Related:
- “THE SPIES OF WARSAW”, 2008, by ALAN FURST.
- Propaganda, Democracy: . . . The Cellist of Sarajevo.
I have great difficulty seeing myself because I am the centre. It’s hard to “get outside” myself for an objective look at what I’m really like. Hey, I’m great! … Faults? Me? Hell, I’m perfect!
And so it is with our society. We are at the centre. What’s real? What’s not? Can we ever know?
For some time I have wondered what it was like in the countries of Europe in the lead-up to World War Two – Norway for example where my maternal line is from. Some people saw the signs of war, but how many? Could they have formed a critical mass in order to avert the destruction? In some situations people have done so.
During the 1990’s, people around the globe worked together to avert a large pending disruption that would have come as computer calendars automatically tried to go from 1999 to the next year when the “19” part of the date was hard-wired into most of the systems. This was the turn-of-the-century “Y2K” (Year Two Thousand) problem. The disaster that could have happened didn’t, because people identified the problem in advance and worked ferociously to make sure it didn’t happen. Success! And the knowledge that we CAN do it, if we focus our energies.
I don’t have personal experience with growing up during the build-up of Naziism. But through the years I’ve read enough history to know something about World War Two.
Kitty Werthmann’s warnings about the parallels in the U.S. today resonate with me. Many Americans are seeing the same as Kitty; they are organizing in creative ways to avert a pending disaster.
Flash points, the moment at which the population mobilizes, are unpredictable.
As I see it, there are two flash points that have come together in North America:
- Dec 30, 2009. Canada: the proroguing of Parliament to shut down public debate over Afghan detainees (among other things).
Three weeks later:
2. Jan 21, 2010. U.S.: the Supreme Court decision on corporate financing of political parties that further entrenched the idea that corporations have the same rights as people.
The two events had the same outcome: masses of people in North America finally drew the line. Enough is enough. They are standing up, speaking out and mobilizing.
In August 2007 I was disturbed when Canadian police officers were trained and deployed, disguised as protestors, to turn the peaceful protest at the SPP Montebello Meeting violent (“professional provocateurs”). There have been repeated, persistent calls for a public inquiry. I do not believe there is one underway, to this day. Police and their masters MUST be held accountable in a democracy.
Six months later, in February 2008 I was nervous about the Canada-U.S. Troop Exchange Agreement (“Civil Assistance Plan”), initially announced in the U.S. but not in Canada.
Two months later, in June 2008 I was nervous about the “Canada First Defence Strategy” which means that Canada has “compatible doctrine” with the Americans and “interoperability”. Along with an integration of top military commanders.
Six months later, in December 2008 I read the story of what happened to Jackie Stower and her family in Ohio, at the hands of a Department of Agriculture SWAT team. The Stowers run “Manna Warehouse”, a food co-op. The story was so outrageous I thought it could not be true; it could not be happening in the U.S.. Well, it DID happen. (See 2008-12-11 Please join my conspiracy. . . . SWAT team raids Ohio Food Co-op, Jackie Stowers. . . ). Google coughed up a phone number; I phoned Jackie. We are both involved in court proceedings.
All of this is on top of knowing too much about how the large corporations work in the world. And how the American Government routinely subverts regimes in order to appropriate natural resources on behalf of its corporations, especially oil and gas. To mention nothing of the attempts to own and control the food supply (the chemical-biotech corporations). Health facilities (the pharmaceutical-biotech corps). Water. Knowledge (universities).
On the same topic but earlier than the Troop Exchange Agreement, I did not fill in my census form when part of the work was out-sourced to Lockheed Martin Corporation, principal agent in the American Military-industrial-congressional complex. And alas! I now know the role of census data in Nazi Europe.
As I am preparing this email, when I re-read Jackie Stower’s story I am appalled all over again. I want to reach out to Ohio and put my hand on her arm to make sure she is real.
And therein lies our frailty: I do not WANT to believe. I prefer the illusion – the myth – to reality.
Our society is very comfortable with illusion. Think of all the capability for taking pictures; cell-phones are everywhere. They are routinely used to capture the moment. I am reminded of a quote by Arnold Newman:
| Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.” |
We are steeped in illusion. But denial of reality can be a very dangerous place to be.
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http://thinkexist.com/quotations/illusion/
Freud:
Patrick Henry:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/illusion.html
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
Saul Bellow
A poor man with nothing in his belly needs hope, illusion, more than bread.
Georges Bernanos
And, hey, I’m not under the illusion that everything’s just going to be hunky-dory work wise forever. I’ve never been under that illusion. Things could go away tomorrow.
Mel Gibson