"Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins ... Society is in every state a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
-Thomas Paine (Common Sense)
"War is the health of the state."
-Randolph Bourne
"...if the minimum wage had increased at the same rate as corporate CEO pay for the past 15 years, it would now be $23.03 an hour."
-QT (Chicago Sun-Times, Thursday Sept. 8, 2005)
While the System, or the Machine, may not seem as pervasive and scary as you might have thought, have you ever thought about why? Perhaps the System of DUMB doesn't need to show force or scare tactics because it is confident that it is in control of all of our lives anyway? Think about it. How do you know that the thoughts you think were not manufactured for you as distractions to keep you on the treadmill of DUMB? How can you be so certain that the very ways in which you think were not inculcated back during some forgotten time of your life? And would any of it matter?
I wouldn't worry about it much if I were you. The fact that you can even think about these questions gives you some assurance that DUMB has not taken control over you, at least until THEY develop some sort of science fiction type of brain scan devices. Just keep thinking for yourself and you will be able to point out the inconsistencies of the Official Line(tm) of reasoning and the standard media beliefs that are endlessly parroted. It is not hard at all to do so, especially with a recent event such as Hurricane Katrina. Remember that one? Remember how the media belief system broke down in the face of human suffering and images of destruction to the point that the media workers began reaming the government? Remember how for days you were told that help was coming to New Orleans even while you saw reporters wandering the streets asking survivors if they had seen any evidence of help? The survivors usually responded negatively.
The media belief system, being post modern and fickle is something that can be used to express the truth of an event, even if the stories told end up parroting the Official Line(tm) because of the often times appearance of dissonance between the media stories and what your "leaders" are telling you. Does anyone remember how the word "refugee" was hounded out of the discourse because many said it was "racist" or "unfair" to call survivors of Katrina refugees. Many said that Americans can't be refugees. I personally think the argument and those who went after the "refugee" label were trying to appear helpful while doing nothing useful. I don't know about you, but most refugees I have met in my life, at least here in the States, have been from Bosnia, or sometimes from South East Asia. So I don't get how the word could be "racist." I think that some Americans simply hated the use of the word applied to other Americans because they didn't want to admit that the catastrophe was that bad. Americans can be like that. We like to think of ourselves as superior and special over any other national group on this planet.
Katrina also brought out those sad and sorry sorts who always say "stop blaming those who fucked up. We need to simply help." As if not being vigilant, or as if not calling someone on their bullshit will make the relief efforts somehow magically better. How many times in history have fascists used that line of reasoning? "Stop pointing fingers. We all need to work together now." " We're all on the 'same' side after all." Yep. Fall for it and you will truly have fallen.
Reading European news sources made me want to puke. They got much of what happened wrong. But then again, European media and European Official Lines(tm) rarely diverge as much as the American versions do. Some Europeans tried to say that the fumbling of the Katrina relief effort is because "that's how Americans are." Oh, really? To anyone in Europe, tell me this: When are you guys going to pay the USA back for saving your butts from the Nazis? You have gotten a lot of free rides on the backs of the average American worker for over 60 years now. Your prosperity is a figment of America's imagination. And WE remember how you Europeans stood up to fascism: you ran away or fell in line. (Except for the British, who actually fought back.) You can keep pointing at us and laughing, but look at what you Europeans have done and are doing to Africa, so wipe that smug smirk off your faces and realize your shit stinks just as badly as ours. (And in fact it has been stinking for centuries.)
I have also been reading up on my homeland a bit, Northern Ireland (or the "Six Counties" as we like to call it). The IRA recently announced an end to the military struggle and a disarming of all its soldiers (not many of them exist). A democratic political process is forming which is giving the Irish nationalists almost everything they were fighting for. So the IRA decided to take a step into the new era. What do the "protestants" who are anti-Irish do about that? They have riots because the police won't let them march in Irish nationalist areas. Two anti-Irish armed groups are claiming to be instigating the riots which are really destroying nothing but their own futures. The point of this little diversion is to show an example of how a story in the media can diverge from the Official Line(tm) . The official idea is that the IRA are the shit stirrers, along with the nationalist supporters and all those bobdamned Gaelic-speakers living in West Belfast. While the nationalists were trying to say to the world that they were only trying to live in freedom, the world didn't believe them because the standard myth was that the IRA were a bunch of terrorists and no one listens to terrorists or their supporters. Now perhaps, people outside of Northern Ireland can see who the shit stirrers and instigators really are. Now perhaps people will stop blaming all the ills of Northern Ireland on a small volunteer military that never had much more than 400 members.
Can you think of any other stories you may have heard about that do not match the official lines, or the standard socially acceptable ways of thinking? Linguists are forever pointing out that even in "free" societies, the level of indoctrination and propagandizing is high, but because here in the USA it is the chain stores and car companies doing it with distracting commercials you feel you are freer than say, some shoemaker in Indonesia? Some stories you may want to check up on include the story of Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela. That will lead you into all sorts of dissonance between the official standard socially acceptable way of thinking about him and the what some reporters have actually discovered about the man. (He is called a totalitarian dictator here in the USA, despite the fact that he won two popular elections. People I knew from Venezuela seem to like him.) You may also wish to check out any stories about Argentina, which has been undergoing attempts at social revolution. (What? Did that surprise you? You didn't think all of those workers who expropriated their factories were all a bunch of lawless thieves, did you? Some of them battled the police for their rights, and then some of them even took their cases to national courts and won.)
What does any of this have to do with Discordianism? Think about it. If you want to practice guerrilla ontology, you may wish to exploit some of the growing gaps between the official truths and the way things may actually be. The average person is not blind or stupid. The average person is just distracted and many times just trying to get a handle on life. In an era when ADD and ADHD is becoming more and more prevalent, this should be a loud wake up call. We may not yet be at the point where those in control or who want to be in control can shape your minds, but they may have found a better way than any propagandizing or indoctrination: distraction. Coming soon to a theater near you.
-Irreverend Hugh, KSC
September 16th, 2005
Rant 133
Rants Vol. 2 Index