posted 01-25-2003 05:00 AM            

The American Reporter 01/24/03: Doug Lasken

Original Link: http://www.american-reporter.com/2025/6.html

LOS ANGELES -- Animal Farm, George Orwell's nightmare vision of totalitarianism, became a best seller after World War II when the Cold War began. It has been taught in middle and high schools ever since as an allegory of the Russian Revolution, serving nicely to vilify our erstwhile nemesis, the Soviet Union...

Since the end of the Cold War, however, English teachers, the "sleeping dragons" of politics, and perhaps readers at large, have noticed a more general relevance in Orwell's vision. Particularly, the insidious nature of totalitarianism, its cunning and sophistication, are well highlighted in Animal Farm in ways that should be compelling for people in any modern era. This broader relevance has also brought renewed interest in Orwell's other dystopian adventure: 1984.

Central to totalitarianism are information control and manipulation. In 1984, Orwell presents the fictional state of Oceana, whose masses, including the middle class, are beset with poverty and severe alienation. This anxious population is held together by the threat of external enemies.

People huddle in fear as menacing forces hurl missiles upon their shores. Only those in the innermost circles of government know that Oceana secretly fires the missiles at itself. The three great nation states of the world, Oceana (comprising England and Europe), and the other two, which correspond roughly to Asia and the Americas, conduct the ongoing fake war in collusion to keep their wretched populations preoccupied. One candid apparatchik likens the system to three sheaves of wheat leaned against each other, propping each other up in cooperative antagonism.

In Animal Farm, the impoverished "lower" animals, brutalized and exploited by the pigs, are kept in constant fear of the outside world. Every event is "spun" to reveal plots and traitorous schemes meant to bring ruin to the farm. The animals are so intimidated that they have no voice when the state police, a pack of dogs trained by their swinish dictator, Napoleon, tears out the throats of dissenters and free thinkers.

We still have plenty of free speech, so far, and our wars don't seem totally fake, but is it far-fetched to see in the post-World War II manipulation of information some shades of Orwell?

The Vietnam War started as a response to an attack on a U.S. vessel in the Gulf of Tonkin. After the war it came out that the attack never took place. In the Gulf War, Americans were told fictional stories about Iraqi troops throwing premature babies out of windows.

Iraqis heard no such stories. On the other side, Iraqi citizens were told stories about Kuwaiti economic aggression against Iraq which necessitated an invasion. Americans had no clue that Iraqis believed the invasion of Kuwait was defensive. As Gulf War II unfolds, we are told stories about the certainty of horrifying weapons and evil intent in Iraq; Iraqis are told a story about obvious proof that no such weapons or evil intentions exist.

In the last few weeks, a very alarming war of words has erupted between the U.S. and North Korea. We know our side of the story: North Korea has suddenly, and for no apparent reason, gone on the warpath.

And the other side? Ask yourself these questions: What are ordinary North Korean people being told about the situation? Do they see their government as unaccountably bellicose, or are they receiving a radically different scenario from their media?

Chances are that, even if you are an educated and informed person, you can't answer these questions with certainty. Why? Because we are not being told what North Koreans think is going on, just as they are almost certainly not being told what we think is going on.

Is this a conscious, deliberate manipulation of information, a laOrwell? We all know that information about the September 11 attack is manipulated on the other side of the world. Witness the widespread belief that the Trade Towers were felled by secret U.S. or Israeli forces, or that Jewish workers in the Trade Towers were warned not to come to work on September 11.

Is it conceivable that we're being told stories, too?

Of course, every conspiracy theory needs a motive. Why would the populations of the world be manipulated into hostile thought and deed? Who would benefit from this? The obvious answer is arms manufacturers, but there could be other motivations than financial gain. As mentioned above, Orwell's novels explained the use of fear as on organizational tool. In Orwell's future (in the case of 1984, strangely, now 19 years in the past), social problems are beyond the powers of government to ameliorate.

Paranoia and external conflict, manipulated in collusion across lines of seeming oppositon, are means to pacify the masses and prolong a tottering system. Well, if yo'uve been reading the newspapers for the last 10 or 20 years, how many of our most pressing problems would you say have been solved? How many have become worse?

What government wouldn't appreciate a little distraction in a situation like this? And if certain sectors of the entertainment industry are clever enough to make us all believe we need DVD players, isn't it conceivable that other clever folks could induce us to stop fretting about our inability to solve the pressing problems of society, and focus instead on those horrible monsters on the other side of the world? To be fair, we don't seem to have arrived at a totally Orwellion foreign policy. We have some fanatical enemies who don't need embellishment to be threatening. But if our world is about to change, it wouldn't hurt to read Orwell now and then, and wonder if there's more going on than meets the eye.

posted 02-12-2003 05:55 AM            

To me...this is the most OBVIOUS example of Psychological warfare/conditioning perpetrated by the media. For the past 2 weeks it has been relentless.

posted 02-12-2003 07:39 PM            

Mech I don't watch much TV at all nor pay attention to the media...I thought you didn't watch tv either...? The conditioning can't happen if you don't allow it/let it in.

posted 02-15-2003 10:15 PM            

Are there factions in the Elite that are at war with each other? Or is there really one unit who controls it all? The reason for my asking is that, wouldn't it make sense for Blix to say, "I found the smoking gun!" so Bush could carry out this war as he wishes? Or is Blix on the other side who doesn't want this war, or is he just a pawn and has no clue (of the Elite) and really isn't finding anything which then leads me to the idea that if he is just a pawn, the group of "Elite" aren't so elite if they can't put someone in the head inspector spot to help them better carry out their agenda...???

posted 02-19-2003 04:44 PM            

Here you have America, our economy is spiraling downward, it's going to be near to impossible to recover since our money is no longer backed by gold, thanks to Nixon in 1971, which brings me to another point... Why did Nixon do that? EVERY single instance in history when money was no longer backed by gold, that economy crumbled. Who are we to think America is immune? They're right now going to the Fed to raise the debt ceiling to 6.4 Trillion! Now, based on history, can a person honestly state that what Nixon did was "for the people?" Heck no! But people, who don't know history even American history, have no clue and think we're doing great and that we'll recover. It's going to take a miracle. With the Euro surpassing the dollar, things are not looking good, and if the IMF recalls all debt immediately, do you think America can fork over the 6.4 Trillion dollar debt? Talk about chaos, and just what do you think would come after that? Most likely a police state, and guess what, the IMF would take control of America's assets and guess who owns the IMF? England. Interesting, we could go full-circle back to exactly what America was not meant for. But it was meant for freedom from the tyranical monarchy. Give me beer, sports and pizza, man! LOL, the masses haven't a clue. Yourself included BJM, but you're free, to have your hope... After all, ignorance is bliss isn't it.

posted 02-19-2003 05:17 PM            

The $20 bill graphics: a coincedence, someone with way too much time on their hands figured that one out and it spread on the internet big deal, the side with the supposed pentagon doesn't even look that much like the pentagon...

We ARE pawns in a chess game control by two factions of the globalist elite, but don't be mistaken, the aren't necesarily playing against each other. Just because that is what they would like us all to beleive, that is one of the ways they control us, by splitting us up into right and left. They may disagree and fight a bit amongst themselves at times, but they aren't that different.

We ARE in a downward spiral, and if we don't stop it, we WILL end up like the Romans. It's not to late to fix things, but we have to act now. If not 50 years is all we have left, and it's all downhill from here. The good ol' days are behind us if we don't make changes fast.

People do a lot of talking on this forum, that's well and good. How many of you write your congressmen and Senators? Until recently I hadn't either.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,78983,00.html

We are the ones to blame if nothing is done to change the current state of affairs. Bitching about it isn't going to solve anything. Let the debunkers fuel our fires.

If Ron Paul can be elected to congress, so can others like him. Maybe someone on this forum has what it takes to run against the opposition. Most of all, don't be afraid to speak your mind and stand up for what you believe in, although I don't really think that is a problem here.

Our generation is the future. Don't expect our parents generation to bear the burden alone and don't wait for our children to clean up after our mistakes.

Jits is right, since the U.S. abandoned the gold standard, thus we begin our deterioration. The current monetary system is what gives the elite the power they have, not to mention it is just plain wasteful and faulty. We need NESARA 20 years ago, but now would be better then never. Is anyone here in Ron Paul's district? I wish I was but I'm not. I'm not his constituent, so I won't be writing him. I've written my own congressman and senators and asked them to sponsor NESARA. If anyone here can write Ron Paul and believes in what NESARA can do, then write him and ask him to sponsor it. He is the only congressmen likely to do it. If anyone here is serious about starting a seperate forum that deals just with politics in the realms of anti NWO, NESARA, and in supporting a true constitutionalist party and backing only politicians that are loyal to such a cause, then get in touch with me. That means leaving the petty BS arguments that go on here behind and actually trying to accomplish something.

posted 05-11-2003 10:00 PM            

"The Lies Are Brilliantly Crafted"
Greg Palast with Marc Ash
t r u t h o u t | Exclusive Interview

Sunday 11 May 2003

http://truthout.org/docs_03/051103B.shtml

TO.ma: Greg welcome back to TO.

Your book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy is currently number 5 on The New York Times Best Seller list. Why?

GP: The USA is home to the largest, longest, deepest river of burbling bullshit known to man - home of the brave and of double-talk, nonsense, half-truths, Tom Brokaw, disinformation, baloney, CNN, white lies, black lies and Katie Curic - laughably called 'US media.' "And here, the President is waving to us from his helicopter!" ... And we're fed up TO HERE with it. So someone had to write a book with the facts that dare not speak their name in America: how the Bush clan fixed the election in Florida, spiked the investigation of the bin Ladins, peddled America like a cheap tart to every corporate John with campaign loot, let the World Bank eat Argentina for breakfast and encouraged Pat Robertson to commit unnatural acts with our Bill of Rights.

Those few citizens not yet Fox'd to death were ready for this book. And Michael Moore helped. By bringing over my stories through his talks and 'Stupid White Men,' he cracked the Propaganda Berlin Wall, opening the space for my investigative reports to rush through.

Plus, the new paperback has these cool illustrations by Winston Smith with 40% new material. Damn, what a bargain - who could resist?

TO.ma: Some would argue that commercial journalism has so completely abdicated objectivity that it is no longer news, but rather public relations. Is the independent media the last bastion of the free press?

GP: "Independent'' media in America is better called "starvation'' media: journalists that want to do real reporting don't survive long - Bob Parry, who uncovered the Iran-Contra scandal, lost his job at the AP, Seymour Hersh was pushed off the New York Times - and I'm in exile. Investigative reporting is a quick career path to disemployment. The 'dependent' media is killing us with poisoned lies.

And some of the lies are brilliantly crafted. Let me give you an example: The New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle and god knows how many others ran a photo in June 2001 under the screamer, "100,000 MARCH AGAINST VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT.'' Hugo Chavez. It had to be true: there was the photo. And I was there, in Caracas, so I know it was true. But what the Times and Chronicle DIDN'T show you was the demonstration, nearly twice as large, of Venezuelans marching IN SUPPORT of their President. So the Dependent Media effectively Stalinized the photos.

That left the independent media - Truthout and other dot-commies, plus the Pacifica Network and Spanish-language press - to set the record straight, to give the whole picture, literally.

TO.ma: You have labored long and hard to document the perils of unregulated multi-national corporate activity. To the average American who voted for George W. Bush what would say about the dangers of "Globalization?"

GP: Look at the documents I've seen and you'll get ill. Example: Pfizer Corporation, which makes Viagra, used to make a heart valve designed by a doctor named Viking Bjork - who found out the company's save-a-buck method of manufacturing them caused the valves to snap apart inside patients. Literally hundreds of hearts exploded, one ugly way to die. Dr. Bjork thought he should issue a public warning, but kept his mouth shut when a Pfizer exec telexed, "ATTN PROF BJORK: WE WOULD PREFER THAT YOU DID NOT PUBLISH THE DATA RELATIVE TO STRUT FRACTURE.'' The reason to withold the warning your heart valve could fail? "WE EXPECT A FEW MORE.'' Nice guys.

Pfizer continued to sell these heart-breakers worldwide.

And now the Bush Administration is using the World Trade Organization to prevent dead patients' families from suing Pfizer and other makers of bogus 'medical devices.'

TO.ma: The degree of corporate influence inside the White House is, in a very real sense, mind-boggling. Has there ever been a moment in American history where private interests have held this kind of influence at the highest levels of our government?

GP: Hey, don't panic. We've been here before. We survived Nixon. We survived Joe McCarthy. We survived the robber barons of the 1890s. Throughout US history, monied jackals have invaded the White House and Congress. Time after time they use some threat of external danger - the Commies, the Viet Cong, the Anarchists, the Terrorists, whomever - to keep Americans hypnotized by The Threat Out There. They empty the Treasury, bust unions, and impoverish the average Joe and Josephine. In the McCarthy era, General Electric used the Red Scare to hunt down and eliminate United Electrical Workers activists. Today, Al-Quida is used as the excuse to seal the EPA files on the real threat of contamination from Exxon-Mobil petrochemical plants.

But despair not: Every time, every single time, after we've been kicked in the head, Americans blink and think - and rise up angry in mass movements: one hundred years ago it was the Populist uprising, in the Sixties, in the Seventies, we had the Environmental and Consumer Movements - and don't forget the Labor, Union and Civil Rights Movements, to say "enough already!''