By
Cognitive Dissonance
(Plato had much to say about modern day ideological blindness.)
Nearly everyone thinks of the United States of America as a place, a physical location, some place you can live, visit, touch and see. And nearly everyone is wrong.
The United States of America is an ideology, a thought meme, a belief, a political religion, a concept and an idea. I am reminded of this every time Mrs. Cog and I head southeast down the mountain and cross over from Virginia into North Carolina. Other than a few road signs and a change in the pavement (clearly two different companies at two different times from two different directions paved right up to the border and no further) there is no discernible difference.
To the left is a hay field, to the right a driveway leading to a private home. If I didn’t know where the political border was, nothing I saw on either side would indicate a change in control was evident. The hay isn’t greener or taller on one side or the other. And as best I can tell, that driveway, while appearing to meander back and forth across the border several times, isn’t worse for the experience. Though I suspect the respective taxing authorities might be a bit confused.
And yet the differences between the practices and beliefs of these two states are at times remarkably dissimilar. To cite just one example, the overall tax burden in Virginia is remarkably less than that of North Carolina. For me, a particularly detested tax is the state gasoline tax (added to the 18.40 cents Federal gas tax) which is significantly higher in NC (35.25 cents) than VA (22.33 cents).
But neither Mrs. Cog nor I can actually tell if the people in either state are happier because of, or despite, the political borders they live within. Sure, there are local variations (Mount Airy, NC residents sure do seem happier to be living in Mayberry RFD) but overall each person’s happiness quotient depends to a large extent upon their personal life configuration. Unless, of course, that person has decided the state of their state is the source of most of their problems. A perfect example is the continuing exodus from California.
But I digress.
The cities and towns, the highways and byways of America are physical manifestations of the ideological belief there really is a socioeconomic entity called America. This doesn’t mean nothing would be ‘here’ if America wasn’t an ideology, only that something else which manifested differently would be ‘here’ in its place.
Therefore the most threatening enemy to ‘America’ is not Russia, China or Iran (other political ideologies manifested in physical form) but doubt and rapidly deteriorating belief in the doctrine itself. This is why every political ideology since humans gathered into groups has demanded allegiance and, at worst, feigned faith and belief.
While a radical change of ideology can be accomplished via emotional coercion and physical force, ultimately heartfelt indoctrinated belief must be fomented if the principle faith is to endure. This is precisely why after any radical political change the new ideological priests immediately corral the children to begin the indoctrination process while carrying out a re-education and purging program of the general population.
The more sophisticated and flexible ideologies, such as the ‘constitutional freedom’ meme employed ‘here’ in the slave plantation called the USA, actually incorporates introspection and questioning into its tenets. But even ‘here’ there are limits that cannot, and will not, be allowed to be exceeded.
This far and no further per order of the Empire.
This is why, in accordance with the prevailing American ideology, one can complain all they want about the system and pose limited questions why things are the way they are. But one is not allowed to seriously question the basis of the system without being labeled a heretic and banished to the hinterlands where demons and dragons reside.
A perfect example is the setup we all witnessed during the final debate between Clinton and Trump. The Presidential Debates are long established ideological rituals designed to reinforce and affirm faith and belief in the system. They are part and parcel of the supporting façade the election process represents to the controlling meme. “We the People” select one of ‘us’ to travel to the capital city where rules and laws are enacted to protect ‘us’ from enemies foreign and domestic while at the same time enriching ‘our’ lives.
It was no accident of chance the last question posed to both ‘candidates’ (would they accept and support the election results if they lose) was essentially a pledge of allegiance to the ideological ethos. And for Trump, the self appointed establishment heretic, it was a trap designed to fully ensnare and expel him, and his heathen campaign, into the fires of faithless hell. But by doing so the heretics are also affirmed in their belief both in their leader and their cause.
Nor was it an accident Trump was chosen first to answer while the priest’s favored candidate (whom I suspect was already alerted to the deception) sat ready to embrace the system and reject the wrong thinking dissenter. Of all the barbs and venom exchanged between the two candidates, is it really surprising at all that every major mainstream news outlet, known collectively as the mouthpiece of the ideological priests, led the next morning’s ‘news’ with huge headlines about the final nonconforming utterance from Trump?
Burn the bastard at the stake, the angry priests wail in agony, their power and prestige coming under serious attack from the process itself. Or so they piously claim.
The more a prevailing political meme strays from its founding ideology, meaning in this case crony corruption and political favoritism, the tighter the screws must be turned to drive the antithetical strays back toward the center. And the place to begin this process is with its leadership, either established or budding. Uncharacteristically, the heretical plebes have long been without acknowledged leadership until Trump arrived on the scene.
Regardless of who or what Donald Trump truly is, the long suffering and rapidly increasing ranks of the disenfranchised and disillusioned have rallied around The Donald, elevating him to the revolutionary figurehead of ‘The Movement’ determined to drain the ideological swamp that is present day Washington DC.
Whether he is controlled opposition, useful puppet or exactly who he appears to be, Trump has succeeded in flushing the misfits and malcontents from the redoubt woodpile and out into the open. This may be precisely why Trump was allowed to get this far and not promptly buried under the end zone in the new Giants Stadium when he first appeared on the political scene.
Since one must never be allowed to seriously question the system (because the doubt it raises is threatening to the system) if one does question and is allowed to continue and even flourish (ala Trump) there must be a hidden reason for this heretical event to occur ‘naturally’.
Therefore to naively believe the priest’s controllers have lost mastery over their ideology simply because a heretic has appeared and is growing amongst their ranks is to misunderstand the methods employed, honed and refined over thousands of years by those very same priests and their descendants, regardless of the prevailing controlling meme. They’ve been doing this for thousands of years folks and are quite accomplished at their craft.
How is it that political novice Trump not only appeared on the scene, but ascended the obviously rigged primary system to become the Republican nominee? Ron Paul (and others) knocked on this same door for decades and were quickly dispatched each time using time honored control techniques. Why not Trump? Because his time has come? Because he's the one?
Really?
I do not disagree with those who carefully document the growing instability of the dominant socioeconomic/political system. There is little doubt large and widening cracks are appearing in the carefully constructed and nurtured ideological façade.
Cracks everywhere, but no flaw too deep to ignore.
But to believe the Empire is so close to collapse that a revolutionary could slip between the cracks and come within a few weeks of ascending to the throne is, in my humble opinion, pushing it just a wee bit too far. Those shadows on the cave wall have little to no relation to reality.
Take the time to study the disruptive techniques used by the ideological establishment to co-opt and control the last attempted American revolution, that of the anti war generation of the 60’s and early 70’s. Nearly every counter cultural uprising during that period of time was thoroughly infiltrated and sometimes directly controlled by operatives. To think this isn’t happening today with the massive increase in intrusive spy technology is to remain firmly planted in La-La Land.
Trump’s popularity among the great unwashed is a product of the mainstream media, the very same control device used on a daily basis to feed the indentured population its ration of Soma. However, in an effort to turn Trump into a super magnet for the downtrodden, the mainstream media needed to employ reverse psychology and condemn that which they wished to empower with credibility. Quite frankly, this only works if the population is so desperate for salvation to appear they would accept such a psychologically flawed and egotistic front man as Donald Trump.
Don’t ever forget Donald Trump’s media presence was honed and refined by the control mechanism itself, Hollywood and its various offshoots and tentacles. Best known as the billionaire producer and ‘actor’ in The Apprentice, Trump has a total of 19 credits as a producer, 20 credits as an actor and an incredible 222 credits as ‘self’. This is a man who clearly knows how to play an audience, with his ego the star attraction.
That alone doesn’t necessarily make Trump an establishment ‘made man’. But while he wasn’t breast fed at the political nipple, he certainly isn’t an ‘outsider’ by any stretch of the imagination. And yet here he is……the embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of a vast cross section of disaffected and disenfranchised. It just doesn’t get any better than this.
This is not to say Hillary Clinton isn’t also being propelled forward by the very same mechanism that has empowered Trump. If “The Donald” is flawed, Hillary Clinton is mortally impaired. And it would made perfect sense from the control system’s perspective to match or exceed the glaring imperfections of one candidate (Trump) with an even more egregious example of crony capitalism run riot in the other (Clinton). The great white hope verses establishment lackey and career criminal. The choice couldn’t be both clearer and more obscure than as presented for your electoral blessing.
And ultimately this may be the purpose for this obviously concocted and orchestrated charade. The last stage of a dying Empire is the looting of the weak from within by the elite. When the barbarians finally break through the outer gates, all they will find are empty vaults and the scattered remains of a desperate native population, the valuables having long ago been strip-mined and spirited away.
But before this point in the end game can be reached, the natives must be held in place long enough for the final rape to commence. As public confidence in a political solution dissipates and restlessness (some might say desperation) grows, a false hope and belief must be re-instilled in various sub factions of the population in order to draw them back in, ultimately imprisoned by their own ideological bent.
This occurred in 2008 with the great black hope, Barrack Obama, and once again is happening in 2016 with the great white hope, Donald Trump. Both of these individuals, while presenting as one would expect political outsiders to appear, were/are deeply conflicted and entangled. Don’t forget Obama was a political newbie with only a few years in public office before being miraculously elevated to the highest office in the land. It is more than coincidence they both talk a thoroughly convincing game to the sub-set they were created to enthrall.
This is the principal reason why I expect Trump to ‘win’ this election, if not by hook then by mainstream crook. The crony capitalists represented by Clinton have had their fill at the public feeding trough and are more than capable of fending for their selves during the next spiraling leg downward. But those who had previously abandoned all hope, and thus were primed for more drastic (read destructive) measures if not properly corralled, have once again been engaged in the political system and have thrown their support behind the white knight.
All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put the Empire back together again.
Emotionally stabilized and increasingly mesmerized, the plebes are now ripe for the rape if for no other reason than they will wait and see if the revolution is actually tweeted and originates from the White House.
I suspect ‘they’ will be severely disappointed.
The golden rule of dying ideological Empires is simplicity itself. What it cannot subvert or corrupt it destroys. Significant and healing change cannot, and therefore will not, originate from within the Empire for that would disenfranchise the powerful priests, the hanger-on’s and sycophants.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely and power in the hands of the corrupt is never relinquished, only forcefully taken and then passed from one dirty hand to the next. This renders any discussion of a positive healthy change from within moot and a non starter.
This is an insanity very few understand when viewed from a distance, an all encompassing madness that is always underestimated in its ferocity and velocity. When face to face with this evil phenomenon, few have the strength of will to stand their ground, let alone survive the encounter. Evil madness of this magnitude always self consumes and can never be extinguished by an external force.
Orders of magnitude hotter than burning magnesium, any effort made to dampen or disperse the white hot insanity of the dying Empire, either from within or externally, only succeeds in spreading and intensifying the Luciferian conflagration. Simply stated, madness breeds more madness. To engage the madness is to feed the insanity.
In my opinion this is the only explanation for the blatant media bias against Trump combined with the obviously scripted non media responses to all things Clinton, the in-your-face rigging and distortions of the political process and the incomprehensible capitulation by so many previously withdrawn and cynical ideological escapees who are willingly walking back into the belly of the political beast to support a critically flawed and conflicted Trump.
Plato described the inability of a group of (ideological) prisoners chained in a cave to interpret reality based solely upon the play of shadows projected upon the stone wall in front of them. The utter futility of their efforts is only revealed when one prisoner frees himself, enabling him to fully view the puppeteers behind them creating the illusion.
Unless and until “We the Individuals” engage in a determined and consistent effort to see beyond our ideological horse blinders and fully grasp the true nature of our reality, “We the People” will remain at best mere spectators, and at worst indentured servants, to the reality puppeteers behind us.
As much as I wish this insanity would just end, I fear we have many miles to go before the final awakening.
10-22-2016
Cognitive Dissonance
Truman isn't the only one forced to deal with the shadows on his cave wall.
