John Whitehead
“This country has been having a nationwide anxious breakdown because 9/11. A nation of individuals unexpectedly broke, the marketplace economy goes to shit, and they’re threatened on every side by an unidentified, sinister enemy. However I don’t think fear is a very reliable way of handling things– of reacting to truth. Fear is just another word for ignorance.”
Hunter S. Thompson, gonzo journalist
We have become guinea pigs in a ruthlessly calculated, thoroughly managed, chillingly cold-blooded experiment in how to manage a population and advance a political program without much opposition from the citizenry.
This is mind-control in its most ominous kind.
With disconcerting consistency, the country is going through a wave of violence that scares the public, destabilizes the country, and provides the government higher reasons to crack down, lock down, and institute much more authoritarian policies for the so-called sake of nationwide security without numerous objections from the citizenry.
Take this most current shooting in Nashville, Tenn.
. The 28-year-old shooter (a clearly struggling transgender individual in ownership of a number of military-style weapons) opened fire in a Christian elementary school, killing 3 children and three adults.
Currently, fingers are being pointed and fight lines are being drawn.
Those who desire security at all costs are clamoring for more weapon control procedures (if not at a straight-out restriction on assault weaponsfor non-military, non-police workers), prevalent psychological health screening of the basic population, more danger evaluations and behavioral noticing cautions, more CCTV cameras with facial acknowledgment capabilities, more “See Something, Say Something” programs targeted at turning Americans into snitches and spies, more metal detectors and whole-body imaging gadgets at soft targets, more roaming teams of militarized authorities empowered to do random bag searches, more fusion centers to centralize and distribute information to law enforcement agencies, and more monitoring of what Americans state and do, where they go, what they buy and how they invest their time.
This is all part of the Deep State’s master strategy.
Ask yourselves: why are we being bombarded with crises, interruptions, phony news and truth television politics? We’re being conditioned like lab mice to survive on a consistent diet of bread-and-circus politics and a limitless wave of crises.
Caught up in this “crisis of the now,” the typical individual has a tough time staying up to date with and remembering all of the “events,” manufactured or otherwise, which happen like clockwork in order to keep us sidetracked, misguided, amused, and insulated from reality.
As investigative reporter Mike Adams points out:
“This psychological bombardment is waged primarily by means of the mainstream media which assaults the viewer by the hour with pictures of violence, war, emotions and conflict. Because the human nervous system is difficult wired to concentrate on instant dangers accompanied by representations of violence, mainstream media audiences have their attention and psychological resources funneled into the never-ending ‘crisis of the NOW‘ from which they can never ever have the mental breathing room to use logic, reason or historic context.”
Teacher Jacques Ellul studied this phenomenon of frustrating news, short memories and the use of propaganda to advance hidden agendas. “One thought drives away another; old realities are chased by new ones,” wroteEllul.
All the while, the government continues to amass more power and authority over the citizenry.
When we’re being bombarded with wall-to-wall news coverage and news cycles that change every few days, it’s difficult to remain focused on something– specifically, holding the federal government liable to following the rule of law– and the powers-that-be understand this.
Yet as John Lennon advises us, “absolutely nothing is real,” particularly not worldwide of politics.
Simply put, it’s all phony, i.e., made, i.e., controlled to distort reality.
Just like the made universe in Peter Weir’s 1998 movie The Truman Show, in which a male’s life is the basis for an elaborately staged tv show aimed at offering items and procuring scores, the political scene in the United States has degenerated throughout the years into a thoroughly adjusted exercise in how to manipulate, polarize, propagandize and manage a population.
This is the magic of the reality television programs that passes for politics today.
As long as we are distracted, amused, periodically annoyed, always polarized however largely uninvolved and content to remain in the viewer’s seat, we’ll never handle to provide a combined front versus tyranny (or federal government corruption and ineptitude) in any type.
The more that is beamed at us, the more inclined we are to settle back in our comfy reclining chairs and end up being passive viewers rather than active individuals as disturbing, frightening occasions unfold.
Truth and fiction merge as whatever around us ends up being home entertainment fodder.
We do not even have to change the channel when the subject ends up being too tedious. That’s looked after for us by the developers (the business media).
“Living is easy with eyes closed,” states Lennon, which’s precisely what truth TV that masquerades as American politics programs the citizenry to do: browse the world with their eyes shut.
As long as we’re viewers, we’ll never ever be doers.
Research studies recommend that the more truth television individuals see– and I would posit that it’s all reality television, entertainment news consisted of– the more difficult it becomes to differentiatebetween what is real and what is carefully crafted farce.
“We the people” are seeing a lot of television.
On average, Americans spend five hours a dayseeing tv. By the time we reach age 65, we’re seeing more than 50 hours of television a week, and that number increases as we get older. And reality TV shows consistently captures the largest percentage of television watchersevery season by an almost 2-1 ratio.
This doesn’t bode well for a citizenry able to sort through masterfully-produced propaganda in order to think critically about the concerns of the day, whether it’s phony news pitched by federal government agencies or foreign entities.
Those who enjoy truth shows tend to view what they view as the “standard.” Thus, those who view programs characterized by lying, aggression and meanness not just pertain to see such behavior as appropriateand entertaining but also mimic the medium.
This applies whether the truth shows is about the antics of celebs in the White House, in the board room, or in the bed room.
It’s a phenomenon called “humilitainment.”
A term created by media scholars Brad Waite and Sara Booker, “humilitainment” describes the tendency for viewers to take pleasure in somebody else’s humiliation, suffering and pain.
“Humilitainment” largely describes not only why American TV watchers are so fixatedon reality TV programs however how American citizens, mostly insulated from what is really taking place on the planet around them by layers of technology, entertainment, and other diversions, are being programmed to accept the cruelty, surveillance and dehumanizing treatment of the American police state as things taking place to otherindividuals.
The ramifications for the future of civic engagement, political discourse and self-government are incredibly depressing and demoralizing.
This is what takes place when a whole nation– bombarded by reality television programs, government propaganda and home entertainment news– becomes systematically desensitized and accustomed to the features of a federal government that operates by fiat and speaks in a language of force.
Ultimately, the reality reveals, the home entertainment news, the security society, the militarized cops, and the political eyeglasses have one common goal: to keep us divided, distracted, sent to prison, and incapable of taking an active function in the business of self-government.
Look behind the political spectacles, the truth TV theatrics, the sleight-of-hand diversions and diversions, and the stomach-churning, nail-biting drama, and you will discover there is a method to the madness.
How do you change the way people believe? You start by changing the words they utilize.
In totalitarian routines– a.k.a. police states– where conformity and compliance are implemented at the end of a loaded gun, the government dictates what words can and can not be used.
In nations where the police state conceals behind a benevolent mask and disguises itself as tolerance, the residents censor themselves, policing their words and ideas to comply with the dictates of the mass mind.
Even when the intentions behind this strictly adjusted reorientation of social language appear well-intentioned– dissuading racism, condemning violence, denouncing discrimination and hatred– undoubtedly, the end outcome is the exact same: intolerance, brainwashing, infantilism, the chilling of totally free speech and the demonizing of viewpoints that run counter to the cultural elite.
Labelling something as “fake news” is a skillful way of dismissing reality that may run counter to the ruling power’s own narrative.
As George Orwell acknowledged, “In times of universal deceit, informing the reality is an advanced act.”
Orwell understood just too well the power of language to control the masses. In Orwell’s 1984, Big Brother eliminates all unwanted and unnecessary words and meanings, even going so far as to routinely reword history and penalize “thoughtcrimes.”
In this dystopian vision of the future, the Thought Cops function as the eyes and ears of Big Sibling, while the Ministry of Peace handle war and defense, the Ministry of Plenty deals with economic affairs (rationing and hunger), the Ministry of Love deals with law and order (torture and brainwashing), and the Ministry of Truth deals with news, entertainment, education and art (propaganda). The mottos of Oceania: WAR IS PEACE, FLEXIBILITY IS SLAVERY, and LACK OF KNOWLEDGE IS STRENGTH.
Orwell’s Huge Bro depend on Newspeak to eliminate unwanted words, strip such words as remained of unconventional significances and make independent, non-government-approved idea altogether unnecessary.
Where we stand now is at the point of Oldspeak (where words have significances, and ideas can be harmful) and Newspeak (where only that which is “safe” and “accepted” by the majority is allowed).
Reality is frequently lost when we stop working to distinguish between opinion and fact, and that is the danger we now face as a society. Anybody who relies exclusively on television/cable news hosts and political commentators for real knowledge of the world is making a severe error.
Sadly, given that Americans have by and large ended up being non-readers, tv has become their prime source of so-called “news.” This reliance on television news has generated such popular news characters who attract large audiences that practically hold on their every word.
In our media age, these are the new powers-that-be.
Yet while these personalities frequently dispense the news like preachers used to give religion, with power and certainty, they are little more than avenues for propaganda and ads provided in the guise of home entertainment and news.
Provided the prevalence of news-as-entertainment programs, it’s no surprise that audiences have actually largely lost the capability to believe seriously and analytically and distinguish between truth and propaganda, especially when delivered by method of phony news criers and politicians.
The bottom line is just this: Americans must be careful of letting others– whether they be television news hosts, political commentators or media corporations– do their thinking for them.
A populace that can not think for themselves is a populace with its backs to the walls: mute in the face of elected authorities who decline to represent us, powerless in the face of authorities brutality, helpless in the face of militarized methods and technology that treat us like enemy combatants on a battleground, and naked in the face of federal government security that sees and hears all.
As I make clear in my book Battleground America: The War on the American Peopleand in its imaginary equivalent The Erik Blair Diaries, it’s time to change the channel, tune out the truth TV show, and press back versus the real menace of the authorities state.
If not, if we continue to relax and lose ourselves in political programs, we will stay a captive audience to a farce that grows more ridiculous by the minute.
Originally published by the Rutherford Institute
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is creator and president of The Rutherford Institute. His book Battleground America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is offered online at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be gotten in touch with at [email secured]
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