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Ignorance is not Bliss

by Frank Scott

A new year begins with the economy in recession, unemployment and
homelessness rising, and health care and housing costs skyrocketing.
But  is that anything new, in the center of global capitalism ? Nor is
it new that we are inflicting punishment on poor third world people who
never did anything to us,  while our leaders claim this is only the
beginning of a long, long war against terrorism.

Since the evil commies are  gone , we’ve replaced them with evil
terrorists so that billions will continue to be spent on weapons and
death,  insuring a future of even more weapons and death. All this, as
we move closer to transforming the world into a massive shopping mall
where a minority madly over-consumes , while the majority suffers  empty
stomachs, poisoned environments and crippling debt .

Noam Chomsky describes our state of mind as “willful and determined
ignorance”, which is really the will of corporate mind management
determining the level of ignorance of our people. Given the massive
intervention into our lives by media, how can Americans know anything
but what we are told by these  consciousness controllers? Their voices
spread the party line , telling us that our present demon is even worse
than past demons, but not to notice that most of these demons are from
the oil rich east. They’re just isolated , crazy murderers, with no
connection to  political or economic issues. Sure.

Remember the Libyan demon? The Iranian demon? How about the  Iraqi
demon, still high on the Israeli hit list and therefore high on ours?
And we can’t forget a major Palestinian demon, trotted out every time
his people are driven mad enough to make bombs of themselves; the
seemingly eternal  Arafat, who is used and abused as his people have
been used, abused and treated as excrement by the bigots of Israel and
their racist sponsors in the USA.

Isn’t it interesting that these demons have threatened us for no reason
other than jealousy, hatred of modern life, and religious fanaticism?
That’s believable, if you also believe that we pay rent because god
wills it, or that we shop  because  evolution changed  us from field
rodents to mall rats . Duh?

Our short attention span is willfully determined by mind managers who
see to our mental diet of misinformation. This features a world view
focused on strengthening a belief in our national correctness, decency,
and invincibility. Given that control of our consciousness, it’s easy to
conclude that ungrateful and crazy people hate us, despite all the good
we do. And when that hatred provokes insane actions like the bloody
murder of 911, the only therapy we can propose is mass murder and social
destruction, which is called humanitarian intervention by our mind
managers. What else can a decent and invincible society do?

What nation has killed more people than any other, over the past fifty
years? It would be hard to get a correct answer in the USA, though we
are that nation. The rest of the world would know, given  its relatively
free press. At least by comparison to what we call newspapers, which are
really enclosures for advertisements. Add up the number of news pages in
your local gazette, and subtract the pages devoted to fluff about
recipes, hobbies and ways to be more intimate with your pets . Then
compare that to the number of ad pages  in that same “news” paper. No
wonder we are among the most ignorant and confused people on earth,
especially about our political economics.

That’s why many polls show that we support social spending over private
tax cuts, and often by great majorities, but are ruled by forces that
give us the exact opposite. And the constantly repeated 90% support
figures for our middle school president only reinforce the obvious. When
people are asked simplistic questions like whether they support or
oppose  fighting against terrorism, what are they supposed to answer?

Yet our media dutifully report that our tongue-tied leader  is backed by
everyone but a handful of traitors and some kooks  who  dare to think
for themselves. Hardly mentioned is the fact that he was elected by a
disputed and  even smaller than usual minority and is converting our
bill of rights into a roll of toilet paper, with an opposition so
spineless it makes a convention of hair dressers seem macho by
comparison. What’s a people to do?

Perhaps take heart from the fact that so many are working for peace in
this fascistic atmosphere of war. And that so many more boldly ask
questions they once whispered, gaining strength by learning they are not
alone in their thinking, despite the media.  Americans are not nearly as
dumb as their mind controllers would have it, and public opinion can
change in a flash. The  anger that has been played upon to win our
support for murderous economic policy elsewhere, can be turned around
and brought home as soon as we realize that it not only originates here,
but is practiced on us as well.

Foreign policy is exported domestic policy . The disrespect for life
that  sells health care and housing only to the highest bidders here at
home,  is the disrespect for life that self-righteously destroys the
lowest people everywhere in the world. But a growing population is
demanding  another way of living, one that sees humanity and the earth
as more than marketable commodities.

Did you know that since 911, there have been demonstrations against
corporate globalization  in more than thirty five countries? The voice
of democratic life can be heard above the noise of corporate death, but
only if we use alternative sources of information that are not censored
by marketeers of capital.

It may seem as though things are worse than ever, but it’s possible that
the best is yet to come. If we think freely and act on those thoughts,
we can make  a better world. Happy New Year.




Copyright (c) 2002 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

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frank scott
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