Posts: 5,506
Threads: 1,443
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: May 2009
Submitted by johnscriv on Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:46am.
state crimes against democracy From American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 53, No. 6 February 2010
In Denial of Democracy: Social Psychological Implications for Public Discourse on State Crimes Against Democracy Post-9/11
Protecting democracy requires that the general public be educated on how people can be manipulated by government and media into forfeiting their civil liberties and duties. This article reviews research on cognitive constructs that can prevent people from processing information that challenges preexisting assumptions about government, dissent, and public discourse in democratic societies. Terror management theory and system justification theory are used to explain how preexisting beliefs can interfere with people’s examination of evidence for state crimes against democracy (SCADs), specifically in relation to the events of September 11, 2001, and the war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. Reform strategies are proposed to motivate citizens toward increased social responsibility in a post-9/11 culture of propagandized fear, imperialism, and war.
Beyond Conspiracy Theory: Patterns of High Crime in American Government
This article explores the conceptual, methodological, and practical implications of research on state crimes against democracy ... delineates a general category of criminality and calls for crimes that fit this category to be examined comparatively ... forms of political corruption that frequently involve political, military, and/or economic elites at the very highest levels of the social and political order.
Negative Information Action: Danger for Democracy
This article explores evidence of, and provides insight into, secrecy-related information actions that are sometimes used to circumvent established government policy and law. These information actions may also be used to cover up such circumventions after the fact. To better understand secrecy as a negative information action and its impact on democracy, secrecy-related information actions are described according to methods, information technologies, and knowledge support. Negative information actions are willful and deliberate acts designed to keep government information from those in government and the public entitled to it. Negative information actions subvert the rule of law and the constitutional checks and balances. Negative information actions used by government officials to violate policies and laws during the IranContra Affair are identified, analyzed, and categorized by type. The relative impact of negative information actions on enlightened citizen understanding is demonstrated using a Negative Information Action Model by assigning a location according to type on a continuum of enlightened citizen understanding. Findings are compared with democratic theory and conspiracy doctrine.
From Administration & Society, Vol. 41, No. 5 November 2009
Preventing State Crimes Against Democracy
This article analyzes U.S. vulnerabilities to state crimes against democracy ... actions or inactions by government insiders intended to manipulate democratic processes and undermine popular sovereignty ... crimes involving top officials in high office are difficult to detect and successfully prosecute because they are usually complex and compartmentalized; investigations are often compromised by conflicts of interests; and powerful norms discourage speculation about corruption in high office.
If anyone can get hold of these articles please let us know. JS
» johnscriv's blog
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"
Posts: 151
Threads: 15
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Apr 2009
01-03-2010, 06:36 PM
(This post was last modified: 01-03-2010, 08:13 PM by Bruce Clemens.)
On the subject of psychological implications of 9/11, I have been musing this weekend over the situation of Charlie Sheen, perhaps the most high profile person publically pushing for a new investigation into 9/11. His recent posting at Infowars of a very well written synopsis of the current state of things could be a wonderful vehicle by which to introduce the issues to newbies.
However the sad state of Sheen’s present public life; drug addiction; leaving CBS’s most popular comedy indefinitely; legal issues surrounding domestic assault allegations; etc.; throws the credibility of the whole 9/11 movement into the same ugly morass. A search of MSM under keywords “Charlie Sheen 9/11” brings up results that show the main stream is working both sides- the 9/11 Truth Movement must be illegitimate- look who they have for a spokesman…and Charlie Sheen must be a nut case- look who he is associated with. Bad in either case.
This weekend I found myself wishing for a high-profile Truth advocate who had their life together.
But beyond that I began to reflect on the deep psychological effects that can happen to even well-balanced people when they begin to see the truth. On another thread I spoke about a friend who believes in the truth but forces himself to compartmentalize that belief in his mind and has made the conscious decision not to go there…for his own sanity.
In discussing this with my wife this weekend, she told me that she has seen a change in me over the past couple years as I have delved deeper into these issues and brought her snippets of what I have been learning. As with my friend, my wife told me she has to distance herself from those things psychologically in order to continue to function. I was encouraged to hear her compliment me on my ability to deal with these realizations as I process them in bite-sized chunks and still not go off the deep end. But she does have legitimate concern how these realizations can possibly push otherwise mentally healthy people closer to conditions such as depression, paranoia, or post-traumatic stress.
I am not saying Charlie Sheen’s misdeeds and personal issues were caused by his learning the truth behind 9/11 and other areas of deep politics…I don’t doubt he had issues before. He’s had plenty of tabloid press throughout his career. But what I am saying (caveat- I have absolutely no training nor certifications in psychology) is that the soul-wrenching changes that take place in one’s psyche (at least as has happened with mine) when one begins to process and internalize these realizations, could be the proverbial straw (or an entire bale) that causes one’s perception of reality to collapse around them.
Perhaps there should be a disclaimer atop every source of 9/11 truth out there warning that unless you have a firm grounding in your sense of self and a strong and understanding support group, you maybe shouldn’t go there…The realizations and implications Sheen and all of us are struggling with are serious. And I believe lots of people will react like my wife and my friend. They peek into the abyss and run back as fast as they can to a happy place.
I am not sure how to overcome that, but I firmly believe the real truth won’t change anything out there no matter how exposed it becomes, if it is just too hideous for the average person to accept.
"If you're looking for something that isn't there, you're wasting your time and the taxpayers' money."
-Michael Neuman, U.S. Government bureaucrat, on why NIST didn't address explosives in its report on the WTC collapses
Posts: 9,353
Threads: 1,466
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: Sep 2008
Bruce Clemens Wrote:Perhaps there should be a disclaimer atop every source of 9/11 truth out there warning that unless you have a firm grounding in your sense of self and a strong and understanding support group, you maybe shouldn’t go there…The realizations and implications Sheen and all of us are struggling with are serious. And I believe lots of people will react like my wife and my friend. They peek into the abyss and run back as fast as they can to a happy place.
I think this is probably true for all knowledge. It's scary stuff and not everyone is ready to face réalité. If it helps any, my wife also prefers not to deal with the detail of these subjects, although she can't help but understand the broader picture with me in the house. 
Quote:I am not sure how to overcome that, but I firmly believe the real truth won’t change anything out there no matter how exposed it becomes, if it is just too hideous for the average person to accept.
I think truth and the courage of consciousness are slow beasts at coming forward, but they do progress non-the-less. The world has changed greatly in the last 40 years in many ways that are so very good and beneficial to civilization. The underlying equation, I think, is that the more who do step up and face their devils, the more who will sooner or later be willing and able to do so too.
But the greater the resistance too. It is the dynamic of opposites.
But once the eyes are open you cannot close them again.
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge. Carl Jung - Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.14
Posts: 5,506
Threads: 1,443
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: May 2009
Oh, good... a discussion ensues... Thank you, gentlemen, and I look forward to all and continuing contributions.
I have yet to totally analyze and understand what went on within me around 9/11. First, I have to laugh at the concept of the government not knowing anything when, indeed, the news paages were "screaming red" enough that I sent blessings to my daughter -- then a grad student in Queens -- on the evening of 9/10 with the song and lyrics to an old jazz standard "For All We Know". Since then, I've been recovering... The event certainly re-opened all the old deep political event wounds, and I've had the same wifely discussions ... mine say "denial is a gift from God", but I can't put it away that easily. I have to bring it out regularly for exercise and fresh air.
The topic is greater than me or my understanding. I would like to read those articles, and similar ones related, and here from others.
As for Charlie Sheen, if he is our most visible and effective spokesman for 9/11 Truth, we are in trouble. There are certainly many others whose decorum and intellect are close to unimpeachable. John McMurty in Canada comes to mind, as do many others. The "granddaddy", it is clear, is Dr. David Ray Griffin. I am biased, having read many of his books (one autographed), corresponded with him, been to see him speak, and asked him a question from the audience. His book "Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11" is the equivalent of James Douglass' "JFKU". The real truth of the matter is that the best spokesperson(s) for 9/11 Truth (and similar truths) are all of us... dispersed, fibrillating, yet learning to act in concert....
The best single "workbook", if you will, for the topic that I have found thus far is Carloyn Baker's book "Sacred Demise". Carolyn was a practicing psychotherapist, has a degree in ecopsychology (whose best work in my opinion is Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World by Bill Plotkin), and who was for a time Mike Ruppert's locum tenems webmaster.
Carolyn holds forth at http://carolynbaker.net/site/ , "Speaking Truth to Power". You can read about the book, and some of the reviews (including mine -- I call it a vade mecum, a talisman) here: http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Demise-Spir...roduct_top
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"
Posts: 5,506
Threads: 1,443
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: May 2009
American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 53, No. 6 February 2010 has been purchased and is due in my mailbox in about ten days or less.
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"
Posts: 5,506
Threads: 1,443
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: May 2009
Ed Jewett Wrote:American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 53, No. 6 February 2010 has been purchased and is due in my mailbox in about ten days or less.
Yes, indeed, it is here, and I have finished the first two articles. Very good stuff... I am sufficiently beyond my days of academic rigor (if I ever had any) to know whether I am at liberty to quote from this. I suspect I can at the very least re-write or use some of the stunning strings of words now underlying a swipe of bright and jagged yellow, or I could write a paper leaping forward from the collected insights, or perhaps we could just invite the authors to join the Deep Politics Forum. The list of referenced articles and books is comprehensive; they have done their homework. The insights are solid, more advanced than any save perhaps the likes of the known names in the literature. There is certainly food and fodder here for any serious blogger. I shall report more when appropriate. I will leave you with a taste:
The introductory article by Witt and Kouzmin speaks of a search for "due diligence that can square, among other disparate claims of fact, the two following strands: (a) standard public administration operating procedures, rehearsed, documented, and carried out scores of times each years; with (b) the probabilistically implausible, comprehensive failure of NORAD to respond according to procedure even after the first World trade Center tower had been hit."
This thus far appears not to be a clandestine package of misinformation or misdirection. Though the authors exercise due care not to leap to conclusions and to choose their words carefully, they are unafraid to stray, well-armed with research, into the center of the debate with the apparent purpose of shaping it for future understanding and clarity, reform, and further research. I don't wish to be premature, but I very much like the direction it seems to be moving in... one not unlike some of the efforts of Peter Dale Scott.
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"
Posts: 5,506
Threads: 1,443
Likes Received: 0 in 0 posts
Likes Given: 0
Joined: May 2009
The next article is about secrecy, "negative information actions". their subversion of checks and balances and the rule of law in a democracy, and sets forth a Negative Information Action Model. It is a deep review of Iran-Contra. The last (so I skipped ahead, sue me) is Witt's "Pretending Not to See or Hear, Refusing to Signify..." is blistering; the opening two paragraphs on the role of TV shows as Hegelian passion plays is worth the price of admission.
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"
|
