A Paradigm of Control – “On the Edge” – Part 1

Part 1 – A Paradigm of Control

This is part 1 of the series, On the Edge of the Abyss … other chapters are detailed here

Preface and Index – for my series “On the Edge of the Abyss”is here

Part 1  - A Paradigm of Control — here

Part 2  – Retail and Consumerism — here

Part 3  – Politics — here

Part 4  – Beliefs — here

Part 5  – Media — here

Part 6  – Control & Propaganda — here

Part 7 – Cultural Division, The Media, Judgement and Projections – here

Part 8 – Consumerism and Minimalism – here

Part 9 – Humanity in 2018 – here

Part 10 – A Path to understanding and dialogue – here

Part 11 – Where we are, and where we are going – here

A way to control us, to move us towards an external agenda has been around since before the second world war, it was refined into a process by Edward Bernays, who is noted as the father of Public Relations, and its more sinister sister, Propaganda … he combined the ideas on crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, into his book Propaganda (published in 1928). We can find a resource to deconstruct the book ‘Propaganda’ (1928) by Edward Bernays, the father of Public Relations as well as the engineering of mass consent here – http://bit.ly/1kSTqDD The concept was further explored in the four (4) part BBC documentary by Alan Curtis called “The Century of the self”(2002) – due to its importance and unavailability I went looking for an online resource, the only complete ones I can find are on Torrent sites – (Yes I know) – but it contains in my view a important perspective, as well it is a lucid and detailed analysis of our current paradigm and the mechanics of how we are controlled and manipulated to follow someone else’s agenda .. We are not free, this is the great fear that is manipulated (in the USA and elsewhere) but we are not, we are just told we are … note if someone keeps telling me I am free or I should fight for it, I am obviously not free, in a way it’s like the short story, written by Hans Christian Anderson – Emperor’s New Clothes which can be defined as: Collective ignorance of an obvious fact, or deception, despite undeniable evidence – this also reminds me of climate change and the effect of Political influence on decision making. Today the various aspects of control and propaganda are used by Governments, Corporations and many others to actually engineer our consent and or compliance … it is strange, for if you have tried to change an individual person’s mind, this proves almost impossible, but in the mass market using herd influences what we “like” but more, what we “fear” in all its forms are used to influence us, to, if you will, stampede us towards herd compliance – forcing us to use the emotional (the ancient limbic center of the brain), not the reasoning centers of the brain, to manufacture decisions that have been manipulated which are by and large invisibly coerced. You might ask for examples of ploys, a very incomplete list as below. Scarcity … We have only one left at this price or get one before the price goes up, next week – Rare products, real-estate and all collectibles work on this premise as well. Fear – any number of triggers, to make people fearful, normally of a minority such as a person’s ethnicity, religion, race, skin colour, financial status (the poor and the homeless ) Abortion, Sexual preference (Lesbian, Gay and the Bi-sexual) Asylum Seekers (Australia) and Immigration in lots of places (fear) – this I do not understand, for when you think about it, we are all immigrants, our families, all came from somewhere else. Appealing to our likes, to our vanity, to our ego, to our self-worth (or more likely) our lack of it, and to our inherent human flaws weaknesses. Nationalism and Patriotism – This week we are hearing about Texas being fearful of being invaded … what mind would conjure that thought? Fear based certainly, mind you such fear based thoughts are a great way to divert attention away (for a number of news cycles) from real and present problems in other areas of a State or countries economy or political system. The more educated and experienced we are, the more likely it is that we will see through these control and influencing strategies, but sadly probably only in hindsight, rarely in the moment. All these triggers are used to keep us feeling anxious and unsafe, in these emotional states we are susceptible to manipulation … these states are normal these days with the manufactured uncertainty courtesy of the 0.1% … the economies are failing, job security is (and in the major part always has been) uncertain, the paradigm is failing, me I believe it has already, we are in transition, but to what? … those in control hope to be there at the right time to offer an alternative .. to take away our fears – and our liberty at the same time … but remember when they say — you will be safe, you have to ask, safe from what – from the 0.1% or their manufactured threat. We are controlled in difficult and dire times, through our fears, we would rather choose something that is safe, than what we really want – so unless we have no alternative, we will maintain the status quo. Convention, is safe, convention is the paradigm, the layers of beliefs, that has been sold to us and the generations before us … but we are changing, convention is no longer what is safe, for now it has become a prison – a prison we can escape from sooner rather than later, if only humanity would learn from the past – but I feel confident, when we do begin to understand the lessons of the past – accept our environmental responsibility, and climate change – humanity will escape from this prison. Control, conformity, aggression and even the path to hate come from fear … this is the most powerful trigger we have … but if you can appeal to desires, even manufactured desires (sold to them in the form of a paradigm .. “the American dream”) through this, which are led to consume or procure, you can manufacture a false happiness in the people, which they will buy, until the dream cannot be attained, however, this manufactured happiness is primarily about material things and the surface of life, there is no attempt or ability to find actual true happiness, for this is only attainable within us – it is not possible to find happiness in the broad terms of what is important to an individual, through control, or to find tranquility, that comes from their actual meaning of life – those in power cannot “fix” this, because it is not something that can be manipulated externally – because it is different for each of us as it is not material, it is emotional, but primarily spiritual. A primary outcome of the paradigm of control we are in, is consumption – this needs money … unless you have it to purchase or consume, you have to borrow it – debt and its obligations are another way we are controlled, for the real price of debt is freedom. The consequences of this uncontrolled consumption, is the rape of our home, and the profound environmental disaster we are already within, but have no fear, the planet will survive, but if we continue the course we are on .. we will not. The Media’s (attempts at News) is a subject for a detailed analysis later, but due to influence of corporate power through ownership or advertising revenue (whether explicit, implied – is again fear driven) … the majority of news organisations are no longer impartial – they either totally ignore an issue or beat it up to make it seem larger than it is … to generate fear (and ratings and revenue) … to push someone else’s agenda – as well to much of media is opinion, mostly uninformed opinion … or others spew hate and division, others infotainment – entertainment (diversion) and others meaningless rhetoric. Propaganda: A definition; it is information that is not impartial or balanced which is used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively (perhaps lying by omission), misrepresentation, focusing on a negative aspect, to encourage a particular synthesis, or using loaded emotive messages to produce an reaction, an emotional reaction (such as a fear driven response) rather than a rational response, when the information is impartially presented. An example of this was the alleged and fraudulently represented the “infamous” weapons of mass destruction – proposed by President Bush his administration, and the coalition of the willing that were either lied to were coerced or complicit in the lies. Now we refer to the master of manipulation … the way our past is manipulated, how the Bible, and other “good” books are manipulated for an external agenda,(where religion itself is used as a weapon) we must defer to recent masters, such as the Nazi’s and Adolf Hitler here – but the American, Russian, English Governments are almost there, good students seem to be the European Union, and the Australian Governments (Our Prime Minister is uninformed as well as being fixed in his beliefs, a Fundamentalist close to matriculating) are along the path – remember almost all Governments use these manipulation tactics – so do many families of course. Here are some applicable quotes …

· It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge – Adolf Hitler and How fortunate for leaders that men do not think – Adolf Hitler

And for Iraq ..

· Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it – Adolf Hitler

This is how we went to war in Iraq – the lie was that the Iraqi’s had “Weapons of mass destruction” – it actually turned out that the lie was the Weapon of Mass Destruction … there were no actual such weapons in Iraq. The how is just a process of observing the timeline of events, but the more important question is Why … what was the reason that Bush ( who must be judged by history as a failed President) wanted war … is it just a simple case of divert our attention from his failings, or the state of the American economy, or was it a case of just follow the money … or something else. The days of servant leadership is over … those Presidents that have had Military experience in a war zone .. the last was George H. W. Bush, before that Jimmy Carter a link to the Military records of US Presidents is here … in my view until one has been to war, once does not recognise the absolute waste and futility of it … it is surprising that no one since has an active war record .. they see no problem so readily going to war … obviously because they or their families won’t be part of it. We can go back almost 2000 years to a quote about belief systems, by Lucius Seneca … “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful” – Lucius Seneca , also Napoleon Bonaparte said “Religion is the only things that keeps the poor man from murdering the rich.” We will talk of this another time – namely the layers of military, the influence of the Military / Industrial / Intelligence sectors, the origination and the effect of terror and of course war itself (where the basest unrestrained drives are released uncontrollably) — Heinrich Himmler ( Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), the Nazi German Chief of Police) said of terror – “The best political weapon is terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don’t ask for love; only for their fear” Blame: This is a integral part of any divide and rule campaign, by convincing through repeated lying (by the ignorant, too many Politicians, the bigoted, and fundamentalists) , that the poor, that the homeless, that immigrants, that a religious Minority (the Jews in Nazi Germany), in the current case the Islamic communities are blamed and profiled and thus targeted, this is quite revealing and wrong … it distracts people from the real cause, which in the current case is a total incompetence to deal with a new reality, a change global economy, as it moves away from consumption.Another way to distract people from their lack of opportunities is to go to war, in America’s case to start a war, which they do on a regular basis … they are in severe deficit, being technically bankrupt yet they continue to sign checks that just increase the overdraft. Why? Distraction, Predatory capitalism .. something I will need to do research on and see what comparison to previous cultures in history. Let’s see on the surface, how Propaganda is used today? The most blatant users is always Government, and hence Political parties, as will those who are trying to become part of it, for their own agenda, of course it is used by spin doctors in business, but always it is used to push an agenda! Political Influence – Propaganda The Tea Party was originally a grass roots movement that came as a response to the gross injustices of the Global financial meltdown … that was hi-jacked by sociopathic, power seeking manipulative souls, perhaps in hindsight this should not be a surprise … the Tea Party has become such a divisive force in the USA, it has in effect now a major force in what was the Republican party, now the resulting party is no longer a healing and governing force, in fact one might call the Tea Party itself the American Taliban …. this place where the Fundamentalist (Christian fundamentalism began in the late 19th- and early 20th-century among British and American Protestants[1][2] as a reaction to theological liberalism and cultural modernism) Religion has been turned into a weapon ( it often is) … in this case the Christian Ideology is the weapon, it’s dogmatic immovable rhetoric, the inability to take criticism …. but for me, God only has one law – “love one another’ – one could define the platform on which these Politicians stand as to be made of sand, the Hubris of those that would consider themselves “holy” enough to interpret God’s law (cherry picked passages of course to further an agenda) – however this Propaganda is incredibly divisive .. it has corrupted and split the Republican party, it is even more divisive than its lesser know offshot “Creationism” – truly people who believe this are not in this world, with ample evidence of animals going back tens of millions, hundreds of millions of years …. and mankind going back to its origin point in Africa up to a million years ago … in a larger context what was once the home of the free … it is hastening the devolution of the United States of America as it is being manipulated along the path of division, to militarism, fascism and at the appropriate time, ultimately tyranny. Aspects of a Fundamentalism (no matter what the underlying religion is)

• ·A Tribal Mentality
• ·Xenophobia
• ·Aggression  – comes from fear
• ·Control and conformity – comes from fear
• ·The Inability to take criticism or defend their words except from unsubstantiated dogma.
• ·Hostility to Science and education in general
• ·Need to control women’s bodies
• ·Devolution of education

·Blame for what is wrong with America (or any country) – a target group or groups are needed to blame for all the ills (with Hitler it was the Jews) – this group that is blamed always an minority (and with little political power or influence), such as the poor, the homeless (a large number of which are ex: military), Lesbian, Gay and transgender communities, American Indians .. plus! – · Divide and conquer – religion is being used (not for the first time) as a weapon · Disinformation – America was not founded as a Christian country – it says so in the 1st Amendment, by John Adams in the Treaty of Tripoli – that Politicians say it is leads me to question their sanity, their ethics, intelligence – but most of all their honour and integrity. · Using religion to exacerbate deep ideological differences, such as those between the North and the South · Depersonalisation of people … seeing a person define by the colour, creed, religion or sex, using Labelling including Ethnic Profiling – it negates the concept that everyone has value, those they love, we must remember that past the external label everyone has family, everyone has desires for how they define happiness …. profiling in the case the distance of those in the middle east defines everyone as Muslims, when a large number are not … it is another way we divert attention … we blame others, when the cause is within our own society. We blame the world for 9/11 .. the cause of which was either as the 0.1% would have us believe or perhaps it was initiated within the United States, to find a scapegoat – Bush decided that cause was Iraq, which with the Global Financial Meltdown are in large part the reason for the mess we are in, for it has put us all on the path into the abyss. The actual blame for the state of America, is not external … is within those who manipulate us … in their inability to understand the change of the paradigm, that previous strategies no longer work, in their fears (to always be anonymous, and to divert focus away from them – lest they become a target, themselves) whilst at the same time, becoming a privileged entitled elite within the world, at a cost to everyone else – manufacturing compliance for their strategy, through the media and their influence on Politicians and the political process Remember a definition of the process of control … Much of #control is not in overt or authoritative #action but in planting seeds and mindfully #waiting ~ David Sanders #longcon This is the status quo, and more control will come unless we change, the alternative is dramatic global change … preferably by a mass awakening .. or revolution which sadly seems more likely (as I said in my preface post) here , will just lead to more of what we have now is a generation or more, I believe what is needed is that we dramatically change our beliefs, namely that there have to be winners and losers, rich and poor, national borders for instance (no borders, no wars) – let me know what you think? If everyone has what they need, why would we need money at all? The key to this is respect for others and their right to liberty and self determination – note , there is much confusion between liberty and freedom … we can all be free… but freedom does not confer on anyone a right to restrict the rights or freedom of someone else! References .. Books and Publications as for the preface post, the works of Freud, Jung and Edward Bernays … Laurence Lessing, Noam Chomsky; Fundamentalism – A Very short Introduction by Malise Ruthven (Oxford University Press); Encyclopaedia Britannica, Wikipedia; plus many more – interpretation comes from these resources and my own observations.