Obama hosts a two-day Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship that will bring together about 250 successful business and social entrepreneurs from more than 50 countries, most with large Muslim populations, fulfilling a pledge he made in his Cairo speech to the Islamic world last June.

The president will address the summit at the end of the first day to underscore his commitment to “deepening our engagement around the world with Muslim-majority communities,” Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said. (cont)

Leading lawmakers from both parties making the rounds of Sunday political talk shows said a deal is close on a reform bill, but top-ranking Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was among those saying he didn’t expect debate to proceed on Monday.

“We don’t have a bipartisan compromise yet,” McConnell said on “FOX News Sunday.” “But I think there’s a good chance that we’re going to get it.”  (cont)

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“Take him to the dungeon!”

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In past ages, direct fear imposed by powerful rulers was used to control the masses, control the individual and motivate society to enact the will of the ruler.  The world has never been without such methods being employed.  Basically, the transaction includes a club in the hand of the powerful with the threat of the use of the club as the motivation for the ‘governed’ to comply with the wishes of the ruler.  The prudent tyrannical ruler endeavors to minimize the use of the club. His primary aim is not to harm, but instead to control.  We are all familiar with these processes of the bully, but in the modern era, most of Western civilization dispensed with allowing these methods to be the normal order of society.

In the 17th Century, some among The People, got their act together and developed a concept known as the Social Contract.  This was the introduction into an understanding across society that the authority of the state was derived from the “consent of the governed.”  Thus developed an antithesis of tyranny.

However, there is some feature within human nature that drives some to desire to attempt to be the masters over all the rest.  Observation demonstrates a driving force behind this that is beyond the simple explanation of ambition, self-preservation, or just trying to get ahead. These are factors, but there is one factor that is deeper; there is an element of evil that motivates men to strive to be master over all others.  Therefore, there is always a certain pressure for humanity to be approaching tyranny, a vector that is resisted only by the will of individuals willing to defend the liberty of themselves and of others.

The fundamentals of the Social Contract have become ensconced within our laws, and therefore the new tyrants are prohibited from using direct intimidation and direct force, at least during this current moment in history.  Unable to use direct fear that was used in the past, the new tyrants have found another way, an insidious way to wield indirect fear.  Once again, fear wielded on purpose and for the purpose of controlling the masses and controlling the individual. Perhaps another word for control will be “slavery” if the oppression is continued to expand.

The formula of fear has many dimensions.  As many of the natural threats to our health and survival have been diminished, those who desire to rule manufacture new threats and the attendant fears then position themselves to be the great rescuers.  Potential dimensions of fear are limited only by the imagination, as those in power are becoming experts at manipulating our fear of innumerable, manufactured crises.

To be effective, the first required condition for this process is the widely adopted, yet false premise that life, if managed properly, can be, and should be, completely devoid of risk.  This false premise is then leveraged in the next step toward Statist control when politicians promise to be the slayers of any new risk that might appear on the horizon.

Here are three examples of managed fears that have been brought upon us in the recent past:

• Climate Change (this is the poster child of all Boogie-Men throughout time)
• Pig Flu, a.k.a. Swine Flu, a.k.a. H1N1, and previously a.k.a. Bird Flu, etc.
• Evil, greedy capitalists who want to make a profit and make real people go broke

Significant tomes may be written about each of these items of intentional mass hysteria.  We will leave those larger and more detailed analyses for another day.  Any living person within even marginal contact in modern society can recite the mantras of each of these “issues.”

These managed and calculated crises of the mind are developed using the various apparatus of government.  They are laid before us in government reports and transmitted by the Mainstream Media that sees itself as part of the centralized solution to developing a well-managed and controlled Utopian society.  Then, merely in B-Movie fashion, the savior of government swoops in to solve the problem. Simultaneously, real threats to our well being, real problems that we expect government to endeavor to solve for a free people, are dismissed as being of little concern or much too complex to trouble the little people with.

Here are a few things that might be on our mind if it were not for the straw man boogie-men that have been propped up for us to fear:

• A nuclear-armed radical Islamic Iran that routinely threatens the West and the modern civil world; an Iran that aligns itself with expansionist, aggressive Islam, following the aggressive and violent mandates of its prophet
• Pending economic catastrophe of un-payable international debt to finance hand-outs to the unproductive wards of the patron state
• Continuing losses of a national capability to house, feed and clothe our society through our own national self-sufficient production
• Societal decay evidenced in moral, intellectual and other non-material areas

Society becomes vulnerable to methods of managed mass hysteria through passive and active changes within.  Features within the ‘popular’ thinking in our society today bound on the insane.  For instance, these include ideas that travel in a direction toward suicide of our civilization as represented by those who dream of an earth that is devoid of human beings.  Their perfect, imagined world is one that specifically does not include people; the dreamer himself has been eliminated in order to perfect his dream. (See http://www.worldwithoutus.com/index2.html )

When presented superficially, in our superficially ‘intellectual’ society, these types of insanity find significant casual adherents because the ideas are mostly global causes.  The causes are full of “feel-good” features and are scalable in a way that allows adherents to believe that they are “doing their part” through minimal impact to themselves while demanding actions that will cause great harm or loss to others as well as destruction to the mechanisms of civilizations upon which we all depend for our sustenance.

There are many reasons why we have arrived at this crossroads.  A few that may lend themselves to immediate recognition and response include: 1) a loss of the real idea of education, 2) the growth of a notion of immortality, 3) an emotional dependence upon today’s luxuries, 4) a loss in esteem for the idea of self-sufficiency, 5) overspecialization by individuals such that many have no knowledge of how critical processes of civilization function outside of their own specialty, 6) overdependence by individuals on television, and similar emotive modes of communication, to provide them a view of the world – it is a false view, and 7) a multi-front attack on the foundational values that are the core to the success of Western civilization.  (These topics will be addressed in subsequent articles)

Reversing any of these trends will assist in strengthening the ability of our civilization to survive.  Failure to change course may result in our destruction.

At moments in American history, there may have been miraculous interventions that initiated the formation of this great society and this great nation.  However, there exists no magical blanket that will protect us from descent into a dark abyss reminiscent of any previous era of barbarism.  There is plenty of barbarity taking place today in America if we decide to actually open our eyes to it.  Today, the choice is ours.  We can go about our nominal daily lives and be led to destruction.  Or we can recognize the weaknesses that have grown, or have been specifically planted in our society, take action to correct those weaknesses and assist in the continuance of our society.  Failure will not be a pleasant experience for most of us.  Success will require courage.  Courage is not a lack of fear.  Courage is a chosen and practiced ability to see beyond fear and an ability to act upon a moral will to do the right thing despite the possibility of detriment to personal circumstances.

The permanent exhibition of the museum is sheer gravitas.  Even when one has significant knowledge of the topic of The Holocaust, the presentations of the museum bring a much greater depth to understanding that when man dispenses with the knowledge of nominal morality, all measures of evil are possible.  Methods of propaganda were among the human designs that caused these things to occur.

A portion of the State of Deception exhibit provided a concise description of the integrated methods of propaganda.  An open-minded viewing of these details validates concerns that these methods continue to be used today to control society and enslave the individual into service of seen and unseen masters.  Recognizing these methods quickly removes the veneer and allows us to see through what is otherwise effective deception.

Perhaps a description that is common to the Nazi use and the uses we witness today could be this: A systematic deception through grand promises made to a populace that desires to accept the lies.

The ultimate aim of propaganda is to shape and manipulate the ideas, values, and actions of a society in order to fundamentally, and perhaps permanently change that society, or to disarm the society from resisting a political agenda.  Within the Holocaust Museum website, the purpose of the Nazi propaganda is described thus:

Propaganda served as an important tool to win over the majority of the German public who had not supported Hitler and to push forward the Nazis’ radical program, which required the acquiescence, support, or participation of broad sectors of the population.

The State of Deception exhibit is very extensive in covering the specifics of the Nazi propaganda methods.  Particularly, the iconography in itself is worth an extensive study.  However, of most interest to us today is the reduction to the basic methods that we again see in use today.  These fundamentals of propaganda include a broader structure of power acquisition as well as more specific practices that are imposed as an ongoing process.

The broad structure includes these things:

• A simple message
• Cult of a leader
• Creation of affiliated organizations to attract a wide range of supporters
• Use of outright terror or intimidation

The more specific process includes:

• Simplifying of issues
• Advertising a cause
• Playing on emotion
• Attacking opponents
• Targeting desired audiences
• Using tools of mass communication

Listed in this way, these things nearly look like the elements of any public relations campaign or a targeted marketing campaign.  As similar methods, effectively these are the same things.  So, other than through the “terror and intimidation” part where does the evil come in?

The evil enters as the content or the aims of the campaign.  The propaganda methods are intended to change the thinking of the target audience in a way that disassociates the change of mind from the values held, or previously held, by the target audience.  Propaganda can install a false knowledge within the mind and in turn it intends to change the value system within the target audience in such a way that the audience then chooses to carry out the will of the propagandist.  This could be a will to action or a will to acquiescence.

Today, our society is very vulnerable to methods of propaganda.  It is so because of our lack of grounding in solid values.  The affluent consumer society is one based upon chasing after the next thrill of consumerism, the thrill to quench the next peer pressure hunger.  The power and influence of pop culture is a moment-by-moment demonstration of the shallowness of many members of our society.  We are maneuvered further into a zone of vulnerability every time one of us becomes disabused of deeply held fundamental, objective, transcendent values.  When we give up on those, we become putty in the hands of the propagandist.

Countering the methods of propaganda consists of two major areas of thought process.  First, each of us must endeavor to discover and hold to a set of personal values, the things that we determine to be our fundamental morality as determined by intuitive and rational processes.  Second, we must simply dissect the methods of the propagandist.  Applying these two simultaneously, individually we may constantly apply our values to the interpretation of the things we see, read, and hear, and to the choices we make about how we apply our resources of wealth, time, study and association.

The process of determining those fundamental values is beyond the scope of this article.  That is a life-long enterprise.  However, here are a few thoughts on disassembling the methods of the propagandist as mentioned above.

Simple messages and simplification of issues:

A message may be simple, but an issue rarely is.  Every issue, policy and decision produces ripples throughout the universe.  Through simplification of a message, the expected ripples and perhaps the real intent of the advocacy are hidden.  On the other hand, messages of virtue can be simple, profound and create ripples of goodness.

Cult of a leader:

This metaphor may be out of fashion because of its presumed lack of “gender equality.”  Oh well…  It goes like this: “He puts his pants on the same as you, one leg at a time.”  The point of this is to claim that no man is Superman, and no man is a god.  Therefore, each is fallible just as each has something to offer to humanity.  Men of actual or imagined great stature become the worshipped object of other men who do not know how to comprehend or worship the real God.  Often is the case that cult figures are followed because of their promise of an earthly salvation or deliverance from calamity.  History usually discredits these claims over time.  They are mere mortals as are we.

Affiliated organizations:

Propaganda efforts may build ideological arms that are not openly connected to the head of the beast but are in fact crucial to the movement.  Multiple organizations that are surreptitiously aligned create an image of broad-based support.  These methods appeal to the natural followers, those who are looking for a place to belong.  The propagandist merely designs multiple ‘band wagons’ that are figuratively painted in the colors of various affinity groups.  By dividing society into specialized groups, the propagandist can then develop target messages that will appeal to each group.  With sufficient focus and effective division, the various messages can even be contradictory as each group comes to believe itself as the favorite, the one that is not being lied to

Intimidation (and terror):

Those weak in conviction, courage and moral fortitude will be intimidated by even subtle words.  Intimidation must be dealt with on two levels.  In the area of knowledge, we must be firm in our belief of an objective truth, have strength in reasoned convictions and be aware of a complete lack of shame on the part of the propagandist in his use of lies and threats.  In the area of courage, which is both moral and physical, we must know that if we allow intimidation to be successful, we will ultimately be enslaved.  There is a significant paradox here: When we come to terms with our mortality, we become invincible.  On the other hand, if we believe that to live forever is our right and our goal (as irrational as it is), we shall never preserve freedom.

Causes:

“It just shouldn’t be this way, therefore the government should do something about it.”  Those who expect a heaven on earth will forever be disappointed, but first they will be vulnerable to the idea that the propagandist can deliver such a world.  This is the thought of the simpleton, the one who fails to recognize the likely hidden agenda of social control of people intended by the cause.  In the past, “causes” were frequently intended to influence individuals to adjust their choices.  However, in the current era, “causes” are usually intended to result in the imposition of legal restrictions or mandates upon the whole of society.

Emotion:

Appealing to emotion is used to maneuver around our rational thought.  This method is often characterized by the use of images, music, and glittering generalities within speeches and slogans.  Initially our minds interpret images and the spoken word at a primal level.  Unless we endeavor to look completely past the medium and analyze only content, we will be significantly influenced through irrational paths in our minds.  One can defeat the effects of emotional appeals by ignoring the pageantry of the propagandist and instead by using written text as the primary source on information for analysis.

Attacking opponents:

The propagandist intends to discredit or destroy the opposition before the opposition has had an opportunity to speak.  The propagandist knows he cannot afford to engage in open and fair debate.  A speaker of the truth should not expect fair play.  A speaker of the truth should not expect an opportunity for open and fair debate.  When the propagandist goes on attack, a frontal fight against them may not be fruitful.  Lies can be produced at a rate faster than truth can be communicated.  Therefore, lateral action is necessary.  Perhaps clean living is the best defense.  Put simply, the righteous must remain righteous.  Constantly, we must be cultivating within society an intellectual capacity that becomes fertile ground for application of reason, intuitive values and appeals to natural law. …and never, never, never give up.

Targeted audiences:

Related to causes and affiliated organizations, the propagandist identifies targeted audiences.  The propagandist will first divide the populace into various markets and then develop specific messages to apply to each market.  A specific target may be chosen to incite to action.  Or an audience, may be specifically targeted to be disarmed, assuaged, or bribed away from their moral objection.  Audiences that may be resistant to the propagandist, and cannot be co-opted into the propagandist’s camp, will become a target for destruction for the propagandist.

Mass communication:

Until recently, mostly because of the economics, mass communication consisted of messages emanating from a few central sources.  These sources were determined by the concentration of capital resource that was required to establish the infrastructure of methods of distribution of the message.  That was the old media.  In the context of countering the methods of propaganda, the internet is nothing less than a game-changer.  There is a natural appetite for the truth and there is a natural desire for people to tell the story as they saw it.  In the absence of filters that can be imposed upon old media broadcast nodes, the power of knowledge is returned to the people who are casually willing to look for that knowledge.  Effectively, anyone who has an Internet connection, now also has the opportunity to control a printing press, a worldwide telegraph, a radio station, and a television station.  Amazing.  This is a very good thing.

Although it holds some beauty, and for now is home to us, this world contains a dark nature, a nature of evil against which the good will always struggle.  The fight for freedom, the fight for the rights of the individual, and the striving to pass on virtue to our succeeding generations, is a fight that must never end.  Evil is among us, the great deceiver walks this earth, and the use of propaganda is merely one method he uses to sell his lies.

To no one’s great surprise, Bart Stupak has found the limelight he so assiduously courted from both sides of the ObamaCare debate a little too hot for his taste.  CNN reports this morning that the Congressman from Michigan won’t run for another term, leaving another open seat for Democrats to defend: cont…

The Obama administration is now denying U.S. visas to Israeli scientists who work at that nation’s Dimona nuclear reactor. This startling reversal of traditional policy was reported April 7, 2010, in the Israeli website/newspaper NRG/Maariv (link to the original Hebrew here and to an exclusive Pajamas Media translation here). cont…

During the P.O.W portion of the course, we were taught about the methods of control, oppression and exploitation that we might expect to be used against us in a P.O.W. situation.  Further, the successful exploitation of the P.O.W. would then allow the enemy new methods of psychological warfare that could be applied against the American people. As I analyze the situation faced today by freedom-loving Americans, I recognize parallels between the P.O.W. experience and the methods of control being imposed upon us by what we have allowed our government to become.

For instance, recently I viewed a video of Representative Wasserman-Schulz responding to a question posed by a constituent during a town hall meeting.  The constituent asked, “What gave you the right or authority to determine whether or not I have to purchase healthcare?”

Wasserman-Schulz denied that individuals shall be forced to purchase coverage.  Her explanation: “What we are doing is that you will be in a different tax status if you carry insurance versus if you don’t carry health insurance… There is no requirement in this law that you must carry health insurance.” (See video HERE)  This obvious equivocation was met with boos and scoffs from the assembled citizens.  Those who have been paying attention are aware that the IRS has been given responsibility, along with illegitimate authority, to enforce the individual mandates of the health care “reform.”  At this point, we can only use our imagination to consider what “different tax status” might mean.

[Many of the majority party who voted for the abomination of nationalized health care have been asked this same question.  The variety of their answers indicates that they do not have a defensible answer to the question of constitutionality.  Some claim that the commerce clause provides the authority, while others, like Wasserman-Schulz, claim that participation is not mandatory – an indication that she does not think that the commerce clause dodge will work in her district.]

Just as wise parents instruct their children to be cautious when signing any documents, in preparation for the P.O.W. experience we were instructed to resist demands by our captors to sign documents that they presented to us.  With this advice came information on how those documents might later be used against us.  Through the ages, as well as today, forced confessions are a standard tactic of oppressive regimes and are used against subjects, captured combatants, and non-combatants that get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Without going into too much detail, during training, my fellow students and I were coerced into signing a document.  The coercion was through complex and effective means such that it could not be described as a free will choice.  Were our signatures used against us?  They certainly were.  They were used against us as individuals and they were used against us as a collective group.

The methods of the Marxist include equivocation, logical fallacy, and insidious sophistry  (grade school translation: “They LIE! They lie without a hint of shame”).  They use words and the intimidation of force, to create a lose-lose environment.  Each of these elements was used in the methods used to coerce our signatures in a simulated environment.

Middle-class Americans are naturally vulnerable to these methods because we are generally a trusting people.  We are a people who have a certain presumption toward fair play.  We resist drawing to a conclusion that government officials, or “The Government” writ large would use, or even be capable of using such tactics, because… well, because it would just be so wrong, so unfair, so illegal, and so un-American.  However, if we allow ourselves to realize that there is no intrinsic and impenetrable protection of our society against such poisonous methods, we will see that the current evidence holds abundant examples of these tactics being used against us, against our prosperity, and against our individual liberty.

One might wonder how our “honorable” elected officials allow themselves to bring this poison upon us.  The explanation is simple.  Equivocations, logical fallacies, and insidious sophistries are the characteristics of the stones that paved the road that they traveled to arrive in their positions of power.  Similar stones also paved the road they traveled to moral and logical corruption that allowed them to form a worldview that is against truth, freedom, and justice  (grade school translation: “They LIE to themselves, shamelessly”).  Compromises of our fundamental values and principles allowed them to prosper as they traveled down these roads.  Our complacency allowed them to install themselves in the seats of power.

Today, we are confronted with the methods of the Marxists.  As much as they are by design, these methods are also intrinsic to the way they regularly think.  It comes natural to them.

We must continue to build the wave of the electorate and vote the rascals out.  Few remaining are the critical opportunities to preserve our Republic and our free and open civil society.

Paraphrasing my response to her:

Guessing at what “might be” is not our path. We shall think, act, learn, teach, lead, and pray – follow the course that is right. Led by our conscience we will dedicate our efforts to do good even though we cannot expect a guarantee of any given outcome. The constant battle for liberty holds its risks, but it provides the possibility of freedom. Doing nothing, or giving up hope, guarantees a condition of slavery.

The person to whom I made these comments was encouraged by them, and that is why I share them with you now.

Now, continuing on these thoughts:

At any point in any real fight for life and liberty, it does not matter what we guess to be our chances of success. We should not spend a moment asking ourselves that question. To the ideals that have brought us such a bountiful life, and to our children, their children, our countrymen, and to the decent people of other countries who today live in bondage, we owe our best and complete effort to do the right thing, at each moment, to preserve, restore and secure freedom. The outcome shall always be uncertain, but our determination must be completely certain — merely because, intrinsically it is the good and right thing to do.

I am not attempting to set any kind of expectation of level of activism. We all have our complete and complex lives to lead. However, do what you can, rearrange priorities (as many of you already have), step out of your comfort zone, perhaps meet with others, help them to understand what is at stake, and help them consider ways that they can engage for positive effect.

There is a war being waged upon freedom. Prepare for the opening of new war fronts upon individual liberty. Fight the good and best fight. That is the only answer.

Reuters

PHOENIX, March 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. government is pulling $50 million in funding from a problematic “virtual fence” meant to secure stretches of the Mexico border and is freezing additional funding for the project pending review, authorities said on Tuesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said an allocation of $50 million in funds made under the Recovery Act would be taken away from the ill-starred SBInet program, which seeks to mesh video cameras, radar, sensors and other technologies into a high-tech system to detect smugglers.

Napolitano said the project, which started in 2006 and was being developed by Boeing Co, has been beset by technical problems, missed deadlines and cost overruns.

“Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security will redeploy $50 million of Recovery Act funding originally allocated for the SBInet … to other tested, commercially available security technology along the Southwest border,” she said. (cont)

Sen. Robert Menendez (AP).

TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey appeals court ruled Tuesday that a conservative tea party group should have the right to try to throw a U.S. senator out of office, but also said the group would have to wait for a final decision by a higher court before proceeding.

The three-judge panel initially ordered New Jersey’s Secretary of State to accept a petition from the group seeking to recall Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez. But the court also issued a stay because the case was certain to be appealed.

The ruling would have allowed the group to begin collecting the 1.3 million voter signatures needed to get a recall on the ballot. (cont)