We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Post that I especially recommend for Tuesday, October 5, 2021 (Only one today because of significant dental work.)

  • 💥The Psychology of Totalitarianism featuring a Prof. Mattias Desmet, University of Ghent Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences addressing (via Bitchute 1:09:21) the Corona Foundation Committee ("Stiftung Corona Ausschuss") made up of mostly German lawyers. This is a best post. (Note: I resist posting articles, videos, podcasts, etc. over one hour, but I think that this post is especially important. I thank a west coast activist for sending me this article.) My brief commentary which differs a little to that of Prof. Desmet follows: 
The new transnational capitalist class that controls the new de-facto US/Anglo/Zionist Empire uses manipulative methods to rule over their populations. In the past, authoritarians used mainly violence against individuals that resisted their domination. But, as I explained in my post entitled "Fake leaders and ineffective movements", starting in 1940 the new imperialists have constructed a new empire out of the merger of the USA with what was left of the British Empire (later in 1967 they added right-wing Jews that founded Israel (with their help) on Palestinian territory). This cabal, which was centered in the State Department and the Council on Foreign Relations, was so impressed with the effectiveness of their propaganda during WWI, and the latest psychological advances up to their time like classical conditioning (of Pavlov), that they felt they could establish a new, lasting empire to rule over, or dominate, the rest of the world. Having crushed the outright fascist-capitalist forces in WWII, they embarked to build a new fascist (see my commentary on fascism last Saturday following Caitlin Johnstone's post) empire. (Only the Soviet Union and their followers stood in the way. China came later, and Iran fairly recently.)
 
First, they had to control all social-cultural institutions, and this they accomplished in the period after WWII. The new imperialist incorporated methods of rewriting history, fake news, and fake narratives presented by their media together to create an anti-socialist, capitalist culture as a bulwark against any ideas of publicly owned and controlled economic property.
 
Because the inherent nature of capitalism is to concentrate and consolidate ownership of economic property in a relatively few hands, later they added classical conditioning to their control repertoire. This is where I agree with Prof. Desmet. They used the methods and principles of classical conditioning to gain control over careers, jobs, and grants (for independent contractors) to motivate compliance among the highly trained and educated of their populations (scientists, educators, highly trained technical specialists).
 
These combined methods, which are applied to their populations, are regulated by numbers, that is, by the number of people affected by these methods. Therefore, the directors of this Empire are not bothered by people like me because we influence very few people, whereas their methods influence overwhelming numbers of people. Thus, they can distance themselves from imperialists in the past--familiar to all of us--who used violence to control their populations. And, also this made it possible to pretend to value liberality and respect human rights while pursuing capitalist adventures. As their power and control grow over time or in desperation, they will find the traditional methods of coercive violence, which was used formerly, much simpler and easier to administer.
 
In contrast to the lawyers of the Corona Foundation Committee, I don't know if their legal maneuvers will work or not, but I suspect not. I think our masters are already too powerful. I, in my old age, tend to be pessimistic about the nature of humans. I think humans have already disturbed their habitat on planet Earth sufficiently that we are headed for extinction via global warming and climate destabilization. Hopefully, after many millions or a few billion years, new species will arise that are able to live in peace and less destructive of their environments than our species is.