The American people are addicted to the elite

This is a reply to Max Shields from Dissident Voice. His words are in italics.

“Brian K. yes, the US “democracy” is a tactic to provide un-democracy.

Look, even in the old Empire England, the Prime Minister has to go face to face, same level, against his/her opposition. Here, we perch the POTUS on a pedestal, looking down talking AT the crowd who routinely applauds every inane thing he says. NO disagreement from the mob.

We call that the “democratic process”.”

It’s a whole lot worse than that, to extend this psychological and sociological situation.

Most regular Americans believe that the elite are better than they are. Better in one or more ways – either smarter, wiser, more capable, stronger, sexier, or some other trait they deem positive. So in addition to an enslavement caused by a continued desire for imperial benefits, it’s also caused by a belief in inferiority.

Once inferiority is ingrained, and it is deeply ingrained in the American psyche, truth *becomes* what the elite say it is, in the same sense that a God-fearing Christian’s truth is what God says it is, or what God’s supposed representative (such as the Pope) says it is.

I’ve been examining regular Americans closely for the past year, after spending a few years examining the American elite (with a particular focus on the Neocons). Americans are deeply propagandized – they are beholden to television and movies to a degree which even the left underestimates. One reason they are propagandized is not the high quality of the propaganda – for the most part it’s mediocre. They are propagandized because they are desperate and in despair, and believe themselves to have little capability to improve their lives. So they turn to corporate media, even while knowing it’s *intended* to harm them, because, like God, there is a HOPE that their corporate masters will save them. It is precisely the decline in religion that allowed the modern propaganda state to gain power, not the quality of it’s propaganda. God has been splintered and replaced by various demi-gods – one is Bill O’Reilly. Another Rush Limbaugh. Another Jon Stewart.

The movie “They Live!” makes one terrible mistake. It assumes that after the aliens are revealed the humans will rebel. In the real world the humans already know about the elite. They already know the television is intended to harm them. They already know the elite lie or make up the truth or tell the truth depending on what serves their purpose.

The people go on supporting these harmful institutions for the same reason every slave sincerely smiles at his master – he hopes to placate him. He hopes to *change* him. He hopes to receive a pat on the head instead of the end of a whip.

American culture is about obedience, and in tough times instead of rebelling American culture is about more *determined* obedience.

Americans have seen the alien, and embraced it. That was John Carpenter’s mistake.

At work I often turn the television off. I hate that poison and want to spare myself and others from it. It’s turned back on within a few minutes, never with an angry look but often with a sad one.

The people know it’s poison. But they also know that only their corporate masters can save them. They know very well that I can’t do a damn thing other than turn the TV off.

Examine the culture of addiction and you find something which causes both pleasure (brief and fleeting) and pain (lasting). Then examine the elite’s effect on the people, with their “hits” of distraction followed by the lasting pain of slavery.

The American people are addicted to the elite. According to them, the elite are their only hope.

The same relationship is found in abusive marriages. The woman hates the abuse, but can’t leave the abuser due to insecurity and fear of being alone. So the woman hopes that things will get better, and placates and “makes her husband happy” whenever she can.

And so the American people hope that Barack Obama will save them.

This is the reality in modern America we need to deal with.

World of Warcraft Arena Tournament

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It isn’t just about the corporate media

This is a reply to an essay about the corporate media’s destruction of reality and democracy in America:

The American people are ignorant about class reality. The poor don’t have enough time to learn about the monstrosity of the corporate media and are shunned by the state. The middle class doesn’t want to know about class reality since they benefit from it. There are no structures in the United States which cause Americans to understand politics to an extent where they can critique the state and it’s many appendages. BAR does not speak to the masses and hence cannot substantially shape a democracy.

Until politics is the 1st priority of Americans – not entertainment, not technology, not wealth-accumulation, there are too many distractions and America is timed-out of any ability to instigate change.

It hardly matters how right BAR is if there are few people to hear it and fewer yet to understand it, since Lost is on and the Ipod is way cool and a 2nd job is necessary to buy all the things the TV says to buy.

It’s not JUST the corporate media – it’s the entire imperial system that ensures the perpetuation of it’s own power and the oppression, terror, and ultimately the destruction of everyone else.

We need to not so much argue for one or another political position as argue for the importance of politics itself – the importance of improving the human condition through politics – of helping ourselves through politics. Every thriving democracy in the world features a populace which makes politics it’s 1st priority. It’s not the Corporate Media that is killing democracy – it’s misplaced priorities.

Inspired Genius – Rats on Cocaine Ep. 9

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South Park’s lack of class analysis

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Episode 1202, “Britney’s New Look”, highlights a typical flaw in Parker’s and Stone’s analysis.

In this episode, Britney Spears is terrorized by greedy paparazzi to the point that she severely injures herself with a shotgun, ruining her singing career (despite the dogged efforts of fans and managers to maintain it).

In a ridiculous twist at the end, it’s revealed that there is a conspiracy among *all* people (managers, paparazzi, fans) to murder Spears, relating it to the sacrifice of virgins (Spears is the modern Western equivalent of a virgin apparently) in some older cultures. The murder is done through stress-related events following an excess of attention (by paparazzi, managers, and fans). The logical flaw of murdering Spears by torture rather than by execution (throwing into a volcano or cutting out the heart) in relation to the comparison is not mentioned.

Spears is a manufactured pop star, in the same way that Hannah Montana is as well as various “boy bands” and others. These people don’t so much have fans as propaganda victims, who are taken in by the pomp and circumstance given to a fresh, pretty face doing something mildly entertaining. There aren’t even many victims, but due to the extremely high exposure (and the targeting of the young and vulnerable) and mass-audience enough victims emerge to produce the only thing the pursuers of this care about – money.

None of this is presented in the episode. The episode treats the various constituencies (paparazzi, managers, fans) as essentially equal in their effect – as reinforcing the other and working together toward the same goal (sacrifice of the “victim”).

Also not noted in the episode is that the manufactured pop star, unlike the sacrificial virgin of yore, becomes exceedingly wealthy. Excess attention is merely a side effect of the wealth. For South Park to produce this episode which presents these pop stars (all of whom either know what they are in for or are total fools) as victims is ridiculous.

This kind of “everyone is bad except the South Park kids who form the lone conscience” is typical of South Park and why they often provide decent analysis but never great analysis.

Empire, Class Warfare, Triumphalism, and Dehumanization in the Gaming Industry

79% of mainstream PC games feature killing. The reason for this is to condition players (largely youth) to view obstacles as things to be eliminated. The concept of negotiation in a computer game is seen by players as ridiculous – the majority have never played a obstacle-oriented game with anything but killing whatever opposes the protagonist (controlled by the player). The typical gamer’s idea of what is done in a video game other than killing is building up a base before killing or building an empire before killing (and taking over the world). War is the overwhelming motif used time and again in video games.

There is a massive difference between the mainstream games market and it’s 79% killing rate and the amateur games market and it’s 49% killing rate. Consider that the primary source of inspiration for the design of amateur games IS the mainstream games market.

Mainstream games developers have given a few reasons over the years for why they make so many games about killing:

— It’s exciting for the player. Therefore the player enjoys it, therefore the player buys our game, therefore the game makes money, therefore publishers continue to fund our games, therefore we continue to work in the industry.

— It’s simple to develop.

— Game developers themselves are young, immature, and male, and therefore they themselves enjoy killing in games and hence develop those games.

All of these reasons are problematic. Ratings on Newgrounds show that players enjoy games that don’t include killing just as they do ones that do.

When immature young male writers write stories they don’t feature killings by the protagonist 79% of the time, or anything close to that.

It may be “simple to develop”, but that’s only because the industry has a long history of developing games that include killing, to such an extent that the development of the industry itself is dominated by that. Hence the prevalence of “physics engines”, which are often used to track bullet trajectories and the flying apart of objects following violence.

The one reason heard least often but which is the most interesting is that developers make so many games which feature killing because publishers want it that way. Money talks and the money is saying “Make us games that feature killing”. This begs the question of why.

The publishers of video games are overwhelmingly from modern industrial Western countries. Japan and the US dominate the industry, with the UK and other European and Western-friendly Asian countries trailing behind. This Western bloc as a semi-unified force has been an Empire since the end of WWII.

The US requires propaganda to turn children into killers to be fed into the war machine. No other country has this requirement to any similar degree. This fact has startling repercussions on the industry. Japanese publishers are far less favorable toward killing in games. Whole genres have been created by the Japanese, such as dating sims and pet management (breeding and raising creatures). American publishers tend to favor “shooting shit and blowing stuff up”.

Other aspects between allied Western powers however converge. Triumphalism, Supremacy, and Dehumanization are traits that all imperial states need to instill in their populace. A popular genre in Japan as well as the US is the role-playing game, where players lead a group which cleanses (exterminates) the world of monsters while completing a world-saving quest. Over the span of this game the players become more and more powerful, gaining supremacy over the world and ultimately standing triumphant. At the end of the game, truly nothing and no one can stand in their way (and barely anything remains to even try).

“Saving the world” is used time and time again as the justification for absolute atrocities. Every obstacle in the way of “saving the world” is deemed a monster which not only can be slaughtered without thought but should be slaughtered, nay, must be slaughtered, or the world will not truly be saved. Game developers must be proud – not even the Nazis were this ruthless.

As the player progresses through the game, he becomes stronger and stronger, and this kind of hedonistic “progress” is similar to the “rise” of a drug dealer who devastates whole communities as he enriches himself. Except even a drug dealer usually avoids killing.

Is it really any wonder that humans who have spent in many cases years playing these kinds of games can go to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Iran, or wherever the Empire wants to strike next, call the people there “monsters” which is equivalent to “hajji”, and exterminate them? These people truly are victims of their upbringing. I’m not so much surprised that American forces commit so many atrocities as that they sometimes don’t.

The game publishers are part of the capitalist class, the ruling class, the elite, that benefit from war as well as economic and military domination. Hence US publishers finance games which feature killing, and US, Japanese, and other friendly publishers finance games which feature domination, extermination, dehumanization, triumphalism, and supremacy. All of this is done to control and dominate the target group, the first victims – their own people. The buyers that they claim to “serve”. Poison is always this chef’s special of the day.

Pure Pwnage is a landmark game-parody series which covers a few of these issues, especially triumphalism and supremacy. It’s very light-hearted and fails to draw connections between gaming and the larger world, except in terms of culture.

Entertainment writers end strike

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Bill Maher, Politically Correct

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Why are Hollywood movie reviewers comprehensive and often exclusive?

I can’t imagine reading every book published by a major publishing house, but movie reviewers think nothing of seeing every movie released by Hollywood. Most reviewers only review Hollywood movies, though more are now reviewing the “indie” American market.

A lot of movie reviewers seem weary of movies, as if they are required to see bad movies. It’s too bad they don’t simply not see the bad movie in question, and spend that time exploring other movies, whether small-budget, no budget, or non-American.

Update on Hollywood writers strike

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Celebrity

Programmed tunnel-vision, as you focus on the TV
Tears stream down your face as a celebrity is caught in a tragedy
Another one of their sex tapes is exposed – oh no!
Now they get even more attention – horror of horrors!
They proclaim dismay and sue to get the tapes back

So there you are, choking on your tears, wringing your hands
How could they do this? you plaintively wail
Meanwhile, outside your home, a dissident has a bag placed over his head and is snatched away
Meanwhile, a corporation spews waste into your local river
Meanwhile, all corporations refuse to give you information on themselves

But I’m sure I’m all wrong about you – you’re quite the ironic one
You watch celebrities only to mock them – you shake your fist when they appear
You recognize the problem – you’re way too smart for them
The only way to tell them is to watch the TV and get angry at it
Britney Spears again? How could they? JLo and Ben? How many times do I have to watch this??

American Idol is the new cool. Everyone is watching, so so must you. See the abuse. Feel the abuse. Embrace the abuse. Live it.
Meanwhile, human #1,250,000 is blown apart in Iraq, while you watch them wring their hands over the death penalty in America which kills 60 per year. Don’t the death penalties for Iraqis count? What about the death penalty for hundreds of thousands of Sudanese? What about the future for Iranians? For Israelis?

You can never answer me, can you? Noone ever can. The answer can’t be found on the TV, and therefore according to you it doesn’t exist.
“Life? Life is what happens on TV”

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.”