Propaganda, Divide and Rule, Deliberate Dissonance and Managed Dissent

We, the Rabble, are highly vulnerable to tactics of Propaganda, Divide and Rule, Deliberate Dissonance and Managed Dissent. We certainly have seen them all employed in the current frenetic Summer Story of the NSA Spying On Everyone In The Whole Wide World!!!!™ But these tactics are widely employed throughout the sometimes strained relations between the People and Media, the People and Corporations, and the People and Government.

Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, played a major role in developing the science of popular opinion shaping and control during the 20th Century, as was incisively described by Adam Curtis in his award winning BBC documentary, The Century of the Self. It is long and detailed, but well worth four hours of one's time to sit through it all. It lays the historical and psychological foundation for understanding why and how We, the Rabble, are so thoroughly propagandized and our beliefs -- and often our actions -- are so completely manipulated by those in power and those who would wish to be in power.

It is very difficult to break free.

There is a certain level of marketing science involved in the control and manipulation of the masses; for example, the principle that fear sells is at the root of many, many product and political campaigns. But there is more to it than that. It's no longer simply or mostly a matter of marketing. The control and manipulation is more for straightforward political objectives -- naked power -- these days, more so than at any time since WWII, when the War Effort overwhelmed every other popular interest at all. But WWII, like practically every other war in history, wasn't a war the People chose; it was one the Power Elites had to have in order to sort out world dominance, Once And For All. Again.

Well, at least for the next several generations. And with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the transformation of "Red" China into the global state capitalist industrial and commercial center, the sorting out has reached a kind of climax.

Who will rule, and how will that rule be exercised over the entire globe?

For that's what's underlying so much of the struggle we see today, between governments and corporations, and between them both and the People.

In this context, the notion of "preserving" the 4th (or any other) amendment is quaint to say the least.

We, the Rabble, are heavily propagandized, we are hopelessly divided, and we face constant onslaughts of cognitive dissonance and managed dissent all in a (so far) successful effort to keep us tame while Our Betters pursue their Glorious Path to Total Global, Final Domination, Forever and Ever, Amen.

The question is who will dominate, that's all.



The United States has no real rival for physical Dominance, only rivals for, shall we say, Attention.

The United States is not simply the World's Policeman, it is now the World's Inspector, Judge, Jury and Executioner as well. I've long wondered why "Red" China tolerates American arrogance and ignorance around the world, and its many intrusions and wars of aggression, and then it occurred to me: China benefits from American Imperial Adventures, and often, whether from deliberate intent or not, American efforts to project and protect its global power lead directly to enhancing China's position vis a vis that of the United States and that of other nations. Ultimately, China comes out on top while the rest of the world descends into the kind of chaos Chinese expertise and loving kindness can raise the turbulent masses out of.

Or so the theorists can surmise.

From forty, eighty, or a hundred thousand feet, this all seems fairly straightforward, and even self-evident, but what is going on at ground level in support of what Our Rulers require at their elevated height, on their Olympus if you will, is often much murkier, not self-evident at all, and its contemplation often seems to be little more than self-indulgence.

What with all the Outrages™, Shark Attacks™, and Missing/Murdered White-and/or-Black People™ to fret ourselves into a frenzy over, how can we ever worry about what Our Rulers are up to? There are more important things. Priorities, people!™

The public spectacle and frenzy over the Obama Triple-Scandals, followed by terrorist attacks and the reaction to them, the Global Doozy-Frenzy over the NSA Spying Scandal, in the midst of which an intrepid investigative journalist dies by mysterious misadventure,  is enough to make the head reel.

Which, unsurprisingly, is the point of all this propaganda, dissonance and managed dissent. Mesmer himself couldn't have done any better. Nor Goebbels, for that matter.

These days, the manipulation and control of the masses is quite open and often brutal, not infrequently brutal to excess. We haven't seen these levels of brutality and violence toward the masses in the West since the 19th Century -- except for that Unpleasantness in Europe, c. 1933-1945. But then, we haven't seen so much open contempt for the Rabble among the Western Elites since then, either. They seemed to learn their lesson and then forgot it in their mad pursuit of ultimate control.

Unfortunately, all the many Outrages™, Shark Attacks™, and Missing/Murdered White-and/or-Black People™ are purpose designed to keep us in a continual frenzy of fear and dread (first and foremost) and impotent rage against a shadowy, evanescent, indescribable, ineffable Other, and to prevent us, insofar as possible, from recognizing the forces arrayed against us and from uniting to do anything about it.

Enforcing conformity of thought and fear and action within numerous discreet sectors of society, each in its separate and largely impenetrable cage, is the job of the media, both "New" and "Legacy." One must be happy in one's cage and must never leave it. Critical thinking is universally frowned upon, for it can lead to dissatisfaction and rebellion, neither of which is productive in the post-modern world.

Dissent, to the extent it is allowed at all, is strictly confined to prescribed issues, ideas, and possible resolutions. This is true no matter what side of an issue, if any, one is on.

So we sit in our cages, stewing in our own venom, denouncing all and sundry, including Our Betters, while events we cannot affect take place all around us.

We are being divided, watched, propagandized, and managed.


And?