Posts Tagged ‘alex jones’

the Knowledge of Good and Eve: a parable about Ron Paul, myths, and Santa

April 23, 2012
Santa Claus

Santa Claus (Photo credit: Christopher S. Penn)

Imagine a six year-old kid talking about Santa Claus, asking about some details that do not totally make sense to the child. An older sibling says, “do not ask mom anything about Santa. She would get angry and spank you. Just be quiet about Santa. If mom brings it up to you, just tell her what gifts you want and do not even mention the word Santa. I will tell you why later.”

What is the dynamic created by the older sibling? Mom is presented as a dangerous tyrannical authority and the sibling is the experienced ally with a crucial secret knowledge or insight about how to best deal with mom. Of course, higher up the social hierarchy is Santa, the distant, remote, mysterious benefactor.

In other terms, mom is the evil villain or devil and the sibling is the savior and protector while Santa is the God-like Power, like a superhero who can fly and has magic powers and is probably hundreds of years old. Except Santa is not just a cartoon like the comic book heroes. Santa is real. There is evidence. I opened the presents myself and the tag clearly said From Santa. Santa even knows my name!

Ron Paul at the 2007 National Right to Life Co...

Ron Paul at the 2007 National Right to Life Convention, held at Crown Center Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, MO; June 15, 2007, (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, fast forward a few decades. Ron Paul is talking about how the Federal Reserve is a Vatican conspiracy and all that we need to do for him to save us from them is to wait a few months and cast a vote. Plus, until then, he recommends that we invest everything in silver.

Ron says that the Federal Reserve is the great evil tyranny that has the power to inflate the currency, which according to  Ron, would be very bad. Why would that be so bad? Ron never actually mentions that. Apparently the idea is that the Fed should not have the power that Ron says they have, and therefore he must save us from the Fed doing the thing that they obviously should not do because they are inherently evil so we should just buy more silver because that is the patriotic and heroic thing to do, which Ron Paul has been consistently saying since 1980, which proves that we can trust his credibility and sincerity.

Alex Jones, who is also our heroic savior ally -which we know because he owns  silver – says that the distant remote superpower is the holy ink on the sacred document of the Articles of Confederation, which is the most powerful document in the world except for that one lottery ticket but that is anther story. Anyway, Alex says that Noam Chomsky agrees with Ron Paul that the real problem today is that The Fed says that the Articles of Confederation are actually not the authentic words of Santa and need to be retranslated by the Supreme Council of Justice, which wouldn’t be so bad except that Ron Paul is not a member of the Council and therefore the Council is evil. DarthVader says the Council is not evil, which further proves that DarthVader is either evil or naive or most likely both.

The Federal Reserve: The Biggest Scam In History

The Federal Reserve: The Biggest Scam In History (Photo credit: CityGypsy11)

Now imagine that the Articles of Confederation are just a series of three words. They have no more actual tangible power than the sounds of the word Santa. They are not even shapes on your screen or ink on paper. They are just some sounds that someone spoke a few hundred years ago around the time that Santa was your age.

Who is going to protect those sounds? Who is going to threaten those sounds? Who is going to record them as an audio file to upload to youtube? Who is going to keep them sacred and give them proper respect?

We need a hero. We need a ssvior. Inflation would reduce the value of the massive national debt, which must be avoided at all costs. Therefore, you must obey your older sibling and never mention Santa to mom again.

Sibling!

Sibling! (Photo credit: Gus Dahlberg)

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“Shame on the media” or shame on us?

March 15, 2012
“Shame on the media,” said Mr. Alex Jones. He is a media professional, by the way, so that is rather ironic already.

English:

Image via Wikipedia

“Shame on the media for their censored sensationalism. They are just trying to attract attention with dramatic stories to serve the interests of their advertisers who fund them,” said the famous hysteric, then adding ” and now a word from our sponsor….”
Let’s be realistic for a moment. You can go back to listening to Alex Jones for entertaining adrenalin rushes later if you are addicted to that (and prefer him over Rush Limbaugh or Howard Stern or Bill Maher), but for now, let’s be realistic.
Media has to focus on certain subject matter and in certain ways, right? A single TV channel cannot show two programs at once, right? A radio station does not play more than one song at a time, right?
So there is a limited amount of content that can be publicized in a given segment of time. Further, there is only one specific way that  a program can be presented. Choices have to be made.
Keeping the attention of audience is a primary commitment of any media presentation, including even this one. Have you ever had a teacher (or professor) who seemed so bored with the material they were presenting that you fell asleep? If you go to one of those churches with long sermons, have you ever gotten at least a little bit drowsy while all that talking was going on?
Well, mass media businesses may target presenting enough intrigue and controversy and sensationalism to attract a loyal audience. Think of the most expensive media advertising in the world, the TV ads during the NFL super bowl sporting event in the US. They are not supposed to be challenging. They are supposed to be sensationalist. Realistically, that is the media’s job.
Further, of course all forms of media involve some degree of censorship. When a country music radio station does not play any reggae, we do not consider it censorship. It just doesn’t fit the format of their focus. Likewise, when a reggae music radio station does not play any country music, we do not consider it censorship either. The two formats appeal to different groups.
So, if some media outlet gets too controversial, that will not work well for them. They do not want to frighten their sponsors or advertisers, nor to horrify their audience.
If you are attracted to horrific stories of the atrocities of real crime stories and the history of espionage assassinations by governments and things like that, there may be some books or websites about those kind of content. There may even be some shows or stations that feature those kind of themes, like Mr. Alex Jones.
However, if a newspaper only prints it’s photographs in black and white, that is not really censorship of color images. If the newspaper only has articles written in English, that is not really censorship of any other particular language. Further, if there is censorship by the owners of the media company or by the government and court system, so what? Why shouldn’t there be some themes that are regularly emphasized and a huge amount of content that is basically avoided?
Governments keep secrets, like classified weapons research. Businesses keep secrets, too, like trade secrets. You keep secrets, too, like passwords to your computer or your debit card.
It is not censorship if you are careful not to print your PIN # to your debit card on the back of the card. It is considered stupidity.
It is not censorship if a business only publicizes content in English about dogs. That is just the focus of their publicity.
However, it is censorship if a government licenses and regulates the media (or operates it). The FCC is nothing but a censorship operation. That is what they do.
Censorship

Censorship (Photo credit: IsaacMao)

Further, when PR companies create stories and lie and manipulate, that is called entertainment as well as propaganda. Every fictional movie is a bunch of lies and manipulations. Even documentary movies without actors may contain lies and manipulations- sometimes explicitly and sometimes not.
When religious authors speak in parables, that means they are telling a story that may not be literally true. When I make an analogy, like about not printing the PIN # on the back of your debit card, that is manipulative. Language is entirely manipulation. Communication is entirely influence.
These words either are for directing your attention and your perception and informing your future behavior, or they are not. If they are not for that, then it is nonsense. All communication is for influence or manipulating or guiding or governing or directing.
These words are either entirely true or entirely false (if either of those are really even possible) or else somewhere in between. So what?
Let’s say that in a certain legal jurisdiction, certain content is criminalized as illegal to access on the internet, such as child

Illustration of censorship.

Image via Wikipedia

pornography. So what? Is that censorship? Is that even surprising? If it was your child, would you want that picture or that video publicized?

People may not even like to think about certain subjects. They may be so horrified or disgusted that they do not even want other people to access that content. Or, maybe a government is concerned about the consequences of having certain content widespread, such as graphic violence on daytime TV that can be easily viewed by children. People may be hesitant about how that content may effect society as a whole over time.
People do not generally like to know about certain subjects like torture, including of animals. People may not want to know about the conditions in which the livestock raised for their food is kept. People may not want to know about the reality of the history of their government or even the corporations for which they work. People may want heroic myths about the founding fathers, even if the myths have an element of sensationalism.
Back to outright censorship, what if it was illegal to take someone’s personal medical history and publicize it on the internet without their permission? So what? Is that censorship?
What if it was illegal to take someone’s personal and confidential information of any kind, financial data or legal data or whatever, and publicize it on any media outlet without some kind of standards? So what?
Of course there are standards. Of course there are disputes about exactly what should be regulated and how. Of course there are controversies. Of course the standards change over time.
If someone knows the standards and violates them anyway, they are inviting investigation and punishment, right? If they publicize their violation of certain standards, they are definitely inviting attention and controversy, right?
However, some standards are not clearly specified. Even clearly specified standards must include a certain amount of precision and a certain amount of vagueness or even leeway, as in selective enforcement. Of course the son of a politician or public figure (politician, entertainer, esteemed scientist) may receive different forms of attention from a person without any celebrity.
Different kinds of celebrities are scrutinized in different ways. Also, anyone who is considered a threat politically or economically may be targeted for special scrutiny. Is this so surprising?
If someone publicly threatens to commit some shocking crime and then loses commercial sponsors just for making the threat, is that surprising? If advertisers support certain kinds of content and withdraw support from certain kinds of content, is that surprising? If governments support certain kinds of content and withdraw support from certain kinds of content, is that surprising?
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Practical Economics and the Conspiracy Distraction

August 24, 2010

Practical Economics and the Conspiracy Distraction



Imagine a natural phenomenon, such as seasons or cyclic eclipses. An astute observer notices a pattern and then claims to be the magical source of the cycle. Some man in a funny costume notices an eclipse is coming soon and goes before the masses and announces loudly “I am going to cause the moon to block the sun because you people do not do what you should.”

The people listen to him attentively at first- because he does have a funny costume- but then begin to laugh at his ridiculous threat and return to their prior activities… only to be terrified moments later when the sun is blocked by the moon. They demand of the man in a funny costume “please, tell us what we should do!”

The man in the funny costume announces that he is named Sylvester McMonkey McBean and then says, “okay, let me go pray to God and do some other divinations with my crystal ball and such. I will be back in a little while to tell you what you should do.” He goes off then, closely tracking the time for when the eclipse is due to end.

He comes out when the eclipse is almost due to end and then says: “I have finished my consultations facilitated by the Wizard of Oz and I have found out the information that you want to know!” Everyone gasps and claps and cheers, then quiets down for him to continue: “You should buy these special gold coins from me because there is an economic crisis coming and these magical gold coins bearing the face of Ron Paul are the only thing that will save you. Everyone needs one or else they may catch, uh, the plague. So, who will be first?”

Next, an accomplice who is not dressed in a funny costume, but looks like a “common person,” rushes up to be the first to buy a gold coin from the man in the funny costume, the alleged Mr. McBean. Of course, there are a bunch of gold coins stocked and prepared for immediate sale, and of course they may just be gold-plated or a similar color to gold, but people are not especially attentive to details like that in moments of panic.

Griffin's 1994 book, The Creature from Jekyll ...

Griffin’s 1994 book, The Creature from Jekyll Island, draws parallels between the Federal Reserve and a bird of prey, as suggested by the Great Seal of the United States on its cover. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So, the accomplice buys the first coin and the man in the funny costume says, “you wise fellow, because of your prudence and intelligence, the sun will be revealed again.” This theatrical performance is timed to correspond with the end of the eclipse, and just as the sun comes out, the people are blinded as they clumsily bump into each other, manically lining up in a new gold rush (or “first time home buyers tax credit” rush… or whatever).

By the way, this story may remind you a bit of my favorite Dr. Seuss story, the Sneetches. Sylvester McMonkey McBean is the character in that story who runs the machines that puts stars on bellies or removes them. In our lives, the media are the ones who tell us who is responsible for what. More on that in a moment.

First, in the traditional version of the eclipse story, the man in the funny costume said things like “give me the virgin princess as my wife so I will inherit your kingdom” or “give me one tenth of everything you earn every year for the rest of your life.” Naturally, it is also very important that the practice of astrology be punishable by death, so as to maintain the information monopoly so important to the power of the alleged Mr. McBean.

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Now, more relevant to us than the example above, when a figurehead comes on TV or other news media and is attacked for failing to properly guide the economy, that presumes that the figurehead is able to guide the economy! We may think “Hey, I like him. I defend him. He is a good politician. I voted for his father, too. Since I supported him once, I would be embarrassed to stop supporting him, so let’s just re-elect him! We just need more money and more regulation and more central economic interventionist totalitarianism so that the government can save us all from economics. Also, let’s pass a law to double the amount of oil on the planet, subject to further doubling later of course.”

Others may think, “You fools! Mr. McBean is a corrupt politician and he has betrayed us. What we need is to replace him with a politician who is not corrupt. Let’s recall that traitor McBean and elect Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor instead. Then, we obviously need to pass an amendment to make it unconstitutional to add any more amendments or treaties or to in any way adapt beyond the original confines of the Sacred Word of God, also known as the US Constitution, except this one last amendment to allow for Arnold to have all the power he needs protect us from totalitarianism.”

So, when the media tell us who is responsible for an event that shocks us, like 9/11, we may instantly presume that the people they say are responsible are in fact responsible. Our favorite politicians and musicians and athletes, plus a constant stream of other media celebrities may join in condemning the alleged responsible parties. We believe what they tell us, right?

If Mr. McBean threatens us with an eclipse and then it happens, that must be because he is more powerful than the Federal Reserve, right? Wait: what if the Federal Reserve is not quite as influential as the media has indoctrinated us? What if central economic interventionist totalitarianism cannot actually save anyone from economics?

Well, if there is such a thing as words, then maybe there is such a thing as lying. Maybe the idea that the US President and Federal Reserve are in control of the global economy could be a slightly misleading assertion.

If so, then maybe there is a reason that people are being trained to focus on what is the best form of totalitarianism (or on opposing totalitarianism). Maybe certain commercial interests are trying to distract you and train you to “buy and hold” investments like real estate, stocks, and gold- investments that some astute observers may have realized have reached a natural “seasonal” shift.

Rothschild is famous for having dumped shares of the Bank of England one day, and with rumors spreading that he had early “insider” knowledge of the outcome of the British Empire’s conflict with Napoleon at Waterloo (which had implications for the future value of the bank of England), other shareholders dumped their stock as well. Rothschild then bought back the greatly discounted shares once the stock priced had crashed sufficiently for his purposes, becoming majority owner of the Bank of England.

What we have forming now is not a brief “flash crash,” as was the case with Rothschild or 9/11. What we have now is a set of herds of complacent people emotionally dependent on the media, who are impatiently waiting to be rescued from economics (and politics). Some promote the “right” form of central economic planning and others invest their attention in opposing all forms of central economic planning, as if a few politicians, rather than the masses, are the actual core agents of global economics.

“If only we buy the magic gold coins with the face of Ron Paul, then we will never have to make any other personal adjustments financially. He will save us from the influence of the people who may not actually have much direct influence.”

It is the FAITH of the people that gives the Mr. McBean and his other global leaders so much influence. He would not be a leader if not for all the people following him and behaving as he indoctrinates them.

So, the people as a whole may not be really economically dependent on the actions of governments (or the Federal Reserve)- even if quite a few bureaucrats and beneficiaries are directly dependent. The masses may think that the figureheads are responsible for economic trends, but that could be just some government propaganda taught in government schools and the mass media so on.

The influence of governments is indirect (at least in some cases). If the masses of people follow someone, then that someone is their leader.

Multitudes of people now are arguing over how to support Mr. McBean or how to replace him. Consider now a slight twist. McBean is not the mastermind. He is the accomplice. The so-called accomplice may be the mastermind.

Rothschild (or Rockefeller) comes on TV and says “yes, we need more government interventions to rescue us from economics. People should not sell their real estate or stocks- after all, that is unpatriotic- and the most patriotic thing to do is of course to sell gold.” Then, all the constitutionalist reactionaries get together and decide that they must buy gold because their enemy said to sell it.

Whatever…. The point is that cycles happen naturally whether or not someone claims to be responsible for them like McBean or the Federal Reserve or the US Government or the mainstream media. If you worship the words of the media, you may remain complacent and be responsible for the massive transfer of the ownership of US real estate and stocks (private businesses) to Mr. McBean. If you recognize that some words are not actually literally true, and that cycles of economic behavior just might happen naturally, then you might have already stopped obsessing over how corrupt Mr. McBean is and started to consider personal adjustments that you can make.

There is no mere eclipse coming. This seems to me to be a long economic winter for the Western Industrialized nations. Just because I am saying so before it happens does not mean that it is the result of some plan.

Empires rise and fall. That is the nature of empires.

Is the emerging “fall of the west” planned? If you care at all about whether it is planned or not, you did not get the point of this message. The best time to adjust is now.

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