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"Not-Seeism: A dangerous state of denial where, despite all of the evidence, people insist on not seeing the obvious truth."
-- Swami Beyondananda's Political Dictionary
The
upwising continues, and the "irony curtain" is becoming more
transparent than ever. The veils are being lifted on the "security
state", the cancerous growth that Dwight Eisenhower warned us about more than half a century ago that has all but taken over our government and governance.
 This
viral photo says it all. Bush or Obama, whoever is at the helm of the
American empire, is ultimately answerable to the same dark lords. Swami
put it a bit more bluntly four years ago when it became apparent that
Barack Obama's allegiance was with the banking industry: "The empire has
a new face, but it still has the same big fat ass."
So
... America is waking up left and right, even as the mainstream media
continues to distract and divert, willfully ignorant that we stand at a
most significant moment in modern American history.
Edward Snowden stepping forward to expose the NSA's comprehensive surveillance measures is America's Tiananmen Square moment.
He has had the courage to put himself in front of the biggest tank in the world -- America's military industrial complex.
Naturally
-- or unnaturally -- most of the pimps in the so-called "press" have
either focused on Snowden's pole-dancer girlfriend or dismissed him as
one of those tinfoil-wearing Ron Paul supporters. The dismissal attacks
have begun, and this is how violence is done in the "soft totalitarian
state" we live in now. If character assassination works, it's less messy
than the other kind, right? (Of course, the other kind is still an
option, just in case.)
That's
why the likes of Jon Stewart , Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher are so
important today. By "pumping ironies" and speaking truth through humor,
they are shining light on the endarkened corridors of power, and are
using laughter to awaken a body politic that has hit the snooze button
way too often.
Interesting
to remember that one of the first things Hitler did when he came to
power was round up and imprison the cabaret comedians. Humor is the
ultimate weapon of mass-deconstruction with the power to break any
totalitarian trance.
From Nazism to Not-Seeism
So let's fast-forward 80 years, as the dark forces that embodied as Nazism have a new enabler ally -- "Not-seeism."
My
wife Trudy was born in Germany, and came to the United States at the
age of three. She returned there in her late teens for a year to live
and work. As she began to reacquaint herself with family members, she
felt bold and comfortable enough to ask them the difficult questions:
How was it that the Holocaust could happen? What had they known? What
had they done?
Most
of them replied, "We heard rumors. We were told it was American
propaganda, and frankly to believe anything else would have been
unthinkable."
I
recall a conversation several years ago where a woman was being told
about some nefarious doings on the part of our government. She got very
huffy and defensive and actually said, "Well ... it may be true, but I
don't believe it."
And there we have it, folks.
That is what is holding our current political "reality" together. It's hanging by a thread. Or actually, hanging by a "threat."
Because after all, if we are on a fast-track toward totalitarianism, who wants to stand in front of a tank, right? Better to focus on the guy's pole-dancer girlfriend ...
This
is a tough gulp to swallow, but if you look at the direction the
corporate state has been taking us -- less visibly prior to 911, more
obviously since then -- it's totalitarianism.
Yep
... that's the word I have purposely chosen. The powers in power
(whether you consider it a nefarious conspiracy or simply an unchecked
and unbalanced sociopath's playground) are determined to control every
aspect of our lives and the world: Food ... energy ... health care ...
the very information we receive. Evidence abounds if we look past our
own "not see" tendencies:
Monsanto
wants to own the patent to every seed on the planet. Should their plan
go forward, organic farming will still exist -- in an organic farming
museum somewhere where people can marvel about how quaint and
old-fashioned being in harmony with the web of life was.
The
oil companies have made their own plans for the future, and alternative
fuels will be developed only when they are good and ready. They don't
care if the general public is opposed to fracking. They've already fixed
the game, so ... frack you, public.
The
medical industrial complex will continue to fight holistic alternatives
as "quackery" or buy natural vitamin companies up. Herbal remedies have
already been banned in the EU.
The media will continue to marginalize everything that stands in the way of the corporate state. How
long will it be before those who oppose GMO food or fracking will be
assigned the same tinfoil hats that have been given to those who have
reported election stealing or who question the official 911 story? You know ... first they came for the 911 debunkers ... etc.
The
surveillance state will be the tip of the iceberg. The governance that
was established 225 years ago to serve we the people will serve us up on
a silver platter as consumer-slaves in one big Company Store. (It
reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode I saw as a kid where
ET's land and declare their purpose is to "serve mankind." Too late,
earthlings realize that "To Serve Mankind" is a cookbook.)
The Twilight Zone reference calls forth a moment of awakening from the same era, "Stranded In the Jungle" by the Cadets:
"I smelled something cooking and I looked to see ... that's when I
found out they was a-cooking me ... GREAT GOOGA-MOOGA LEMME OUTTA
HERE!"
It
is now time for a critical mass of the heretofore-uncritical masses to
shout in unison ... " GREAT GOOGA-MOOGA LEMME OUTTA HERE!"
And Now For the Good News
The
good news is that every bit of bad news being revealed about the
"legalized lawlessness" that has become the norm is ultimately good
news. It puts an otherwise anesthetized public into the more awakened
state of cognitive dissonance. To quote Swami, "The truth shall upset
you free."
Part
of the awakening is to step out of the usual left-right political
conversation and take a meta-view of what is happening now. Daniel Ellsberg, who knows a thing or two about blowing the whistle on nefarious doings says it quite eloquently here:
The NSA, FBI and CIA have, with the
new digital technology, surveillance powers over our own citizens that
the Stasi - the secret police in the former "democratic republic" of
East Germany - could scarcely have dreamed of. Snowden reveals that the
so-called intelligence community has become the United Stasi of
America.
Back
when Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers, he too was faced with
prosecution. What saved him ultimately was that the press -- yes, we had
a real one at the time -- decided to back him up and simultaneously
published the papers.
In recent weeks, the press has expressed concern -- outrage, even -- over those who've been spying on THEM, and now we the people must encourage their courage.
How? Through three realizations.
First,
we must understand that the power behind the power is hell-bent on
totalitarianism ... and the rest of us must be heaven-bent on freedom.
Bucky Fuller anticipated this moment of choice in his book title, Utopia or Oblivion.
Because there is the technological ability to try to control
everything, unchecked and unbalanced power can seek to establish
totalitarian control. The evolutionary alternative is to trust
ourselves to govern ourselves, and recognize that our "security issues"
are really "insecurity issues."
Second,
we must recognize that totalitarianism is anti-life, anti-nature and
ultimately impossible. Of course, they will defend to our death their
right to try! Knowing these insane and misguided forces CANNOT WIN will
sustain our faith through times when it does indeed look like they are
winning.
Finally,
we have the ultimate antidote -- the virtues and values that 90% of us
hold in common, that the corporate state and corporate media have been
trying to program out of us. As they now seek to discredit Edward
Snowden, the last thing they want is for us to recognize Edward
Snowden's act for what it is -- an act of profound courage.
In school, we Americans learned to celebrate Patrick Henry's fabled quote, "Give me liberty or give me death."
Snowden
has put his ass on the line saying essentially the same thing. We must
stand up with him and behind him at this key moment, and encourage the
bravest members of the press and establishment to take a stand as well.
Finally,
the issue of the surveillance state is the perfect opportunity for
awakening progressives and aware conservative libertarians to find
common cause around the one issue that stands above all others -- who's
in charge of who's in charge?
If
enough of us take this one bold step toward political maturity, the
media will have no choice but to follow as WE BECOME the news.
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