Also published at raypensador.com
I'm sure many readers are familiar with the quote "In a Time of Universal Deceit — Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act." That has been the case throughout the entire history of civilization, an it is especially applicable today in the United States. Although the process took several decades, the systemic level of corruption and deception has never been more ingrained.
Artwork Credit: R_Evolution, by Ghillen Marí.
We have crossed the Rubicon and are now living in a veritable corporate state protected by a truth-suppression/propaganda apparatus in the form of the media conglomerate, and a total information awareness surveillance police state.
Aside from plundering and pillaging, the ruling elite (powerful moneyed interests and their subservient lackeys in government) spends an extraordinary amount of effort in preventing us from acknowledging the true nature of the system, and for good reason... It would only take a few thousand people highly organized around this understanding to represent a real threat to the utterly corrupt but tiny ruling elite.
The level of corruption is systemic, and endemic; it engulfs the entire country, one city hall at at time, and it is mainly based on a system of legalized bribery.
Corporate cartels (Wall Street, BigPharma, Big Insurance, Military/Surveillance Industrial complex, etc.) and wealthy individuals basically select who is going to run for public offices (by and large) with unlimited amounts of campaign contributions. Once the corrupt and treasonous lackeys (a servant, esp. a liveried footman or manservant) in government are in office they proceed to legislate in favor of their rich and powerful patrons.
It is very important we understand exactly what it means to "legislate in favor of these powerful interests:" It means the enactment of legislation meant to bring about a legal and economic framework specifically designed to strip the citizenry off human and constitutional rights so we can be subjugated and exploited (enslaved) by their paymasters (Wall Street, BigPharma, MIC/Surveillance Industry, billionaires, etc.)
Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations.
Here at home, this tiny group of people running what is essentially a proto-fascist system is beginning to slowly take off its mask, after having finally implemented the oppressive two-tiered justice system, the legal, and the total information awareness surveillance police state frameworks necessary to support it.
Having successfully done that, the country is now revealing itself to be a rogue nation in the world stage--a true in-your-face bully.
This is the true nature of the system, and that's why the tiny group who runs it spends an extraordinary amount of resources in truth suppression methods; in maligning people who try to get the word out... People like Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Jeremy Scahill, Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, are truth-tellers, and as such the system tries to malign them and marginalize them.
Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power.
And sadly, this corruption, this acquiescence to the will of the ruling class has now engulfed what Chris Hedges calls the "
Liberal Elite."
The power elite, especially the liberal elite, has always been willing to sacrifice integrity and truth for power, personal advancement, foundation grants, awards, tenured professorships, columns, book contracts, television appearances, generous lecture fees and social status. They know what they need to say. They know which ideology they have to serve. They know what lies must be told—the biggest being that they take moral stances on issues that aren’t safe and anodyne. They have been at this game a long time. And they will, should their careers require it, happily sell us out again.
The emphasis is mine
And this is why, as proto-fascism turns into the real thing, speaking truth to power is going to become increasingly dangerous--unless enough people unite in solidarity, with this common understanding.
Sometimes when I write about this some people misunderstand my intention, thinking that this type of "messaging" may be intended to discourage people from staying engage in electoral politics, or somehow say that there is no hope and that we should just throw in the towel in defeat.
I often wonder if that type of reaction is just one more manifestation of truth suppression, but I digress..
What is my intention when I focus on these things? It should be obvious to some. If you have a large number of people believing that the system is not rigged, that although compromised, it still works for the most part, and they act on that (I argue) mistaken belief, failing to put at least some of their attention on the root causes of corruption, then we will continue voting ourselves into outright fascism.
We have to do both... We have to remain fully engaged in politics, not give one inch on anything; we need to campaign, volunteers, hit the streets, put up signs, man phone banks, make contributions to the best candidates, and much more.
Unity & Solidarity
I believe in that; I've done it; I'm a registered Democrat and has been voting straight party line in every election for over 25 years, including mid-term and special elections. I've volunteer to help in campaigns, etc.
But I recognize that because the entire system is compromised by endemic influence-peddling corruption from top to bottom, being involved in the electoral system is not enough; it is hardly enough.
And so I also focus on understanding the sources of corruption at the root level (a life-long process), on trying to understand the exact mechanisms, on trying to unveil the deception employed by the ruling elite in order to keep us from fully understanding the true nature of the system....
Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash
The numbers tell the story — in votes and dollars. On Wednesday, the House voted 217 to 205 not to rein in the NSA’s phone-spying dragnet. It turns out that those 217 “no” voters received twice as much campaign financing from the defense and intelligence industry as the 205 “yes” voters.
That’s the upshot of a new analysis by MapLight, a Berkeley-based non-profit that performed the inquiry at WIRED’s request. The investigation shows that defense cash was a better predictor of a member’s vote on the Amash amendment than party affiliation. House members who voted to continue the massive phone-call-metadata spy program, on average, raked in 122 percent more money from defense contractors than those who voted to dismantle it.
The emphasis is mine
As I think about these things I've come up with three key concepts I think are important to conceptualize: (1) Although there are some democratic aspects of our system, the true nature of it is Oligarchical, a Corporate State; (2) The entire corporate media conglomerate in the U.S. acts as powerful and effective a propaganda apparatus of the ruling elite; (3) The illegal and unconstitutional total information awareness police state's main function is to protect the Oligarchy; the second function is national security.
I argue that those three simple points, if fully understood and conceptualized by a large enough segment of the population, would represent the biggest threat to the corrupt ruling elite because the deception would have been unveiled.
And once people come to understand this, they will act accordingly... In other words, aside from politics as usual, the focus would also be on understanding the true nature of the Oligarchy, where it gets its power from, its funding. Once one understand that the entire corporate media landscape main effect is propagandist, then one will start protecting him or herself from it. Once one understands the true nature of the total information awareness surveillance police state, one can then start formulating strategies against the oppression.
P.S. I encourage people to engage in respectful discussion. New Community Guidelines / The 15 Rules of Web Disruption / Thirteen Rules for Truth Suppression / Disinformation: How It Works.
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