By Eric Barnes
It is often said that "History is written by the conquerors". Perhaps this was a truism 300, 200 or even 50 years ago, however in this age of instantly accessible information and mounds of amassed data, history has already been written the moment it occurs and the facts are readily within the reach of anyone with the desire to drag often forgotten truth out of its hole, and present it for all to see.
This should be something common place and something that people applaud. The reality is something very different and quite instructive.
A Culture of Deceit
Different institutions have very different functions. When looking at the behavior of an institution or of its components, it is necessary to understand first what the function of that institution actually is.
Common perceptions: what the average American citizen thinks certain institutions are for can be thought provoking and troublesome when juxtaposed with the reality surrounding the institutions actions. Some examples that are quite singular...
- The Media.
The Average American generally thinks the function of the "The Media" is to inform them about important events happening domestically and internationally. "News" and other things that are considered valuable life information in the age of technology we all find ourselves in.
This is not what the media is nor is it what the media is actually designed to do.
The definition of "Media" is as follows:
The means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely
Once this is understood it's time to take a look at how the media determines what it will try and reach people with or influence them with and why.
Who controls the media? Not average people, and certainly not the pawns or "reporters" that are employed by the media. What’s left is the corporations that own these outlets and utilize them to amass profit and shift opinion in ways that will aid in the amassing of profit.
In a profit driven system such as American mass media anyone working within that institution has no choice but to conform to the demands of the institution. If they refused to do so they would simply be removed and someone else would be put in their place. More often than not this is unnecessary because the extensive apparatus of social control, thought prevention and intellectual isolationism is more than sufficient to fully indoctrinate workers, and readers/viewers, long before they ever rise to a position of some authority.
"Resistance is Futile. Assimilate at CNN.Com"
The absence of the well respected and highly dynamic news conglomerate "Al Jazeera" is a good example of the intellectual isolationism so prevalent in American Media culture. AlJazeera is a threat to the cast iron grip that the major "news" outlets currently hold on the American public and hence it is a threat to the corporations that own these outlets. It would bring a vastly diverse world view to the people of the United States which could seriously threaten contemporary concepts regarding the place a middle American should inhabit intellectually; in front of their television, actively overdosing on mind numbing reality TV. In addition to that, if Americans readily had access to clear and up to date information about the happenings in the Middle East and Africa and not the murky and obtuse reports received via contemporary "news" outlets, they might make their requests to end unnecessary and illegal wars of aggression abroad considerably more forceful.
Media in America is about profit and social control, not about relevance or honesty.
- Politicians
The Average American, god bless them, generally thinks that politicians are actually working for the betterment of America as a whole. Few things could be further from the truth.
Again the focus turns back to the dissection of the institution. First, and a singular point, is that the United States government at the upper echelons or the levels where decisions are made, both foreign and domestic, are filled almost without exception by members of the "American Elite".
What makes them so "Elite"?
Thirteen U.S. Presidents attended Ivy League schools.
Forty-two sitting U.S. Senators received some sort of degree from Ivy League schools.
Many others have studied at prestigious schools such as Cambridge, Oxford, Georgetown Law and Stanford Law. It is clear that the educations these men and women in power are receiving are of an Elitist nature. Understanding that the Intellectual culture of modern America is largely one of "naiveté and self-righteousness", further enhanced and rationalized by the Intelligentsia and it's elitist allegiances, than it is not difficult to extrapolate that these institutions are indoctrinating our past, current and future leaders not with the thoughts, desires, hopes and fears of the vast majority of American society, but with a very small package of priorities treasured by those at the top of the Social, Economic and political ladder (i.e. “The Ruling Elite”).
The fiscal position of America's elected representatives is also illuminating.
According to a CRP analysis the median house hold income in the United States is 46,000 dollars. In 2009, the median reportable worth of sitting US senators was 1.79 million dollars.
That's quite a gap.
When these officials and power holders design policy and implement change, they will do it as they always have over and over again across history: Policy will benefit the architects.
Again, remember the rule of any institution; if a component within that institution is unwillingly or unable to comply and support the function that is necessary it is removed. Politically this is no different. This was stated candidly by Leslie Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations when he spoke of his support of the 2003 Iraq war:
My initial support for the war was symptomatic of unfortunate tendencies within the foreign policy community, namely the disposition and incentives to support wars to retain political and professional credibility.
Furthermore, the documentation regarding the "incredible sequence of lies" that the government has perpetuated needs its own post, but the following quote, by Irving Cyrstal a founding father of the neoconservative movement, makes the rulings elite's position regarding lying to the public sufficiently clear.
There are different kinds of Truth for different kinds of people. There are truths appropriate for children; truths appropriate for students; truths appropriate for educated adults; and truths that are appropriate for highly educated adults and the notion that there should be one set of truths available to everyone is a modern democratic fallacy. It just doesn't work.
One can only assume that once again, the policies here will benefit the architects, and the ones deciding which truth everyone is allowed will wildly reap rewards from such an Orwellian construct.
"Jersey shore IS your truth little man. Rent the whole season and forget your sorrows."
Other honorable mentions of institutions that are thought to perform functions they simply do not are:
-The Police
-Institutes of higher learning
-The Military
-The CIA and the whole alphabet soup of groups, clubs and organizations all called TOP SECRET
The list can go on and on.
In this time of change and shadow, the burden of truth has to be lifted out of the hands of indoctrinated and institutionalized members of the Elite and Intelligentsia and must be taken up by the rest of us.
It is no easy task to do, but do we have a choice?
"History is written by the conquerors; only if the forgotten and unheard masses remain so."
Read more by Eric on his blog Gaijinass.
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