Since we have the Jane Mayer article in the New Yorker -
http://www.newyorker.com/...
it seemed appropriate to use the same tactics the Kochs' use - misaprehensions that appeal to the gut - to put our cause ahead. So here's my new "Don't Tread On Me", revealing who really would be the beneficiary of less government attention.
There was just a comment here about the role of public relations in the furtherance of right wing goals. Noam Chomsky has made that point over & over - how, in the teens & 30s, labor & anti war protests (some violent) were quelled by massive police & national guard actions - & the captains of industry decided they needed to use a less forceful, but, it turns out, just as powerful method of control, the newly created science of public relations, to placate the peasants - as promoted by Bernay, its first expert. When the rich convince the stupid, that's about a majority.
Somebody told me this anecdote - about the Russian, visiting the U.S. during the cold war, who was asked what most impressed him about the United States - & he answered, "Your system of thought control". Ah yes...
Sometimes I allege that we have been propagandized to a fare-thee-well to people I know, & they don't believe it. So I always propose this little thought experiment, to demonstrate that they have been brainwashed without even being conscious of the rinse cycle.
"What is the main danger to the youth of America, in your opinion?" I ask them. "Is it sex, or drugs, or rock & roll? Or maybe the failure of the churches to inculcate the proper religious values? Or reckless credit card use? Or disrespect in the class room? Bullying at school? What do you think?"
They usually come up with something like underage drinking, or smoking, or premarital sex - already covered under the "sex, drugs, & rock & roll" rubric, I think - but I let them ramble on, before saying, "Well, I'll give you a hint. More Americans between the ages of 14 & 25 die from this pursuit, or custom, than all other causes combined. It might properly be called a scourge of youth. And almost no other country but America suffers from this plague - it's a unique part of our culture."
Still no notion? Well, of course, it's the American highway & automobile, & that crazy killer, driving while young. When my kids reached the age when they started thinking about getting their permits, I told them - "See that 3000 pound hunk of metal in the driveway? Worse than crack cocaine. I'd rather see you with a heroin habit than to see you get in that car & drive with a reckless attitude. At least with the heroin you'd be nice & nodded off in the corner, & no danger to anyone but yourself."
Most animal species try to protect their young above all other things - it's programmed in by evolution. We humans, on the other hand, seem quite content to let a bunch of teenagers with text-capable cell phones climb in the family death chariot & head to the mall. How many people do you know who have been hurt in a traffic accident? How many do you know of dead? We have about 30,000 fatalities a year - only 50,000 for the whole Viet Nam war, & that was 8 years - ten times the casualties of the twin towers - yet no one much thinks about it...
And that's the point - we have been brainwashed - ah, the romance of the open road, wind in your hair, cigarette in your puss, loud music on the noisy box - mass transportation, who needs it (if we had Europe's train system, & could do away with the roads, & gas, & insurance, & maintenance, & hospital expense, we could afford to take vacations to Paris & Hawaii)(& how's this for practical eugenics - put lots of beer ads on the TV while the sport that involves going round & round at high speeds is pushed as fun for the mentally insufficient) .
The artists who do our minds for us are ubiquitous & highly skillful - we don't even know they're there. Like the fish who don't feel water, we swim in an environment created for us by our masters - & hardly even notice the spin.
Feel free to copy & distribute, if you want -