Washington’s quest for perpetual world power is underwritten by systematic and perpetual propaganda wars. Every major and minor war has been preceded, accompanied and followed by unremitting government propaganda designed to secure public approval, exploit victims, slander critics, dehumanize targeted adversaries and justify its allies’ collaboration.
In this paper we will discuss the most common recent techniques used to support ongoing imperial wars.…Dissident Voice
Propaganda Techniques of Empire
James Petras | Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
17 comments:
Is this a nightmare or what?
Why, with so much technological progress on the horizon, is the world apparently intent on suicide?
Well, we all have to die (unless Raptured) but in the meantime "Blessed are the peacemakers ..."
You're telling me, Andrew. I stopped posting because politics is doing my head in at the moment.
The West had so much wealth and it can invest in new technology to bring increased wealth and well-being, what more could the elite want?
I struggle with this ‘the world is an asylum’ meme also. To me, the world is a place where a little baby will be used, as a car chock, to stop the car rolling back down a hill. There is just no understanding of the value of a human life, because there is no understanding of who we are. And because we do not understand who we are, there is no understanding of why we have come, to this beautiful earth. A monkey will attack another monkey, reflected in a mirror, because they do not understand who they are. We do not understand we are a reflection of each other: - if we attack another, we are attacking ourselves. We, like that monkey, are quite quite stupid! And compensate with arrogance; full of illusion (mental), glamour (emotional), and maya (physical) unconsciousness. For me, the nightmare goes on in the heads of the world leaders, and spills out into the world. This is the delusional human mind at work, not logic. And the people, who are lied to, do not know any better. Rather than Truth, they let the ‘big chimp’ rule; this is very primitive. There has to be peace on the inside first, before there can be peace on the outside. Mind literally picks up people’s hands, places a gun in them and pulls the trigger; - these same people think they are free. Mind binds them head, hand, and foot. Mind creates all of the problems in the world and is not the tool to use, to fix them up again. Mind swallows up logic. You cannot use the same tool that creates all of the problems, as a problem fixer. This is intelligence – to understand that. You need to come from a different place, inside, from where mind does not rule. From a place where logic is informed, by a genuine love. From within the heart, a human being understands easily, nothing on the outside has any ultimate value. The life, the consciousness, the journey, is the treasure. The atoms and forms recycle, and everything that has happened will happen again, and again, and again; and we are caught up. And we are not here on this earth, to be caught up. We are here, to break the cycle.
I have thought about this. If I spend my life doing things, I will have spent my life and remain discontent. If I spend my life saying things, I will have spent my life and remain discontent. If I spend my life thinking about things, I will have spent my life and remain discontent. If I spend my life emotionalising things, I will have spent my life and remain discontent. If I spend my life chasing some goal on the outside, that the world in its ignorance presents to me, I will have spent my life and remain discontent. Therefore I resolve to focus myself, and spend each day in touch with myself, as a human being. If there is no answer, within my being, that will fulfil me and make me content, then there is nowhere else to look. The world has nothing for me. For me, a human being is a door.
Existing, is actually very very simple. ‘What you are looking for, has always been within’. Find that first, then everything else makes sense. It is your only possession. And nothing will make sense, without it. It is your key.
People should just stop, put down their tools for awhile and ask themselves, what do they really want? Because these world leaders are going to give them exactly the opposite, if they survive that long. They will use your babies, to chock their wheels. In each of us there is darkness, and in each there is light. The trick is to choose, and bring the life, the humanity, the good, back to the surface. Darkness only gives way to light - not to force, not to mind, not even to logic. Logic is easily turned into lies. But even in an ocean of darkness, with only one little lit candle, you can find your way.
If people want to save the world they must first save themselves, because look who is responsible.
If there is no answer, within my being, that will fulfil me and make me content, then there is nowhere else to look. jrbarch
I looked within, for many wasted decades, and finally came to the conclusion that the answer is NOT there.
Still, it took another 10 years and a wrenching personal tragedy to finally become humble enough to read the entire Bible and take it seriously. I haven't regretted that decision nor do I feel intellectually ashamed not do I feel weak for needing a crutch.
The point is we're all cripples and recognizing the need for God is not being weak but being wise.
We're got to go onto the streets and protest.
Hi Andrew, I've gone back to the Quakers recently, to find my spiritual roots. I was a member a few years ago.
The Quakers do lots of peace work so I have offered to help them. I'm going to to into the Peace and Disarmament section if they need me.
We need to organise a mass demonstration. David Swanson, the peace campaigner, says it could really grow as everyone is really sick of this.
The nihilistic death drive is never completely gone from society, more people is falling (being pushed?) into it again. It's cyclical, we (collectively) are pathologically unable to live in 'good societies' and be happy.
If you cannot purge the rotten apples this happens, and purging rotten apples is impossible in large civilisations, we are not 'made for it'.
There's bad apples but the credit system is inherently corrupt and corrupting in that we each, according to our own so-called creditworthiness, can steal from our neighbors, with the poor at the bottom of the heap.
And to the extent we support such a system, we should not assume we're not bad apples too.
Hi Andrew –
I looked within, for many wasted decades, and finally came to the conclusion that the answer is NOT there. Still, it took another 10 years ....
That was your experience Andrew; that does not mean it is human history. No one is a cripple.
You became humble, read the bible, experienced something and realised your need; but to me - you were given strength, not a crutch. From that came appreciation and gratitude (and interpretation). Many people experience the same thing, without any particular religious affiliation (not that one shouldn’t follow a religion if they feel to). The religions of the world do not have any monopoly or authority over divinity. What was the religion of the Buddha’s grandfather (?) – it certainly wasn’t Buddhism. For me, the true province of that energy is the human heart. The experience comes first; mind begins to understand, slowly, slowly, much later.
People think peace is a state of NO war; or a quiet place to sit beside a babbling brook, in beautiful dappled sunlight; or the kids over at the neighbour’s house. War begins in the minds of men and spills out, onto the streets. Mind is the battleground. The strength of the truths published here on MNE come straight from the goodness of people’s hearts, seeking to clarify the lies and miasma; the fiasco (and boy is it fiasco)! We know the world is our doing, our responsibility. We are all in this together, on one planet earth.
For me, the death drive (nihilism) is a desire to escape pain (self-inflicted and/or caused by our own) but not to escape life. People love being alive and enjoying is our true nature. The ‘rotting apples’ are the concepts people carry around in their heads, and ego - making life a misery, and not only for the humans. As the old Indian story goes: in the human being there are two wolves, one good, one bad – everything depends upon which one you feed.
For me, where better for the divine, this energy, to reside: - not as far removed from us as we can possibly make it, but as close as it can possibly get. This is the secret of the human heart. It is so close, so gentle; it is amazing the world does not notice. Without it, the breath would not come, nor the heart beat. Mind would deflate like a balloon. Ego, a broken pencil. We have not been created cripples.
When we appreciate the beauty of a sunrise, it is because the beauty is within us. When we feel the beauty within, the sunrise is exquisite. This earth is beautiful, raw, uncompromising, powerful. If we feel sad, angry, broken, depressed – the sunrise is just meaningless colour. If in our minds the earth is just a factory or a warzone, then we miss its true nature. The good is close to us, in the heart, not far away. For me, it is not a matter of mass demonstrations. It is a matter of one by one finding that strength, that clarity on the inside and making it manifest. How else can a human being become conscious? Always a prerequisite to collective consciousness. To understand this clarity comes from a human being, from us; from within us. It is there, already within; within our power, our reach, and our responsibility. If you believe in a divine then you can thank your divine in proxy, and hope; if you know the divine then you can have that appreciation and gratitude; if you believe in yourself then you can thank yourself. It doesn’t really matter. The darkness comes from us and the light has to come from us. We have to be up for the challenge. My thoughts are to do whatever you feel you must do, but do it consciously – with love and respect for Life and everything it has created.
Do no harm. One little rule that could change the world.
*(A simple pleasure ticking 'I'm not a robot' )!
- you were given ... jrbarch
Yes, given something NOT within myself.
People effect each other, for better and for worse.
@Bob
Bob - I'm going to have to ask? Why Stalin? Why a wink? (Excuse my politcal naivety).
It's an avatar that I enjoy. I enjoy black humor.
Edit: meant to write "affect", not "effect".
Stalin was Caucasian Bob .....
Heard recently:
A sweet little girl walks into the pet shop and asks the owner:
“Please Mithter, do you have any wabbits?”
The owner looks at the little girl charmed, and says:
“Oh Yes. I have white rabbits, brown rabbits, blue rabbits. Which one would you like?”
The little girl looks at the owner knowingly:
“Mithter, I don’t think my bwoody python cares what colour the wabbit is”.
That's the spirit :)
Have you considered selecting an avatar?
I don't have one Bob - would have to figure out how to add it. I use a little graphic icon of a figure reaching for the stars on email.
Didn't start an avalanche of black humour jokes above (it gets so serious around MNE sometimes) .... ah, now I know why Stalin - the Russians have a great sense of black humour !!! Australians are happily, the most irreverant (towards elitism) people on the planet (good convict blood).
You can got to your profile page, click on edit and take it from there.
There's some Aussie "bogan" humour that I indulge in from time to time. It's an acquired taste ;p
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