Favorite definition: MAD adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane.
~~~Ambrose Bierce, 1911~~~~
"PREDATORY PERSONALITIES among us are often in positions of control, where their pathologies are nurtured by the very structure of advanced industrial institutions. It may not be strictly necessary to be a sociopath in order to be in a position of power in our society, but the rules of the game require doing a good imitation of one."
- Will Miller, philosophy professor, Monthly Review (Feb. 1999)
Certified lunatics are shut up because of
their proneness to violence when their pretensions are questioned; the
uncertified variety are given the control of powerful armies, and can inflict
death and disaster upon all sane men within their reach.
--Bertrand Russell (1872-1970): Power [1938] ch.16
War would end if the dead could return - Stanley Baldwin
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is
ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it
is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher,
1788-1860
"History teaches us that men and
nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives."
- Abba Eban
"News is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is
advertising".
former NBC news President Rubin Frank
"Nothing
is more difficult, and nothing requires more character than to find oneself in
open opposition to one's time (and those one loves) and to say loudly: No!"
Kurt
Tucholsky, Germany, 1934
"It is my belief that the lack of understanding of the true cause of happiness is the principal reason why people inflict suffering on others. Some people think that causing pain to others may lead to their own happiness or that their own happiness is of such importance that the pain of others is of no significance. But this is clearly shortsighted. No one truly benefits from causing harm to another being. Whatever immediate advantage is gained at the expense of someone else is short-lived. In the long run causing others misery and infringing upon their peace and happiness creates anxiety, fear and suspicion for oneself.The key to creating a better and more peaceful world is the development of love and compassion for others. This naturally means we must develop concern for our brothers and sisters who are less fortunate than we are." - The Dalai Lama -- Taken from a much longer text "Human Rights and Universal Responsibility" posted at http://www.tibet.com/DL/vienna.html
"Naturally the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." Hermann Goering, president of the Reichstag, Nazi Party, and Luftwaffe Commander in Chief:
Last recorded
words of George Armstrong Custer - "We've got em
now!""
"Read everything; believe everything; believe nothing."
http://g0lem.net/portal/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=50
The U.S. Wars in the Gulf were Nuclear Wars
Posted on Tuesday, May 25 @ 09:48:31 CDT
Topic:
evil From:
insteadofwar
According to Helen Caldicott, the 1991 Gulf War was a nuclear war. The depleted uranium weapons deployed by the U.S. had a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Parts of Iraq and Kuwait "will remain effectively radioactive for the rest of time."
U.S. authorities knew prior to Desert Storm
that aerosol uranium exposure under battlefield conditions could lead to
cancers and birth defects, but they chose to use them anyway, exposing
Americans as well as Iraqis.
The next time you hear someone complain that Saddam Hussein is evil because he gassed his own people, remember that Papa Bush nuked his own people. http://www.commondreams.org/
"They have always taught and trained you to believe it to be your patriotic duty to go to war and to have yourselves slaughtered at their command. But in all the history of the world you, the people, have never had a voice in declaring war, and strange as it certainly appears, no war by any nation in any age has ever been declared by the people" - Eugene Debs
"To know what is right and
not to do it is the worst cowardice."
- Confucius
"All politics are based on the indifference of the majority."
- James Reston
"With "the PATRIOT Act" and other legal monstrosities foisted upon the people,
what emerges is a repressive "coordination" (as the Nazis used to call it) of
the entities of force and deception, the police, intelligence and the military,
in the interests of a "permanent" counterinsurgency, by way of the
centralization and broadening of surveillance capabilities, arrest capabilities,
and harassment capabilities, which target anyone corporate America doesn't like.
Homeland defense is, in essence, a form of state terrorism directed against the
American people and democracy itself. It is the Pentagon Inc. declaring war on
America."
- Frank Morales, taken from "Homeland Defense: The Pentagon Declares War on
America", #9 below or at
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MOR312A.html
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless
minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
- Samuel Adams
Worthy of your Attention
Remind Us: Why did the United States invade Iraq? (Powerful Flash presentation!)
http://www.oakie.net/remindus/remindus.swf
Recommended by "Mark Graffis" mgraffis@vitelcom.net>
"Propaganda/Info/Disinfo" (not necessarily endorsed):
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it." The Buddha on Belief, from the Kalama Sutta
http://www.medialens.org/frameset.html http://www.private-planet.com/
http://carmen.artsci.washington.edu/propaganda/contents.htm
http://serendipity.magnet.ch/more/propagan.html
http://www.thebird.org/host/dcdave/article3/991228.html
http://www.guerrillanews.com/index.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158542059X/ref%3Dase%5FthecenterformediA/104-8060917-4945536
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0205321763//ref=sr_1_10_1/104-8060917-4945536
http://www.fair.org/media-woes/corporate.html
http://carmen.artsci.washington.edu/propaganda/contents.htm
http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/articles/doors_of_perception.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0896086348/ref=pd_huc_sim_1_1/102-9750596-0945734
http://www.mercola.com/2001/aug/15/perception.htm
http://www.guerrillanews.com/sci-tech/doc452.html
http://www.zmag.org/biochomsky.htm
http://www.alienlovebite.com/unmasking_the_disruptors_main.htm
http://www.deoxy.org/seize_it.htm
Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda
1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.
2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.
a. It must issue all the propaganda directives
b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain
their morale
c. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences
3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.
4. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action.
a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the
enemy with useful intelligence
b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to
draw the desired conclusions
c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself
d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would
discredit that activity
5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign
6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.
7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.
8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.
9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.
10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective.
11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects.
12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.
13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.
a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.
b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment
c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing
effectiveness
14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or
slogans.
a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses
b. They must be capable of being easily learned
c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations
d. They must be boomerang-proof
15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.
16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.
a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat
b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of
defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves
17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.
a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated
b. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective
18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.
19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.
Based upon "Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda" by Leonard W. Doob published in "Public Opinion and Propaganda; A Book of Readings edited for The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues."
Politprop Library
--------------------------------------
Group Think:
"In unanimity there may well be either cowardice or uncritical thinking."
Groupthink: "a mode of thinking that people engage in where they are deeply
involved in a cohesive in-group, where the members' striving for unanimity
overrides their motivations to realistically appraise alternative courses of
action." -- I. Janis, VICTIMS OF GROUPTHINK, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972).
"Rejection can dramatically reduce a person's IQ and their ability to reason analytically, while increasing their aggression.... This tells us a lot about human nature. People really seem designed to get along with others, and when you're excluded, this has significant effects." -- NEW SCIENTIST http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992051
See also: Stanly Milgram's study in the Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 67, 371-378 (1963) and in the book authored by him "Obedience to
Authority" published by Harper and Row (1974).
http://www.math.missouri.edu/~rich/MGM/primer.html
http://www.deoxy.org/creative.htmhttp://www.crystalinks.com/reptilianbrain.html
http://www.2012.com.au/reptilian_brain.html
http://members.aol.com/nonverbal3/reptile.htm
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/sheeples.htm
http://www.terrybragg.com/Article_Reptilianbrain.htm
http://www.casagordita.com/consensus.htm
www.prahlad.org/pub/bearden/scalar_wars.htm
http://www.counterpunch.org/shor0812.html
http://prorev.com/wbprofits.htm
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Consensus does not mean agreement. It means we create a forum where all voices can be heard and we can think creatively rather than dualistically about how to reconcile our different needs and visions." Starhawk, "Lessons from Seattle and Washington D.C.", in "Democratizing the Global Economy", Kevin Danaher, ed.,Common Courage Press, Monroe, Maine, 2001.
"The truth frequently seems unreasonable; the truth frequently is depressing; the truth sometimes seems to be evil. But it has the eternal advantage, it is the truth, and what is built thereon neither brings nor yields to confusion." - Henry Ford.