Noam Chomsky on Why This is the Most Dangerous Point in Human History (tags)
We live in a world facing existential threats while extreme inequality is tearing our societies apart and democracy is in sharp decline. The U.S., meanwhile, is bent on maintaining global hegemony when international collaboration is urgently needed to address the planet’s numerous challenges.
Why do the lambs remain silent? (tags)
James Madison (1751-1836), one of the founding fathers of the constitution, proclaimed that every form of government should be designed "to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority".
The birth of propaganda and The war of perception (tags)
One of the founding fathers of modern propaganda, Edward Bernays, therefore also openly admitted that especially in democracies, where the majority of people decide, the control of thoughts and feelings is a central tool. "Public relations involves 'the engineering of consent.'"
Video: How to Know if Your Country Is Heading Toward Despotism, 10 min (tags)
Nobody likes a despot — even despots know it. But actually identifying despotism can pose a certain difficulty — which despots also know, and they’d surely like to keep it that way. Hence Encyclopedia Britannica’s Despotism, a ten-minute Erpi Classroom Film on how a country slides into that eponymous state.
Why are the Lambs Silent? (tags)
Techniques-fragmentation and propaganda- make serious violations of moral norms by the ruling elites morally and cognitively invisible to the population. With many examples, professor Mausfeld gives insight in the management of our democracy and how people are kept in apathy.
Intervening on the Build-up of War: 2nd part of talk with a fascist (?) cousin (tags)
My cousin could be equated with a mid-level military officer in his local influence (of young men) and his technique of speaking with me, whom he shares some basic prohibited enjoyments (i.e. smoking pot). He may be involved in the fascist underground and that would seem likely given his penchance for this topic and his connections (i.e. with his brother who is a well-known east coast agitator against jews). Whatever he is doing, I saw a chance to not only possibly intervene directly into someone who is attempting to justify and rationalize his beliefs, but also share (and seek input) this with people like yourself whom may be inspired in your own activity.
The War of Everyday Life, manufacture of consent and watering down dept (tags)
Of late i've been noticing a new deployment of coercion being reflected from a lot of college students. It appears that the Wizards of Is (or, Oz, pick your poison) have sent a new obfuscation order down to their implementers, or something where people's experiences and intuitions are reduced down to "mere opinions", while "reputable" views are somehow "more equal"!
Collateral Language (Chomsky Interview, July/August '03 Z mag) (tags)
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John Trudell and an artist discuss the perpetual war mentality (tags)
Everybody is trying to find a way out from the mess they're in and they're using dark age intellectualizations and remaining confined in these concepts that have been imposed upon us from day one. Our spirits, the part of us that gifted us excellent medicine to deal with our lives here, has been systematically mined by a severely alienated perpetual war mentality. Join Trudell and i in a kind of conversation that you are invited to participate in.