- A few different bits and pieces today.
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- First, more proof that Robert Anton Wilson was right,
and we're in a book - life is beginning to look like an epic Greek tragedy.
But there are always a few points of light in the darkness. Glimmers of
hope out on the horizon, if we look hard enough.
- Remember Wizard of Oz? Dorothy and her dog Toto get swept
off the farm to the Land of Oz, a magical land of munchkins, talking animals,
scarecrows, and tin men. Dorothy goes on an adventure, which ends with
her unmasking the real Oz, a plain old man bearing no resemblance to the
illusions of the all-mighty Oz he was projecting from behind the curtain.
After Election 2000, the USA got swept up into a vortex of unreality, lie
compounded upon lie, deception upon deception, until September 11. And
then it got worse. I'm not sure where we are right now, but I AM sure of
one thing - I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
If any of you saw Bush's speech on TV January 22, he was standing in front
of what looked like a row of boxes, with a banner above them. Stamped on
all the boxes was 'MADE IN THE USA'. Below is a link to what you saw on
TV.
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- http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/madeinusa_030122.html
The whole thing was illusion. Most, if not all, of the boxes were stamped
Made in China, Made in Taiwan, Made in Hong Kong. Someone taped over the
labels, and stamped on Made in the USA. And the backdrop behind Bush was
a canvas!
The whole thing was just an impromptu movie set, designed to look really
good on TV. It was designed to sell Bush's new tax cut as supporting patriotic,
'Made in the USA' buying small businesses. So it looks like Bush is working
overtime to help the economy on TV, but in reality -
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/030122/168/33h4o.html
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- Note the covered labels
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Abracadabra. Fake boxes, TV set, crew hanging around in the background,
and a cold, hard dose of reality, reminding us how having faith in the
images one sees on the tube can lead to serious reality farts.
He doesn't look nearly so powerful or imposing anymore does he? The difference?
Lighting, camera angle, and a wide shot that shows the shamelessness of
the Bush media machine.
Noam Chomsky called this trick 'Manufacturing Consent'. They use the media
to shape your reality tunnel. And they're good at it. I strongly recommend
Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent to all my readers.
We see a certain framing, and subconsciously we take what we see and hear
more or less seriously according to how the shot is framed on television.
As an example, take a look at a sports commentary show, or a talk show.
People are eye to eye, talking to each other. So we know it's discussion,
and not to be taken as gospel. But when they shift the camera so it appears
that the speaker is talking UP or DOWN toward an audience, all of a sudden,
we see him as an authority figure, because we assume he's addressing a
wide audience, and thus must be trustworthy.
Note the tricks the media uses to shape your opinions. In the first picture,
they set the camera at or above Bush's eye level, and frame him down low
on the right hand side. This gives him the appearance of speaking in a
large auditorium, where people are high above him, because we're looking
slightly downward at his posture. When he points straight ahead, it looks
like he's pointing up at a large crowd.
The framing makes him look like he's giving a State of the Union Address
to a joint session of Congress. The image of a very powerful figure is
formed in our minds, giving his message strength, because we associate
this framing with things like State of the Union addresses.
They reinforce this using lighting. Look at the difference in color between
the boxes outside the TV canvas and the ones on set. They used a darker,
wood tone color on the boxes to give the 'news' piece a more somber mood,
implying Bush has something serious to say like William F Buckley on a
PBS fireside chat. The lighter color boxes would have reflected more light
and given Bush a brighter game-show like appearance, which people don't
associate with an authority figure.
The image also sends subconscious hints that Bush is patriotic, because
of the fake Made In the USA labels. It also implies that he's looking after
the economy, which surely must be chugging along nicely, since Bush has
all those 'Made In the USA' boxes behind him.
And it's all an illusion.
"Go back to sleep. Work. Eat. Marry. Reproduce. Go back to sleep.
Dubya's got your back. Believe in us. We are your conscience. We're your
best friend. Seriously. Go back to sleep. Leave the television on. Go back
to sleep."
JERRY SPRINGER IN THE SENATE?
TV Talk show celebrity Jerry Springer is considering a run for the United
States Senate. When I first saw this, I groaned. A sure sign of the apocalypse.
But then I thought about it some more. Would it really be so bad? It could
actually be good!
<http://www.onnnews.com/story.php?record=21724>www.onnnews.com/story.php?record=21724
The way I see it, if there's anyone in the USA who knows what beats in
the heart of the poor huddled masses, it's Jerry Springer. He's seen the
ugliest things the underbelly of America has to offer, and he does it on
a daily basis.
The guy he'd replace would be George Voinovich, a Republican goon, so the
odds of Jerry doing WORSE than his predecessor are slim to none.
Even better, Jerry's got something better than money. He's got celebrity,
baby! Name recognition alone gives him 20 pts. We KNOW he'll speak his
mind. We KNOW he's not afraid of tough issues. And his ego would insist
upon his trying to make a difference rather than just on keeping his job,
because he could go back to daytime TV anytime he wanted.
Doesn't sound like such a bad deal to me.
If Jerry runs and manages to win, I wish him all the best. Maybe this is
what's needed - pissed off Americans using their celebrity to push crooks
out of office, one by one. They may not do much better than the thieves,
but it's hard to imagine a scenario where they'd do worse.
I hope Mr. Springer runs. There are lots of people of conscience and strong
moral character in America. I hope they, and everyone else who's sick and
tired of the Beltway boys does too. Whether we like it or not, America
is the world's pre-eminent power. They set the tone for the rest of the
world in terms of what's moral, and they set the rules of engagement for
war. Until America starts leading by example, we will NEVER be rid of this
never-ending cycle of violence.
AFFIRMATIVE ELECTIONS?
Since the Trent Lott incident, the GOP has been trying to rebuild its false
image as a non-racist organization. One hot potato issue is Affirmative
Action, which requires business and schools to employ and enroll a quota
of ethnic minority students. As usual, Karl Rove saw a killer spin opportunity
in the making, and last week he took advantage of the Affirmative Action
case being heard in the Supreme Court to do some preparing for Election
2004.
Dickhead Cheney may be forced to step down over his ties to Enron and Arthur
Anderson, and because of his shady dealings at Halliburton Brown and Root.
The Bushies need a backup candidate for VP waiting in the wings. I said
some time ago that if Cheney left, they'd probably run Condoleeza Rice
in 2004.
Well, they're certainly helping her build the right image by throwing her
this gift horse, which makes her look REALLY good with the Black community.
Rice and Colin Powell have been catching a LOT of flack lately. Uncle Tom
jokes, House Negro jokes, Harry Belafonte even went on the radio and implied
that Colin Powell was a House Boy.
This affirmative action case was a blessing for the White House. Bush sends
a letter to the US Supreme Court stressing that he opposes the use of race
as a factor in University admissions, which panders to millions of angry
white men. Every network ran this story.
Then the next day, wonder of wonders, Colin Powell and Condi Rice show
up on the same networks, saying they support affirmative action and don't
support Bush's position.
Here's what you have to keep in mind. To the angry white men, it doesn't
matter what Powell and Rice say, because Bush is commander in chief. So
they'll vote Bush. But when the more gullible African American voters see
this same piece the next day, two things come to mind.
The first is that Powell and Rice are looking out for their own people,
and are good people at heart who love and are still connected to their
African American heritage. The second thing is that any notions they may
have had of Powell or Rice being Uncle Toms are swept away, because they're
openly defying George W Bush on the TV set.
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- What they're forgetting is, NO ONE in this administration
makes statements this potentially embarrassing without having permission
first. They get Bush to appease the Rednecks, then they give Rice and Powell's
leashes a little slack, and take off their muzzles just long enough to
get the photo op done. Then everybody goes back to business as usual, until
the next time there's a very serious domestic policy issue they can exploit
for political gain.
Something tells me we won't have to wait any longer than the time between
now and the upcoming State of the Union Address for more election campaigning.
A look at a declassified CIA Psyops manual would suggest that Bush's upcoming
speech will have many similarities to speeches made by Churchill or FDR,
in order to sway the largest voting demographic, seniors, toward favoring
war on Iraq.
Smart money says Bush is also going to throw in pieces from JFK's Moon
Speech at Rice Stadium. I say this because of the publicity surrounding
Bush's announcement to pursue a nuclear drive for space travel, for use
on a mission to Mars. They made a big hoo-hah from a peanuts budget.
Time will tell if they're serious or not, but if they are, George Bush
should be given recognition for making an attempt to retool the Military
Industrial complex away from weapons and toward positive technologies.
Imagine how fast we'd get to Mars if half the Pentagon's budget went to
NASA. Space exploration will solve many of our mineral resource issues
in the future, and this is a good first step, regardless of the political
motives behind the announcement's timing.
The irony here is that when Kennedy announced the Space Program, the Republicans
were climbing down his throat screaming bloody murder about wasted tax
dollars. But now, they just can't wait to go to Mars, which they couldn't
even be considering had it not been for Kennedy's foresight of space exploration
as the ultimate goal for the continuing survival of our species.
Also at stake is the propaganda factor, the Nationalist pride issue of
getting to Mars first. China launches its first man into space this year,
and in cooperation with the Russians, they have an accelerated long-range
timetable for a Moon landing, and a manned mission to Mars. The race for
bragging rights is on. Watch for Bush to push this hard during the speech.
Your TV set is NOT reality. Reality is what goes on BEHIND the camera to
manufacture consent. So always try and get behind that curtain before buying
what Bill O'Reilly or any other snake oil peddler has for sale.
Because they don't just report the news anymore -
They MAKE IT.
AND A GLIMMER OF HOPE
My thanks to anyone and everyone who got involved in harassing Congress
and the Bush administration over the Office of Total Information Awareness
and John Poindexter. Today's announcement is proof that we can stop the
bastards, if we try hard enough. Those in Congress can be shamed into taking
action, as they did today in a unanimous vote in the Senate calling for
suspension of funding for the creation of DARPA's TIA Office.
www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/politics/24PRIV.html
Three cheers for the People! Ding-Dong, the wicked bitch is dead!
This proves that there are cracks in the armor we can chip away at. It
also proves that Anarchic, leaderless but united action is possible in
this technological age. A leaderless coalition of hackers, private citizens,
newspapers, webmasters, and email campaigners working for the same goal,
without a pyramidal hierarchy, have temporarily turned the tide on TIA,
and pushed the barbarians back from the gates. For now.
Rather than be led by corrupt Politicians or by so-called religious men,
dressed in soft clothes who so closely resemble our leaders; loose knit
communities of people, all taking action on their own, have proven that
it's still not too late to turn the tide.
You just gotta believe.
Peace
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