This holiday season -- when you gather the children round the Christmas yule -- instead of filling their eager little ears with a story about reindeers, do a little research on the Father of Christmas. Skip past the propaganda you've been telling them about a pagan ritual celebrating the end of winter. It doesn't involve a 4th Century bishop of Asia Minor riding around on ten tiny little reindeer to remind us of the birth of Christ. The Real Father of Christmas also happens to be the nephew of Sigmund Freud. His name is name is Edward Bernays.
Take a look at the beginning of the Christmas Season that starts the day after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday. Think about how American's celebrate this day -- by getting up at 5 am to catch the early bird specials, flocking to catch the sale of a century generated by advertising in the early part of the year. The day is called Black Friday because a majority of businesses run at a loss until the holiday season when they earn nearly 40% of their yearly earnings. They're counting on us to shop, and every year we buy into the dream at a price that few of us can hardly afford.
Edward Bernays took a close look at Uncle Freud's work and found a way to manipulate large groups of people through their primal instincts. He founded the field of Public Relations and made a fortune selling big business the secrets to getting people to buy their products. Before Bernays the manufatures worried what would happen when everyone owned one of their products. Afterwards they learned how to hook us into next year's model, and eventually taught our children how to influence our purchasing decisions.
My favorite story is best shared while walking around the shopping malls. Should luck lead you to a Banana Republic, take a moment to consider where the retail outlet got their name. The Ghost of Christmas Past is at it again in Honduras, working with the United Fruit Company to provide millions of Americans their daily potassium. The company set the wages for pratically the whole of the country which inspired the citizens to rise up against the government. Bernays reponded with anti-Socialist propaganda and turned the country back around to the control of Capitalist leaders.
The truth is that these same Capitalist leaders have hijacked the sleigh and taken us on a debt-ridden ride through long lines filled with angry people fighting over worthless trash that will be obsolete in a year. The spirit of giving is a flimsey excuse to spend so much money over the holiday season, which is why I recommend highly that everyone reading this BOYCOTT HOLIDAY SPENDING. We have final control over the system, and can easily enact the TRUE spirit of the season by following these three easy steps.
1. Visit with your friends and family and bring them good holiday cheer that can typically be communicated with a smile. Some holiday phrases which might come in handy include: "Happy Holidays," or "Merry Christmas!"
2. If you're gathering for a festive occasion which involves food, bring over a dish that you've made yourself -- even if you can't cook! The spirit of giving involves a bit of self-expression, which is most certainly rewarded around the holidays.
3. When children are involved, satiate their hunger for consumerism with something fun that everyone can enjoy. That way everyone can have a good time catching up with family members they haven't seen in a year.
If you must purchase something to put under the tree: Shop Local. The businesses in the district include silver shops and antique dealers, hair salons and music stores. There's a story to be had when you buy something unique from a business in your local neighborhood. Get the folks a gift card to a popular local restaurant, or get the kids a new whiney new Emo tattoo. The community becomes tighter when you show your support and sees more success than the stress filled months typically produce, resulting in everyone shopping happily ever after.
Isn't that a better story than the one's you've been telling your children?
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Friday, December 8, 2006
The Dumbest Common Denomonator
Picture yourself on the television sofa with a dry, pasty taste in your mouth. Looking down you see the crumbs of something or another spread across your shirt. You notice that a body part has gone numb, then realize that you've been staring at the television for an indeterminable amount of time. Might have been ten or fifteen minutes. Maybe an hour or two. For whatever length of time you've been in a state of mind which allowed all of their messages to slip in unchallenged by your logic. That's why they call it "Television Programming." You come back hungry for a snack, itching to buy the latest edition, completely unsatisfied with your life until you obtain the dream they're selling you.
The truth is that the majority of television and radio broadcasts, as well as film and print media, are designed for a 10th grader. You're junior and senior year were a waste according to the news and entertainment industrys. To be honest, that's the average. The vast majority of media that Americans are exposed to are intented for even lower grades -- 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. My daughter is 11 years old. Next year she will have reached the pinnacle of human acheivement -- or at least the dumbest common denomonater. What they define as the average American viewer. Scary when you put it into the context of an actual 12 year old. Imagine telling them to step learing, that everything from this point on will be superfluous to what you actually need to know.
When you look at the actual development cycle of a human you'll begin to see why the news and entertainment are developed for such an "incomplete" level of understanding. At that point in our lives we're just beginning to break away from the mold our parents have set for us. We're making our own choices about what we want out of our lives. It's at that point when we're most susceptable to the desires they put before us. Picking an age group isn't nearly as effective as dumbing down the content to appeal to that age group within all of us. You might think that to be a conspiracy until you wake up one day to realize the chips on your belly aren't even satisfying. They're just something you inexlicably feel as if you need.
These compulsory needs obviously extend to the flat screen televisions and flip phones that all of us desire. But they also reach deep into our illusory Freedoms and obscure many of the inalienable rights we have as a species. No human should be forced to earn the right to live. Air, water, food, and shelter should be provided to every member of the human race regardless of the profits involved. The fact that an entire nation strives towards a wealthy existance while an entire continent loses tens of thousands of children each day exposes a deep and disturbing foundation to our way of life. What's more is that many of us have been programmed to believe that the trillions of dollars we instead speand on War is intended to protect our way of life.
Here's a handy story to tell your children late at night. The IRS is an extortion racket run by the Federal Reserve -- a private organization lead by international banks which exists as a separate entity from the government. We don't actually own anything. They do. They own the land that we rent for our buildings -- if any of us are actually lucky enough to own a home. The majority of "home owners" are actually in debt to the bank, paying off interests to a twenty-year loan. Look at your next pay stub and count off the third which is taken out for taxes. This is Unconstitutional. There are no laws which allow the government to take a percentage of our money earned through employment. We're just too afraid to tell them no.
It doesn't matter that thousands are living free from the threat of the IRS, or that those who have tried and failed have gone to prison for attempting to do so. We simply roll our eyes as we're programmed to do without seriously considering doing the same. In fact we typically resent those who have succeeded and seek to tear them down from their position of privelidge, effectively doing the work of the extortioners to promote fear and resentment from your collegues. If that doesn't work they throw out the Socialist argument when in reality we exist in the very definition of a Fascist state, all the while believing that we not only live in a true Democracy, but are justified by the will of God in spreading our way of life throughout the globe.
Speaking of God, I just saw the worst piece of propaganda on Google Video for a film that I will not mention by name. The movie contatins the EXACT SAME PROPAGANDA that the government spread during the Cold War with Russia. Instead of all terrorist activity being centralized in Russia through advanced technology that we've yet to develop, the enemy is now working out of the "Axis of Evil" with smart bombs that could hardly be detected with today's security devices. Our government gave them a punchy name -- they never called themselves Al-qaeda -- and turned a bunch of underfunded desert rebels into a global force of domination. The hatred we've generated through Western Expansionism has generated a deep hatred of America, which we capture of film and spin to generate more terror in our homeland.
If you're not offended by now let me remind you that "technically" you're all a bunch of morons. That is "a person having the mental age of 8 to 12 years old who is capable of doing routine work under supervision." You're a slave to the system, lead by the ropes of your own desires, worshiping a false ideal of fame and fortune, without a clue of a possible alternative. We're clearly involved in a game of Monopoly where an elite 5% get to change to rules when it suits them. The solution to this problem is clear. If the evolution of our species is something you've lost hope in thanks to the system they've nurtured you to believe, take a look at our technology. Each of us are connected to the other through the Internet.
We're standing on the precipice of the future.
But unfortunately there are many futures which lie before us. The possibility exists for a Totalitarian state to emerge from the direction this country is currently headed. We also have the rare opprotunity to share our ideas with one another and bond together as a whole. A complete entity that one might refer to as the "human organism." Those who tell you that humans are instinctively self-serving are urging to you focus on the evolutionary ground we've already covered. They want you to submit to the system and join the ranks amongst the dumbest common denomonator. I would rather you not submit. Instead, find that part of you that is uniquely you, and strive towards your individual greatness in the service of others.
The rewards will be much greater than the million dollar image they're selling you.
The truth is that the majority of television and radio broadcasts, as well as film and print media, are designed for a 10th grader. You're junior and senior year were a waste according to the news and entertainment industrys. To be honest, that's the average. The vast majority of media that Americans are exposed to are intented for even lower grades -- 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. My daughter is 11 years old. Next year she will have reached the pinnacle of human acheivement -- or at least the dumbest common denomonater. What they define as the average American viewer. Scary when you put it into the context of an actual 12 year old. Imagine telling them to step learing, that everything from this point on will be superfluous to what you actually need to know.
When you look at the actual development cycle of a human you'll begin to see why the news and entertainment are developed for such an "incomplete" level of understanding. At that point in our lives we're just beginning to break away from the mold our parents have set for us. We're making our own choices about what we want out of our lives. It's at that point when we're most susceptable to the desires they put before us. Picking an age group isn't nearly as effective as dumbing down the content to appeal to that age group within all of us. You might think that to be a conspiracy until you wake up one day to realize the chips on your belly aren't even satisfying. They're just something you inexlicably feel as if you need.
These compulsory needs obviously extend to the flat screen televisions and flip phones that all of us desire. But they also reach deep into our illusory Freedoms and obscure many of the inalienable rights we have as a species. No human should be forced to earn the right to live. Air, water, food, and shelter should be provided to every member of the human race regardless of the profits involved. The fact that an entire nation strives towards a wealthy existance while an entire continent loses tens of thousands of children each day exposes a deep and disturbing foundation to our way of life. What's more is that many of us have been programmed to believe that the trillions of dollars we instead speand on War is intended to protect our way of life.
Here's a handy story to tell your children late at night. The IRS is an extortion racket run by the Federal Reserve -- a private organization lead by international banks which exists as a separate entity from the government. We don't actually own anything. They do. They own the land that we rent for our buildings -- if any of us are actually lucky enough to own a home. The majority of "home owners" are actually in debt to the bank, paying off interests to a twenty-year loan. Look at your next pay stub and count off the third which is taken out for taxes. This is Unconstitutional. There are no laws which allow the government to take a percentage of our money earned through employment. We're just too afraid to tell them no.
It doesn't matter that thousands are living free from the threat of the IRS, or that those who have tried and failed have gone to prison for attempting to do so. We simply roll our eyes as we're programmed to do without seriously considering doing the same. In fact we typically resent those who have succeeded and seek to tear them down from their position of privelidge, effectively doing the work of the extortioners to promote fear and resentment from your collegues. If that doesn't work they throw out the Socialist argument when in reality we exist in the very definition of a Fascist state, all the while believing that we not only live in a true Democracy, but are justified by the will of God in spreading our way of life throughout the globe.
Speaking of God, I just saw the worst piece of propaganda on Google Video for a film that I will not mention by name. The movie contatins the EXACT SAME PROPAGANDA that the government spread during the Cold War with Russia. Instead of all terrorist activity being centralized in Russia through advanced technology that we've yet to develop, the enemy is now working out of the "Axis of Evil" with smart bombs that could hardly be detected with today's security devices. Our government gave them a punchy name -- they never called themselves Al-qaeda -- and turned a bunch of underfunded desert rebels into a global force of domination. The hatred we've generated through Western Expansionism has generated a deep hatred of America, which we capture of film and spin to generate more terror in our homeland.
If you're not offended by now let me remind you that "technically" you're all a bunch of morons. That is "a person having the mental age of 8 to 12 years old who is capable of doing routine work under supervision." You're a slave to the system, lead by the ropes of your own desires, worshiping a false ideal of fame and fortune, without a clue of a possible alternative. We're clearly involved in a game of Monopoly where an elite 5% get to change to rules when it suits them. The solution to this problem is clear. If the evolution of our species is something you've lost hope in thanks to the system they've nurtured you to believe, take a look at our technology. Each of us are connected to the other through the Internet.
We're standing on the precipice of the future.
But unfortunately there are many futures which lie before us. The possibility exists for a Totalitarian state to emerge from the direction this country is currently headed. We also have the rare opprotunity to share our ideas with one another and bond together as a whole. A complete entity that one might refer to as the "human organism." Those who tell you that humans are instinctively self-serving are urging to you focus on the evolutionary ground we've already covered. They want you to submit to the system and join the ranks amongst the dumbest common denomonator. I would rather you not submit. Instead, find that part of you that is uniquely you, and strive towards your individual greatness in the service of others.
The rewards will be much greater than the million dollar image they're selling you.
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