- Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
For those who don't read, a group that excludes the highly intelligent visitors to this site, Machiavelli created the philosophy of power, often malnamed 'political science.' Though most of his writings, The Prince being most notable, were guidebooks for wise leadership. It is his quote regarding the disarming of the populace that inspired the founders of the United States to include a ban on banning arms in the hands of the people.
One can think of Machiavelli as the Sun Tzu of the West. Sun Tzu wrote a highly influential book called The Art of War nearly a millennium before Machiavelli was born. Machiavelli likely got a copy of it from Marco Polo or other traders in the East. Sun Tzu instructed warriors thusly:
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Between the two quotes, we can see the design and execution of things such as the Boston Marathon bombing, 9/11, 7/7, and hundreds of other similar events throughout history. To understand the gravity of the quotes, one must put one's self in the place of ruthless, power-mad 'leaders' and realize that We the People are the enemy. We are the deceived. We are the ones conquered without a fight by little more than simple symbolic manipulation.
Few people think of their 'leaders' as mortal combatants against their best interests. So-called 'democracy' is a brilliant subterfuge that makes us think we have chosen those we call leaders, while at the same time finding all they do in places of power to be reprehensible and subversive to our best interests.
Josef Stalin, that great defender of human rights (tongue firmly in cheek), told us:
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?
This is the self-same Stalin who killed more than 25 million of his countrymen and called it a statistic. History hardly recalls that fact, yet Hitler, who only killed 4 million, has become synonymous with evil incarnate.
So how do we tie all this together? Well, people will ignore things that do not serve their immediate needs. Therefore, 'leaders' are free to act upon the populace in ways that subdue them without a fight. This is done by controlling the ideas that the masses can and are allowed to have. And the ideas are controlled via the media.
If you pick up a dictionary from before the 20th century, you will find that the word 'terrorism' was once defined as an act only perpetrated by a State actor. Terrorism, as a policy, never serves the interests of a group fighting an evil power.
On the other hand, a State actor can inflict acts of terror, clamp down on individual rights, tighten security, demonize large parts of the population, and create whole new industries for profit out of a single act. While not exactly nice, it is a logical step for any group wishing to subdue a large population and consolidate power.
False-flag terrorism is as old as warfare. It is a staple of morally bankrupt leadership and a highly effective technique for controlling large groups of people. An act of terror causes people to act in their immediate self-interest, which causes them to rally to leaders, demand security and seek revenge. This is exactly the reactions that 'leaders' want when consolidating power. The best part is - from a certain point of view - that as soon as the masses start to figure it out, you can create another act of terror and completely wipe out the memory of the previous one.
Whenever we see an event such as Boston, we must ask ourselves, like good Romans, "Cui bono?" (to whom the good/benefit) An act of terror does not benefit the masses. They lose rights and freedom in exchange for vaporous promises. It does not benefit the supposed perpetrator(s). They alienate the very people they want on their side and bring down the wrath of greater powers on their heads.
The only possible benefit is to those in power. It consolidates their power, allows greater intrusiveness into the lives of their 'followers'. And it justifies even more theft of the labor and wealth of the masses in the form of taxes to support ever larger bureaucracies that peddle the all-elusive 'security.'
In the age of psychology and mass media, this technique has been honed to a fine edge. A century and a half of study has led to an almost formulaic ability to induce fear and panic in large groups of people. Madison Ave. and the like have mastered the application of psychological tenets to mass mind control. Even without having watched a single minute of the media coverage of Boston, I can list the techniques used to control the ideas in the minds of the masses.
First, they float the multiple/single perpetrator balloon. Whichever the masses glom onto the fastest is the one they run with. Then, they float the Muslim/homegrown terrorist balloon. Whichever the public buys first is the one they run with. They artificially limit the choices we have to think about, then amp up our emotional responses to whatever 'choice' the instant polling and blogosphere sampling tells them is the most 'swallowable' explanation. The rest is simply offering a bunch of canned responses that are designed to make people feel safer, while offering no real solutions and charging exorbitant amounts of money to implement the plan, whatever it is.
Back to Stalin and Hitler...Stalin killed six times more people than Hitler, yet there was no long-term political expedient outside of consolidating his power. Thus, we know little or nothing about the atrocities he committed.
If fertilizer plants blowing up have little or no power to shock and awe, they are mourned and paraded, but little if anything will change in the aftermath, even though the safe operation of a fertilizer plant obviously has more benefit to the masses than stopping bombers at public events. There is no emotional content to exploit with a fertilizer plant, but high-profile public feel-good events offer oodles of exploitable content.
Simple math for our erstwhile 'leaders.'
After all, the Russian people were evil, nasty Commies, so losing 25 million of them was a victory, not something to wail and gnash teeth over.
Cui bono?
The only way to fight this sort of manipulation is to guard our reactions when they happen. Don't react immediately on fear and panic, but take a moment to consider who benefits. This immediately takes the power away from the 'leaders' and prevents them from implanting ideas in our heads.
The concomitant action is to avoid all media contact. Don't turn on the TeeVee. Just read headlines online or in the paper. Don't read the articles. That will give you all the pertinent information you need and prevent the implantation of ideas. Over the following week, the picture will be much clearer than if you ingest all the emotional rabble-rousing in the media. Remember, the media is NOT your friend. They are carefully controlled outlets for the party line.
Finally, harden yourself. Yes, it is tragic when people die, but it happens all the time. Don't let the 'leaders' use those deaths to control the living. That is the worst form of cynicism and crassness there is. Look at what has been done to the children in Sandy Hook.
Instead, note the tragic deaths of the victims and mourn for their families, but guard your feelings and don't let them be weaponized. Only a psychopath or sociopath can not feel the death of others. But it is equally sick to use death and tragedy for gain, and we would do well to remember that. It may seem callous to turn off feelings, but how much more callous is it to use our feelings against us?
There will be time to mourn when the war is won.
Oh yeah, happy birthday Adolf. Has anyone thought about all the strange things that keep happening on or around Hitler's birthday?
