Conscious and Intelligent Manipulation

Edward Bernays

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind . . . If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.”

- Edward Bernays, ‘The Father of Public Relations,’ in his influential book Propaganda (1928), explaining that the ability of democratic societies to control minds and regiment masses is what gives Islamic terrorists such a terminal case of the old green eyed monster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1999Q2/bernays.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcYBSXgtmKQ

The Kirov Assassination

Sergei Kirov

1. Investigative agencies are directed to speed up the cases of those accused of the preparation of execution of acts of terror.

2. Juricidial organs are directed not to hold up the execution of death sentences pertaining to crimes of this category in order to consider the possibility of pardon, because the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR does not consider as possible the receiving of petitions of this sort.

3. The organs of the Commissariat of Internal Affairs are directed to execute the death sentence against criminals of the above-mentioned category immediately after the passage of sentence.

- Decree issued by the Bolshevik authorities in Soviet Russia on 1 Descember, 1934. Abolishing what few legal guarantees remained for ‘enemies of the state,’ this decree followed hot on the heels of the assassination of Sergei Kirov, regarded by many as a possible challenger to Stalin, the same day. The murder of Kirov, commonly accepted now as being planned and orchestrated by Stalin’s agents, gave Stalin a rationale to crack down on internal opposition in the name of combating terrorism and laid the foundation for the Red Terror and show trials that followed.

(Source: Robert Conquest, The Great Terror, p. 41)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Kirov#The_Kirov_Assassination
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSpurge.htm

Predatory Money Power

Abraham Lincoln

‘The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy.’

- Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, explaining that the interests of the 20 percent of the world’s population that controls 85 percent of its wealth are identical with the collective interests of the planet as a whole and that anyone who says otherwise is a dirty commie who should fuck off back to Cuba.

Democratic Dogmatisms

Harold Lasswell

‘We must put aside democratic dogmatism about men being the best judges of their own interest since men are often very poor judges of their own interest.’

- Harold Lasswell, one of the most respected US social scientists and communication theorists of the 20th century, explaining that democracy means people in high places determining what our best interests are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Lasswell
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Chomsky/Necessary_Illusions.html

Knowledge vs. Belief

John Locke

‘The greatest part cannot know, and therefore they must believe.’

- John Locke, the ‘father of liberalism’, explaining that the basis of a free society is naive faith in myths created by others for the purpose of manipulation and control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_locke
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199107–.htm

The Roar of a Bewildered Herd

Walter Lippmann

‘The public must be put in its place…so that each of us may live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd.’

- Walter Lippmann, influential US intellectual, writer and coiner of the term ‘Cold War,’ explaining in his book ‘Public Opinion’ that controlling the minds of the masses is essential to the proper functioning of a modern democracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lippmann

http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199107–.htm

A Trial of Strength

Thomas Jefferson

‘I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.’

- Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816, revealing that dirty rotten commies were already trying to undermine American values before communism was even invented.

http://www.corporations.org/
http://www.ecobooks.com/books/unequalprotection.htm

A Bread and Butter Question

Cecil Rhodes

‘In order to save the forty million inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a bloody civil war, our colonial statesmen must acquire new lands for settling the surplus population of this country, to provide new markets. The Empire, as I have always said, is a bread and butter question.’

- Cecil Rhodes, English-born mining magnate, being more honest than usual about the true reasons for overseas military adventures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Rhodes

Operation Just Cause

Bush and Noriega, just maxin'

‘General Noriega’s reckless threats and attacks upon Americans in Panama created an imminent danger to the 35,000 American citizens in Panama. As president, I have no higher obligation than to safeguard the lives of American citizens.’

- US President George H.W. Bush, 1989, making the case for the invasion of Panama. Like Saddam Hussein, General Manuel Noriega was a favoured ally of the United States who turned a blind eye to his drug trafficking while he aided the Contras in their proxy war against the Sandanistas in Nicaragua until he came to be perceived as an obstacle to US interests in Panama, whereupon it was determined that he was a brutal dictator and an enemy of freedom and had to go. In Operation Just Cause the United States overthrew Noriega and installed a more respectable puppet who would follow orders, Guillermo Endara.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Chomsky/ChomOdon_Panama.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/27/manuel-noriega-us-friend-foe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Just_Cause

Class war by proxy

Jay Gould

I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half.

- Jay Gould, US financier & railroad businessman, on hiring strikebreakers, 1896.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Gould