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The Crisis Of The Now: Distracted & Diverted From The Ever-Encroaching Police State
Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk: culture-death is a clear possibility.”—Author Neil Postman
Caught up in the spectacle of the forthcoming 2016 presidential elections, Americans (never very good when it comes to long-term memory) have not only largely forgotten last year’s hullabaloo over militarized police, police shootings of unarmed citizens, asset forfeiture schemes, and government surveillance but are also generally foggy about everything that has happened since.
Then again, so much is happening on a daily basis that it’s understandable if the average American has a hard time keeping up with and remembering all of the “events,” manufactured or otherwise, which occur like clockwork and keep us distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from reality while the government continues to amass more power and authority over the citizenry.
In fact, when we’re being bombarded with wall-to-wall news coverage and news cycles that change every few days, it’s difficult to stay focused on one thing—namely, holding the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law—and the powers-that-be understand this. As investigative journalist Mike Adams points out:
This psychological bombardment is waged primarily via the mainstream media which assaults the viewer by the hour with images of violence, war, emotions and conflict.
Because the human nervous system is hard wired to focus on immediate threats accompanied by depictions of violence, mainstream media viewers have their attention and mental resources funneled into the never-ending ‘crisis of the NOW’ from which they can never have the mental breathing room to apply logic, reason or historical context.
Consider if you will the regularly scheduled trivia and/or distractions in the past year alone that have kept us tuned into the various breaking news headlines and entertainment spectacles and tuned out to the government’s steady encroachments on our freedoms:
Americans were riveted when the Republican presidential contenders went head-to-head for the second time in a three-hour debate that put Carly Fiorina in a favored position behind Donald Trump; Hillary Clinton presented the softer side of her campaign image during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon; scientists announced the discovery of what they believed to be a new pre-human species, Homo naledi, that existed 2.8 million years ago; an 8.3 magnitude earthquake hit Chile; massive wildfires burned through 73,000 acres in California; a district court judge reversed NFL player Tom Brady’s four-game suspension; tennis superstar Serena Williams lost her chance at a calendar grand slam; and President Obama and Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg tweeted their support for a Texas student arrested for bringing a homemade clock to school.
That was preceded by the first round of the Republican presidential debates; an immigration crisis in Europe; the relaxing of Cuba-U.S. relations; the first two women soldiers graduating from Army Ranger course; and three Americans being hailed as heroes for thwarting a train attack in France. Before that, there was the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse; shootings at a military recruiting center in Tennessee and a movie theater in Louisiana; the Boy Scouts’ decision to end its ban on gay adult leaders; the first images sent by the New Horizons spacecraft of Pluto; and the victory over Japan of the U.S. in the Women’s World Cup soccer finals.
No less traumatic and distracting were the preceding months’ newsworthy events, which included a shooting at a Charleston, S.C., church; the trial and sentencing of Boston Marathon bomber suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; the U.S. Supreme Court’s affirmation of same-sex marriage, Obamacare, lethal injection drugs and government censorship of Confederate flag license plates; and an Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia that left more than 200 injured and eight dead.
Also included in the mix of distressing news coverage was the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray while in police custody and the subsequent riots in Baltimore and city-wide lockdown; the damning report by the Dept. of Justice into discriminatory and abusive practices by the Ferguson police department; the ongoing saga of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account while serving as secretary of state; the apparently deliberate crash by a copilot of a German jetliner in the French Alps, killing all 150 passengers and crew; the New England Patriots’ fourth Super Bowl win; a measles outbreak in Disneyland; the escalating tensions between New York police and Mayor Bill de Blasio over his seeming support for anti-police protesters; and a terror attack at the Paris office of satire magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Rounding out the year’s worth of headline-worthy new stories were protests over grand jury refusals to charge police for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown; the disappearance of an AirAsia flight over the Java Sea; an Ebola outbreak that results in several victims being transported to the U.S. for treatment; reports of domestic violence among NFL players; a security breach at the White House in which a man managed to jump the fence, cross the lawn and enter the main residence; and the reported beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff by ISIS.
That doesn’t even begin to touch on the spate of entertainment news that tends to win the battle for Americans’ attention: Bruce Jenner’s transgender transformation to Caitlyn Jenner; the death of Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown; Kim Kardashian’s “break the internet” nude derriere photo; sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby; the suicide of Robin Williams; the cancellation of the comedy The Interview in movie theaters after alleged terror hack threats; the wedding of George Clooney to Amal Alamuddin; the wedding of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt; the ALS ice bucket challenge; and the birth of a baby girl to Prince William and Kate.
As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, these sleight-of-hand distractions, diversions and news spectacles are how the corporate elite controls a population by entrapping them in the “crisis of the NOW,” either inadvertently or intentionally, advancing their agenda without much opposition from the citizenry.
Professor Jacques Ellul studied this phenomenon of overwhelming news, short memories and the use of propaganda to advance hidden agendas. “One thought drives away another; old facts are chased by new ones,” wrote Ellul.
“Under these conditions there can be no thought. And, in fact, modern man does not think about current problems; he feels them. He reacts, but he does not understand them any more than he takes responsibility for them. He is even less capable of spotting any inconsistency between successive facts; man’s capacity to forget is unlimited. This is one of the most important and useful points for the propagandists, who can always be sure that a particular propaganda theme, statement, or event will be forgotten within a few weeks.”
But what exactly has the government (aided and abetted by the mainstream media) been doing while we’ve been so cooperatively fixated on whatever current sensation happens to be monopolizing the so-called “news” shows?
If properly disclosed, consistently reported on and properly digested by the citizenry, the sheer volume of the government’s activities, which undermine the Constitution and in many instances are outright illegal, would inevitably give rise to a sea change in how business is conducted in our seats of power.
Surely Americans would be concerned about the Obama administration’s plans to use behavioral science tactics to “nudge” citizens to comply with the government’s public policy and program initiatives? There would be no end to the uproar if Americans understood the ramifications of the government’s plan to train non-medical personnel—teachers, counselors and other lay people—in “mental first aid” in order to train them to screen, identify and report individuals suspected of suffering from mental illness. The problem, of course, arises when these very same mental health screeners misdiagnose opinions or behavior involving lawful First Amendment activities as a mental illness, resulting in involuntary detentions in psychiatric wards for the unfortunate victims.
Parents would be livid if they had any inkling about the school-to-prison pipeline, namely, how the public schools are being transformed from institutions of learning to prison-like factories, complete with armed police and surveillance cameras, aimed at churning out compliant test-takers rather than independent-minded citizens. And once those same young people reach college, they will be indoctrinated into believing that they have a “right” to be free from acts and expressions of intolerance with which they might disagree.
Concerned citizens should be up in arms over the government’s end-run tactics to avoid abiding by the rule of law, whether by outsourcing illegal surveillance activities to defense contractors, outsourcing inhumane torture to foreign countries, causing American citizens to disappear into secret interrogation facilities, or establishing policies that would allow the military to indefinitely detain any citizen—including journalists—considered a belligerent or enemy.
And one would hope American citizens would be incensed about being treated like prisoners in an electronic concentration camp, their every movement monitored, tracked and recorded by a growing government surveillance network that runs the gamut from traffic cameras and police body cameras to facial recognition software. Or outraged that we will be forced to fund a $93 billion drone industry that will be used to spy on our movements and activities, not to mention the fact that private prisons are getting rich (on our taxpayer dollars) by locking up infants, toddlers, children and pregnant women?
Unfortunately, while 71% of American voters are “dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the United States, that discontent has yet to bring about any significant changes in the government, nor has it caused the citizenry to get any more involved in their government beyond the ritualistic election day vote.
Professor Morris Berman suggests that the problems plaguing us as a nation—particularly as they relate to the government—have less to do with our inattention to corruption than our sanctioning, tacit or not, of such activities. “It seems to me,” writes Berman, “that the people do get the government they deserve, and even beyond that, the government who they are, so to speak.”
In other words, if we end up with a militarized police state, it will largely be because we welcomed it with open arms. In fact, according to a recent poll, almost a third of Americans would support a military coup “to take control from a civilian government which is beginning to violate the constitution.”
So where does that leave us?
As legendary television journalist Edward R. Murrow warned, “Unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.”
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"....while 71% of American voters are “dissatisfied” with the way things are going in the United States..." they will still vote for the same fucker they voted for the last time around, because said fucker promised to toss them a tasty peanut after he/she/it gets elected.
Massive applause for atttacking the boob-tube.
Mrs. SWR still likes to watch football, so I am presented with "opportunities" to see it. I am increasingly disgusted with the obvious Hollywood-like effort that has gone into production, camera angles, the elements of reality TV incorporated into it, the courting of the female viewership, and the endless promotion of the war state. It's really quite difficult to watch, and doing so only makes me angrier.
I am looking for ways to draw her away from it. Hmmmm, let me see....
Tell her she had to pay for the stadium those millionaire players get to play in.
Ask her when the dividend check will arrive in the mail....
I have been telling people for a decade to unplug TV and Hollywood for good or keep being a sheep.
Dresden Rally: "Merkel to Siberia, Putin to Berlin!" (video)http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/09/dresden-rally-merkel-to-siberia-put...
This album by The Tubes, "Remote Control", sums up my feelings about the TeeVee.
From the opening song, "Remote Control", it definitely demonstrates the viewer is being controlled.
"I Want It All Now" is a satirical look at the instant gratification syndrome which has caused our Nation's illness.
In fact look at that baby in the bassinet with the TeeVee on the album cover.
Enjoy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0Ww9GgFxq4
It taught me about TeeVee way back in 1979.
It is satirical art.
Listen to the lyrics...LISTEN TO IT.
TeeVee is just an extremely poor substitute for living.
Blow up your TV, throw away your paper, move to the country, build you a home - John Prine
The behavioral science is already well underway it's just being fine tuned. You can see it with the freeway shooter issue in Phoenix. It's a super convoluted story to begin with they arrested some kids for hitting cars with slingshots, then they are claiming that there may be a copycat and they have arrested this redneck kid (who many think is innocent) and have ruined him on local TV by showing him shooting a gun in the desert with his son and any social media posts that they considered "anti government".
The entire bunch of mass shootings is a social engineering op if you ask me. If you don't want to give up your guns they will engineer a reason for you to. As John Rosenthal stated "Hundreds of white people must be killed for gun laws to get stricter"
http://www.rt.com/op-edge/313561-gun-industry-profit-shootings/
Notice the thousands of incidents a year where someone wards off an attack or home invasion with a firearm are not reported in the media. Only sensationalized stories of criminals with guns get reported and repeated for days or even months in the news. This is the most blatant form of mind control.
"If you repeat a lie often enough, people will tend to believe it." Somebody said that.
Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.
-Adolph Hitler
Of course, you already know who's pushing for gun control. It may be redundant, but I'll post the link nonetheless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zy227hN5B0
The western world has ONE big problem and it gets more conspicuous day by day.
11 years now with no tv. I went to one movie in the last ten years, district 9 or some stupid dross. It sucked. Just got off a number of planes traveling over 30 hours each way. I was amazed at what passes for "entertainment" on the boob tubes during the flights. Numerous movies, basically devoid of any reasonable adult plots. They all seemed like vehicles for special effects or something. Horrible, every one of them. I couldn't last more than 20 minutes trying to watch any of them.
Yes, hollywood thinks they can substitute good story telling with special effects.
Anecdotally, I'm 32 years post-TeeVee.
Also anecdotally, a friend of a friend spent most of his life in a monastery: he saw "The Sound of Music", first-run in the theatres, right before he went IN, and he saw "Minority Report" right after he got OUT. I don't think he ever really recovered....
im no fan of the teevee or movie industry.. far from it. but to be fair, i have seen some very thoughtful and inspired programming in recent years. of course, finding such things amidst all the propaganda and soul-sucking requires a fair bit of discernment, but there are some things that are quite beautifully expressed via the medium. dont hate the medium just because some sociopaths have commandeered the majority of it for their own insane agendas. tv's dont brainwash people.. they just happen to be a powerful weapon which is largely used FOR brainwashing these days.
Just Call Sol.
Good comment, and I agree wholeheartedly, but, District 9 was excellent. There was one part in which they said that if the alien slaps at the clipboard (holding the rules) in anger, that it counts as a signature and that it had been read. I found the parallels to modern society spot on.
Would I could upvote you a thousand times.
That said, what kind of cowardly, mediacocksucking useless piece of shit downvotes this comment without an explanation.
downvoters, fuck off. Cowardly turds, most likely employed by the mind control industry.
Once more, because it feels so good:
FUCK OFF DOWNVOTERS OF DUC888's comment.
I broke my non vote pledge to up vote you just to make you feel better.
Sounds like you really needed some validation.
I liked district 9. Thought it was original.
The natural sequence of the human mind is to break out into mass hysteria when it is controlled. The control is also doubtful because it is based on compromised ehtics of think tanks and tech manufactures whose main purpose is to extract as much money and noteriety from the elite. The whole idea of forcing a global system of control is a con game that discounts the morality of the individual. The root of the problem are the concentrations of wealth that have been built up over centuries. Nothing will change unless those concentrations of wealth are eliminated
There are no 'news' shows on TV. Everything is gossip, name calling, opinions of the anchor, or re-hashed YouTube videos -- or incessant and even longer commercials.
This article is spot on and you really should pay a lot of attention to the new White House Executive Order. It is giving corporations carte blanch to be able to mine and sell your data so government agencies can use it so the government can be more responsive to your needs...bull crap.
We can't get this guy out of the White House fast enough. He's been listening a lot lately to the guy Andy Slavitt who's running CMS. This is a one time Goldman banker and please tell your senators to vote no as goofy Obama has nominated him to take the job full time. He's acting now. I was talking to his next door neighbor on Twitter, who doesn't like him at all and used to work on his philanthropic efforts until she saw what was going on. She now put everything out there she can to tell the truth.
She put a good one out a couple days ago, a lawyer from United Healthcare recommending Loretta Lynch for AG as she did such a good job with representing United Healthcare with anti trust suits. This woman will really put bankers in jail, not a chance. Maybe she'll hire Lanny Bruer to work for her:) Anyway, back on target, please be aware that a lot of the former Wall Street Quants are now working for health insurance companies and you have financial models being modified and used in healthcare..narrow networks anyone designed by Quants?
This guy, Slavitt is a cold Algo Man and he's running CMS and has the attention of Obama who's sucking in everything with math and models he kicks out. I asked his neighbor if she thought he wrote the White House Behavioral Insight Executive order. If you have not noticed yet either, United Healthcare has a ton of money invested in behavioral analytics and has quite a few big contracts to run mental health care all over the country.
Heck Kaiser got fined in CA for lack of enough mental health doctors and needs for patients. What did they do, signed a contract with United/Optum to take over what they could not handle. He's dangerous and seniors will hurt and he will worm his way into other areas as he already has with this Behavioral Insighs garbage in the Executive Order.
Do pay attention as to what's going on here as it's real. I also have a couple former CMS employees who have really given me tons more information on what goes on with the United Healthcare "mafia" if you will at HHS. Do remember that we have the six degrees of Bob Rubin also running HHS, Burwell in her past was a Rubinite and we all know he should be in jail. So keep your eyes open to this United/Optum connection with behavioral insights, it's there and they want all the behavioral data and care they can get. Remember United bought an urgent care company now and has over 200 clinics in the US and are advertising that they want to buy doctor's practices. It's right on the website for MDs to contact them if they want to sell.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/09/excess-scoring-of-us-consumers-us.html
Don't let distraction pull you away from this very scary Executive Order that's been put out by Obama.
I downvoted you because you made the classic error of believing that it matters which figurehead is in the oval office. No one gets "elected" if they aren't bought and paid for.
And like Kennedy, if they pretend to be bought and then turn on their buyers their presidency finds itself quickly ended.
...
Only through revolution is there a chance.
United Healthcare keeps calling me, wanting to set up an appointment for a home visit. They say they want to test blood and urine and want me to provide answers to questions which will take about two hours. They are vague about what the questions are. I have refused to make this appointment. The calls keep coming, each one more aggressive and bullying, the last one even suggested that I will not get treatment if need it. Considering the tone of the calls I would assume the home visitor would be agressive too. What if there were questions I refused to answer? What if I asked them to leave? What if they refused to leave without completing the forms? How could I get them out of my house? My answer is still "no". I have no health problems at the present time. I wonder what they can do next to force me to accept this visit.
I only watch TeeVee to see Perry Mason reruns when I get home and Donna Reed reruns in the morning.
Everything else is just too painful.
I watch HIGHWAY PATROL
I've enjoyed watching Perry Mason since it gives me a picture of California in the 1950's. Sure looks like a nice place....
Anime bitchez!!! Some of that stuff is pure art...
My Neighbor Totoro is a kids movie that is just amazing and there is plenty of stuff for grown-ups as well.
;-D
I particularly like the ones with the monsters with tentacles doing the hotties with big breasts...
Yep. It's really amazing how having less people around improves the quality of life.
The USPOP has basically doubled since I was a kid in the 70's.
More fences, more rules, more private property, more government, more inflation, lower wages due to bigger labor pool, and most importantly, more taxes to pay for all the services needed by MOAR people.
US was a lot better place to live at pop 150M than pop 330M.
I don't give a fuck who you are.
I especially like any scene the characters handle coins.
You can hear the sound of those 90% silver coins clinking together....the sound of music....
Doesn't anybody read books, any more?
I read 'To Have and Have Not', decided there would never be anything better, and gave it up.
Books are dead.
As are the brains of the debt slaves.
What passes for "books" these days are basically written screenplays. The successful books written recently (off the top of my head): Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, and Divergent. All of them series written to go to the movies. There is no literature anymore. The death of the culture is nowhere more evident than this example of what passes for "writing" in our environment.
Only rarely do I come across a person these days that even watches tv or listens to the radio. Mostly older folks that can't fight anyhow. The others are people that work who are in their late 50s and are too tired to do anything after working all day. Academia is coming around fast at this point. I believe I will live to see Blankfein, Yellen, Dimon and some banking families either destroyed or in prisons. There will be a split in the military. Corporations have no morality so as resources dry up they will begin to take down competing corporations. Good luck with Xi downsizing the Chinese military. It ain't going to be pretty going forward.
Im just glad to not have to watch any of the 2016 election BS. Seeing all those clowns in my face every night for a year?
No TV, No Newspapers, without ZH and Lew Rockwell I would be clueless in China. These two sites are not blocked by the Great Firewall of China whereas all of the mainstream media sites are. The best kept secret is that the Chinese people are not Communists at all, they are actually Libertarians that consider all forms of government corrupt. In the day to day lives of the people, Austrian Capitalism rules. If you don't work you starve. If you don't save you will have no future. If you are a beautiful young woman you can wrap an old western man around your finger.
I was amazed and pleased to see that ZH was not blocked. For some reason I couldn't get on during the Hong Kong sit in demonstrations but I'm sure that was just coincidence.
I have not owned a TV since 1977. Stopped reading newspapers and news magazines around 1985.
Why?
I couldn't take it anymore.
If you are dimly aware that you are being duped 24/7, but keep going back for more you have my pity. That applies doubly to anyone who has a MSNBC addiction. If you are a heavy television watcher you are warped. If the first thing you do upon entering your domocile is turn on hellevision you have suffered serious brain damage. At that point you aren't very useful to yourself or others. Your world view is not in sync with reality. You have no original thoughts. Truth sets your teeth on edge. You are the enemy.
Very well said.....
All these US dramas as well.
"Culture-death is a clear possibility.” —Neil Postman
This f**king culture needs to die, and the sooner the better.
If you watch the news, your opinion is already formed for your consumption (like fast food.) But if you read the news, you can make up your own mind.
Knowledge consists in understanding the evidence that establishes the fact, not in the belief that it is a fact.
-Sprading
I watch the weather on TV and that is all. I live in tornadoe alley. I do like big bang. Now the wife is another story she lives on the TV.
TV is the biggest device for feeding the sheeple bullshit to be honest. Most shows are all about law and order or how fucked up men are. We must feminize the male species. Men are portrayed as biligerent beasts that are the root of all things despicable about society.
I do not watch the current presidential election crap. Just another tool to be used to entertain the masses and the election cycle is not even close.
What is sad is children are placed in front of TV instead of going outside and getting some exercise and we wonder why they are getting adults diseases so early in life. Well duh many are overweight and their parents are preparing the latest and greatest processed food they discovered on TV!!!!
To be fair, smartphones, tablets, and PCs have also contributed to the 'lazy kids who don't know how to DO anything" syndrome.
Lead by example, when the parents are incapable of independent thought and moreso action, how can we expect the kids to do so. Just a bunch of mindless drones. The whole damn population.
Nothing has happened yet!! We've been busy preparing and loading........
Nothing has happened yet!! We've been busy preparing and loading........
Perhaps this is a good day for an old fashioned Wake and Bake?
Blue Dream FTMFW!
Locked, loaded. It's all 'baked in'.
FUCK YEAH!
I just wish that 37% who support a military coup were willing to actually do something about it, instead of, like everything else, expecting someone to do it for them. My how they been trained and taught to be useless little entities who must be coddled and tools what to do. Infants have more initiative.
question, we need a leader to make the first move, you sound like that guy. waiting....
Leaders aren't needed. Sometimes someone just sees an opportunity in their area and takes it.
Sorry.. I live in the wrong country.
The problem with waiting for a leader to guide you (other than proof of the incapacity of independent thought or action) is that you may just get more of the same under the new leader.
Two-Party monopoly on candidates, widespread election fraud, and near 100% gov't disregard of the public will, or specifications of gov't charter, also make Americans cynical about their influence. It is a prison atmosphere filled with distractions that is not yet unpleasant enough to trigger violent action.
Well said. Although I've noticed when our prison atmostphere does get unpleasant enough a scapegoat is ready to be blamed.
I ripped its umbilical cord from the wall over 20 years ago. I couldn't name three current popular TV shows with a gun to my head. I feel I've missed nothing.
A general rule of thumb to always follow with regards to watching TV: If you spend more hours a week watching tv then reading worthwhile (ie classics - like Roman history, science books, mathematics etc) books then you're spending too much time watching tv.
Haha.
http://www.thewrap.com/daytime-emmy-winner-charged-with-attempted-murder/
TV, especially what they call news, is a masterfully crafted psychological prison. The entire apparatus is aimed at keeping people in an alpha state of suggestibility.
Take faggotry, for example. It took decades, but TV made everyone think it's normal, roll over and accept it. Pedophlia is next, and right along side that will be Islam. Whether itis delivered by blunt force in the news or bumbling through the narrative of CSI: Fuckface, the message will be pushed.
It's a shit industry.
And this is coming from a guy with Emmys in his living room. Be a pusher, not a user.
Been say'n the same thing for years: the "Merikaan Mushroom Majority" CHOOSING to remain vegetating on "Lame Dream Media's" dung in the dark are in big-time DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDecline - Toooooooooo Dumbed-Down, Debt-ridden, Debilitated, Decadent, Dysfuctional and DISTRACTED to even realize where their at - in Plato's cave!
TV is the great pacifying distractor. Last December I moved in with a bud with a mega screen mucho pixel bohemoth. Prior I only had rabbit ears and internet. I can say this year I have rotted in front of that thing and all but quit reading books. Lame I know, but the behavioral difference is astounding, personally. Moving out this weekend and wont even own a TV. Ready to be de-zombified again.