numan

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Zombiedom (or should that be, "zombie-dumb"?) arises from the susceptibility of common people to the propaganda ceaselessly pouring out of the boob-tube and other sources of indoctrination. These forms of manipulation are carefully constructed so as to take advantage of the emotional weaknesses of their anthropoid audience. The hominids are normally quite unaware that they are being manipulated emotionally. It is similar to the way religion preys upon the hopes and fears of simple-minded people, but it is far more efficient than religion. That is why the state, after so many centuries of strict control, permits religion to fade away. It is no longer needed in order to control people.

I remember, as a teenager in the 1950's, reading a book by Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders, which described how the PR types were already, in the 1930's, covertly photographing and studying people who shopped in markets. They noted that, if their subjects' eye-blink rate went below a certain number per minute, they were in a state of semi-hypnosis and were more likely to make impulse-purchases. They discovered that the arrangements of the colors of the boxes on the display shelves could induce this state of semi-hypnosis in many people. Remember that as you walk down the aisles of your local supermarket.

Well, it has been nearly a century since those first, crude efforts at sub-conscious manipulation. Everything is far, far more sophisticated today. When I was a teenager, many people were very concerned about subliminal advertising. Do you hear anything about it today? Yet the techniques are much more advanced. Look at the flashing lights, the endless jumping from image to image, several times per second, to which people subject themselves when they watch TV.

There is no need to enslave people's bodies, when you can enslave their minds.
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numan

It seems to have worked on you.
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numan

Yeah, yeah, that's what they tell you ! ---
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numan

Well, really, you don't know what my politics are, since I don't fit into any of the pre-programmed pigeon-holes.

Unlike most of the people I run across, I am not a totalitarian. I would be quite happy to see a variety of economic systems in the world. "Different strokes for different folks." To want to kill and die in order to establish one, universal economic system in the world ---- as the capitalists and communists wanted to do ---- seems supremely insane to me: as insane as the Age of Religious Wars.

I cannot resist quoting a snippet from Aldous Huxley's novel, After Many a Summer. Remember it was published in 1939 [ ! ].

I hope those who read this may feel some surprise that there were functioning, practical solar generators of electricity in 1939.

I hope that they will ask themselves why they have not heard about it before.

I hope that they will wonder if there are other things which have not been told to them ---- and why.
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arcturus88

I think I know your recipe:

1 cup pacifism
1 cup individualism
1 cup libertarianism

a teaspoon of anarchism
a dollop of liberal idealism


Start with one cup pacifism, it should be allowed to settle and ferment for 40-50 years. Swirl in individualism and libertarianism to make the pacifism less bitter. Add a teaspoon of anarchism to fortify the flavor of individualism. Throughout process add dollops of liberal idealism to taste (warning adding too much will spoil the whole recipe and will prevent it from congealing)


note:
to Tecoyah, this post was meant as a lighthearted and playful jab and not intended to offend or harm your father-in-law.

numan

You are quite wrong, Arcturus; none of those five apply to me --- all of them are much too simplistic and cardboard cut-out. But especially, libertarian does not apply to me.

I feel sympathy for the libertarian viewpoint; I share many of their concerns. But I am repulsed by their blind and lop-sided thinking. They have drawn our attention to many Great Truths, but remember what the famous physicist, Niels Bohr, said:

"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth."

To fully understand a great truth, one must also understand the cogency of its opposite.

For instance: libertarians are hypnotized by their fantasy of the Free Enterprise System. Now, if this religious ideal could exist, it would have a number of positive aspects ---- it would also have a number of negative aspects. But the real point is that it is a fantasy, a will-o'-the-wisp which ever recedes as you pursue it. Free enterprise does not exist, never has existed, and will exist ever less and less, if the libertarians have their way.

Libertarians rightly see the dangers of government, especially Big Government. But they do not see the dangers of business, especially Big Business. They see everywhere the virtues of the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace, but they ignore the dangers of the Invisible Mind of the Marketplace.

During the Middle Ages, the commoners were usually in alliance with the king, against the nobles. King and commoners were not friends, but they had a common enemy, and the commoners were in more immediate danger from the nobility than from the more distant king.

Today, the little people are endangered by both Big Government and Big Business, but Monopoly International Corporations are a more immediate and profound threat than government. They insinuate themselves into every crevice of our lives, and, if unchecked, would quickly reduce all of us to serfdom and slavery. Business monopolies are the antithesis of the free enterprise ideal, and bear far more resemblance to Stalin's state capitalism than to the virtue and pluck of libertarians' competitive small-business ideal.

Government is a dangerous ally, and is now mainly controlled by Big Business Monopolies, but what other choice do the little people have than to try to use the power of government to protect themselves from being eaten alive by the Monopoly Corporations? If libertarians really want to see their ideals bear some practical fruit, they should think long and hard about countering the tyranny of Big Business as well as fighting the dangers of Big Government. Then they might find more allies.

I remember a time when small businessmen were more important in American life than they are now. Under the influence of a lop-sided and unrealistic way of thinking, they usually voted for right-wing candidates who told them pleasing lies. Once in power, these supposed supporters of free-enterprise served the interests of the richest and most powerful. Then the Big Box stores spread everywhere, marginalizing and bankrupting the small businessmen who were suckered into electing the servants of International Monopoly Business. Most of these gullible people probably still vote for right-wing candidates. Thus we see that brainwashing and narrow-minded, obstinate clinging to only one way of looking at things can defeat even the power of basic self-interest.
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numan

The key word in your posting is: "seems" ---
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numan

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America's Vast, Right-Wing Conspiracy of Billionaires: Koch, Scaife, DeVos, etc.

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numan

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The Cardinal Sin of America is lying. Every facet of American life is pervaded with lies, half-truths and double-talk. As a result, most Americans, to a greater or lesser degree, have become mentally deranged. There is so little truth and so much deception that they believe their own lies.
----Ahem! Modesty forbids!

The most striking contradiction of our civilization is the fundamental reverence for truth which we profess and the thorough-going disregard for it which we practise.
----Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Human beings are essentially irrational animals, not rational spirits.
They are much more comfortable with illusion and fantasy, half-truths and deceit, than with cold, hard facts and impersonal truth.

No one would think for a moment that the skills of a professional athlete could be acquired without years of unremitting effort. Yet few of these same people feel that the skills of a thinker require the same ceaseless effort and training. Indeed, most think that they themselves possess these skills of thinking to a high degree of perfection.

Consciousness reigns, but does not govern.
----Paul Valéry
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numan

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Gun Control and Violence in Canada

This is a reason why I am constantly emphasizing the tetchiness of Americans, and how common hysteria, or near hysteria, is in the history of America. There is something essentially wrong with America, and it is very deeply engrained.

I think there is a deep sickness in the sense of morale of the country.
Moreover, I think the most important first step in dealing with that sickness is getting rid of the old, sclerotic horse-and-buggy Constitution and creating an up-to-date constitution from scratch, fit for the conditions of the 21st century.

As long as Americans do not deal with their own mental and moral sickness, they have no business messing about in the rest of the world.
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numan

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The cold, hard facts (to which Americans seem so averse) are these:

List of countries by intentional homicide rate

0.44 --- Japanese murder rate per 100,000 per year

5.40 --- American murder rate per 100,000 per year

Americans are more murderous than people in Yemen (3.98), Palestine (3.85)[ ! ], Philippines (3.82), and Uzbekistan (3.16).

However, looking toward happier and better lands, our hearts must be cheered when we see the relative sunlight and goodness of northern, western and central Europe.

At the low end: Norway (0.71), Austria (0.73), Denmark (0.88), Germany (0.88), Sweden (0.89), Netherlands (0.91) and Greece (0.98)

At the high end: Portugal with a whopping 2.5 per 100,000 [Spain is just at 1.2, however].

Switzerland is not far behind, at 2.26 murders per 100,000.
[So much for the canard that the armed-to-the-teeth Swiss are models of reason and peaceability!]

Britons, who never, never will be slaves, are in murderous third place at 2.03 murders per 100,000.
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numan

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When we look within the United States, we must be struck by the considerable variability in murder rates between different regions:

Crime in the United States

Naturally, you are more likely to be murdered if you are in a big American city. Giving figures at murders per 100,000 people per year, Baltimore (46) and Detroit (45) have no trouble competing with third-world mayhem, and the District of Columbia (35.8) is neck-and-neck with its namesake, murderous Colombia (36) --- as is New Orleans (35).

Curiously, the Bible-obsessed South and West contain the the most dangerous states in which to live: Louisiana (12.7), Maryland (9.4), New Mexico (8.9), Mississippi (7.8), Nevada (7.4), Arizona (7.2), South Carolina (6.9), Georgia (6.9). All the rest of the old Confederacy are in the 6's and 5's.

Utah is interesting. A Bible-obsessed place, it has a European murder-rate: 1.9. But it has a much higher than average rate for rape.

In general, the closer you are to the Canadian border, the safer you are. Apparently, the radiance of Queen Victoria still has power to sooth the wild and savage American heart --- at least, to some extent. [Canada (1.83)]

Maine, New Hampshire and North Dakota all have murder rates of 1.4 per 100,000 --- quite respectable, even by European standards. Iowa (1.6) is not far behind.

Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming are all in the 2's, and could be considered civilized, if it were not for other factors.

You are less likely to be murdered if you live in the central wastelands of the USA, though I suspect that is mainly because the region is so sparsely settled that you have to drive a long distance to find someone to shoot, and therefore have time to cool down.
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numan

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INDIANS of CALIFORNIA - American Period

Just another of the black crimes and horrors of American history that most Americans refuse to face up to.

How very different things might have been if the Terrorist Uprising of 1776 had been squashed, and good Queen Victoria had presided over her 19th century American Empire!! (No Civil War, for one thing)

During her Jubilee celebrations Queen Victoria saw Buffalo Bill Cody's show and was much taken with the Native Americans. Afterwards she addressed them: "All over the world I have seen all kinds of people; but today I have seen the best-looking people I know. If you belonged to me, I would not let them demean you by taking you around in a show like this!"

Hurrah for politically correct Victoria!
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numan

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Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media

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numan

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A description of the ideal American consumer-unit :

L'Automatisme Psychologique

Janet related the origin of subconscious phenomena in hysterical patients to the narrowing of their field of consciousness. This concept refers to the reduction of the number of psychological phenomena that can be simultaneously united or integrated in one and the same personal consciousness. Some register in conscious awareness, others are relegated to a subconscious area in much the same way that central and peripheral items in a visual field are noticed. In Janet's view, narrowing the field of consciousness is one of the two basic characteristics of hysteria. The other is dissociation....

Dissociation and mental dissolution...denote the manner in which this narrowing of the field of consciousness occurs in hysterical patients. Dissociation occurs when different factors disturb the integrative capacity. This disturbance leads to the splitting off or doubling (dédoublement), separation and isolation of certain psychological regulating activities. These dissociated systems of activities (states of consciousness) vary in complexity from a simple image, thought or statement and its attendant feelings or bodily manifestations, to the alter personalities of patients with multiple personality disorder....

While clinicians such as Bemheim and Babinski regarded hyper-suggestibility as the basic characteristic of hysterical patients, Janet stated that hyper-suggestibility depended on the narrowing of the field of consciousness and the predisposition to dissociation. The patient is suggestible because dissociated parts of his mind lack the higher mental functions of critical judgment. By distracting the patient, the hypnotist is able to communicate directly with these parts....

Janet introduced the concept of "psychological misery" to denote the mental status of patients in whom the field of consciousness was narrowed and whose integrative powers were strongly diminished, thus allowing dissociative phenomena to occur....

...vehement emotion such as the fear and anger inherent in traumatic experiences are primary causes of "psychological misery." This state is marked by a serious decline of the integrative power of the mind and, in hysterical patients, an increase in dissociative phenomena.
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numan

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Robert Mercer

...thinks that the Civil Rights Act was one of the great mistakes in modern American history.

...says that Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and nuclear war in general, were not as bad as people think. It’s survivable, he argues, and not only that; the radiation from it, he suggests, from the fallout, is good for people.

He has, according to his colleagues, a theory of humans which is that they have no inherent value --- that human beings are only worth as much as they can earn. He argues that he earns thousands of times more than a school teacher, which makes him that much more valuable than school teachers.

--Yeah, I'd say that sounds like the rantings of a group committed to the destruction of the human race.

Robert Mercer is the chief financial backer of the Trump presidency, therefore that makes Mercer one of the most prominent Republicans in the world.

One cannot argue the same of the Koch Brothers because their pet cause is the Libertarian Party. They will support Republicans but only if they kow-tow to Libertarian values. They are just as likely to support Democrats if the Democrats help the Koch bottom line.
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numan

How about these these "patriots" debating the great issues of the day with the same calm, rational demeanour exhibited by the Founding Fathers?


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numan

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America's Corrupt Legal System
Rigged courts, bribed judges, phony trials, extortion by lawyers, and over 2 million prisoners in the USA gulag

Here is another interesting site about judicial corruption in the United States:

FAQ on U.S. Judicial and Legal Corruption

I can put stuff like this on the web without danger of harassment, since I no longer live in the USA. There are definite advantages to living in exile.
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tecoyah

You most certainly hate America...good to know, but hopefully you understand how you are representing Canada.

numan

How can it be hatred if one is simply dispassionately studying the facts?

But then I forget --- so many Americans see facts as being threatening.
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