What Drives the Regime Bonkers?

Well, nothing, really. Everything is firmly under control, and don't be fooled by the gyrations of the EU or by our own government's responses to the economic “crisis”. Remember that continuing crises are the health of the Regime, the way war is said to be the health of the state. How did Chairman Mao consolidate power, for example? Why, by coming up with the Cultural Revolution and its cutting edge, the Red Guard. The rest of the world saw what appeared to be anarchy – revolution from below – but in fact it was revolution from above, and not even revolution, but consolidation of power. The object was to eliminate, or at least intimidate, the people in the middle – use the lumpen proletariat against the settled, complacent middle class, for the ultimate benefit of the ruling class, after which the proles could be exterminated like flies... which many of them were.

And this all bears a striking resemblance to what is happening in this country today. The “usual suspects” -- the rent-a-mobs and malcontents of every sort – are being augmented in their efforts by the “Occupy” movement, in order to get the middle class – the bourgeoisie – shaking in its boots, while the people who are really in charge look on placidly. And just as with the Red Guard, the Occupiers should expect no mercy from the Regime once their work is done and their usefulness is at an end. At that point, they will become just as much enemies of the state as the tea partiers – bourgeoisie all – already are.

Chairman Mao also used the massive propaganda apparatus of the state to further his aims, the way the Regime of our time uses the mainstream media... but at least the mainstream media have some competition, in the form of a small but feisty independent press and a substantial sector of the Internet. And yet those are not enough to prevent, or even slow, the continuous concentration of power... the “trickle-up effect” to the upper reaches of power and finance.

So with that as an introduction, let me go back to what I indicated, in my previous post, would be my next topic: “If the Occupiers are not a threat to the Regime, but the tea partiers are, what else is, or would be, a threat? How can one determine where the Regime has vested interests? And the best place to start answering these questions is, once again, with the mainstream media.” In other words, if we assume (and this is not a difficult assumption) that the media are the obedient, servile voice of the Regime, then we can say that whatever seems to get their attention – and to disturb, upset, or enrage them -- is also what the Regime would like to see go away. Or to put it another way, whatever the media accept as being natural and right and not subject to change – not open to discussion – is also what the Regime wants to remain in place in perpetuity.

But right away you might ask, if things are completely under control as I said, then why should the Regime even bother sending out its media attack dogs on a regular basis? Why not just let things run their course? This, I think, is primarily a question of convenience and efficiency. It is more convenient, and less trouble, for the Regime if the vast majority of Americans remain silent and distracted... and if the few who do speak up are, whether they know it or not, supporting the Regime's agenda. A restive populace is certainly more troublesome than one that is placated and anesthetized; even quiet despair is preferable to protest. After all, a happy slave is part of the solution, productivity-wise, whereas an unhappy one is a drag on the system. Plus, as I've said before, we are an ideational culture, and blind adherence to the politically-correct ideas can serve to cover a multitude of actual ills, hardships, and inconveniences. As long as most people believe that whatever the government does is “for the good of...” something-or-other, there will be more cooperation and less resistance.

So with that in mind, let me present an at least preliminary list of things the Regime cares about enough to sic the media on anyone who thinks differently. These are things which are, by and large, status quo – since the Regime has had decades to consolidate its power, and there are very few pockets of resistance left. In that sense, we're dealing with a profoundly “conservative” entity here – but one that, paradoxically, requires a certain amount of “anarchy”, as described above, and the occasional taste of revolution, to keep in optimum operating condition. The dynamics of this are quite subtle, in fact. The Regime has at its disposal an army of entitlement junkies and malcontents, who need very little in the way of suggestion or stimulation to take to the streets (or the Internet). So when things start to get slack – when the lower classes start to become de-politicized – it's time for an intervention, in order to tighten things up a bit and put us firmly back on the class warfare track. And likewise, when the middle class starts to realize that it's eating grass – to reference a classic Gary Larson cartoon – it needs to be lulled, and intimidated, back into silence and mental oblivion.

Note also that contrary voices are very seldom subject to frontal assault or overt oppression; that's a tactic of totalitarian regimes of the past, and it has a tendency to backfire. No, this is much subtler, more subversive process which, in the case of the media, involves simply ignoring certain people or suppressing certain stories. In this way, the media, for all intents and purposes, define not only what constitutes “news” but also what constitutes reality. And the centralization of power is such that it leaves most people with only the media as a source of information; direct experience with the issues of the day is extremely difficult to come by. People who are unemployed, for example, know that they're unemployed – but they seldom know why, and no one is about to tell them. And how many Americans, even in uniform, have ever visited Iraq or Afghanistan? And how many have the vaguest idea of what the Federal Reserve is, or what it does – which is why Ron Paul's call to “audit the Fed” falls on deaf ears? Might as well send a crew of astronauts to the Moon to see if it's really made of green cheese; that's about as remote as the real issues are for most people. And don't think that this centralization of information as well as power is the least bit accidental; it's all part of the plan to alienate people from processes and events that are not right under their nose (and even those get “spun” continuously, until people start disbelieving their own eyes and ears). You see, government doesn't have to be entirely cloaked in secrecy in order to operate in what amounts to a secret, mysterious way; all that's necessary is that all the decisions that count are made by other people – preferably people unknown, unelected, and inaccessible. So with all of that in mind, here's the list:

PERPETUAL WAR. This is the ultimate in non-negotiables as far as the Regime is concerned. What it does is enable a continuous accumulation and consolidation of power. It also provides a convenient means of redistribution of wealth from the productive to the non-productive (a category which includes overt as well as covert war, and nearly everything masquerading as “defense”). And it also provides something for the ideationally-trained and conditioned populace to latch on to – relying on, among other things, the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance, as I've explained before. (“Anything that costs this much must be worth doing”, in other words.) And if we remain on a perpetual war footing, there is none of the pain and inconvenience of transitioning from a peacetime economy, and peacetime politics, to a wartime economy and wartime politics; it's all the same at this point.

THE “WAR ON DRUGS”. This is the counterpart to perpetual war on the domestic side. And again, it provides a means for the accumulation and consolidation of power, and for redistribution of wealth from the productive to the non-productive. It has an ideational savor, relying on Puritan concepts of morality and that universal tendency to profit (psychologically) from the sufferings of others. It is also, by the way, a huge generator of jobs – in law enforcement, the courts, “corrections”, and so on. And – perhaps most importantly of all – it serves to make a huge proportion of the population into criminals... not that they are all caught and rounded up, but that they lose all respect for the law, and all expectations that the government is fair, rational, or concerned with their welfare. Thus, and also very importantly, it makes a huge proportion of the populace subject to arrest at any time, certainly a resource when you're trying to suppress dissent in other areas. So this will never end, as long as the Regime has anything to say about it; it just serves too many agendas. And I might add that even though the War on Drugs represents a uniquely American obsession, or fetish, it has not for that reason found disfavor with the Regime, which has an international base. It not only serves to energize one part of the American populace in an unhealthy way, but creates a demoralized, legal underclass – both fit subjects for further predation.

PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY. Hey, if you had access to the world's biggest bank account, and could raid it any time you wanted without the people whose money you were stealing even knowing about it, would you want that system to end, or be changed even slightly? I don't think so.

AUDITING (or doing anything else about) THE FEDERAL RESERVE. Well, you control the economy, and therefore all economic activity, and therefore the populace, by controlling the currency, right? And if you want to reduce the populace to a state of perpetual penury, nothing beats tempting them into ever-greater debt while at the same time reducing the value of their money. In the old days slavery was defined around things like slave collars and leg irons; now it's simply a matter of making everyone into a debtor on paper, and thus binding them to the system that is responsible for their woes. In this sense, the government – the Regime – has become the ultimate pusher; tempt people to buy into a system that is bent on their destruction, and then keep them alive just enough to continue to work in a state of economic slavery.

ABORTION. This isn't going away because the Regime has already decided what the optimum population levels (broken down by class, race, religion, etc.) ought to be in order to foster world dominance – a kind of “Goldilocks” approach to population: Not too many, not too few, just right. Now clearly, unlimited access to free abortion “services” is more important when dealing with the “Third World” than with “industrialized Western” countries – but the U.S., for example, has its own internal “third world” -- namely the inner cities or “ghettos”. And those are prime targets for the international population controllers.

SUBSIDIES/BAILOUTS/DIRECT PAYMENTS TO “PRIVATE” INDUSTRY. I use the quotation marks around “private” since, at the upper reaches, there is no such thing any longer – either in this country or in Europe (or probably anywhere else). And this is not because private industry has become an arm of the government; it's just the opposite. Government is the means by which, once again, wealth is redistributed from the truly productive – i.e. people who are providing goods and services that people actually want, and are willing to purchase on the free market – to the non-productive... especially those whose main “business” is the massive, speed-of-light manipulation of paper, resources, “securities”, accounts, currencies, and entire economies. There is a continuous, as I've said before, “churning” in the financial/economic world by which the resources of ordinary people are continually buffeted about, taxed, subject to fees, inflated, and so on – a hidden and gradual bloodletting, not severe enough to kill the host (in most cases) but enough to keep the machinery of the Regime operating at top speed and efficiency.

STATES' RIGHTS. This is a, by-and-large, American issue, but it does have echoes in the various “breakaway”, or would-be breakaway, provinces, states, and regions in Europe. It's a complete non-starter for the Regime because, once again, centralized control is key, and “regionalism”, which means having some regard for cultural differences, is highly frowned upon. I mean – you let people develop a feeling of pride as to their home turf and native culture, and who knows what might happen next? They might develop skepticism as to the desirability of central governments, globalism, perpetual war... all the earmarks of 21st Century totalitarianism. So states' rights, and the equivalent ideas in other countries, have to be strictly suppressed.

CLASS WARFARE. This, as indicated above, has to be kept on the front burner, with the heat turned up, at all times. Nothing so distracts the proletariat as the feeling that they're marching into battle with “the man” (AKA “the establishment”, “the oligarchy”, “corporations”, etc.)... but their exertions are quickly and skillfully turned against, not the people who are really in charge, but the hapless middle class. And likewise, the bourgeoisie are mesmerized by visions of “welfare queens” and thus made blind to the real source of their troubles. The Regime keeps these groups busy fighting each other so that it may have more time to work its will on all.

THE “ENEMY” INDUSTRY. This goes hand-in-hand with perpetual warfare. Please notice how readily the “enemy” -- those whom we have to keep in our cross hairs at all times – morphed from the Warsaw Pact (and communism in general) to Islam. It only took 10 years, and in the meantime we had a smattering of minor-league conflicts to keep us amused and to keep our military from getting rusty, fat, and lazy. So let's see... we had the Cold War to keep us busy for 45 years or so, then a brief “vacation from history” in the 1990s, and now we've embarked on a war on Islam that, if history is any indication, ought to be good for at least 100 years or so... and we've only been at it for 10! Truly, there are no jobs more secure than those in the Pentagon. The bottom line of all this, media-wise, is that anyone (like Ron Paul) who questions the basic premise that Islam is the inevitable and perpetual enemy of the American way of life, and of all that is good, is dismissed as a nut case.

THE EDUCATION RACKET. All this means is that the public education system is designed to produce citizens who are all totally “down” with all that the Regime has in store – from unquestioning adherence to the dictates of the Regime to unquestioning adherence to all of the political, social, economic, and moral propaganda that goes with it, to the willingness to become addicted to whatever the Regime offers up in the way of popular culture and “entertainment”. Again, it's another variation on the Matrix principle – not that people are totally unconscious, but what they are conscious of is a totally artificial creation designed to keep them from thinking or perceiving reality.

THE HEALTH CARE RACKET. This has now switched into high gear with ObamaCare, and it's designed to accomplish a number of things: (1) Accelerate and maximize the transfer of wealth from the middle class (i.e., people who have to pay for at least part of their health care) to the arms of the regime represented by “Big Medicine” and “Big Pharma”; (2) Suppress any awareness of alternatives in medicine and nutrition, because that will only hurt business; (3) Maintain the public in a kind of state of low-grade infection, where they are dependent on government for not only their (perceived) health, but for their very lives. This will insure, among other things, a greater attitude of awe combined with submissiveness, as though we were all perpetually gazing upon the visage of the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. The last thing the Regime wants is a populace that is empowered, health-wise. Much better to severely limit individual choices (not unlike what happens with presidential elections) and sanction those who dare wander off the health care reservation.

And I'm sure many more examples could be cited. But I hope I've demonstrated that anyone who questions, or expresses skepticism, about any of the above topics is instantly subject to the disciplinary actions of the media – ignored, or when impossible to ignore then suppressed, censored, defamed, called every name in the book, and so on. We think that totalitarianism ended with the dissolution of the notorious “bad” regimes of the 20th Century – Stalin's Soviet Union, Mao's China, Hitler's Germany, and so on. No, what actually happened is that totalitarianism changed its strategy and its tactics, and underwent a geographical morphing process. Perennial enemies like France and Germany have now united against the rest of the EU – especially the hapless “PIIGS”, who were, once again, provided the most addictive drug available, namely an implied “backing” and safety net for all of their foolish policies and programs. But the pusher will have his way in the long run, and at this point the “PIIGS” belong, body and soul, to the master pushers in Paris, Berlin, and elsewhere among the more sensible and sober countries. And there is nothing the least bit accidental about any of this – it's all part of the plan. Once again, what looks like chaos and like a “crisis” is simply a stage in the full flowering of the plan. And likewise, what appears to be a “crisis” in this country is part of the same plan – or of an even bigger plan. Please note that we, mysteriously, find ourselves on the hook for the misdeeds of European banks and economies. How did that happen? Simply because there was a secret marriage among many national economies, including ours – nothing that the American voter had anything to say about, for sure. People who worry about this oil pipeline between Canada and Texas would be better advised to worry about the hemorrhage of wealth between the U.S. and Europe, which is already well underway.