“If those in charge of our society—politicians, corporate executives, and the owners of press and television—can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.”—Howard Zinn
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it . . . It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”—Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of the former Third Reich
Perhaps the biggest single lie perpetrated upon everyday ordinary people of all colors in the United States is that the corporate owned, symbiotically-joined, Democrat and Republican parties genuinely represent them, their needs, interests, hopes, and aspirations.
Due to the repeated lies of disinformation and misinformation propagated by the apparatus of the corporate-political State, which apparatus includes but is by no means limited to the corporate-stream ‘news and analysis’ media (i.e., “press and television,” etc), the masses of everyday ordinary people have consistently fallen prey to the insanity of the mantra of repeated lies from the systemic, corporate-owned Democrat and Republican parties and their insidious and opportunistic collaborators and operatives.
The reason that the corporate U.S. government maintains over 800 military bases worldwide, and in real terms, simultaneously quashes the human/civil rights and legitimate hopes and dreams of everyday people inside this nation and throughout Mother Earth can be accurately summed up in three words: arrogance, power, and insatiable corporate greed. This has nothing whatever to do with sound bites and buzzwords such as “freedom,” “justice,” or “democracy,” etc. It’s about arrogance, power, and greed—all at the horrible expense—of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and around the world.
U.S. perpetual wars and/or military interventions mean perpetual profit for the bloodsucking Wall Street corporate elite. The words of the late Hermann Goering, the fascist 20th century Third Reich’s former Air Minister and Supreme Commander of the Air Force (Luftwaffe), remain chillingly relevant and informative in this regards. He said, “Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to do the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.“
Of course if the leaders of the Third Reich and Mussolini’s fascist Italy were alive today, they would probably be astounded and no doubt green with envy to see how insidiously effective the Democrats and Republicans of this 21st century corporate-owned U.S. government, in concert with their corporate-stream ‘news’ media (propaganda machine), have in actuality, utilized, tweaked and indeed expanded upon the afore quoted words of Hermann Goering.
Behold! Corporate so-called ‘personhood,’ the unconstitutional ‘PATRIOT Act’ and the draconian and totalitarian NDAA, combined with Barack Obama’s secret ‘Kill List,’ have all been brought to us by the both the corporate Democrats and Republicans, and represent this nation’s 21st century headlong plunge into being a de facto 21st century totalitarian/police-State at home, and a crazed and bloody war machine abroad.
The big lie vigorously perpetuated today is that the everyday people of the United States are genuinely represented by the Democrats and Republicans, and by extension, have serious, strong, and lasting impact upon the “policy” decisions made by this nation’s so-called “leaders.” The “truth” is of course, just the opposite. Today, more so than ever before, “truth” remains “the greatest enemy” to this corporate-owned U.S. political “State” which State is managed and perpetuated by the treacherous corporate Democrats and Republicans. The very existence of the Democrat and Republicam parties is a mockery of, and insult to, the concept of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These Democrats and Republicans are a trick-bag of distractions, lies and liars, against people of conscience everywhere.
The murderous military ‘shock and awe’ campaign (predicated upon non-existent so-called Iraqi ‘weapons of mass destruction’), and the unconstitutional PATRIOT Act, etc., by the (Republican) George W. Bush regime, and subsequently, the horrendous Predator-drone missile attacks on North & East Africa, South Asia, and the ‘Middle East,’ the horrendous NDAA, and the undemocratic and repugnant ‘Kill List,’ etc., by the (Democrat) Barack Obama’s regime make it crystal clear that both the Democrats and Republican parties are enemies of “truth,” in fact, enemies of the people.
Indeed, the unconstitutional and repressive actions at home, and the blood drenched military actions abroad, carried out by the reincarnated ‘imperial presidency’ of the Barack Obama regime make even the outrageous actions by the previous George W. Bush regime pale by comparison. The point is, however, that both the corporate-owned Democrats and Republicans are the enemies of everyday ordinary people inside the U.S. and throughout this planet of Mother Earth.
We must escape from the plantations/reservations of the Democrat and Republican parties; and we must get the blood of the peoples of the world off our hands! We must free our minds! We must do this by refusing to allow, in the words of Howard Zinn, these corporate political gangs to “dominate our ideas.” We individually and collectively must dominate our own ideas. The hell with the propaganda arm of the Democrats and Republicans, i.e., the corporate-stream media!
The simple truth of the ordinary everyday people in this nation is very much the “mortal enemy” of this disguised de facto 21st century corporate neo-fascist U.S. political State. We now know that this despicable unjust political system will continue to “use all of its powers to repress dissent.” But if we do not dissent and organize against these political gangsters this nation and quite possibly all of humankind will be doomed. On their side, these political gangsters have the corporate-stream media, lies, subterfuge, and of course brute force. On our side, we have the universal truth of our own humanity combined with that of the masses of people in this nation and throughout Mother Earth who are hungering and thirsting for a world based upon human needs—not corporate contrived wars and insatiable greed.
Wake up, NOW!!! Let us carry on and intensify in this long, arduous, and protracted struggle.
This is about we the people, not the bloodsuckers and tricksters of humanity who manipulate and mislead the people. Educate, organize, agitate! It is time for we the people of all colors, to collectively work with each other, defend each other, learn from each other, and take back our humanity together from these vampiric political gangsters. We CAN do this. We MUST do this! Can you hear her? Of course you can! It is the voice of our Mother Earth, and she is depending on us as we too depend upon her.
Remember: Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
Intrepid Report Associate Editor Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)
In October 1981, we entered Humanity’s Next Cycle. There will be peace in this world, universal and perpetual, up to and including the last word spoken by, the last breath of, the last person to be alive.
Last will be made first, highest will be made lowest.
Inevitability rules the hour, for that which is written is already written and from The Beginning.
Who hears me here hears me there. Where one awareness is, the second awareness is already there.
The Democrats did try, only the Republicans didn’t. Not to be partisan here, but that is prlicseey what happened.To convice the Republicans to pass the debt ceiling, President Obama came up with a budget plan that cut $4 trillion from the budget and added $1 trillion in revenue (a 1% increase in taxes on the uber-rich), and made cuts to Social Security and Medicare but did not get rid of either.The Democrats in Congress came up with a plan that cut $3 trillion from the budget, did absolutely no tax hikes, and left Medicare and Social Security alone.The Republicans came up with a plan that cut $1.5 trillion from the budget ($2.5 trillion less than Obama’s plan, $1.5 trillion less than the Democrat plan, and $500 billion less than the plan that eventually passed Congress), did no tax hikes, and got rid of Social Security and Medicare entirely.If Republicans had been serious about cutting spending to pass the debt ceiling, they would have jumped at Obama’s plan, which lowered the deficit by $5 trillion. Even the ones against tax hikes would have jumped at the Democrat plan, which cut twice as much as the Republican plan and did it with no tax hikes.Republicans were out for two things to get rid of Social Security and Medicare, and to deny President Obama a possible victory even at the cost of the American economy we are now seeing the economic effects of their efforts to defeat Obama. The Republicans wanted to keep the support of the TEA Party, and they sacrificed America to do it._______________Edit:Sorry, Neil, but it was Obama who had that plan, NOT the Republicans. The Republicans blocked the plan that cut $4 trillion not because it did tax hikes but because it did not get rid of Social Security and Medicare and because it would allow Obama to take some credit for saving America.References :
Heartfelt and moving, as always, Larry. I am always grateful for your passion, but I worry that it’s falling on ears deafened by the opiates of religious and ethnic partisanship and mindless entertainment. Still, better to speak than not, I suppose.
“Wake up, NOW!!!” What, and actually start to think? C’mon, Larry, thinking is such hard work. Besides, it might even involve admitting (oh, horrors) that people we don’t think of as part of “us” are actually human and have the same rights we do. Surely you can’t expect that. Why, “we” – however “we” is defined – are the only ones with rights, surely? Since when did the “other” – however the “other” is defined – have rights? Here, let me tell you the latest about Kim Kardashian, shall I? Much more fun than actual thinking any day. Why, millions of “ordinary people” do just that. It’s easier. And one doesn’t have to take responsibility for one’s own gullibility, ignorance, and bigotry, and one can then continue to think that only the rights of those one defines as part of oneself (family, friends, country, class, ethnic group, religion) are important. Solidarity – real, across-the-board, world-wide solidarity – is something I have yet to see among what we left-leaning thinkers like to call “ordinary people.” The truth is, most of us “ordinary people” do not think of people across the railway tracks, let along across the world, as our brothers and sisters, as people with equal rights. Case in point: “Ordinary” U.S. American farmers furious with Iraqis for their reluctance to buy U.S. American rice. The farmers were furious at the ingratitude of the Iraqis after we “saved” them, and “liberated” their country. There are many such examples. Another case in point: Layla Anwar, who is frequently published on IR, is unsparingly frank, as she should be, about what the U.S. invasion has done to her country, Iraq, but when it comes to Shia-Sunni divisions, she is a good deal less than fair. Nor does she permit any criticism of Islam, no matter how legitimate, dismissing it all out of hand as “Islamophobia.” Rather like many U.S. Americans dismiss any criticism of their country and its actions, however well-founded, as “anti-Americanism.” Mind you, these are “ordinary people,” – people who not only do not hear, but who DO NOT WANT to hear, lest what they learn disturb their carefully constructed, and false, notions.
Solidarity? Empathy?
Ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha!
As long as “we, the people,” remain divided as we are now, as reluctant critically to scrutinize our “own,” I’d say our “leaders” have little to worry about.
I am not yet convinced that the Dems are in trolube. If the Repubs do not manage to take either house despite the godzillions of dollars Corporate America is pouring into this election on their behalf, then it seems to me that they are the ones in serious trolube.I’ve heard a lot of propaganda being rolled out of Rovequarters about a Republican tidal wave but I’m not sure I see one. What I do see is an increasingly fanatical and ignorant Republican party fielding candidates who dress up like Nazis, wish publicly that America were more like East Germany while illegally detaining reporters, don’t realize that our Constitution separates Church and State, bash gays for immorality while spewing porn and fathering children outside their marriage, and think that if they don’t get their way at the polls they should exercise their second amendment rights. The US Chamber of Commerce is pouring millions of possibly foreign dollars into these candidacies. I wonder, if Obama is such a godsend for Corporatists, why they are opposing him so bitterly.Maybe you should focus some energy on Palin’s minions. Personally, I think the criticism you pooh-pooh, that some Dems mistook Obama for a Messiah, hits home. Fortunately, a lot of people realize that creating true change takes generations of steady effort. We aren’t saved because we won a single election.
SORRY – corrected a couple more typos, last one, I promise!
Heartfelt and moving, as always, Larry. I am always grateful for your passion, but I worry that it’s falling on ears deafened by the opiates of religious and ethnic partisanship and mindless entertainment. Still, better to speak than not, I suppose.
“Wake up, NOW!!!” What, and actually start to think? C’mon, Larry, thinking is such hard work. Besides, it might even involve admitting (oh, horrors) that people we don’t think of as part of “us” are actually human and have the same rights we do. Surely you can’t expect that. Why, “we” – however “we” is defined – are the only ones with rights, surely? Since when did the “other” – however the “other” is defined – have rights? Here, let me tell you the latest about Kim Kardashian, shall I? Much more fun than actual thinking any day. Why, millions of “ordinary people” do just that. It’s easier. And one doesn’t have to take responsibility for one’s own gullibility, ignorance, and bigotry, and one can then continue to think that only the rights of those one defines as part of oneself (family, friends, country, class, ethnic group, religion) are important. Solidarity – real, across-the-board, world-wide solidarity – is something I have yet to see among what we left-leaning thinkers like to call “ordinary people.” The truth is, most of us “ordinary people” do not think of people across the railway tracks, let alone across the world, as our brothers and sisters, as people with equal rights. Case in point: “Ordinary” U.S. American farmers furious with Iraqis for their reluctance to buy U.S. American rice. The farmers were furious at the “ingratitude” of the Iraqis after we “saved” them, and “liberated” their country. There are many such examples. Another case in point: Layla Anwar, who is frequently published on IR, is unsparingly frank, as she should be, about what the U.S. invasion has done to her country, Iraq, but when it comes to Shia-Sunni divisions, she is a good deal less than fair. Nor does she permit any criticism of Islam, no matter how legitimate, dismissing it all out of hand as “Islamophobia.” Rather like many U.S. Americans dismiss any criticism of their country and its actions, however well-founded, as “anti-Americanism.” Mind you, these are “ordinary people,” – people who not only do not hear, but who DO NOT WANT to hear, lest what they learn disturb their carefully constructed, and false, notions.
Solidarity? Empathy?
Ha, ha! Ha, ha, ha!
As long as “we, the people,” remain divided as we are now, as reluctant critically to scrutinize our “own,” I’d say our “leaders” have little to worry about.