Dazed and Confused, further meanderings through this American wasteland……
By Will Cumberland
Christmas Day, 2001 – Possible
Directions for our Future.
My friend and I went to his house the other night to sit back for a bit and
just to relax. It had been a long week for the both of us, thus the need
for some R&R. After a few hours of listening to some new bands both
of us had never heard of before, we eased back and started talking about world
events. As with most conversations these days, our talk drifted towards
the current situation with ‘terrorism’ and our governments ‘overreaction’ to
the problems we are facing. One blaring
point came back to me, regardless of how the conversation went and it can be
summed up in one phrase;
We are getting screwed.
I'm going to make a few statements here, none are going to be very popular, but
they are true. Years later, when some unknown person digs up what was
left of our empire, they will be just discovering what a few of us realized in
the last few months. What they will find
is the remains of a nation that failed to heed it's own history, that history
being one of blind neglect and ignorance.
Americans, on average, are 'good' people, but not very insightful. When I
say ignorant, don't drudge up the idea that I'm trying to insult everyone in
general, but that I mean ignorant in the fact that they just don't know what is
going on. Think about it, how many
times do most Americans actually 'read' the news ‘in detail’. How many of
us read unbiased or independent news (almost every newspaper in a America is
owned by one of ten media companies, with one owner in particular being Rev.
Sung Moon) and actually discuss politics with our neighbors. We don't. We
are told never to discuss religion or politics.
Well, why is that really? That
sure doesn’t make sense, since both topics affect our lives everyday. Heck, not only should we talk about it, but
also we should begin to question both of them with sheer ruthlessness and
scathing criticism.
On a whole, most people avoid the arguments brought up by politics and
religion. This is for a good reason too. Have you ever actually tried to
have a conversation with an average American about politics, or heaven forbid,
religion? At best, their argumentative skills come from what they see on
the talk shows or they assume a position of such religious zeal that you
mistake them for some form of Christian Taliban. It's not worth it. At
this point, to the logical and freedom minded individual, it seems like the nation
has gone crazy.
For the most part, the news media drones on and on about Bin Laden, where he
might be at, what he's doing, why we should support the guy that stole the
presidency, some far right Senator from Missouri who needs our approval
screwing over the Constitution, corporate welfare disguised as Economic
Stimulus, the recession, how much butt kicking the military is doing (against a
group of people with two goats and a hut) and on and on and on.
I rarely watch the news anymore, and my reasons for doing so are well
founded. After asking a few
more friends what they thought, it affirmed my belief that the news we are
getting is so biased and very heavily leans towards government propaganda, with
a corporate bias. It's depressing to watch and makes me feel like a
character in the novel 1984 (which has more a more popular following now, than
it did in the year it's named after.) And yes, we are at war with
Eurasia.
For those of you that may have forgotten, I'm going to parallel what is going on
in America right now, with some of the warnings issued by Orwell in that
ill-fated novel. I'm doing this to prove several things to you.
One, that the tactics that the government, mainly Bush, Ashcroft, the energy
companies, the Far Right and others are so old school that they represent a
body of knowledge that gears itself towards societal engineering (Some would
say that it’s Egyptian or even Babylonian). The point is, these tactics
can work, and because we are not united as a nation of free thinkers, they will
succeed. Two, I’ll show several examples of the type of rulership we will
be facing if we don’t fight back and protect our rights. Three, I will lay out several points that
came to me during dreamtime and through my research. Each of these twenty some points are
indicators that may show that we are heading for a global police state.
Please think about what I say, if I offend you, so be it. But see beyond
that, I'm just trying to get you to think about these issues and free
yourself. Even if we all die tomorrow at the hands of some strange
homeland military force in gray or by the hands of some far right bigots,
you’ll know the truth. That’s more than
most of the public knows or realizes.
But first, let me say something. The human being gathers it's information
about what it knows of the world, from events and situations that it perceives,
or believes to perceive. The best way to gather and seek information is
to be there. Then, given past events, one can safely come to the understanding
of why the event happened. If that past is altered in any way, other than
the way it actually happens, perception can be skewed, in order to affect
reality. If you don't have a real basis from which to draw conclusions,
your total conclusion of the even will be false.
Hence my problem with the ‘News’ in America. You have to be able to trust
the information that you are being given. If you can't trust the source
of the information, or if the information is skewed to support a particular
viewpoint, it ceases to become information and should properly be called
propaganda. What you are viewing on CNN is propaganda that benefits Bush,
the corporations he represents and the world government. In the case of
Ashcroft, he represents the Religious Right (like the Council for National
Policy) and law enforcement.
This first step in freeing your mind is to not trust what you see or
hear. All things must be proven. This is the reason why true
environmentalism makes such a solid case when grounded in fact. It's hard
to argue with diseased kids who are dying from cancer and toluene in the
waterway. Politicians and business
leaders are masters of controlling popular opinion and skewing
information. It's what they do; it's what they are good at. This is why they are in power and you are
not. In other words, they lie well. You have to be a good liar
in order to hold any high government or corporate position, these days. In a sense, you have to be a master of
manipulation in order to shape public opinion and perception.
What bothered me most about the current 'war' is that the President repeats
over and over again that it's "going to be a long war, unlike any war
we've known." Feed me more bullshit please, sir. The
other thing I noticed in the news was right before we started invading; General
Richard Myers actually used the phrase "Oldthink". It sent chills down my spine when I heard him
utter that word. "Jesus," I thought, "Not only are they
trashing our civil liberties, they are starting to use phraseology similar to
'1984'." Please pay close attention to what he says in this recorded
dialogue :
"MYERS: Let me just follow up on that just a second, just to emphasize
what the secretary (Rumsfeld) said earlier. You know, if you try to quantify
what we're doing today in terms of previous conventional wars, you're making a
huge mistake. That is OLDTHINK, and that will not help you analyze what we're
doing. So if bombs are brought back,
or if bombs are expended, the numbers really are not all that important; in
some cases, irrelevant. (*So let’s
just waste millions of taxpayer dollars? Don't ask about it you damn
Oldthinkers.) And that's what we've been trying to tell you for three days:
It's a different kind of conflict, and it's not just a military conflict."
Great, now they've figure out a way to make the war last forever, hence
"War is Peace." In other words, "War is Life."
Now Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld also used this phrase in a question
and answer session with the Department of Defense. This scares me,
because it means some where, they are colluding to publicly use these sorts of
phrases. To me, linguistically
restructuring phraseology in such a fashion represents some kind of intended
skew, that benefits the 'war' and is designed to warp perception.
Now let’s compare and contrast this conversation with another
conversation. Rumsfeld is talking to Dan Rather, and here exactly is what
he said:
"RATHER: Mr. Secretary, how long do you expect the campaign in Afghanistan
to go along at or anywhere near the current level? I mean you're talking days,
weeks, and months? "
"RUMSFELD: Well, I think by campaign, you're probably referring to the
bombing and the cruise missiles. The important thing is that the campaign must
be used and understood to be in the broadest sense. We're so conditioned as a
people to think that a military campaign has to be cruise missiles and
television images of airplanes dropping bombs, and that's just false. (Ok, Mr.
Rummy, uh, what is war really?) This is a totally different war. We need a new
vocabulary. We need to get rid of OLDTHINK and start thinking about this thing
the way it really is. These people live in shadows."
Hmmm... just like 1984, to borrow from a friend, Orwell is batting a thousand
compared to Nostradamus.
In the novel 1984, the Inner Party, which comprised only 1% of the population,
deemed it necessary to invent the icon man 'Big Brother' and to create a new
vocabulary for people to forget about their past and history. (I find
this ironic, since in our society, the 1% of the population that controls our
culture also uses boogey men that are “everywhere”. Let’s think logically about this, is there
really a terrorist hiding under every rock, bush and bed?) So, if the person even tried to research
history, they would not understand why certain events took place. What
bothers me is that those in power right now even USE the ideas of Orwell's
'Inner Party'. The new vocabulary itself was designed to create only one
line of thought, which as former briefer for the CIA, Rumsfeld is an expert at
bending the truth to reflect only one way of thinking, their way. (Wait,
CIA, Rumsfeld, MKULTRA, 1984, the fun never ends.)
The use of electronic devices and microphones that record our every movement,
has been taking center stage in this new war on the American people, err ...
terrorism. Facial recognition technology is already in place in cities you
should mark off your vacationing planner, like Tampa Bay, FL, Baltimore, MD
Boston, MA.
In the novel, every action was watched or recorded by TV screens that recorded
their every move, or microphones that recorded everything that they said or
listened too. What shocked me the most when I first read this novel was
that the monitoring devices were in the homes. With the advent of
home-integrated security systems that allow private agents or police to monitor
events that happen when the alarm system is employed, how far away are we from
a camera in every home. Plus, some
services such as Yahoo, allows law enforcement to access their email systems
and web cam services. So, before you
broadcast next time, think about who may be watching.
The classic, and error filled argument comes up: “Well, I’m not doing anything wrong, so why should I worry about who is watching me?” Of all the attitudes towards personal privacy, this is the one I dislike the most. My response to that is simple, “What if they are gathering evidence against you or looking for something wrong?” If your really not so worried about cameras, then I suggest you keep that camera running while you falsify your taxes, talk about your employer and so on. Are you still interested in having your home tapped, phone calls screened and web broadcasts monitored?
How about this, what if the people watching you are judging you religiously? What if that little thing your doing, that you don’t consider a problem, is a actually a sin punishable by death in someone’s religion? So, if this current push for a National Theocracy succeeds, then religious stooges such as John Ashcroft, will have access to things you originally thought weren’t so bad, but in the eyes of council of right wing clergy, could get you hung.
I have personal experience with churches and religious organizations that used intelligence techniques to keep their parishioners in line. From what I saw, there are religious leaders that would not hesitate to use cameras and microphones to keep track of their people. The events that personally affected my life included people intelligence and how they used parishioners against each other, in order to control the church. Now, I ask you again, given the current political climate, can you truly say you want everyone knowing everything that goes on in your life? If someone knows everything about you, then they have absolute control over your life if they have the means. Are you so ready to give that over to them?
My statements aren’t meant to slight the people of Spirit and faith. I, myself, am a spiritual person, but I’m worried about the upcoming vie for power that we are seeing in this country.
In brief, I’ve laid out my own idea of what three forms of Rulership we may see in this country. It’s possible that we may see a blend of any three of these, but I stick to notion that unless freedom, democracy and the Constitution are defended, we will start to see evidence of all three of these forms of slavery taking place in this country:
2. Fascist Rule (Rule by government). All life answers to the whims of the Republic. You live and die for the Republic. Children are raised to support the Party and everything that the Party teaches. Citizens are expected to report all actions and people that are living contrary to rules of the Republic. Anyone that does not obey the Republic or the Authorities will be dealt with swiftly and deadly. Desecration of the Flag (or emblem) of the Republic is an offense punishable by death and anyone that speaks against the Republic will be branded a terrorist and/or traitor. In the Republic, one swears allegiance to the President, not to the constitution. Police and Military have full authority to conduct ‘field trials’, in which the police act as judge, jury and executioner. Everything that you do is watched. Welcome Citizen, to the Republic….
(A very good article on Theocracy and its effects in America currently can be found online at this Washington Monthly News site http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0104.mencimer.html )
Given the current political
climate, I found it necessary to lay out 20 points that may help someone to
recognize that America is heading for dire straights. Some points came to me during reading,
research and some just by basic common sense.
Other points, I will admit, came to me while dreaming. As strange as this may seem, I find that
clear thoughts during dreamtime are the result of your mind working over time
to solve problems and issues, thus deriving a solidified notion of the correct
course of action. With that, here are
my points that you can use to discern change.
America will cease to be a democratic republic when the following happens:
1. The Homeland Security forces set up checkpoints on our highways, wearing
gray uniforms.
2. Anyone that questions Bush (not the president, cause he's not actually the
president), his staff or what they are doing, are considered traitors, aiding
and abetting the 'terrorist.'
3. Freedom takes a back seat to safety and anyone that fights for human rights,
privacy and civil liberties is considered evil in the eyes of the majority and
the government.
4. Reserve and National Guard units are mobilized to fill the ranks of the
Homeland Security Force (plus those units are not allowed to patrol their
home states.)
5. Ashcroft makes the suggestion that anyone questioning the President should
be considered a traitor, or someone that aides the terrorist.
6. Never actually finding Bin Laden or suggesting that the Al Queda network is
"still out there.'
7. Roving phone taps on every phone and the attempt to remove "Habeas
Corpus."
8. The Fourth Amendment is suspended, along with the First and Second.
9. Guns are confiscated.
10. Bush refuses to step down, or Ashcroft refuses to step down, even after
they are accused of criminal actions, possibly financial.
11. Money spent on crime bills and economic packages are actually spent on
companies owned by bush, cheney, baker, rumsfeld or etc, to bail out or give
money to these companies. These monies, knowing the government, will be
paid back in Tax Refunds, since it's easy to amend past forms.
12. The government starts to go after political and 'religious' groups (Read,
non-christian groups at first, but then one must note – even the Christians
themselves are going to be watched, since they may no longer be providing a
service after helping the Party obtain power.)
13. The government begins to suppress forms of media and destroying records.
14. Various 'deaths' and 'killings' of people that have been highly critical of
the current administration or Bush.
15. Ashcroft begins to attack Roe Vs. Wade, and other Constitutional
legislation.
16. The Religious Right, Council for National Policy and others, take a more
active role in the media and government.
17. Creationism is placed in the public school system. (This will be done to
cause strife and class conflicts. Such
things are done to take the public’s mind off the real issues at hand.)
18. Attorney & Client privileges are amended.
19. No more Jury Trials.
20. People being held and tried on secret evidence.
Sources:
1984, George Orwell
“Theocracy in America - What Gentile life in Mormon
Utah can teach us about church and state.” By Stephanie Mencimer, Editor, The
Washington Monthly.
“A Canidate in their Own Image” People for the
American Way, Article 01-18-2001. John
Ashcroft and his links to Religious Right.
The Constitution of the United States, Bill of
Rights – written by We The People.
“Little Brother is Watching.” “I am not a number”
“Amerika, Amerika” “Welcome to Future Felons of America” by Claire Wolfe http://www.curleywolfe.net/cw/Essays.shtml
A Peoples
History of the United States, Howard Zinn, The real and unbiased history of the
United States. 3rd Edition. 2001