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The Powers-That-Be Are Terrified of the Mass Awakening Taking Place Worldwide
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Our situation is admittedly dire.
Oligarchs are seizing more overt control in most countries in the world, the worldwide economy is on course for another - even bigger - train wreck, countries are cracking down on freedom and becoming more tyrannical, we are in a permanent state of war (and see this), and companies like BP are destroying our natural resources without any checks and balances.
But as Andrew Gavin Marshall points out, the elites are actually terrified of the mass political awakening which is occurring worldwide.
Marshall collects quotes from flexian Zbigniew Brzezinski - Obama's
former foreign affairs adviser, National Security Adviser to President
Carter, creator of America's strategy to lure Russia into Afghanistan,
and creator of America's plans for Eurasia in general - to make his point.
Listen to Brzezinski's own words (consolidated from various writings and speeches, and edited as if they were a single passage):
For
the first time in history almost all of humanity is politically
activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. Global
activism is generating a surge in the quest for cultural respect and
economic opportunity in a world scarred by memories of colonial or
imperial domination.
For
the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically
activated, politically conscious and politically interactive. There are
only a few pockets of humanity left in the remotest corners of the
world that are not politically alert and engaged with the political
turmoil and stirrings that are so widespread today around the world. The
resulting global political activism is generating a surge in the quest
for personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity in a
world painfully scarred by memories of centuries-long alien colonial or
imperial domination.
America
needs to face squarely a centrally important new global reality: that
the world's population is experiencing a political awakening
unprecedented in scope and intensity, with the result that the politics of populism are transforming the politics of power.
The need to respond to that massive phenomenon poses to the uniquely
sovereign America an historic dilemma: What should be the central
definition of America's global role?
[T]he
central challenge of our time is posed not by global terrorism, but
rather by the intensifying turbulence caused by the phenomenon of
global political awakening. That awakening is socially massive and politically radicalizing.
It is no overstatement to assert that now in the 21st century the
population of much of the developing world is politically stirring and
in many places seething with unrest. It is a population acutely
conscious of social injustice to an unprecedented degree, and often
resentful of its perceived lack of political dignity. The
nearly universal access to radio, television and increasingly the
Internet is creating a community of shared perceptions and envy that
can be galvanized and channeled by demagogic political or religious
passions. These energies
transcend sovereign borders and pose a challenge both to existing
states as well as to the existing global hierarchy, on top of which
America still perches.
The youth of the Third World are particularly restless and resentful. The demographic revolution they embody is thus a political time-bomb, as well. With the exception of Europe, Japan and America, the
rapidly expanding demographic bulge in the 25-year-old-and-under age
bracket is creating a huge mass of impatient young people.
Their minds have been stirred by sounds and images that emanate from
afar and which intensify their disaffection with what is at hand. Their
potential revolutionary spearhead is likely to emerge from among the
scores of millions of students concentrated in the often intellectually
dubious "tertiary level" educational institutions of developing
countries. Depending on the definition of the tertiary educational
level, there are currently worldwide between 80 and 130 million
"college" students. Typically
originating from the socially insecure lower middle class and inflamed
by a sense of social outrage, these millions of students are
revolutionaries-in-waiting, already semi-mobilized in large
congregations, connected by the Internet and pre-positioned for a
replay on a larger scale of what transpired years earlier in Mexico
City or in Tiananmen Square. Their physical energy and emotional frustration is just waiting to be triggered by a cause, or a faith, or a hatred.
Politically
awakened mankind craves political dignity, which democracy can enhance,
but political dignity also encompasses ethnic or national
self-determination, religious self-definition, and human and social
rights, all in a world now acutely aware of economic, racial and ethnic
inequities. The quest for political dignity, especially through
national self-determination and social transformation, is part of the
pulse of self-assertion by the world's underprivilegedThe
misdiagnosis [of foreign policy] pertains to a relatively vague,
excessively abstract, highly emotional, semi-theological definition of
the chief menace that we face today in the world, and the consequent
slighting of what I view as the unprecedented global challenge arising out of the unique phenomenon of a truly massive global political awakening of mankind.
We live in an age in which mankind writ large is becoming politically
conscious and politically activated to an unprecedented degree, and it is this condition which is producing a great deal of international turmoil.That
turmoil is the product of the political awakening, the fact that today
vast masses of the world are not politically neutered, as they have
been throughout history. They have political consciousness. It may be
undefined, it may point in different directions, it may be primitive,
it may be intolerant, it may be hateful, but it is a form of political
activism.
The other major change in international affairs is that for the first time, in all of human history, mankind
has been politically awakened. That is a total new reality – total new
reality. It has not been so for most of human history until the last
one hundred years. And in the course of the last one hundred
years, the whole world has become politically awakened. And no matter
where you go, politics is a matter of social engagement, and most
people know what is generally going on –generally going on – in the
world, and are consciously aware of global inequities, inequalities,
lack of respect, exploitation. Mankind is now politically awakened and
stirring. The combination of the two: the diversified global
leadership, politically awakened masses, makes a much more difficult
context for any major power including, currently, the leading world
power: the United States.
The people of the world
are waking up to the reality of what is happening. If we wake up fast
enough, we can reclaim our power and dignity, and shake off those who
would steal everything we have, including our money, opportunity and
freedom.
To see the context of Brzezinski 's quotes - and for a great analysis of the ways in which th epowers-that-be are trying to counter the mass awakening, read Marshall's essay.
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I have an idea. I propose a penny march. We gather our pre-1982 pennies of little numismatic value and bag them or pocket them. Then we have marches to each of the state capitals. We will find some cause to donate this money to. Take your pick. Maybe you may want to reduce the state deficit. Pay for a new bridge. Fund food for the unemployed. The people choose the cause.
We would pitch those pennies into a giant bin. Thousands of us. Millions of us.
The state government would then haul them away.
One condition. They cannot bank them.
They have a choice. The government can donate the pennies as is to the designated cause. Or they can take them to a copper smelter, and get even more for them than face value, and then donate the larger value to the chosen cause.
You really think that there can be some reasonable consensus as to what the causes would be? People would be programmed into some BS, like supporing the troops (while the very government that's "helping" with the "cause" grinds trillions out of us to hand over to the likes of Lockheed, Haliburton, Z (or whatever the hell Blackwater is called these days), Boeing etc.).
Better would be to walk away from it all and just help one another out locally.
No. What I'm thinking is that this would capture MSM attention. The media can't ignore 50 nationwide matches, which is bound to impact the communities handling the crowd, the spectacle of people tossing pennies one at a time into a bin, and the drama of what will the government do with the coins.
Oh and there are other ethical and legal issues I don't mention.
The other day one of my kids said to me, "Mom, why are you saying the words ROBERT RUBIN, LARRY SUMMERS, GEITNER under your breath while you vacuum ?" ......... I have a question for the other commentors on ZEROHEDGE ...... ' why won't anyone name names ? why aren't these people exposed in BIG BOLD TYPE ? ' When I was growing up EVERYONE had a little house, a Mom who stayed home for the children, summer was for the children, playing outside, Mom made lunch. Oh, some of us had a little more or less than others, but EVERYONE had money in a bank & society was stable. PEOPLE OF ZEROHEDGE, PLEASE SPEAK UP !! NAME THOSE NAMES ! I am just a damn housewife with no power, but, if I have to spend every last dime I have (which have dwindled over the past years) I am going to my grave muttering ROBERT RUBIN, LARRY SUMMERS, GEITNER, BERNANKE, SOROS, CLINTON, BUSH, PAULSEN, that other Paulson-guy who runs the hedge fund. I'M MAD !!! & I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE ! & tough if no one on ZEROHEDGE likes my comments & junks me ........... I have said my mind, no one had better tangle with an angry 60-year-old grandma ... THAT'S ME !
Jersey Girls.
So,they hit the kill switch/modern day book burning...Start writing on Federal reserve note.Spray paint a box car,get a tattoo.
Take away food,shelter and hope, people will reject their rules and their money.They should worry more about the tipping point of a human condition rather than how we express or vent fustration...if you wrote on FRNs this is not back by gold,how many would see it(not advocating defacing public debt).All water boils at a certain temperate informed or not.
Internet kill switch? More like, Business Kill Switch, and then some. Y2K made manifest.
Hell, let's do it; see where the chips fall!
Of course. That is why they propose an "Internet kill switch" which will be passed by our legislators because their corporate masters command them to do so.
VOTE THEM ALL OUT!
An internet kill switch will not work to stifle political speech. How do I know? Nothing has stopped illegal music/software downloads. New sites mushroom faster than old ones can be shut down. Imagine zero hedge being blocked. How long would it take the authors to re-appear under a slightly different name? Mere hours.
A kill swich would be self defeating -- convincing more people that the gov is corrupt and unfixable. I say, bring it on and watch the fireworks.
The Internet has been instrumental in this "political awakening" and will continue as such. Imagine the world's "understanding" of Iranian youth without Twitter or Israel's excesses in Lebanon (or the crimes recently committed on the high seas) without YouTube. Technology has allowed an information explosion and "the truth" will get out. Unfortunately, Joe Lieberman now wants a kill switch; if and when that happens, Americans young and old will truly take to the streets.
Sous les paves, la mer.
Kinda hard to stay complacent with your own lifestyle, when a few clicks show how the "Better Half" lives.
Rather than add more verbiage I will post a link to my previous comment. I am making a point that this "kill switch" threat is oversimplified.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/powers-be-are-terrified-mass-awakening-taking-place-worldwide#comment-438425
Awake all you want, but you still can't do shit about it.
The AIG robbery, is a blatant example of the power the elites use to do whatever the hell they want to do.
The more I know, the more political deactivated I become. There are still too many distracted and confused morons, that will never understand how this country and NWO, is run. As long as the bills are paid, and the belly is full, most are happy to bitch about stoopid political issues, when the real important stuff is candy coated with high fructose corn syrup and tar balls.
Yup, kill the psyche and you kill the rebellion.
You folks are awesome, and I don't use that word casually. I mean in the sense of inspiring awe. There is no where else that I encounter not only the range of intellect, but the general respect for alternate views. Sure, there are our favorite nuts, sceptics, and trolls, but that is the spice of the paiea. Thanks to you all.
+ mucho again Rocky
I spend so much time here at ZH because of really smart comments. I have learned a lot here.
Applies to all of you esp. including our fave nuts, sceptics and trolls.
RockyRacoon
"I mean in the sense of inspiring awe. There is no where else that I encounter not only the range of intellect, but the general respect for alternate views."
Dude, that is what free speech is all about. The fact that there really is no respect from alternate views but everyone is able to duke it out shows someone is actually paying attention.
We all know what Voltaire said. Ken Kesey said, well Wolfe quoted Kesey,
"None of us are going to deny what other people are doing. If saying bullshit is somebody's thing, then he says bullshit. If somebody is an ass-kicker, then that's what he's going to do on this trip, kick asses. He's going to do it right out front and nobody is going to have anything to get pissed off about. He can just say, 'I'm sorry I kicked you in the ass, but I'm not sorry I'm an ass-kicker. That's what I do, I kick people in the ass.' Everybody is going to be what they are, and whatever they are, there's not going to be anything to apologize about. What we are, we're going to wail with on this whole trip."
— Tom Wolfe (The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test)
to the comments about Radicals becomming institutions eventually attacked by radicals......how do you think Arafat got to the table or Jerry Adams got an office in Parliament??
But... it's not who is at the controls, it's what the controls ARE! Translation: It's the System!
What is shocking is that someone in such a position of power could be so ignorant of history.
When exactly was this period of peace and tranquility when no one cared about politics and someone somewhere in the world was not rioting, revolting and raising hell generally? It sure wasn't the twentieth century, or the nineteenth, or the eighteenth.
Well I would argue that the blissful ignorance of the Western masses started in the mid-90s and lasted until Lehman's collapsed... The Ignorance was exacerbated by the very same Internet that is now being heralded as our only defense against the oppression which makes a certain amount of sense as it has taken that long to realize that the Internet has as much power to ensnare the masses and mesmerize them into a subservient state as it does the power to educate and organize resistance and revolution. The rise of Twitter has certainly facilitated the latter.
Huff post had an article about the internet kill switch this past week. we azre increasingly entering a relm of fascism by the elites.
I read a few articles this morning, before cruising over to ZH, and the common thread of said articles suggested overt panic within the Oligarchy. Your thoughts, GW, are quite timely.
An animal is never so dangerous as when backed into a corner. This is my feeling. Something extremely ominous is in the air.
I'm old enough to remember old Zbigniew when he was in the Carter administration. While I think he has a good point about young people throughout the world, I think that he is missing the frustration and genuine rage that is taking place here in the US. For more than 30 years, we've watched as corporate America has shipped jobs and manufacturing overseas to Wall St. cheering. I doubt anyone on this board thinks the Millennials will have a better future. Our idiot corporate media encourages fake outrage between left and right while their business model dies. Our politicians pander to their constituancies and wonder why we hate them. Our corporate masters rake home millions and billions, yet can't be bothered to share some of the scraps.
Yeah, I'm sorry for the long post, but when enough people get pissed off enough, these little rants on ZH and elsewhere are going to seem quaint. Best to all you other wage slaves toiling away in your boxes waiting for our upcoming holiday weekend. Again, sorry to be so grim on a beautiful day, but some days, it's just hard to fake it anymore.
Outsourcing Not the Culprit in Manufacturing Job Loss
http://www.automationworld.com/webonly-320
For many Americans, the word “outsourcing” conjures up images of manufacturing job decline. But the United States is far from alone in losing manufacturing employment, points out Dan Miklovic (shown above), vice president and research director at GartnerG2, the business research arm of Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. “Recent studies show that manufacturing jobs are declining everywhere,” said Miklovic, during a Nov. 17 panel discussion on outsourcing, part of a Global Media Summit sponsored by Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee.
Over the past decade, U.S. manufacturing jobs have declined by more than 11 percent, Miklovic noted. But at the same time, Japan’s manufacturing employment base has dropped by 16 percent, while the number of manufacturing jobs in countries including Brazil have declined by some 20 percent, he pointed out. “And one of the largest losers of manufacturing jobs has been China,” Miklovic added. “We like to pick on China and say that all of these jobs are going to China, but they’re losing jobs in manufacturing as well.”
The reason for the job losses? Miklovic summed it up in one word: automation. Through automation, he said, “we are really doing a good job of improving the productivity of people.”
---
I think that the reason people don't want to admit this is because they are attached to high-tech, that and the fact that some commie by the name of Karl Marx warned about this. Just say'n...
a liberal dosing of EMPs would always shut the internet down without any kill switches, they can do it any time they want to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse
If internet shutdown was the goal there are less drastic ways to do that. What governments -- all governments -- really want is the ability to fine tune the system, and make it work for them instead of us. This is not hard with sophisticated router software. Such control already exists in China and other totalitarian governments. Just enter a few commands from a central location, and troublesome sites become inaccessible or are replaced with others that present the state's point of view. And of course the end-user's information is logged for future investigation.
We don't currently have this capability in the US, but a case is being made to develop it quickly. The reason of course would be to protect the nation from foreign internet attacks on our power distribution, military command, and other vital systems. Of course once in place the system could be used for any purpose under the umbrella of national security. For example, if a financial/political blog reported a story which would outrage the public, undermine trust in our government, and threaten public order. A few keystrokes from a central location and the blog site would become unavailable, or possibly be replaced by relevent sections on citizen responsibility from the Homeland Security website.
The thing is, so few people see/believe that this possibility is not that far off. People desperately don't want to believe that their own govt. is capable of such odious behavior. It's why the 911 official story has never been properly challenged. It's why most people's response to Peak Oil is "we'll find more." And it's why the steady erosion of civil rights over the last 9 years has not been addressed as what it is - fine tuning control over citizens. People actually (want to) believe that giving the govt. an Internet kill switch or the ability to label people "terrorists" and remove any right they have to the access the courts is for our own good. The biological imperative to believe that is - disheartening.
The elite are not surprised by the awakening. The financial collapse is their answer and they perceive to be a launching board to greater control.
Perhaps, but history tends to show that things aren't quite so predictable/controllable.
The best thing that people can do is to withdraw their power from the system and let it collapse.
+1... TPTB know well that ignorance is bliss and will do all in their power to insure that the slumbering are not awakened. Problem is, 'all in their power' is coming up short...and that is what scares hell out of them.
Sorry folks.
This pearl of political wisdom has always stuck with me.
" Radicals attack institutions in turn becoming institutions attacked by radicals."
Any political affiliation is first and foremost interested in it's own survival. Every government and organization, every party and protest group, all of them need to maintain their own interest first before the rank and file. There will always be dogmatists to gladly follow while the progressive thinkers get purged.
Finally I guarantee that you could not manage to have every poster here agree on ten points they would choose to be ruled by.
Yes, isn't that obvious? There are personalities that thrive off of discord. Without the Anti-Federalists we would have been a centralized dictatorship from the get go. Imagine what the US would be like without the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. The Federalists largely opposed individual rights.
How about if I choose simply not to be ruled? Does that count?
So where do you start?
How about with Anarchism's only one true tenent?: No centralized (political) power.
Cognitive Dissonance
"So where do you start?"
It depends on what your goals are.
Obviously if your own consciousness is raised to non attachment you start with yourself.
I don't think it is possible to build a long standing community. You can establish something with a group of "like minded" friends and family. Lay a framework on what duties and obligations and rights each individual has.
But that would only last until the original founders or first generation died off. Assuming some opportunist didn't manipulate the system.
In the end one can only save oneself and possibly others.
Gully, I'm thinking we may fall back into smaller need and resource based communities. I live in a fairly rural area and know others in my immediate area fairly well. I can see a situation where barter for food and resources will be the new normal. Won't work in cities, too many consumers and not enough producers.
"In the end one can only save oneself."
And that is everything and the only thing.
If the coming collapse is severe enough...from scracth!
GW
Thank you for pointing out that there is an awakening happening and that the powers that be are not only aware of it but are frightened by it. As I repeatedly stressed in my series, we often blindly and ignorantly hand our own innate power to other in exchange for false promises and delusions. This is coming to an end.
Thanks.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33507389/Welcome-to-the-Insane-Asylum-Our-Collective-Psychosis
Hot off the press: 1.7 million iPhone 4s sold in 3 days.
There is your "awakening".
Do we think that these folks are accessing the political and economic news of the day? Cameras on both sides... Hmmm. What has always driven technology?
RR
I didn't say everyone was awakening. I said it is starting, that an awakening is coming. There will always be people who are chasing the latest greatest, which means they are running from themselves. If you watch these iPhone buyers carefully it's more about a cult following than it is about the technology.
Many people like to believe they are at the cutting edge of public thought and awareness. This has driven the Apple cult for decades. More and more people are awakening. The last place you will read about it, until it is complete, is in the MSM.
We are singing in the same choir, CD.
I've seen the glazed eyes of the first in line exiting the stores with their prize. They look like zombies parading their newly severed victim's head to the other folks still in queue.
Pay no mind. In three years AAPL will be just another downtrodden tech company in the wake of a crushing recession/depression. FAO Schwartz of techno-gadgets. No real American jobs produced there. If you own Apple, sell now, at the top.
It's time for Apple to roll out the original, Ridley Scott directed, "1984" inspired Apple MacIntosh ad with Job's own mug substituted for that of Big Brother's. If someone's already done it please post a link..And if it hasn't been done I implore someone to do it. I'm not technically savvy enough to pull it off.
That is why Obama wants a KILL switch on the Internet. AT&T, Comcast etc. want to control the Content their Customers watch and link to.
The Internet may be a Jennie too big to put back in the bottle but they will try. China was successful in kicking Google out.
I can agree with Gil-Scott Heron that: "The Revolution will NOT be Televised", but if Obamatron hits the "Kill Switch" on the internet, how do the authorities get the word out that the rioting is over? There's a sword that cuts both ways if ever there was one!
Censorship on Internet is here.
Just look at the overwhelming majority of blogger sites having an "report Abuse" button. In other words, if your views are different from the site owners or even "moderators", you are expelled with losing posting privileges.
As for the masses wakening, dictators were always right: most of people are just too lazy and stupid.
As an American capitalist with underpinnings of libertarian ideals as well as a sprinkling of socialist leanings, I put up with a lot of bullshit from my elected leaders without protesting too much save for occasional verbal rants.
However, if said governement or institutions employed on behalf of the political, the elite, the neocons, try to squash my access to the internet....
I will Freak the Hell, OUT!