Pakistan in Turmoil after Benazir Bhutto’s Assassination

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Indoctrinating the World’s elites

The American elite (primarily composed of top governmental officials and the corporate sector, especially multinationals, and to a lesser extent the propagandized upper and middle classes) indoctrinates the world’s elites in a variety of ways. By “indoctrinate” I mean to make them amenable to the wishes and conditions of the American elite. They become subsidiaries or clients of the “Washington Consensus”. Here are some of the ways:

Universities have “diversity” requirements, which is another way to say they have a policy of taking in top students from other countries. They are taught a pro-Western, pro-capitalist, in most cases free market fundamentalist position, which they then go back and implement in their own countries, often receiving “aid” by the American state. They are also taught elitism, which is to say top-down rule. Free markets favor the party with the greater bargaining power, which is why Walmart fares well against a mom and pop store and why the United States fares well in international economics, and hence the passion of the American elite for the “free market” (which itself isn’t free, but that’s another issue).

Hollywood projects both images and ideas friendly to the American elite. Disney is a warehouse of such creations, virulent in both sexism and racism as well as things more subtle, but Hollywood as a whole follows along.

The American government sets “good behavior” restrictions on it’s foreign aid to other countries. This good behavior amounts to whether or not the foreign government opens up it’s economy to American multinationals, who then extract resources (natural and/or human) for profit. It’s a form of bribery where the foreign government can either take the “aid”, which they often pocket or divert to personal interests, or not take the aid and not only lose out on the money but also stoke the anger of the US elite. Hell hath no fury like the American government scorned, as Hugo Chavez has discovered most recently and such previous examples as Allende and Mossadegh attest to. International trade organizations and policies like the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the North American Free Trade Agreement secure western interests in dominating the third world.

While these elements cover mainly the elites (even Hollywood, which the majority of the world can’t afford to view), religious missionaries have long served the interests of indoctrination in a genocidal manner on foreign people. Missionaries seek to overwrite the identities of non-Christians (or whatever the religion in question is), a kind of blank slate torture whereby the people are “redeemed” or “civilized” or whatever the propaganda term of the day happens to be (nowadays it’s “bringing them our way of life”). This might even be said to be following “God’s will”, as the myth goes that God created man “in his image”. Missionaries don’t see themselves doing anything wrong at all. They are the “holy people” you see, and others are better off being made holy from their current “unclean” state.

Looking within the United States, the public relations industry exploded following the decline in the use of force on the domestic population after the first world war. Mass media, advertising, and marketing perpetually manipulate and control the populace as well as generate a cultural monopoly (called “monoculture”). As that cultural monopoly begins to fade (as it did in the 1960s), look for an increase in the use of force by the state on the population (as occurred in the 1960s and 1970s).

Why the White Elite likes Obama and Oprah

From http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=90&ItemID=14612

“I argue that the white-pleasing “Obama effect” builds on and expands its mass-cultural kissing cousin the “Oprah effect” in deepening the illusion of racism’s disappearance by elevating the public profile of selected bourgeois blacks who make sure not to spark white anxieties with honest discussion of the continuing powerful role of white supremacy in American life.”

Afghan Massacre – Convoy of Death

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Death of a Nation – East Timor (John Pilger)

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John Pilger – Flying the Flag (Arming the World)

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Iran, a letter to our new PM (Australia)

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Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti

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The Rocky Syndrome

this was originally an email to someone who doesn’t use capitalization, hence the lack of caps. it’s a further clarification of a theory of the nature and practice of the neoconservatives.

a boxer is fighting rocky (like from the movies). however, this boxer doesn’t want to win the fight. his goal is to enrage rocky to the point where he explodes in fury. his methodology is to punch rocky and taunt rocky. however, he has to be careful not to give away his true intentions since that will defuse the threat that rocky is being conditioned to feel. he also has to be careful to not knock rocky out.

there are a couple explanations as to why the neoconservatives were trotskyists in the ’60s and far-right corporatists subsequently. one is the chomskyan theory that this was a reaction to the “excess of democracy”. according to this the neocons of the ’60s were reacting to the conformity of the ’50s, and subsequently they were just reacting again, this time to democracy. the other explanation is that the neocons blamed their tactics for the failure of their socialist revolution in the 1960s, and so are using a different tactic to attempt to achieve the same thing. this theory states that the straightforward idealism of the 1960s was blamed for the failure of the left. this led to the rise of shadowy think tanks in 1973, shadowy presidents (starting with nixon), as well as secretive government throughout.

the tactic is to scare and outrage the american people (rocky) until they explode in socialist revolution. this tactic is arguably the opposite of a straightforward idealism that attempts to generate socialism through rational argument and popular struggle.

this is not a conspiracy. according to this theory the neoconservatives are self-deluded as well as manipulative. the only way they can succeed is by being self-deluded – if they themselves had knowledge of what they were doing they would one way or another give their motivations away.

although i’m far from totally confident in this theory, many things support it:

the neoconservatives are called “greatly incompetent”. one reason for such incompetence is the necessary cognitive dissonance of a group that is walking a perpetual tightrope in terms of the reality they are trying to achieve. to refer to the metaphor, one minute the boxer is punching rocky and the next minute he’s intentionally missing with a punch (since he’s trying to hurt him and enrage him without knocking him out).

the neoconservatives use obvious condescension, smirks, lies, contempt of congress, contempt of courts, the list is endless of the way over-the-top abuses. these are the same neoconservatives who during the reagan administration played it low-key (relatively speaking). the explanation – their project (boxing match) has reached the next stage… they are starting to lay their cards on the table.

television also supports this kind of politics as theater. judge judy, jerry springer, american idol, “reality television” are all about abusing “regular joes”.

the first example of this was the gong show, where chuck barris self-destructed and translated his despair about american culture into entertainment.

also supporting this is the incredible riskiness of the neoconservative project. the neoconservatives aren’t even popular with much of the american business sector, and the american people abhor them. the common explanation is “greed” but part of greed is minimizing risk (to enable the money to continue to flow). enraging people isn’t often a good business decision.

Torture: Orwell’s destruction of Nietzsche

Nietzsche: “What does not kill us only makes us stronger”

Derived from Orwell: “Torture only makes us weaker”

Nietzsche’s statement is demonstrably false, not only in relation to torture but all other forms of abuse. Society’s recognition of such and it’s concurrent recognition of the abusive nature of Nietzsche himself have caused the end of the era of Nietzsche and the beginning of that of Orwell.

Ray McGovern on Israel, Iran and the Middle East

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My advice to the Israelis concerning the Palestinians

In order to stop being abusive you need to stop feeling abused.

The Coup’s Dig It

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Wow – this might be The Coup’s best.

A critique of The Covenant with Black America

I checked this book out from the local library hoping for an education. Instead I received a tragedy.

The book is about how to enable black Americans to enter into the imperialist class, that is to say the American elite. From their position within the imperialist system they will then (as forced to by their new circumstances in order to maintain their position) commit the same global (both foreign and domestic) atrocities that significantly contribute to 20,000 deaths per day (from starvation and related maladies) as well as billions living in poverty. This book is about enabling blacks to become the same mass murderers that some whites currently are.

That’s what “economic equality” means in America. Economic equality requires imperialist equality – to enable blacks to oppress the world instead of merely whites doing it.

The book never once in any way, shape, or form, even breathes a word about revolution. Everything is about working within the system, not overthrowing it.

It’s such a tragedy, such a terrible historical result, for blacks of all people, who have been oppressed, killed, and exterminated for centuries, to turn to the system that did this to them and want to JOIN it. They call joining it a success (technically known as “moving out of the ghetto”) and not joining it a failure.

The only failure is not successfully destroying it. The only success is destroying it. Becoming an Uncle Tom and “moving out of the ghetto” only makes it more difficult to destroy the system – just as it’s more difficult for whites to destroy the system when they become further beholden to it (which is why there is such a thing as the “middle class” in America – to divide the populace and reduce revolutionary tensions).

Beware Tavis Smiley. Beware Jesse Jackson. Beware Henry Louis-Gates. These are not leaders. Leaders are people like Mumia Abu-Jamal, George Jackson, Huey P. Newton, and Malcolm X. There’s a tremendous difference between the two groups, and the difference boils down to their relationship with the state and it’s various appendages. Chomsky’s “Never trust the State” needs to be extended to “Never trust any appendage thereof”. When you see a tool of the state bury it, mock it, or destroy it, as you will. I used to think Cornel West was ok, but he supports Tavis Smiley.

To the people of the world, the people of the United States, and the soul of this nation, nothing but democratic revolution is acceptable. Billions of humans are counting on that revolution to happen.

A Christmas Cage

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Interview with Delbert Africa

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Part 2

Know Your Class

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Holocaust Denial As Academic Orthodoxy

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Part 13

Part 14

Colonization, Imperialism, and Poverty

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The Dad’s Series – great art

Dad’s Home

Dad’s at Work

The developing Neoconservative perspective – smiles and smirks

The Neoconservative strategy of the 1980s was about smiles – and Reagan was the perfect accomplice. He fooled everyone to some degree, and had between decent and high approval ratings throughout his tragic presidency. How an empty-headed PR (public relations) rep can do that is an amazing accomplishment in itself, and must have made PR reps all over the world smile in glee.

When Bush II rolled around things really changed, and the smile became a smirk. The repeated condescending beatdowns and abuse didn’t seem to faze the American people for a while, then they started to get angry. In contrast to somewhat similar policies followed by Reagan (except a large-scale war), the Bush Administration is widely hated by Americans.

One explanation for why the extremely successful formula of Reagan plus smiles wasn’t just re-used is that the underlying socialist desires of the Neoconservatives are more fully emerging and the smirk is the next step in the process. Another is that 9/11 changed the PR vision of the executive to scowls and smirks – a cross between Darth Vader and Montgomery Burns. The Neoconservatives are all about political theater and they may have seen 9/11 as the beginning of a new act.

I’d very much like to see whether smirks and obvious condescension were used by Neoconservatives prior to 9/11 to test this theory.

Nietzsche the Synthesizer

Don’t worry if you’re a rapist
Don’t worry if you’re a saint
Don’t worry if you’re an average joe
Nietzsche will bring you all together

Some wonder how Nietzsche can be both a Western apologist and a critic
He saw a shattered world with him the glue
Nothing was too terrible or tragic or banal to be a part
His vessel passed through all waters while claiming excellence

Nietzsche inspired fascism, the 20th century was all his
Though he has his defenders, of course he does
You can find anything in Nietzsche, anything you want

I was born tired of the 20th century, now I’m exhausted
The manipulation, the coercion, the fear, the war, the torture
It’s a part of society now, it’s invisible but the repercussions are all too real
Now it’s Orwell’s time, now it’s time for a decades-long struggle

With Allies Like These

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To Fire 12/24/07

Happy Hanukkah! I hope you’re doing well and look forward to talking with you.

America the Enslaved

The system is not corrupt
Corruption implies dirt that is covering an otherwise clean thing
All corruption requires is a shower
Our system is wrong to the core
It’s called a democracy when the slaves choose who uses the whip
The problem is that someone uses the whip
The problem is that citizens are gunned down by cops with no accountability
The problem is that people are jailed for smoking a joint while the president doesn’t lose his job for creating mass poverty and mass murder
Presidents always create mass poverty and mass murder – that’s why the elite pick them
Some just go too far, kill too many, impoverish too many – impoverish the wrong people, so they are deemed bad
But the presidential institution is rarely challenged, representative government is rarely challenged
Instead the “good” people try to give the system a shower
And then wonder why the same problems happen all over again