APOCALYPSE THEATER: THOUGHTS ON LORD ACTON’S DICTUM
In the wake of the now-emerging debate about the apocalypse theater announcement of Osama Bin Laden's death, I am reminded once again of the well-known and popular aphorism of Lord Acton: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But with all respect and deference to Lord Acton, I beg to differ.
We who are old enough to remember have watched the decline of our country and indeed of our general culture at the hands of an increasingly unresponsive, unrepresentative professional political and bureaucratic class in the government, at the hands of more hidden parapolitical power structures so well outlined by Dr. Peter Dale Scott in his various writings on the subject of the JFK assassination, and much earlier in the last century by C. Wright Mills (The Power Elite), by power structures of corporate interlock, intelligence agencies, organized crime, and the list goes on and on. We have watched as Dummycrooks and Republithugs enact unpopular, unwanted legislation in closed sessions in the middle of the night, and over the vast public protest and outcry against it. We have watched staged "town hall" debates where political candidates are carefully shielded from the public and the real questions they want to ask, and that need to be addressed.
And this is where my difference with Lord Acton comes in. It is not so much, I think, that power tends to corrupt, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. But rather, that in a culture of corruption - with the well-manicured hands and tailored gray business suits that love to hide immortality behind the cloak of "legality," thus making something immoral acceptable if it is legal - the tendency to accept the ultimate alchemical political androgyne, "totalitarian democracy," becomes evident, and indeed, not only evident, but positively parades itself in a stupefying media-driven mob mentality to accept the very pronouncements of the corrupt without question.
This is the root of the corruption: the switching off of the human mind, the blind faith in systems seeking to justify immorality in the name of their particular truth, the participation in the justification by the willingness to repeat pre-selected answers, filling in our ovals on "standardized tests" with our number two lead pencils, rather than questioning the whole artifice of such tests and such Pavlovian responses, to begin with. America's corruption has now grown into a huge idolatry and a huge industry of edu-babble, infotainment, and news commentators idolizing a succession of sock puppets in public office, an idolatry that repeatedly insists that this is "the greatest country on earth and in human history," usually said in the context implying that this is the greatest government on earth with the wisest and most virtuous leaders.
But when the mind is switched off, when benchmarks and litmus tests are established which to question is to question the patriotic impulses of authority, it is then that corruption can, and does, run amok. And that sort of corruption breeds its own "culture," a kind of "breakaway civilization" no longer concerned with the public good, and no longer concerned to manifest genuine virtue nor to even attempt to concoct stories that make sense; any old story will do.
In this type of situation, it is no longer power that corrupts, but rather, the corrupt who seek power. The higher the office sought, the more corrupt the individual seeking it is likely to be. Am I seriously suggesting that the next time you see any politician running for any office that your initial response to this person should be to think "this is a corrupt person?" Yes I am. They need to know, they need to feel, that as they step into the halls of power, that we regard them as creatures who have sold some essential part of themselves that humanizes the rest of us, that they have stepped out of that broad development of western culture that nourished them in the first place. Some of them, many of them in fact, may not even care, so far gone are they in their lust for power and their absence of a heart. Until we understand that Lord Acton's dictum is in fact false, we will not understand why this apocalypse theater looks increasingly absurd, and increasingly obvious, for when corruption is so far gone, it loses its grip on reality and humanity, and doesn't even realize how ridiculous it looks. And that's a good thing.
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Joseph, you have said what so many have felt and thought. The process of total control has reached new heights and with a sophistication of techniques that most minds can not delineate the truth from the propaganda. The elite have produced an environmental context that keeps most struggling to make a living and dissent can only be seen as unpatriotic. The shackles of debt now hover over most and the tightly held control of essential resources by the elite
and their banking system now resemble a larger version of the company town.
Joseph, I am constantly impressed with the level of effort, thought and insight you display in your comments. The information and speculations you share with us inform us just as much about the depth of your character and integrity, as they do about your intelligence. Now for a few comments on your excellent piece.
The term “power” is full of negative connotations, and rightly so. For an enlightened world, power should be regarded as a “responsibility.” Here we are essentially talking about the same thing BUT the emphasis shifts from a dictatorial, self-interested power…to a responsibility based upon compassion for the greater benefit. Reality demands that some will always have power/responsibility over others, like a parent over a child – it’s how one conceives the nature of that power that is the salient factor. So I agree that power does not corrupt per se but generally the corrupt seek power. However, I also consider that if viewed in the correct way, “power “i.e. responsibility, can be a position of altruism and bring great benefit. Allow me to give an example: my mentor in life, President of the Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, made moves in Japan to encourage Soka Gakkai members to enter politics and steer the country in a better direction. The basis of this motivation was purely altruistic…a concern for the direction in which Japan was heading. They did not seek power for power’s sake, except for those that would inevitably weaken to corruption; they were motivated by their sense of doing the right thing for their fellow countrymen.
As someone who studied law, I greatly appreciate your comments about the “cloak of legality.” That is so very true! I recall when I wrote a dissertation of the Arab-Israeli conflict and researched the legal arguments involved, from both sides. It was around this time I realised Charles Dickens was right:”The law is an ass.” Law is a tool used by elites the world over to legitimize their actions and agendas. A law professor once said to me,”…the law is like a map…always ask yourself WHO drew the map and for what purpose.” A similar mentality can perhaps be discerned within the military – “I was following orders.” Thus such devices, along with many others, like education, are used to mind control and keep us locked up within a tight mental box. Our true battle with power is to break free from this box – from their imposed prison-like ontological construct.
We have slept too long! The power of the human spirit is boundless – time to take the “power” back!! Sovereignty lies with the people, but first we must believe that and then set our minds free!
Quite erudite and astute…but what hope is there in an electorate that only 58% can udentify the significance of 1776, and only about half know who we fought in the War of Independence? Our government controlled schools preach socialism and Earth Day nonsense, while ignoring history and geography..like lemmings we are indoctrinated from Day One into the world of slavery imposed by our wise government leaders….how else can you explain rthe election of Obama???
Does anyone even bother to think that by calling it “our” government that they’ve taken the step over the cliff with the other lemmings? It’s not “ours” in any way, shape or form. Try selling your share of it. It’s nothing but a for profit corporation doing the bidding of the international bankers and industrialists.
Do we ever stop and think that every institution save the family is a fictional creation used to getting us to believe that there are some among “us” who needed to lead and rule over us?Where is society? What is society except a means to describe a number of individuals who share a relationship with one another. Where does the power to legislate come from when each of us has no more right to tell anyone how to live than they have to tell us? How does one part, or a few parts suddenly come possess the ability to make binding law on the sum? What makes us believe this collective nonsense in the first place?
To speak of government as a “we” or “us” makes about as much sense as saying that the large tape worm in our stomach is us, yet that’s exactly what we do every day.
Well spoken, JPF.
The guidebook for understanding this game was written long ago:
war is peace
freedom is slavery
ignorance is strength
Cognitive Dissonance – uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying.
When everything you see, hear and read is propaganda, how can one know what is true? Confronted with constantly conflicting information every day on every topic, the brain soon realizes that thinking is painful and gives up, relying, instead, on emotional reactions to decide the truth.
“The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. ” – Part II, Chapter IX — The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism
You forgot;
less is more
And some of Reagan’s:
trees pollute
ketchup is a vegetable
Joseph, Bravo on your post . Excerpt below to be sure.
“This is the root of the corruption: the switching off of the human mind, the blind faith in systems seeking to justify immorality in the name of their particular truth, the participation in the justification by the willingness to repeat pre-selected answers, filling in our ovals on “standardized tests” with our number two lead pencils, rather than questioning the whole artifice of such tests and such Pavlovian responses, to begin with. ”
Observational questions: Is the root of the corruption as you specify the switching off of the human mind due to A.) An effect of medical/social engineering, B.)A result of normal human proclivity, or C.) the herd response of the hoi polloi interacting with the matrix administered to them via indoctrination from birth? OR is the corruption possible due to the aforementioned effects leading to the result of switching off the mind, OR is the said plan to effect the the switching off of the mind and the plans modalities and sources the root of corruption?
Without a doubt, the lack of thinking is beneficial to a select minority of some, yet catastrophic in the long run to all but those who gain from mass ignorance.
Dear Dr Farrell,
I thought I would write to you here since I believe that you are probably swamped by email questions and whatever all the time.
I see that you have been referencing Benjamin Fulford in your latest Fireside chat regarding the whole Bonds thing etc… I would myself proceed with great caution regarding Fulford. I have always, myself, regarded his stories as just that, works of fiction.
Feeling quite horrified that you have mentioned Fulford, I decided to try to dig into his background a wee bit. I didn’t get very far but I did come across a post of his on the “benjaminfulford.net” website on March 7th 2011. In this post, here:
http://benjaminfulford.net/2011/03/07/the-pentagon-running-out-of-oil-the-bis-under-nuclear-blackmail-and-other-signs-of-severe-global-turbulence/
He mentions that a “million satanists” are somehow trying to blackmail New Zealand into giving them the South Island of the country (!!). Strangely enough, I just happen to live on the South Island in the city (Christchurch) that has been hit by a couple of large earthquakes recently, and a great number of smaller aftershocks. And believe me, I don’t believe a single word of this utter nonsense. New Zealand is on the Pacific Ring of fire and gets earthquakes all the time. Christchurch is actually overdue a seriously large earthquake anyway due to the Alpine Fault rupturing some time in the next 50 years. There is no sense in anyone triggering one off. A really big one is due soon. The latest ones by the way were centered in places where scientists had no expected any faults to be. But the faults were there never the less.
The story even in its brevity doesn’t make any sense either. Why would a million satanists even want to live on the South Island. There is very little here, believe me. There are only a few decent sized (for NZ) cities and they are fairly small compared to most other countries. The terrain just doesn’t warrant itself to large populations. Its a totally pointless pursuit. Also why don’t they just use a chunk of the US. If the Mormons can do it in Utah, why not the Satanists in … ???
So, please Dr Farrell, do not take Benjamin Fulford’s fancies at face value. I believe that he is either a crank or someone just throwing out vast amounts of rather silly misinformaton, in my opinion. And, knowing you to be the cautious academic you are, whence does he get his stories from anyway?? … does he ever site actual references for things … or does he as I suspect just pull things out of the air??
Anyway, I really shouldn’t have posted this here as it is a bit off topic but I thought I would let you know my thoughts. I’ve seen a lot of people be fooled by people passing themselves off as something they are not … and I wouldn’t want your (mostly … yes i have some reservations with some of it lol) excellent work be pushed off target.
Anyhow, good luck with the new book, and best wishes,
Harvey Price, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Because I mention his stories doesn’t mean I believe everything he says. Consider that the best way of diverting people from the truth is to contextualize things in otherwise bizarre contexts
I recognise that sometimes you can find truths in the strangest of places but to put any stock in someone who puts out such nonsensical things as the one I just mentioned re: NZ … well doesn’t that just distract you from others with more genuine … agendas (??).
Anyway, thanks for the response. As I said, it was just really a heads up as I didn’t want you to get distracted from more meaningful avenues of discussion and research.
Best wishes
Harvey Price, Chch, NZ
Thank you Dr Farrell, that was brilliant!!!
MORE of the same please.
Here are my favorite Frank Herbert quotes, attributed to the Bene Gesserit in his Dune books concerning the issues you are commenting on in this post:
Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?
Power attracts the corruptible, absolute power attracts the absolutely corruptible.
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological
personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.
I haul these out for my sig on my e-mails from time to time when world events seem to warrant little nudges from my general direction (thinking of Monty Python here /grin) – I’ve gotten some interesting comments on them over the years. I’ll finish up with my very favorite aphorism:
Never try to teach a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Thanks again for all you do!!
This is too good not to share with….shall I call us, “Farrell Followers!”?
Just got this in from a friend and believe it applies to what we find ourselves in the midst of…..
“Subject: Re: Culture of Conspiracy
I hasten to add that the definition of a Criminal Conspiracy is (1) two or more people, (2) agree (3) to commit an illegal act(4) and at least one party takes one affirmative step to carry out that act. By definition the attack that took place on 911 HAD TO BE THE CULMINATION OF A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY.
Definition of a theory? “A more or less plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle offered to explain phenomenon.” Now is where it gets a little more difficult. That would be the part about the theory.
Right after the attack, Secretary of State Colin Powell assured the American Public that we were attacked by Osama Bin Laden and his nineteen man Arab/Muslim aerial circus. He also assured us that the evidence to support this allegation was not only abundant, but would BE DISCLOSED TO THE AMERICAN PUBLIC. But since most Americans have the attention span of a fruit fly, this evidence HAS NEVER BEEN DISCLOSED. Now let’s couple this failure of proof to the fact that Mr. Mueller, and other officers of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have stated repeatedly that THERE IS NO EVIDENCE that we were attacked by OBL or any of the other nineteen alleged Arab suicide hijackers. (In fact at least eight have been shown to be alive even at this late date. Hmmm… Must have bailed out over Manhattan).
So boys and girls, what do we have left? We have the U.S. Government and the whores in the so-called free press endlessly repeating, as if it were a proven fact, that we were attacked on 911 by OBL and his nineteen man flying circus. And, there are still millions of dimwits who accept this accusation without thinking. But in essence what the government is offering is just a theory—-“a more or less plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle offered to explain phenomen”
The governments position is a Conspiracy-Theory. “
Well said. I just wrote a post about satanic abuse and pointed out that it isn’t hard to determine the guilty parties. It’s just hard to arrest them as they run the show.
Superb post Dr Joe!
U.S. power elites(the corruptibles) are increasingly desperate to maintain their control of a global paeasitical empire, called deceptively by their media machine, “globalization”.
In an unconventional warfare, manipulated beliefs are used to replace inconvient facts. Waging war by deception, false beliefs are an oft-deployed weapon.
Knowlege is their target. By manipulating thought, what follows then, is all downstream.
Therefore the mindset is the battlefield, the theater of operations. It occurs on the public’s shared field of consciousness. Death and destruction come on stage only after the stage has been (mind)SET.
Unfortunately, the deciet is not new, it is the reach of technologies-including modern media. Tthe “Global Stage” is being (mind)SET.
The play is titled: Public, Enemy #1.
“cosmic sap” predicted by the Mayans…
Listen to
http://www.unknowncountry.com/revelations/latest
William Henry and David Sereda
V e r y intresting observation maybe the consciousness is changing,
‘the world’ is as it has always been.
Our consciousness is evolving so that we can see whats is going on.
I though it would have been better to have captured Osama Bin Laden alive so he could have been put on trial to face his crimes and show him for the fool that he was but then what embrassing dirty laundry would come out during the trial about his ties to US intelligence agencies and who knows what other juicy tibits.
Just fill in the quote:
“As it was in the days of Noah……..”
Very well put. One of the best summaries of the situation I’ve ever seen.
Personally, I have to wonder if part of the elite game is to see how absurd they can get and not be run out of town.
They are laughing at us with every press conference, with every episode of the nightly news. Perhaps this is where they get their comedy entertainment.
Interesting that you mentioned the immoral becoming acceptable because it’s “legal”. This seems to be the current mode of thinking among the population. What we have is a “permission based society” where legality is all that matters and where it is assumed that everything is wrong unless it is made legal to do or say a particular thing. Guilt is assumed. Just look at the way people talk, “this/that should be illegal” and in court, “How do you plead, guilty or not guilty”. What ever happened to INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY?
Our representative are called “law makers” as if they cam serve no other function.
I have often mused about writing a book entitled, “The Cult of Legality” where I would discuss this subject in depth. The whimsical nature with which an act can go from legal to illegal and back again is beyond absurd.