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.