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Guest Post: Welcome To The United States Of Orwell, Part 3: We Had To Destroy Democracy In Order To Save It
Submitted by Charles Hugh Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
The National Security State has an Orwellian imperative: destroy democracy in order to "save" it.
Here is what I consider to be the dominant narrative of what I call the National Security State. The National Security State is comprised of the Pentagon, the Armed Forces, the CIA, NSA, Homeland Security, the corporate military-industrial complex that profits from it and the "black" budgets, agencies and operations that are hidden from the citizenry in the name of "national security."
Here's the narrative: we were surprised by a treacherous, shadowy, sinister enemy and we have to set aside the niceties of democracy and civil liberties to combat this new and terrible foe. This was the narrative after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and it set in motion a total-global-war mobilization of the entire American society and economy.
Civil liberties? Gone, baby: Executive Order 9066 sent 120,000 Americans to concentration camps hastily erected in various wastelands. It was for their own good, and for the good of the war effort, of course; but no questions or legal niceties were allowed. Executive Orders from the Commander in Chief (the President) are like that.
The entire economy and populace were commandeered for the war effort. Since the nation was still in the grip of a decade-long Depression, then borrowing a couple trillion dollars into existance and mobilizing the populace for global war was actually a welcome development to most people.
Since this was a war for national survival and democracy, anything that hindered the war effort (except making a profit, of course) was deemed unpatriotic. The propaganda machine duly cranked out films demonizing our enemies, burying defeats and glorifying victories.
The narrative was repeated in the 1950s once the Soviet Union obtained the nuclear bomb. Once again we were surprised by a treacherous, shadowy, dangerous enemy and we had to set aside the niceties of democracy and civil liberties to combat this new and terrible foe. Communist infiltrators were everywhere, and had to be rooted out. Niceties like civil liberties were tools used by the Commies to mask their heinous efforts to undermine our way of life.
The net result of this narrative was that any self-aggrandizing moron in Congress could slander a decorated and revered general in the U.S. Army (Sen. Joe McCarthy and General George Marshall) and get away with it. Since Commie sympathizers could be anywhere at any time, then domestic spying was necessary, and on a vast scale.
Fortunately, the National Security State had developed the necessary infrastructure for handling espionage and spying on a global scale, so it was a straightforward task to set up a domestic spying operation. If civil liberties had to be trampled to do so, it was necessary to protect the nation and "our way of life."
You see the key point in the narrative: "our way of life" is more important than civil liberties. This is of course an orwellian reversal of what the Founding Fathers had in mind, which was that civil liberties are our way of life.
The narrative that domestic spying was necessary to root out sinister underground bad guys led directly to the COINTELPRO subversion and suppression of Vietnam War-era domestic dissent in the 1960s.
The danger of political activities being lumped in with criminal activity is higher than most complacent Americans believe. It's easy to be naive about the essentially unlimited powers of the National Security State. Most people believe that only "bad people" get caught by the government trawler, but it isn't quite that simple. Anyone perceived as threatening or impeding the State's Imperial ambitions may be targeted. Please don't say that it "can't happen here" because it already happened here.
I was with a friend when the FBI swooped in to arrest him for political crimes against the State, i.e. refusing to support an illegal (undeclared) war. At the time, the FBI had some 10,000 agents tasked with suppressing or disrupting the antiwar movement by whatever means were deemed necessary. Meanwhile, the agency's anti-Mob (organized crime) unit was reduced to minimal staffing. When the State feels its Imperial agenda threatened, then run-of-the-mill criminality gets ignored and the full resources of the State are turned on political resistance to the National Security State.
Having been called into the FBI office myself for grilling (after being threatened along the "we know where you live" line), I can say from experience that the boundaries which are supposed to protect our rights only exist if you can afford high-powered legal representation and if you are able to raise a stink in the "right circles," i.e. within the Power Elites.
The default narrative is to become a repressive Police State with an active secret intelligence program against domestic dissent, i.e. COINTELPRO, the secret campaign to infiltrate, undermine, marginalize and/or subvert the antiwar movement.
This program employed illegal entry ("black bag jobs") and surveillance, extralegal force and violence (creating and funding extremist front groups to commit the violence at arms distance from the Federal government), and psychological warfare ("dirty tricks," harassment, misinformation, setting up pseudo-movements run by government agents, threaten activists' parents landlords, employers, etc.)
The 1976 Church Committee formed to investigate the domestic intelligence campaigns concluded:
"Many of the techniques used would be intolerable in a democratic society even if all of the targets had been involved in violent activity, but COINTELPRO went far beyond that...the Bureau conducted a sophisticated vigilante operation aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First Amendment rights of speech and association."
Anyone who doesn't believe their government is capable of Police State repression and subversion of First Amendment rights should research COINTELPRO more fully. Nothing will be more threatening to the State than former insiders (those whose belief in the system has faded) turning into whistleblowers on the web. Nothing damages the National Security State more than a truthful accounting of its excesses.
Here is one source text: War at Home: Covert action against U.S. activists and what we can do about it.
Put simply: the State holds all the hammers, and you know what happens to raised nails.
It is self-evident that the Federal government must retain the means to track and arrest foreign agents of unfriendly governments or groups who are operating on U.S. soil. This is understood. The critical point being made here is that these counter-espionage efforts must comply with the Constitutional limits on government powers and not subvert our civil liberties.
It is an effortless slide for those in power to define domestic dissent as a "threat" that must be subverted, disrupted and suppressed--and limiting the Power Elites from pursuing such over-reach is the entire purpose of the Constitution.
Under the Obama administration, the National Security State has once again staked out the "legal" grounds for total mobilization of the American populace and economy. I invite all supporters of President Obama to carefully read his recent Executive Order entitled (with a truly Orwellian flourish) National Defense Resources Preparedness.
This Executive Order is chockful of extralegal directives and vaguely defined over-reach, of the sort that will be delineated more clearly when the Commander in Chief executes the broad powers laid out in this order.
The president will also be executing democracy and our civil liberties when he invokes this Executive Order. Even the most starry-eyed naive supporter of President Obama cannot read this document as anything but a blueprint for total mobilization and the destruction of the Constitution, democracy and our remaining civil rights.
If this Executive Order doesn't frighten you, then you're in denial.
It's actually very simple: whatever the National Security State does anywhere on Earth is legal. Whatever action you take to protect your civil liberties is illegal.
In case you have any doubts about where our "leadership" is taking us, please review these Assorted quotes by Fascists or about Fascism.
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It's called Normalcy Bias, or they are not mentally strong enough to wrap their mind around having to fight for their very existence possibly at their front door step.
It is truly a frightening proposition, especially on domestic soil, I have been trained for other venues around the world. I do not negotiate Freedom, and never will, but many are willing too.
Fight on your feet or live on your knees.
It cant happen here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKITpVovTAE
National Security State aka "Central Scrutinizer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTaiaeXwtRY
SHTF will play no favorites. Allign or get a Passport. The declaration in the NDAA S1867 America to be considered a "Battlefeild" is no mis print. We have known this was comming for years.
Now Obama passed an EO to seize all infrastructure and resources (right down to the puddle of water in your driveway) To go into effect in War time or Peace time, no emergency distinction. Just a heads up.
IT IS TREASON...
However, this is not Europe. Our military swore allegience to the Constitution, not to Dear Leader. And they know they can refuse an unlawful order. While ambitious officers may comply, the military is run by NCOs who control weapons and vehicles. And they have massive contempt for Obama.
A Corperation hires Private Contractors. I know who they are. If your interested, I can post the info but I don't want to be the "alarmist" so to speak, proof positive.
The picture; Who made this picture using the face of George Sanders? (very popular romantic lead and villain of the 40's-70's) Why did they give him a vaseline hat? Why the hitler mustache and Frank Zappa chin?
This guy is english folks. Are we at war with Oceania? I thought we were Oceania?
Charles, I believe history has proven McCarthy largely correct perhaps not about Marshall but many others. Not that I disagree with the overall message, we are srcewed..
Agree with article but think the concept of MIC is woefully out of date. It is much more than that now.
Virtually anything and everything has now been politicized and weaponized against the citizenry, including: Financial system, education, healthcare, communications infrastucture, energy, and even food to name a few of the most obvious. Black Op secret budgets are not needed. All that is needed is to co-opt and repurpose the existing budgets with dedicated stooges within the existing institutions. This has already happened long ago.
The open, but dirty little secret is that 80% of the millions of people working for government are there because they believe in big government control and central planning. No arm twisting is required to get these entrenched foot soldiers to help move the beauracracy towards greater control. And they are a consant source of sabotage and dug-in resistance to any efforts to limit government control because it threatens their vested interests.
Funny how Obama gets a pass on this shit from the same people who went apeshit over Bush's Patriot Act, TSA, Homeland Security etc. a few years ago.
The Tools of Tyranny have been used since Lincoln. The Obama Executive Order expands/extends the tools of oppression with a clear and blatant opportunity for the President and his Home Land Security Department to finally bring down the safety and security of the American Citizen. There is no question that this is the Big Hammer for a Nazi type Brown shirt/SS or Stalin type enslavement and FEAR of the U.S. Government by those who currently live under a Constitution and a Bill of Rights.
The explosive charges are now in place for the President to depress the T handle and blow the Hell out of our Nation and the Citizens of the USA.
This is a one way trip. It is my opinion that the President is polarizing the population with divisive tactics to divide the Nation into two parts with the elimination of the middle ground. He is now defining the “his side Good Guys” and the rest of the nation “bad guys”. For those who work for the survival and improvement of the USA, a great deal of restraint and compassion for fellow citizens will be needed to resist the push by the Democrats to push citizens to the point of some pushing back. PUSH and DOMONATON are the key devices now with a Media that assists and is a danger to All.
Creating a divided and angry Nation may be good election strategy but the consequence of fear is not acceptable. The loss of Freedom is not acceptable. The intentional division of the Nation and creations of unneeded tensions and hatred is not acceptable. The loss of the America is not acceptable.
Democratic Underground?! What, no "assorted quotes by Socialists or about Socialism"? (rolling eyes)
Indeed "Double Plus good". "Chocolate rations going up from 4 to 2.5 ounces a week" "Extra double plus good". We already have the Big Brother BLS. We alread have the Ministry of Truth FOX/CNN.
We have come a long way under Obama the liberal socialist. Imagine what Romney will do! Return our freedoms? Ha. Ha. The joke is on YOU. And that truely is "Double Plus Good"
"Romeny 2012" Lets get government off our backs and be free again. Right?
So, you're saying let's re-elect obama?
Just trying to understand. Short of killing people in revolution there is nothing we can do but vote. And tell others who might actually listen.
After you accept reality for what it is, this stuff is really not that alarming.
The tough part is arriving at the conclusion that everything you have learned is more than likely wrong.
Matrix?
pods
(former coppertop)
Yes, but have you tried to jump from the roof of one building to another yet?
>After you accept reality for what it is, this stuff is really not that alarming.
Yeah, I'd rather be stopped on the road by modern policemen armed with guns than by medieval highwaymen armed with broadswords.
Modern life in USA is still the pinnacle of the human condition, despite all of the self-inflicted suffering.
I fuck you.
You pay.
I fuck you again.
- Corporate/Fascist Innovation 101
the bush crime syndicate marches on with its preposterous lies to subjugate america - murder of john kennedy, 9/11, barry soetoro - you name the bcs is probably behind it...
Please elaborate on the Bush Crime Syndicate. Is this a group of monied interests creating a New World Order, led by the Bush family? Are the Kennedys engaged in a decades-long war against the BCS? So JFK was, in fact, a superhero fighting evil and for truth and justice? Seriously, I know that GHWB was a terrible and weak President, and that GWB was an incompetent buffoon, but crime bosses? They simply don't have what it takes. No way. Clinton, Obama, Nixon--now those guys I could see as crime bosses. JFK. Shit, the crime bosses elected him and his daddy made the fortune through criminal enterprises. Now JFK would have been a great crime boss. Even died like one, in a mafia type war (after he and Bobby betrayed the mob, who had put them into power). So, seriously, explain this to me because I am not getting it.
The Bush Crime Family is just one senior player starting with Prescott. Thinking of them as dominant though is absurd. Though GHWB speaks ESL, he was a master with the rolodex. His CIA affiliations go way back past his directorship, and he played a significant role under the leadership of Allen Dulles, defrocked but still de facto director during the Kennedy hit. Don't underestimate him. And Martha gives me the shivers.
Somehow, People have got to get beyond the "Bush's Fault; Obama's fault; Clinton's fault" ... etc.
Both Bush and Obama failed dramatically in their promise to uphold the Constitution of the U.S. And both acted outside the law and against the interest of the citizens of the U.S. I have no problem with holding them responsible for their actions.
But to focus on individual politicians or political parties is aiming your sights too low. The politicians are paid worker bees for a global criminal cartel. Focus on the 800 pound gorilla, not the pimple on his ass.
>both acted... against the interest of the citizens of the U.S
U.S. citizens collectively have no interest. Only individuals have interests. There is no means to sum or to compare the subjective valuations of different individuals.
Here's the rub, Chuck: your democracratic ideals are no better to me than the cronyism I live under already.
A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years. -Lysander Spooner
Cronyism or monarchy may be superior to democracy anyway.
See Hans-Hermann Hoppe's "Democracy: The God That Failed".
I am not attempting to defend anything or anyone here. All these bills and E.O. taken indiviually might not mean much but from the Bush/Cheney Era that started with the (UN)Patriot Act to FISA, to the Thought Crime Bill, to SOPA/PIPA to NDAA etc etc etc.. even a half wit moron can see these are all bricks in a very concerning wall. This latest E.O., while essentially just an update to the 1950s E.O. -- (updated to include the correct departments such as the Dept of Homeland Stupidity) -- is more of the same. Expatriation is what comes to mind for many, or at least a remote homestead in Central or South America or Asia are certainly options, if you can afford it. Options are good. Being subject to the whims of a collapsing State basically suck and can be hazardous to your health. I fear the MIC and ruling Class (insert favorite metaphor or group here, ex: Zionists, Global Bankers, CFR, etc.) that rules the lackey figure heads in the Executive Branch and Congress are heading for all out war to fend off the mathematics of a dollar collapse. Romney is man for the deflection Job, as he has already called out Russia the number one enemy (interesting that Russia, with and economy a fraction of the size of the US, has virtually zero debt?) Obama is probably out. There still may be some discussion about this within the group of those who actually make such decisions.
Perhaps the best hope for the future of the US Constitution and the country as a Republic under the same, probably is for a Military coup d'etat to play out in the US -- even if not televised.
Why in Canada?
Statistics show 150,000 seniors are victims of abuse in Quebec every year. Out of an 8 millions total population. That's a record high North American ratio.
We also lead Canada in pet abandonment. That's why Tyler. Bureaucrats SOB.
McCarthy may have been a blowhard using self aggrandizing methods, but his biggest problem was a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the problem.
He was constantly looking people sending coding signals to secret submarines, hidden messages in matchbooks, or for the loose threat leading back to the Soviet Union. What he didn't really grasp was that the biggest threat came from an entire class of people who had a parallel agenda, inspired by, but not necessarily directed linked to Americas arch nemesis Russia. He could not differentiate between socialists, communists, and fascists. Or understand that they could be working together, or working in parallel, and could change hats as the circumstances required. That capitalists could be funding and protecting philosophies that you'ld superficially think were diametrically opposed to them. Right under his nose, intellectuals such as the Franfurt School simply walked into America and began their subversion of the country. Often with grants, fellowships, endowements, and positions provided from the shadows. Legions gladly accepted their way of thought, often merging it with the existing strains of progressivism and communism already rooted here. All of this occurred with the knowledge of and sometimes the direct support of the ruling elite of this country. Carnagie, Rockefeller and Ford foundations were there every step of the way. They are traitors to everything America was founded on.
The very system McCarthy thought he was protecting was in fact encouraging this sea change of thought. McCarthy's crimes were trying to hit flies with sledge hammers, while meantime, the barn was on fire. He misunderstood the nature of the threat. He used the wrong measures to counter it. In the end he discredited the entire policy of combating subversion. It was almost as if someone was just handing him all the rope he asked for and then........
from the mouth of the KGB. even they may not have realized how much help they were getting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlkPkJInUmU
hey! why isn't that the G GRIFFIN of Creature from Jekyll Island fame doing the interview? Why yes it is.
America has blindly walked itself unto a cliff. Slavery of fascism in a police state, or slavery of socialism in a police state. You are free to choose Team Red or Team Blue. This is a democracy after all.
Some good points covered in your post.
McCarthy was a foot soldier doing the bidding of someone else. When his usefulness waned they dumped him and turned the Media and political guns back on him.
Great post!
I'd also add the extremely dangerous trojan horses of the Fabian Socialists and Prussians who infiltrated our education system even before the McCarthy era. One must change the minds of the kiddies if one wants to overthrow a country. Add the names Horace Mann and John Dewey to the list of traitors.
absolutely brilliant, succinct summary, as well as the additions re; dewey, fabians, etc.
hats off!
Obama's signing of the executive order IS treason. Who has the fucking balls to call him on it? It is irrelevant if other presidents have done illegal things, we know this guy is actually trying to destroy our freedom and make all of us subservient to his elite.
The question now is would you rather get out 2 weeks early before the gate swings closed or would you rather be one minute late?
I think if you're still here (like I am) you're still here and your hand will be forced. Probably why Ruger can't meet the demand...
Be prepared...
sent 120,000 Americans to concentration camps
Not quite as bizarre as the Germans deported to Nazi Germany in spite of the fact they were Jews. I guess it all started with Woodrow Wilson......but just think if the Japanese had stuck to the original plan and gone North instead of South. They would have attacked Russia and Zhukhov could not have released his troops there to fight in Stalingrad.....and Pearl Harbor would not have happened and Hitler would not have declared war on the US .
>Hitler would not have declared war on the US
Who knows. He was a drug-abusing nutjob.
better put on an other layer of foil, just to be safe.
>the State holds all the hammers, and you know what happens to raised nails.
Of course. That's why you should seek to stick out less than your neighbor does.
The wise know that they are an iota in the pages of history.
wow that press release is crazy. timing is everything. over/under on the months til this happens?
Anyone's guess before November.
"The Secretary of each resource department, when necessary, shall make the finding required under section 101(b) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071(b). This finding shall be submitted for the President's approval through the Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor and the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism. Upon such approval, the Secretary of the resource department that made the finding may use the authority of section 101(a) of the Act, 50 U.S.C. App. 2071(a), to control the general distribution of any material (including applicable services) in the civilian market."
So what exactly does this mean??
Soon, we'll have to start calling all of them comrade commisar.
Sounds like a reference to the latest March 16 EO. To seize All infrastructure public or private, in war time OR in Peace time. Total Power grab, and nobody but the Patriot society was watching. We watch them like a Hawk. It doesen't go un noticed by the way.
He has reached beyond the pale with this recent EO and crowened himself King.
do you really want to know when the rubber hit the road --- just go back 33 +/+ yrs to pakistan --- follow the lines in the road as they becomes dashes of hope,... lost, lost forever, because of the profitteers/traitors speeding through stop signs, with no cops on beat, but only low-life thieves tethered to a pension of deception -- a manifesto playbook, programmed for our beloved countries demise?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symington_Amendment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Pressler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Credit_and_Commerce_International http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_A._Clarke http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_transnational_anti-terrorism_activities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Barlow [america's greatest contemporary hero,... shit canned by spies?] http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=robert_peck_1 * Research "Robert Peck" [scum!!!]
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb333/index.htm ** Research "Robert Gallucci" [another hero that gave up on the system/ sherman funk et.el.] http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve08/d239
Ps. sorry for all the links
Ps2. there are alot of traitors in our defense department's that have had the presidents ears?
Ps3. Joseph McCarthy was a hero --- JMHO
thankyou
To the author,
Why are you still in the U.S.? Why are you still an American citizen? Why have your raised children in this fascist police state?
I am horrified by what I've seen as the veil of democracy and liberty has been lifted off of the fascist police state known as the United States of America. I have been victimized by it, as have millions of other Americans.
I am leaving. Why haven't you, decades ago? How can you possibly think there's anything left to save?
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