and Indian wars 26 fought in the Revolution some signed up for the duration tho I wonder why, for the government they set up followed the government that they had just fought to get away from (the Bill of Rights came a few years later). Hamilton stated that at the center of the Treasury he had placed a group of wealthy individuals who would create the trade, build the ships, who would build the factories, etc and they of course were the bankers (book The Life of Washington). Business was always placed first the rest came after that labor which was to be exploited at their leisure, it’s an old document which never worked that well nor the institutions that it created,!!
And in this reply you have just exhibited the duality issue that Larry Romanoff sets out so clearly.
Recourse to foundation myth (ie.g., ” … best form of government for the people who founded it and their progeny” and “… the founders and of their present day progeny”) highlights both the truth of what you write AND the limited nature of this (and its perverse consequences) when placed in the real world context.
Like the cultish sentiments behind the present-day occupation of Palestine largely by the progeny of 9th century Ashkenasi converts to Semetic/Iraqi based Hebrew theology and customs, there is a rupture and not a rapture with authenticity in this American Psychosis (Chris Hedges) — although perhaps the former begets the need for seeking the latter, as Bernays cunning worked out and exploited.
While your response mentions “the founders and of their present day progeny” what it does not clarify is who these people are. They are the top percentile. And of course your omittion of the word “fathers” also speaks to this filtering under present day discourse bias. The largely European (white if you like) founders live well and control (by any means necessary) their privilages and status — and the very highest elites, as we saw with Trump’s treatment, even among themselves in a form of hierarchy. One only need consider Hilary Clinton or GW Bush and their escape from a common justice system. Your “riddled with scoundrels, pedophiles, traitors and foreign agents” simply is who and what the American culture is aggregated of. In some small cases there may be a new amalgum generated in the heat of of a relatively short history — but again, this is the progeny “Club” that George Calin spoke of.
The core issue is not related to these top “progeny” but rather to the other 80-90% who are tolerated and managed guest workers — even down for several generations in some cases. This is reflected structurally in the presidential electoral system, as we have just seen. The mass populas is “polled” for what is presented as a vote. The vote belongs to a state-based electorial college — not the unwashed people.
Given, in practice, there can only ever be a binary popular vote between an elephant and a donkey party — both of which are the same “progeny” at work (choice control) — then crowd-control simply comes down to a selection process between red or blue flavored criminals that will deliver the best big money can buy (literally). When the situation become a contested 50:50 split (as it is now) then it does not really matter — as the Court system basically implied with it’s refusal to get involved in the allegations of voting (polling) fraud. Either “50:” will do and the state-based electorial college will choose. In this 2020 election case — they decided (for whatever reasons of the “progeny”) to go with the Biden-Harris (Obama-Clinton) gang.
“What now White man?” and “re-establish the American nation as supreme within our borders” are again deferring to the questionable mythology. White males are basically under all-quarters ‘castration-ism’ from all manner of alien/foriegn; environmental/biological; allegidely female and identity-confussed vectors. Why seek answers there? The resilient ones will be building canoes (metaphor) for themselves and perhaps their loved ones for whom they feel responsible. The others will simply ‘go with the winds’ along with the multitudes of other core-less cohorts in a crazy increasingly meaningless world where borders and identity are disolving in the acidic cultural bath.
The binary counter rehtorical question — “What now Black man?” — is simply obvious. If you ain’t “progeny” it simply does not matter within the core American system. And the more the system is deconstructed to change this state of affairs, the weaker it will become and the center will fail leaving things far worse. Build canoes and look for a “cow on the roof of a cotton house”, imo (‘O brother where art thou’ – prophecy scene. Joel and Ethan Coen. https://youtu.be/pukq_XJmM-k ).
You just want to hand America off to the Hindus…The Democratic Party Voting Bloc…Kamala Harris is coming up…
Excellent reply. Yes, the present-day occupation of Palestine is exactly analogous to the European occupation of what is now called North America. That’s why Zionism has taken such a firm hold on the USA as it has morphed into being the Anglo-Zionist Empire. That’s why US Christian Zionists are such staunch supporters of Israel and why they became Trump’s rock-solid base. He was their ticket to the Rapture, so of course he “won” the election no matter how many votes he actually got. As the chairman of the Republican Party of New Mexico, Steve Pearce, said back in December, “[Trump] is our president FOREVER and no one can take that away from us.” You simply can’t reason with that kind of logic.
They are the same so-called Christians who look to the Scofield Reference Bible for their foundation myth, that they were chosen by God to come to this continent and turn it into some kind of Christian-Zionist theocracy. The irony is that the US Constitution specifically prohibits such a state church, like what was the case in much of Europe. That’s what so many European immigrants to the USA were on the run from. That, and the religious wars that had racked the continent for hundreds of years. People like Bob always seem to forget that.
“Yes, the present-day occupation of Palestine is exactly analogous to the European occupation of what is now called North America.”
This may be the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. Europeans arrived in North America to find a continent that was sparsely inhabited by native tribes that were centuries behind Europeans in their state of development. Over the course of about 300 years, European pioneers built this country from the ground up. Yes, they displaced the native American nations when they did so. But all Native Americans automatically have US citizenship and all of the rights that go along with that. In no way are they “second class” citizens and in fact, many enjoy benefits not available to non-tribal members. Native Americans are not persecuted in this country. We still have a few reservations, but nobody forces Native American to live on them, and most do not.
In Palestine on the other hand, there existed a well developed society that had existed there continuously for a thousand years. Wealth Jews bribed/coerced/blackmailed Western governments into giving them a state in Palestine and they were awarded half of the land. From the outset the Zionist project was funded and directed by wealth Jewish interests in Europe and the USA. What the Jew have done in Palestine is to essentially buy themselves a country. Israel is a completely artificial construct that would cease to exist almost immediately without massive foreign support, both financial and military. The truth is that if the Jews in Israel had to live on their own without these massive subsidies, the majority of them would return to the US/Europe. In fact, a large percentage of Israelis already hold nationality in multiple countries.
So you see, the Jews bought themselves a state, largely with other peoples money, burnt down the towns that were there already and ran off most of the population. Most of them would quickly abandon Israel if living there got too tough (ie., there was not a massive influx of foreign capital), Americans are the opposite. We aren’t going anywhere. We will make our stand right here, right now. Because we still have grit!
Tommy, not totally ‘analogous’, Palestinians have no Casinos on their Reserve, (singular).
Cheers, M
Blah, Blah, Blah. Your talking mythology. I’m talking about my REAL FAMILY, people I can name. People who led real lives and who are directly responsible for my existence. My ancestors didn’t build this country with mythology, they did it with the sweat of their brow and when necessary, they defended it with powder and shot…but always, they pressed ahead with grit and determination to build something for their children and their grandchildren and their grandchildren. They didn’t do these things so some corrupt politician could give it all away to foreigners. We have voted against immigration at every opportunity all my life…
This notion that this demographic wave is “natural” or “unstoppable” are LYING! This is a result of government policy…and if Americans regain control of their institutions, this process can not only be stopped, but largely reversed. You are basically bitching that my America is not perfect, but what is your solution professor? How do you propose that Americans avert the genocide that is so clearly being directed at us?
If I had a cigar,and if I were in your proximity, I’d hand it to you. You’ve earned it. Right on.
Bobm
I am afraid that “two minds” do exist in the US, those who believe what is presented to them and those who do not. However, you are right about the alien element. Since the second half of the 19th century, the Khazarian bankers started their direct control of the US by buying up American newspapers. They continued with Hollywood, with the introduction of the US Fed, and finally with TV corporations and social media. The only thing they do not control as yet is the Internet. The result of all of this is that the US public is presented with selective news, where great emphasis is placed on filtering what is happening outside the US. Russiagate is one example, a completely fabricated event which never happened. However, although many Americans do not believe it, many do, and hence you have the “two minds”.
“We have many problems to deal with, but the most urgent one is to regain control of our institutions and cast out this hostile alien elite.” Good points Bob. I would add that this duality of mind often involves both demographics and classes, and is necessarily individually true. I agree with the essay. Your point denies the bigger enemy. Aliens? Isn’t the enemy within a bigger enemy? Wouldn’t you address that thereby solving the lesser issue? Sincerely yours, DWhite Bred.
*not necessarily individually true*, sorry . Yet I have no doubt the author describes real phenomena. We humans are very good at this sort of irrationality. We will never be enable to disentangle thought from emotions and bias. That’s an issue of evolution and wiring. Our survival depends on understanding this along with corruption and aggression using a biological (cross domain) paradigm. We need the systems to match.
What if your system isn’t ‘best’ (for you), as the evidence clearly suggests. Then your opinion is the demonstrated product of the conflict described in the essay.
Your governmental framework was vulnerable to takeover. If you clean house without fixing the foundations, those with immense wealth will simply repeat the process.
What now, man?
Way to go Bobm. Your rejoinders and analysis are brilliant. Americans are not guilty of two minds. We’re guilty of being fooled – over and over by our good and true hearts. Christianity is for fools and losers. I am a Christian. I’m trying not to be so foolish and know evil when I see it. Our rulers are evil. Our people are generally ok but can be driven as a herd.
This really doesn’t have anything to do with America or Bernays. Everybody does this. Everybody operates according to at least two sets of models that tell us how to interpret the world around us. In anthropology these are labeled emit and etic. There’s ‘The way things should be’ and ‘The way things are.’ When Anthropologists started interviewing other cultures they discovered this. People would describe their rituals, religions, practices and when the Anthropologist actually got to know the people he was studying (not automatically a given) he’d realize that very few people actually act that way in practice. When asked about it the subjects would say something like, ‘Oh. Nobody really does that.’ Marriage rules are like that. Marrying your Mother’s Brother’s Daughter from the Woke tribe is hardly every actually done. It’s a shorthand for ‘we marry people from that gang over there. Except when we don’t.’
Theory is precise. Practice is imperfect. Americans are not the only one’s with inconsistencies in our beliefs nor are we the only one who are manipulated by priest, politician, pundit, or peddler. Nor is the necessarily a bad thing. Our brains are much more visceral than they are logical. We think that we are rational but our brain stems feel otherwise. The question comes down to, How good are your cultural lies?
“This really doesn’t have anything to do with America or Bernays. Everybody does this.”
Talk about projection!!! When all is exposed the last resort of a scoundrel is to pretend that everyone else is a scoundrel too.😄
Overly harsh. Without apologizing for Americans whatsoever, who have no doubt carried this schizophrenic dichotomy to ridiculous extremes, Jon’s basically right.
“Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.”
― Plato
This is an age-old issue. All cultures lie to an extent, to justify whatever is “their [current] way of life.”
That is why prophets were sent. It is the lucky exception, such as Jonah’s people, which choose to change course.
Jon I beg to differ with your statement “When asked about it the subjects would say something like, ‘Oh. Nobody really does that.’ The ancient societies have a great cultural history (may be misplace in the western mind) but it seems to have served them well Indian society dates at least 5000 years so does Chinese society and their philosophies. As a matter of fact I went to an Indian store and the conversation store owner told me that he is only custodian of the wealth in the store which belongs to God. He was truly sincere about it. Also I believe people brought up with true religion in western societies also behave the same. But unfortunately these stores in the west are disappearing replaced by blood thirsty corporations. I hope the ancient societies wouldn’t follow the example.
True no one is perfect, but I think the critical question here is not “How good are your cultural lies”, but how much of your culture is ACTUALLY based on lies.
To err, or sin if you will, is human, and yes everyone does it. But if you live in a culture which wink wink, nod nod basically says its OK to sin so long as you can get away with it so to speak, well, make no mistake, you’re headed for trouble.
Not to sound presumptuous, but it strikes me as if you do not seem to realize there are cultures out there that are not like that. Those are usually the ones that have stood the test of time.
The motivators for human behaviour are rather simple, its what the culture really punishes and what it really rewards.
And the author of the essay does point out quite eloquently that when what it says on the tin gets too far removed from what it in fact is, well, you’re bound to get nasty results.
He might sound overly harsh, and perhaps he is, perhaps. But americans are really going to have to do some serious soul searching if you they ever hope to get (back?) to some semblance of civilized society.
It doesn’t look pretty, I’m sorry to say.
Now if one of sakers commentators or contibutors could be a psyciatrist specialising in patholgical…child disorders…schizophrenic dementia alzheimer etc behaviours….there might be sufficient clues to postulate what Biden and Co are up to next….and how to counter those situations . Or do we just recognise that USA politics is in a pathological psychosis of a delusional bully spoilt brat syndrome caused by the above….for which there is no cure except a locked room?
Not a “psyciatrist specialising in patholgical” but a student of future trends analysis.
The focus on America in this excellent article is necessarily narrow (for relevant focus) but the general theme and trends of what Gregory Bateson called the “double bind” condition as an aspect of schizophrenia(*) — including the roles of ‘no-escape’ perceptions and the ‘limiting of choice’ by higher systems — are indicative of the Indian situation. See doco/interview with Ashis Nandy (2019).
In summary (on this point), in mid-2019, Ashis Nandy made three observations about India:
1. Changes in the nature of social organization are causing stress;
2. Mental health is not a high government priority;
3. Public health trends are shifting from hysteria to depression in the direction of schizophrenia.
In particular:
1. Cannot identify enemies &/or allies because the nature of social organisation has changed … human touch is often missing. [28:55]
2. Hysteria in India (largely gone in Europe) is often a defence against more serious schizophrenia. Best left alone … [34:37]
3. Previous issue was “oppositional defiant disorder” but now most frequent referral is “Depression” – & notes only 2 beds in Srinagar Medical College for mental illness. [35:07]
(Ashis Nandy, 2019, Aug 28) – “Express Adda with Ashis Nandy (Author and Political Thinker)” – https://youtu.be/2c4R3gXKZgA
So the American future (or sets of futures) in this direction will be ‘harmonius’ outcomes as if from multiple civilizational invasions; thousands of gods will exist (representations of) to appease the political realities; and a form of de-energised and largely corrupt miasmic fog will accompany late stage degenerated state infrastructure systems. Put an elephant’s head on a dead president’s headless neck and you have a good metaphorical representation of the current state of confused political affairs in the USA. Mostly theatre — but the barbed wire around the capital is very real!
Two final points:
“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad” (Prometheus speaking in “The Masque of Pandora“ by Longfellow 1875)
“The rise and fall of images of the future precedes or accompanies the rise and fall of cultures” (Fred Polak 1973).
In respect to the former — have we not just seen this with the clown Trump (bread & circuses) Show entertaining the masses since 2016? And, on an even more sinister note, since his de-selection by the electorial college by the “progeny” (ref to previous comment), these recent diplomatic outbursts by the Biden-Harris (a Hindu) gang towards China and Russia.
In respect to the latter, America is not a civilization (unlike China and Russia) — it is the current head of the hydra-headed serpent (now with five-eyes it seems) that slithered out with European colonization. Look at the similarities between the old original flag designs of the British East India Company and the USA flag. That bunch of ‘entrepreneurs’ left India in a fine post-colonial mess before they moved on. Who is the next victim after America enters it’s final ‘Hindu/Indian’ stage of hysteria, oppositional defiant disorder, and depression?
The Chinese are the real dragon people (in theor own mythology) and the Russians are historically a mixture (hinge/pivot) between the western European peninsular peoples and the Asiatics. At a civilizational scale these two will largely decide the future directions. Orwell’s “1984” and its ‘disputed areas’ (India & southeast Asia) map the zonal contexts — and currenlty V. Putin plays the arch antogonist ‘ Goldstein’ role/function — we’ve just wittnesed the ‘two minutes of hate’ session by Biden and his handlers. Foresight, or script? In any case, Orwell’s outline informs how the ‘great game’ proceeds.
So, why did THEY select bumbling (& stumbling) Joe Biden at this time? If we assume it is a deliberate design choice for future policy/action (by the ” progeny”) then I suggest reviewing “”So Long To Ya, 2010″ | The JibJab 2010 Year in Review!” at https://youtu.be/CCuoLd0K4lY . I’m still scratching my head, but there we have it.
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(* “Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning, and can be disabling.”)
A succinct and scathing assessment, but dead on accurate and absolutely necessary if we are are to have any hope whatsoever of finding a way out of our current predicament. A perfect epilogue to the excellent propaganda series. Alas, I fear its probably far too late for the American project to recover. No signs whatsoever that any of this is sinking into the mass consciousness. The propaganda campaigns we’ve been subjected to for the past century have been overwhelmingly successful in achieving their desired ends.
Yes, when empires end such concepts and discussions occur mostly to ask ‘what went wrong’. The American ‘project’ was involved in war for most of its existence. There is a way out and it is recalling all overseas bases and destroying the military budget and use those funds to advance the social programs that the US general population wants and needs. Secondly to mitigate the huge disparity of income between the rich and poor. Thirdly to recover an education system that has been abused by focusing on anything but math, science and english literature. It is just so basic.
Spot on John about the need to cancel the military budget altogether, as well as abolish the Nazi reminiscent Department of Homeland Defense I might add. Unfortunately, the reality is they’ve destroyed the normal economy to such an extent that if we did that we’d have no economy left whatsoever unless they immediately funneled all of that money into massive infrastructure programs to rebuild the smoking ruins of what was once an actual first world country. At this point, it’s highly doubtful we’ve even got a trained and capable workforce among the native population capable of carrying out such projects anyway, so the devastation appears to be complete and irreversible no matter what. And needless to say, income redistribution is a total non-starter altogether, especially since the wealthy have totally captured the political system through which such a change must be enacted and enforced, so I think its finally time to stick a fork in the American hog and admit that it’s fully cooked. Not that I think that’s the end of the world though, in fact I think it’s just the beginning. From the smoking ruins something new and vital might finally emerge, provided the nukes and all the other weapons of mass destruction Uncle Sugar’s got under his belt get contained first. That needs to be job one. Disarm, apprehend, and then get on to the war crimes trials. There can be no going back from here.
Well said, John.
“Within this binary framework, it is interesting that Americans are of two minds with respect to their treasured democracy. On the one hand, they preach glassy-eyed and fervently that their multi-party political system is the pinnacle of human evolutionary development, a universal value gifted to them by their god and representing the yearnings of all mankind, while on the other hand vehemently condemning that same democracy as hopelessly corrupt and its politicians less trustworthy than snakes and used-car salesmen.”
This is simply classic doublethink according to Orwell: the act of holding, simultaneously, two opposite, individually exclusive ideas or opinions and believing in both simultaneously and absolutely.
Orwell’s 1984 is constantly used as a user manual by the men behind the curtains.
Amerikastani joystick jockeys (“drone pilots”) sitting in air conditioned offices in Ohio or Virginia murder Afghan children by Hellfire missile, murder those coming to their aid (“double tap”), call it “bugsplat”, and then demand medals for the “psychological trauma” they allegedly endure.
I suppose we do hate Amerikastanis for their freedoms.
Afghans in America vote Democratic at POTUS time….never forget this fact….
Americans have churches but don’t really have a church as an unifying historical force — apart from an incipient chiliasm. Popular piety therefore, is directed towards heroes, founders, the military; ultimately the state. Even American Christian figures are often more “American” than “Christian” e.g. Billy Graham seemed more directed by Henry Luce and in practice by Edward Bernays then in the one in whose name he ostensibly preached.
An excellent outline by Larry Romanoff. And a fantastic graphic.
The two-brain metaphor works to a point but it is of two-minds that we should speak.
Biologically, we actually have two brains in one head (same as two ears, eyes, arms, legs, lungs etc.)
It is an outdated 18th-century European medical model that says (simplistically) one head-void = one brain (identity) with two hemispheres. It works for medicine-101 level issues but not so well with more advanced systems and cybernetic thinking. Computers these days have many processors working in parallel and sftware takes care of the “harmony of illusions” (*). In the biological brain it is the corpus callosum whic links and inhibits the two brains. (**) But the body-system actually links down to the gut area via the vagus nerves where a third brain-like set of functions operate. (***) So it is a very complex system in the whole.
As we see with Gregory Bateson’s (1972, 1979) “double description” themes cybernetic navigation/governance relies on a discernment between two descriptions or co-ordinates — (a) here & there in space; and (b) now & then in a subjective sense of time. One of these sets can be grounded in the ontological reality (that part where the collision with a bus kills you). The other set can be anchored in anticipatory thinking (aspiring futures; fear and avoidance futures; repeating past used futures; projected futures; etc). And here there be dragons and magicians. Be-aware of this; but how?
I thought the “China’s cheap, fake Christmas trees” example was excellent and I would have added ” confussed” in the list of “as it really is: empty, superficial, vacuous, ignorant, mean-spirited, hysterical, envious, aggressive, self-obsessed, and hypocritical.”
I’ve made other comments here along the way to this — so some points are covered there.
Bottom-line: a great rock throwing effort that (using the Biblical narratives) hit the American Goliath (that thinks, mixing metpahors, in it’s one-eyed Cyclopse madness, it is a David on a G_d’s mission) right between the two ‘half-eyes’.
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(*) – Allan Young, Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill. Author of ‘The Harmony of Illusions: Inventing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder’ (1995). An interesting CBC.Ca interview here https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1479177250
(**) – see “The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World” (2009) by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist that deals with the specialist hemispheric functioning of the brain.
(***) – see Dr. Stephen Porges and his Polyvagal Theory.
It seems to me that the author (Romanoff) is itself blinded by propaganda, and also partially part of the propaganda machinery.
Based on the high praise of the author, I got the book by Bernays, and it seems to me that there is a lot of marketing in it (and indeed very little insight). Overselling their “method” to their potential customers as hyper-powerful, and creating the imaginary “masters of the mind”, as idols with god-like features.
It also seems to me that Romanoff at least partially attempts to absolve the “real americans”, those basically innocent people, which were only corrupted late, and by the “European masters”. That is indeed a very characteristic trait of the USA-people, that the guilt is always somewhere else; either trivially e.g. “the Chinese”, or with the “European masters” (e.g., the British).
Perhaps this is the most characteristic trait of the USA: the complete inability for guilt. Perhaps at the other side of the spectrum we have the Russian people, who usher in guilt, and the Asian people, with their strong obedience. Perhaps that’s why they admire the USA so much: the USA never feels any guilt, but proudly displays every perversion, while they themselves are always guilty.
The UK, the USA and Israel are the three fundamental fascist states, with their people completely subordinated to these “states” which know only themselves. Their (differentiated) fascistic natures go far deeper than just a thin layer of propaganda, created by some isolated individuals.
“It also seems to me that Romanoff at least partially attempts to absolve the “real americans”, those basically innocent people, which were only corrupted late, and by the “European masters”. That is indeed a very characteristic trait of the USA-people, that the guilt is always somewhere else; either trivially e.g. “the Chinese”, or with the “European masters” (e.g., the British).
Perhaps this is the most characteristic trait of the USA: the complete inability for guilt. Perhaps at the other side of the spectrum we have the Russian people, who usher in guilt, and the Asian people, with their strong obedience. Perhaps that’s why they admire the USA so much: the USA never feels any guilt, but proudly displays every perversion, while they themselves are always guilty.
The UK, the USA and Israel are the three fundamental fascist states, with their people completely subordinated to these “states” which know only themselves. Their (differentiated) fascistic natures go far deeper than just a thin layer of propaganda, created by some isolated individuals.”
Americans will self-righteously caste the finger of guilt at other nations (like China, Russia, Iran)–even as they peddle increasingly Orwellian psyops to deflect guilt from themselves.
Thus, they insist: the Globalists/Illuminati/Transhumanists/Banksters/Zionists/Lizard People secretly control America … so every crime that America commits isn’t really its fault! And the American people are just innocent and virtuous dupes, pure as new-fallen snow–just ignore that America has been at war for most of its entire history!
You notice how Americans never use this alibi to absolve those “enemy nations” that its always pointing its accusatory finger at? See the American regime’s political attacks on Russia and China just this past week.
America specializes in Guilt Deflection from itself and Guilt Projection onto its enemies.
This behavior is part and parcel of America identity itself, founded on the Protestant delusion that America was uniquely chosen by God as a Beacon of Liberty, City on a Hill, and Epitome of Goodness itself.
For all the American Snowflakes who are triggered by all this, understand one thing: You will be judged in the same manner that you have judged others.
The era of America Appeasement is over.
It’s more like …
Captain America–the country with sh!t for brains!
In some ways this analysis is accurate but I think that the situation of USA-an culture is not that simple. Most people I know ignore politics and don’t care about other countries whether they are enemies or friends. While they may express packaged “opinions” via the mainstream narratives they don’t take all that seriously and prefer to focus on life as it is without reference to any ideologies. Even conservative “Christians” are not really that attached to their religion other than as a good feeling and basic faith they can connect with so that they can connect with something greater than their own lives. Having two or more opinions that are radically at odds is not unusual, e.g., being a conservative Christian yet being fully comfortable with your lesbian daughter marrying another woman or having a gay friend and so on. To put it another way, people just live in the best way they can without much ideology or need for consistent intellectual positions. America is as it has been for some time deeply anti-intellectual at all levels of society particularly (more marked today than at any time in my memory) in those most “educated” and “woke.” Yes, there are some people who are interested in what Mortimer Adler called “the Great Conversation” but our numbers (yes, that is an interest of mine) are rapidly decreasing.
To the extent we have this “splitting” described in this essay, I think the result could be positive. One of the great pleasures in my life was to be exposed to Zen teachings on paradox. When we struggle with paradox our consciousness, eventually, expands without psychedelic drugs and a new more holistic world emerges. I think this is where many smarter and more aware Americans are headed.
I got only one quarrel with your article, this sentence: “When overlaid with their malignant Christianity”.
I object strongly to your use of a capital C in Christian, they are Not Christian, they are christian/xtian.
Agreed, but I’m coming more to the conclusion that both Christianity practiced by the West, ie Catholicism, Protestantism and all it’s weird spin-offs are heretical forms of ant-Christianity.
The problem with this essay is its self-righteous condemnation of a whole people which does not match my lived reality in the USA during the last 70 plus years. And I suspect any analysis which proclaim all X is thus way, especially in a time of rather dynamic change. And maybe my perspective is influenced by the fact that whereas I come from a family of academics I remained stubbornly in the working class. No hero here. It was hard. And what I experienced over the years was that the working people were lied to by all levels of leadership( political, educational, religious, medical) and were increasingly worked longer and longer hours. Add to that more and more regimentation and control with their children being forced to go into debt for valueless schooling and pharmaceutical based medicine treatment–both which are socially provided in most countries with much better results.
I make no excuses. My academic family members who feel they merit more due to their intelligence and leisure time spent to “know what is going on” are those I feel most disappointed with. My lived experience is that the more humble people ( members of the working class) can see through the facade much better than those who consider themselves well-read, up-to-date on the news and coming from professional backgrounds. The working people ( no, they are not racist so drop that slander, nor are they attacking Asians en masse so disabuse yourself, please, of that canard) know that they have been screwed and that the racism affecting the Black community comes from the ruling elites, even Putin made that very clear in his reply to Biden’s verbal attack on Russia.
Hiroshima? That was sold to the American people as necessary in order to end the war quickly or more lives would have been wasted—both American and Japanese. In my lived experience, that was not done as a racist
act at least not consciously by the ordinary American. In my lived experience of the Civil Rights movement it was the white working class of the Northern States represented at that time by the left wing of the Democratic Party which put the regime of Jim Crow on notice: time to change, get with the real program, come clean with your anti Black governance of the South ( lead by the right wind of the Democratic Party)
Now, the thinking of the elites is another thing entirely. The trans-humanists are the ones playing footsie with elements of the CCP ( Apple Cloud servers in China, wonder why?)and those are the ones to fear…Yes, the very ones who trumpet their woke agenda, self righteous extremism and disdain for the American working class which is much like yours. There is a complex back stage double game going on here which might have consequences for anyone reporting on it from China… Just saying….It is not over yet for the American working class. We are not as dumb as you from your lofty perch abroad make out. And certainly not as wicked–After all, it was a humble sergeant who blew open the story of Abu Graib. But those who want to paint the American people with a broad brush, also have their select memory and their hidden bias.
if your working class is so great then overthrow that corrupt master. The fact that it is not happening shows that they come along just for the ride and oppress those who are more powerless than them. Honestly, Americans are mediocre and there is nothing really special about them.
The ‘whole people’ may not be infected but as a ‘body’ can be 99 percent healthy yet one cancerous cell can cause much damage growing into a tumour. Although it realizes that by destroying the very body it feeds on it is also destroying itself yet that end does not prevent its greed for reproduction. Most US citizens are well aware where the tumour lies and its progress.
Thus the ‘working class members’ may know of a rouge cell in the body yet there may be little they can do to prevent its inevitability of rotting the whole.
It is a sad, sad analogy yet I believe a realistic one.
For those who have the interest I made a short video illustrating the thesis above regarding the possibility that US is suffering a malignant tumour in three areas.The three areas are the war machine, wall street, education
https://youtu.be/J-4cE6ECkMw
This is the truest statement I have read so far in these comments. The American People, who were once Englishmen who had settled —for the most part peacefully (you don’t read much about it in history because peace time activities make for boring reading) —among the Native Americans, were not powerful, nor exceptional in any way other than that for the most part had rejected the religious hypocrisy (that two minded business talked about in the above article) of England, and many had been kicked out of England for it. The American Experiment was a split from England, however, because they were Englishmen, they could not leave all of their “Englishness” behind without committing suicide. This would have to be removed over time. However England (the ICG) was wroth to lose their territory in the New World and did everything in its power to regain control. This was continually frustrated in the war of 1812, the Civil War (fomented and funded by Great Britain), and when outright war didn’t work, they took a different tactic and befriended and led the people astray morally (WWI). An old yet effective tactic was used—a morally degenerate (by morality, I am referring to sexual immorality—it is the core morality of mankind—once this has been breached, the door is opened to all others) society is easily defeated. This has come to fruition—a small insignificant nation that once defeated an empire—has become large and impressive, but cannot defeat the smallest of armies. Now we are a two minded nation—most of our people have been educated in the modern system (the last 100 years) which has been done with the complete intent to create “educated” slaves. Before the modern system over 90% of Americans (men and women and a large percentage of slaves) were highly literate on a level only some college graduates achieve today. The bulk of the African American population is now much more illiterate and in poor shape today than they were before the Civil Rights movement. The enemy is not the Christianity of the US or even the Jewish element of the US, it is not the Constitution or the founding fathers of the US—the government and nation that was set up originally is not the government we and nation we have today. Many older Americans do not realize this, they are living in a delusion of what once was. Nearly all younger Americans do not know what America was or is other than it “had slavery and slaughtered the Indians and destroyed the environment (haven’t you watched Pocahontas?)” also they think that because it is “Capitalist”, it is racist and “Socialism” (which as it is taught in the US is not socialism) is the answer to all things. The only thing is that they don’t realize is what they are fighting for is slavery by another name. The powers that be are more than happy to appease them.
“In the same essay I outlined that Americans are guilty of what I call ‘the Utopia Syndrome’, comparing themselves not with the real world of their actions but with some utopian standard of ideals that exists only in their own imaginations, a world of fancy and illusion divorced from reality. Next, I noted the black and white mentality that pervades America, the result of their Christianity and the work of Bernays, whose methods of manipulation of the public mind created a kind of binary mentality. Bernays claimed the excessive emotional loading in his propaganda could produce only a limited range of powerful emotional responses in his victims, forcing one’s emotional switch into a binary ‘on or off’ mode, with no other choices.”
Romanov if you haven’t watched this documentary I highly suggest that you do. Maybe then you would realize or perhaps replace the word Christianity with Judaism instead in the above quote.
https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2021/01/02/a-jewish-apologia-for-taking-hollywood-from-racist-wasps/
At the 1:33:24 mark you will hear an absolutely unbelievable word about Americanism. Shocking, just shocking!
Further, to this I watched just last night the movie Jack Synder’s the Justice League and couldn’t believe my ears when after half falling asleep at the end of the movie was startled awake by the song Hallelujah was playing through the credits. It was just instrumental at first then the song turned into full blown song with words etc etc all through the end credits. I was immediately awakened and stared at it incredulously and reminded of the above documentary.
One really needs to see that documentary and imagine what would have become of Russia if it had its own Hollywood.
I really want to know if Romanov has watched this documentary?
Motto: God is the only Being who, in order to reign, doesn’t even need to exist! Charles Baudelaire
” Americans have been overwhelmed with utopian propaganda from infancy, an insidious New Testament heavily loaded with religion and emotion, indoctrinating them with a belief in their own moral superiority endowed upon them by their god. “….
I have been reading the New Testament daily but I couldn’t find any mention about America or Americans. And the Church is 2 thousands years old,not from 1776. I would say that what happens today in America and the West ( world too ) is that they are so far apart of God and his teachings that it is no wonder why they are so easily tricked by lies,deception and propaganda.
If someone wants to really know who are the blessed or chosen people in God’s words:
…Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
These are the Chosen People or the children of God !
Just like the White Russians and the Red Russians, there were only two colors. Your article offers no solution. It only points to the inevitable. Positive and Negative can not occupy the same space at the same time. Neither can tolerance and intolerance. We don’t need more condemnation. We need solutions.
In his essay, Larry Romanoff talks about the twin brains of the American psyche but this is also applicable to many of its vassal states. For example, the invasion of Iraq was based on the premise that they were in league with Al Qaeda ( an American and U.K. intelligence creation) which attacked America and defied the laws of physics by destroying the Twin Towers by crashing inter continental jet airliners which take pilots years to learn to fly. Moreover, Iraq had Weapons of Mass destruction and the dodgy dossier by Blair’s intelligence services, the 45 minutes to dooooom scenario, was relentlessly pumped out by the MSM plus the State Broadcaster. To use the old cliche “ the rest is history “ and millions of Iraqis, Afghanis lost their lives based on proven lies. Notwithstanding, the destruction of the richest economy in Africa by the US plus it’s vassal states against Libya was also a proven lie.
Yet, many many many people who marched against the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now believe the narrative that a “ pandemic “, which required the W.H.O to change the definition in 2009, with a survival rate of about between 99.7- 99.9 % in many countries is the worst thing since the Black Death of the Middle Ages.
It has required people to purposely forget that all governments are liars, it has required people to forget that the MSM and the State Broadcaster are proven liars and to defy their own reasoning and permit “ to keep them safe “ the imposition of tyrannical laws which closed shops, businesses, created mass unemployment and prevented the right to move freely, associate freely and speak freely. g
Completely fair. Simultaneously believing that we are the strongest ‘Democracy’ on earth to the point of being uniquely Exceptional while on the cusp of being lost to the mildest election interference from Iran. It is quite absurd.
There is a failure to embrace reality but there is also the need to justify blatant, immoral aggression against other countries. How can you justify starving, bombing, and constantly threatening other countries with destruction who have not attacked or threatened you? The worse the evil you want to inflict on others, the more absurd you have to contort reality to justify it to yourself. The BS we tell ourselves about Russia, China, and Iran is not to convince others but to convince ourselves and anything we do to stop them represents the ‘leadership that the world craves from us’.
Anyone who places all individuals of a country as a collective is really not worth reading. There are many Americans who pay attention to what goes on around the world, are familiar with the history of the country and don’t care for the government’s position on world affairs. For example, Americans have been voting for presidents to REFRAIN from wars for decades, yet, no matter who is voted into office (with exception of the last president), new or expansion of wars seems to be the policy. Written by whom, I wonder? Looking at the current state of the country and all branches of the government working against what Trump envisioned, which was anti-globalism, anti-foreign wars and pulling troops home from those wars (which was opposed by the government. and is now being pursued again), should tell this writer that Americans are really not represented by their government. In fact, when one looks at the EU, one can see the same state of affairs. The people are not listened to by their governments and their governments are always eager to join in any NEW war ADVENTURES the moment they’re announced by the US and/or Britain/France etc. So, should we talk about the EU’s 2 brains? Maybe the question REALLY ought to be WHO truly controls the governments of both the EU and the US – it’s certainly NOT their populations!
>>>Anyone who places all individuals of a country as a collective…<<<
True but irrelevant. It's fair to generalize where the mindshare of a country is located. There is no market for a candidate or a TV network that says … 'other countries have a legitimate right for self-defense, and to pursue their own self interest. The U.S. should not impose its will on others unless our own national security is threatened because to do so represents aggression and we do not have the wisdom to make things better if we do’.
My wording is not perfect but it gets the point across.
Left or right, collectively, we in the U.S. want to hear, ‘God will bless us as long as we stay true to our calling to remain the arsenal of democracy. Only we were able to defeat the Nazis, Communism, maintain post WW2 peace, and roll back Islamic terrorism. We are a uniquely strong and wise country’
The only calls for restraint I hear are about the cost of intervention, our right to intervene is considered an absolute truth.
The fact that a minority of fanatics governs a majority of apathetic amounts to the same thing. When something gets our attention, like a pandemic, the apathetic disappear. So the fact that so many do not care that we are destroying other countries makes us just as guilty as those who relish us doing so.
*not necessarily individually true*, sorry . Yet I have no doubt the author describes real phenomena. We humans are very good at this sort of irrationality. We will never be enable to disentangle thought from emotions and bias. That’s an issue of evolution and wiring. Our survival depends on understanding this along with corruption and aggression using a biological (cross domain) paradigm. We need the systems to match.
It isnt just the common people who have split minds. What about the scientific elites who have to turn a blind eye and even have to support a myth about a nonexisting manned space program before the space shuttle?
I recently began to wonder about what really happened to Richard Feynmann.
I knew from accounts written by witnesses among his audience at the university where he was lecturing that he seems to have suffered a serious brain injury attributed to an accident when carrying a computer.
The result was that his speech became unintelligible. He died from cancer in 1988 but I get the impression that these two aspects were unrelated.
I dont know the precise turn of events but I know that before the accident he had lashed out against the dishonesty of NASA in connection with the catastrophy with the space shuttle in 1986.
Further one circumstance that may be important is that the elites wanted Feynmann to team up with Neil Armstrong but Feynman apparently went it alone.
I dont want to be too negative towards poor Neil. I view him like somebody who was forced to wear a psychological crown of thorns for the rest of his life to satisfy the power poker played by the cold warriors.
In a sense similar to that of a double agent he was a hero to wear that crown and it probably helped the US to win the cold war.
Now lately I have begun to wonder whether what happened to Feynman was just an accident.
And I also tend to believe that the truth about the fake manned space program was known by many more than commonly assumed.
This because the US successfully pushed the development of digital computer technology at a much faster rate than would otherwise have been possible.
That particular planned economy of the US was much more effective than anything in the USSR.
Incidentally Stalins first two fiveyear plans were made by Wall Street.
Moreover a great body of socialist sponsoring, generally, came from J P Morgan and the Lamont family.
Presumably in full collusion with the UK.
Not to be forgotten the UK/US imposed communism on Russia. And the astronauts as well as the scientists in the US may have been relatively ignorant about that background and may have seen the USSR as a real threat.
Any way it appears unlikely that the whole arrangement including the fake space project would have been accepted and concealed by so many smart people unless it looked like the right technological priority and the right patriotic thing to do.
DARPA may have been the party arranging the simulations of the various fake videos.
The myth busters who made a lousy effort to debunk conspiracy theories about Apollo seem to have had a backgrund in DARPA? And had some prior expertise concerning special effects?
The fox guarding the hen house…?
DARPA and NASA were created just in time for the start of the space program apparently in response to the Sputnik-era.
The CIA: “We didnt win the cold war because we were the good guys but because we were better poker players”
They could have added: In the process we and others in the know developed split personalities making us better liars and hoaxters, something we have had great use for in our fake war on terror and our deceptive foreign policy. Diplomacy no more!