30-07-2009, 01:13 PM
(This post was last modified: 30-07-2009, 02:00 PM by Peter Presland.)
Peter
I suspect we are in pretty much full agreement about the nature of the problem. Viz a combination of State power (largely covert) serving the interests of a privileged, self-perpetuating, trans-national Elite at the expense of the mass of humanity, together with apathy, naivety, stupidity etc etc on the part of 'the masses' - the 'consensus trance' in the words of Richard Heinberg. With both strands of the problem exacerbated by relentless developments in surveillance/control/propaganda technologies and the problem of effectively organising to counter them.
If anything it is the latter where our disagreement may lie. I may come across as apathetic, but I am not. It's just that I find defining the 'We' in 'We better get outraged' problematical; not because outrage is not justified in spades, but because it is simply not going to happen on a mass scale. For much of my life I too lived the 'consensus trance'. I have arrived at my present opinions on political power, the nature of the state, etc. slowly and very painfully. To have held them 20 years ago, let alone to have voiced them publicly and 'with outrage' would probably have killed my business career, so I didn't hold them. No conscious decisions involved, just an instinctive grasp of the persona I needed to project to be 'successful' in business and thus feed my family etc. - studied ignorance was bliss in other words, not to mention it paid the bills. A hell of an admission to make eh? - but it's the truth and not a million miles from the mindsets of countless others trying to make their way within the system. But The System is past master at massaging the mindsets, abilities egos and loyalties of those it needs to perpetuate itself (It's called 'The Honours System' over here and it is rotten to the very core) - the net result is that it is essentially fawning but psychopathic personalities that tend to 'get to the top' with corporations being the archetype of the psychopathic personality.
I haven't given up by any means. It's just that these days I tend to confine myself to gentle persuasion of those I am in any position to persuade, that's all. Besides, as a certain demonstration in Parliament Square on September 15th 2004 proved to me in spades, I'm no longer much use when it comes to physical confrontation with tooled-up, hyped-up Police State enforcers determined to crack a few sculls and demonstrate who's boss.
I suspect we are in pretty much full agreement about the nature of the problem. Viz a combination of State power (largely covert) serving the interests of a privileged, self-perpetuating, trans-national Elite at the expense of the mass of humanity, together with apathy, naivety, stupidity etc etc on the part of 'the masses' - the 'consensus trance' in the words of Richard Heinberg. With both strands of the problem exacerbated by relentless developments in surveillance/control/propaganda technologies and the problem of effectively organising to counter them.
If anything it is the latter where our disagreement may lie. I may come across as apathetic, but I am not. It's just that I find defining the 'We' in 'We better get outraged' problematical; not because outrage is not justified in spades, but because it is simply not going to happen on a mass scale. For much of my life I too lived the 'consensus trance'. I have arrived at my present opinions on political power, the nature of the state, etc. slowly and very painfully. To have held them 20 years ago, let alone to have voiced them publicly and 'with outrage' would probably have killed my business career, so I didn't hold them. No conscious decisions involved, just an instinctive grasp of the persona I needed to project to be 'successful' in business and thus feed my family etc. - studied ignorance was bliss in other words, not to mention it paid the bills. A hell of an admission to make eh? - but it's the truth and not a million miles from the mindsets of countless others trying to make their way within the system. But The System is past master at massaging the mindsets, abilities egos and loyalties of those it needs to perpetuate itself (It's called 'The Honours System' over here and it is rotten to the very core) - the net result is that it is essentially fawning but psychopathic personalities that tend to 'get to the top' with corporations being the archetype of the psychopathic personality.
I haven't given up by any means. It's just that these days I tend to confine myself to gentle persuasion of those I am in any position to persuade, that's all. Besides, as a certain demonstration in Parliament Square on September 15th 2004 proved to me in spades, I'm no longer much use when it comes to physical confrontation with tooled-up, hyped-up Police State enforcers determined to crack a few sculls and demonstrate who's boss.
Peter Presland
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]
".....there is something far worse than Nazism, and that is the hubris of the Anglo-American fraternities, whose routine is to incite indigenous monsters to war, and steer the pandemonium to further their imperial aims"
Guido Preparata. Preface to 'Conjuring Hitler'[size=12][size=12]
"Never believe anything until it has been officially denied"
Claud Cockburn
[/SIZE][/SIZE]