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Empire in Decline – Propaganda and the American Myth

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Empire in Decline - Propaganda and the American Myth

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Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive…ourselves.” - With apologies to Sir Walter Scott.

 

If only life was as neat and orderly as my ancient history text book showed it to be. There it was on glossy paper, spread out across several sets of adjoining pages, maps of the ancient and modern world. Sometimes there were time lines top and bottom, along with countries helpfully outlined and identified. Underneath their modern English names were one or two older names in smaller stylized script, often including exact beginning and end dates. I remember one in particular caught my eye. “The United States of America” followed by the year 1776. But with no end date indicated, it looked like unfinished business to me. You’ve got to love those historians and their precise dates.

Of course, in reality there are no exact dates for the birth and death of city/states, other than in the historian’s mind. Children continue to be born, the old still die, and life goes on under ever changing circumstances. But you are rarely informed of the subjective nature of historical events when you’re young and impressionable, so they’re presented in the history books as cold hard facts. The last thing the reigning Imperial Empire wants is to appear uncertain about prior eons, epochs and echoes in time. Continue reading Empire in Decline – Propaganda and the American Myth →

Cogs Two Ice Floes Post

Meanderings

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Meanderings

By

Cognitive Dissonance

 

 

Tis the Season

Silly season is upon us. And I, for one, welcome my alien overlords. I speak, of course, of the national presidential election cycle already in progress. Every four years, in a sort of grotesque circadian rhythm, the so-called Presidential cicadas…err…candidates, pop up out of nowhere, noisy, pesky and ultimately irritating unless you happen to be mesmerized. Unfortunately, the life span of this particular species of political pest is not 14, or even 30 days, but more like 600.

For several decades now, I have referred to this political and social phenomenon as the silly season. And for good reason I might add. At no other point in our day to day lives, except possibly Christmas, are we piled so high with such ridiculousness as when the latest pack of jabbering jackals come calling for our vote. To describe the process as political pandering would be too kind, and incorrect to boot. Essentially we are told what we want to hear and promised the moon and stars, something which speaks far more about us than it does them. Continue reading Meanderings →

Alternative Perspectives

The Brainwashing of a Nation

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The Brainwashing of a Nation

by

Daniel Greenfield via Sultan Knish blog

Image by ElisaRiva from Pixabay

 

I initially hesitated to re-post this article because of its partisan slant. While not rabid in its conservative point of view (though admittedly "rabid" is subjective) the author fails to be fair when applying his broad brush.

That said, enough cannot be written or spoken about the techniques and applications used when the few manipulate the many. The deceits and denials we employ within ourselves to tolerate living within our skin are precisely the methods used against us. We will always fail to understand the outside world if we are unwilling to understand ourselves. To know our 'self' is to know the world. - Cognitive Dissonance

 

Brainwashing isn’t a secretive event that takes place in hidden rooms. No hypnotists or vials full of chemicals are required. It takes place every day on a massive scale across the United States.

Unlike Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate, brainwashing does not turn people into hypnotized zombies who would be ready to kill a presidential candidate at a command. Instead, it transforms them into the sort of people who would be willing to kill someone for political reasons.

The distinction is why so few people understand the sources of political radicalism and violence. Continue reading The Brainwashing of a Nation →