In parallel with the Peace Dividend Project, I interviewed Dan Kovalik this past November, just before he made a trip to Russia and Donetsk. He went to obtain first-hand knowledge of the situation in that part of the world. Do I have to tell you what’s going on there is NOT AT ALL what we in the U.S. are being told in our propaganda-saturated media?
Dan is a peace activist, and a human rights and labor attorney, with a professorship at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. I found him fascinating and highly informative.
Eight years ago — OMG, has it been that long? — I wrote a song and Masumi, my multi-talented Renaissance wife — who unlike me can actually sing — and I recorded it in my modest home studio.
I played all the instruments but frankly was never happy with the piano performance. I guess I should have used my hands instead of my feet. Anyway a couple months ago, I did some simple repairs to the piano playing and it sounds at least passable to my ears now.
Of course, this meant I had to resync the music to the song video. I did that and took the opportunity to replace a couple of the images which weren’t really appropriate. One was Netanyahu, who when I originally used his pic I honestly didn’t recognize. He hardly fits with the message of peace and harmony I want to convey with this song, so he’s history.
It was interesting listening to the music and lyrics again. Usually when I go back to a song I wrote, there’s always something I want to change. But honestly . . . I wouldn’t change a single word or syllable here. Why? Because it comes from my heart and says exactly what I want to share with others.
It’s New Years Day here in Japan as I write this. The world has another chance at getting it right, 365 days to show respect and love for one another. I know that 99% of us will try to do just that. For our leaders — crazed, sick, power-drunk megalomaniacs — it’s another story. I hope those of us who know the incredible potential there is in the world for peace, fellowship, and acts of kindness can defeat the purveyors of evil, mistrust, division, war — those for whom love is impossible, those who want to make it impossible for the rest of us to experience and share.
It’s like reverence for innocence. Well, yes, kids sure are sweet, unsullied, open, positive, vibrant, curious. They wear their innocence well and we all envy their abandon. But we’re protecting them. So we bear all the risks and potential for endangerment. They play. We watch the playground to make sure there are no perverts, rabid dogs, or kidnappers.
As adults, it’s a different story. ‘Ignorance is bliss’ and ‘What you don’t know won’t hurt you’ work for a while . . . until the axe falls. Or the bill comes due. Or the door is kicked down in the middle of the night. Being stupidly innocent as an adult can bring heartache and tragedy, in fact, typically does. While embracing wholesome open-mindedness and holistic trust, so as to not preclude learning and discovery, we are also well-advised to maintain a wary eye for the sham, the con, the manipulation, the lie, the entire range of possible mischief humans are capable of.
From what I now see reported on the news, such prudence is no longer at all possible. Evidence would suggest that a dam has been breached. A tsunami of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, deep fakes, propaganda, calculated deceptions, accompanied by a bottomless barrel of salacious scandals and mindless trivia, has flooded the once-habitable terrain of public discourse and understanding. We are drowning in bullshit.
It shows. People are becoming confused, erratic, and increasingly desperate. We’re being constantly bombarded with bad news, rendering us numb, dumb, wary and increasingly frightened. It seems that folks are stressed out to the max. We have the firing squad of 24/7 if-it-bleeds-it-leads news coming at us from every direction. We’re surrounded by crises, personal, political, national, international. It’s beyond overwhelming.
This makes us hunger for both relief and anything that will make sense out of the chaos.
Which renders many, if not most people, vulnerable to brainwashing.
I recently saw a compilation of talking heads relentlessly hammering home completely vaporous, frankly ridiculous but engaging, arresting, highly charged, and clearly effective memes. I presume that a majority of citizens, already reeling and punch drunk from years of propaganda, hearts and minds filled with hatred and fear, stumbling about in the house of mirrors that media has become, react to a frightening degree by buying into what these people are saying. Repetition is like kickboxing. Or like kneading dough. It’s just a matter of time before the target succumbs to persistence and becomes a subdued and unresisting lump, next to be carted off on a stretcher or put in the oven. Or in the case of the TV/smart phone-addicted public, put in a coma-like trance, a hypnotic stupor, an obedient oblivion. Cut to KFC commercial or ad for a miracle age spots remedy. Launch the cruise missiles.
Here’s the video (if you can handle epic levels of tedious repetition).
Seriously? We are fine with media messaging that’s like Chinese water torture? To have our brainwaves flat-lined by nonsensical, hyperventilating, Orwellian vapor. This is not news reporting. To think so is like mistaking a metronome for a symphony orchestra.
But that’s where we’re at.
To suggest for even a moment that somehow this state of mental paralysis came about organically, the result of societal entropy or personal devolution — as if random impulse, modernity, complexity, technology, solar flares, pollen, coronavirus, climate change, over-the-counter drugs, 5G, GMOs, aspartame, and ozone depletion, randomly interacted and the default became wholesale stupidity — is both foolhardy and extremely dangerous. It didn’t just happen. It is part of a plan. That plan is about control and oppression, gross manipulation and enslavement.
Let’s give credit where it’s due. Our manipulators, our oppressors, our autocratic puppet masters, are phenomenal at what they do. They’re organized; they’ve got the bucks; they’ve gained a total monopoly over the seats of power and the social/political levers of control; they are unencumbered by ambivalence, morals, common decency; they are merciless, ruthless, focused.
For just a single but highly representative example, read this article about how the lunatic power elite work to shape the entire narrative about the conflict in Ukraine.
Now, take that level of calculated deceit, cold manipulation, audacity, unscrupulousness, ruthlessness, arrogance, pernicious intent, disdain for we the people, and scornful sense of entitlement, then replicate it over the entire spectrum of social/political ills, crises, and dysfunction — the things we whine about and debate constantly: the economy, wealth inequality, corporate welfare, socialism for corporations and Wall Street, our deteriorating education system, our crumbling infrastructure, our fake democracy, the ruling elite-controlled two-party duopoly, Covid-19 “pandemic”, our entire shameful health care system, the destruction of labor unions, the criminalizing of dissent, the marginalization and disempowerment of minorities, the Fed, the CDC, the FDA, the FCC, censorship, citizen surveillance, our two-tier justice system, and perhaps the worst and most egregious of them all, the expanding militarization of our country and its foolhardy, suicidal pursuit of world conquest.
Yes, just imagine all of this contention as the product of sociopaths and power-drunk bullies, who have no sense of duty to country, or responsibility to you and I normal everyday citizens, smug self-anointed sociopathic despots who are incapable of conceiving of, inaugurating, and promoting anything which doesn’t serve the narrow agenda of an ultra-wealthy ruling aristocratic class — truly sinister malefactors who live and breathe to humiliate and subjugate others, abuse their power and privilege, gain advantage and mount incomprehensible piles of money and affluence, regardless of the harm and suffering it causes everyone else.
Yes, imagine that!
But wait! . . . you don’t have to imagine it after all. You just have to look around you.
Because that is exactly what is going on.
This is what we end up with when WE THE PEOPLE lose control of our country.
This is what we end up with when self-serving oligarchs control the narrative.
This is what we end up with when fed a 24/7 diet of lies and propaganda.
Now the question is: What can we do?
The answer couldn’t be simpler. Or more difficult.
This is where improbable teams up with impossible. Because the only way to stop this is through individual responsibility — everyday citizens taking charge, both of their own lives and our government. The existing private and public institutions which have engineered this juggernaut of blind ignorance and social control surely are not going to change. The puppets of the oligarchy we dutifully “elect” to represent we the people know who butters their bread. They and their ruling elite sponsors reap huge rewards from keeping us dumb and misinformed. So if anything is going to reverse this disastrous course, it will be us as individuals, hopefully working collectively to provide support and reinforcement, wielding the power of ‘NO’.
Obviously, this is a very tall order, as epic in scale as apocalyptic it is to be on the present course. We have to be honest. Perhaps it’s impossible. Old habits die hard. For most of our lives, we everyday folks, busy with their personal lives and trusting by nature, have relied on what we thought were worthy, reliable government spokespersons, TV news anchors, elected representatives, thought leaders, even celebrities, for the honest scoop on the specific events going on across our nation, more generally for our broad understanding of the world out there beyond our immediate reach. But slowly, imperceptibly, they turned on us. They increasingly recited from a intentionally faulty script, designed to hide the truth and substitute a fabricated reality. This was calculated — correctly so — to make us easily manipulable, often voting and behaving against our own interests. They fooled us so many times, we lost count and became completely detached from reality. Evidence? Look at what we put up with as citizens. We are treated abysmally, our government no longer works for us, and somehow we maintain pride in a nation which regards us as some necessary evil it needs to patronize with hollow promises and fairy tales about exceptionalism and greatness.
Most Americans now are totally brainwashed. We everyday citizens have no idea that those who we were certain we could trust are now lying to us with every breath they take. Any resemblance between what we are told and reality is a coincidence, or a convenience because it just happens to fit with the web of lies which surrounds it.
That’s hard for anyone to swallow. It’s depressing, demoralizing, unsettling, infuriating. Worse, “staying informed” has always been and still is so convenient. Just flip on the News at 6, read Time or Newsweek or USA Today. Scroll through Yahoo News on a smartphone. These wonderful trusted sources look and feel as they always have. But now they’re all streams of toxic misinformation and propaganda. And most people have no clue.
So quite honestly, I’m not very optimistic.
But of one thing I’m sure. We can stop this. We know what to do.
The only question is: Will we develop the presence of mind and resolve to . . . ?
And while I believe a woman has the right to make decisions about her own body, that’s not what I’m talking about here.
Let me offer a recent and extremely important example.
Back in December of 2021, when Russia notified the US and its allies that it was very concerned about the troops, missiles, bases, and other military assets deployed against its borders, it offered a draft treaty which would cool tensions and promote peace in Europe. The US and NATO refused to even look at the treaty. Were we the people given a choice in the matter? Were we properly and accurately informed about what the treaty contained, its pros and cons? Of course not. Because had citizens looked at it objectively, with complete disclosure as to its intent and effect, they would have most likely thought it was reasonable and constructive, and opted for it. We are now living the nightmare resulting from the snub of the Russian proposal. The entire Ukraine mess didn’t have to happen. But it did because of the choice of a tiny number of short-sighted, war-obsessed policy makers, sans any democratic approval by the vast majority of citizens, who now must deal with the consequences.
Since that war broke out, the U.S. has allocated at least $65 billion — some put the figure at over $100 billion and counting — in military and economic assistance to the regime in Kiev. Were we given a choice in THAT? Did Biden, Blinken or any of the warmongers in Congress ask: “Should we send more weapons to Ukraine to further exacerbate the war, further intimidate Russia, OR should we spend that money on improving our schools, infrastructure, OR MAYBE provide relief to Americans who have been hard hit by the disastrous economy, loss of jobs, the Covid-19 lockdowns?” I don’t remember hearing THAT choice being aired to the public.
I’m pro-choice, alright. In the much broader sense of having choice as a citizen about what is done in my name with the tax dollars and immense resources of the United States.
I’m talking about America’s decisions to go around the world killing people, destroying nations, imposing its imperial agenda on other allegedly sovereign nations. I’m talking about the heavy hand of our government deciding what version of the “truth” citizens get in the news and from their elected officials. I’m talking about critical choices made about America’s place in the world, our relationships with every other nation, who is our friend, who is designated as our enemy; deciding the kind of country we now live in and will hand off to future generations; directing what opportunities and basic services will be available to us; determining what guarantees are in place to make sure our legal system works to the benefit of every citizen equally; writing and enforcing the regulations and laws which prevent the abuse of power by our government officials, those elected and otherwise; determining how our system works to hold those in power accountable, what is done to prevent corruption, graft and cronyism; instituting and maintaining electoral procedures and mechanisms which protect the constitutional voting privileges of every citizen, fully guaranteeing free and fair elections. Yes, I’m talking about the way government functions, how well it functions. How the enormous revenue stream gets allocated, what gets funded, who benefits. I’m talking about free and full access to official communication, information and documentation, full transparency about what goes on in those offices and buildings. After all, we’re paying for all of it. We should have complete disclosure as well as final decision-making power on how our money is being spent.
Finally and certainly most importantly, since our survival on the planet is being seriously threatened by horrible decisions in this arena, WE THE PEOPLE should have final say on putting our nation and economy on a war footing, militarily confronting other countries, and most certainly the ultimate decision — a responsibility that now even our pathetic Congress spinelessly avoids — MAKING THE CHOICE TO GO TO WAR.
All of these decisions are being made — often behind closed doors or a smoke-screen of propaganda, lies and rationalizations — and we as citizens have no say in any of it.
No choice!
So yeah, I’M PRO-CHOICE!
The voice of the people has been totally silenced. We no longer can even ask simple, obvious questions about most critical matters which impact our daily existence, which determine the quality of our lives, which define the kind of country we now and future generations will live in. If we don’t stay inside the safe, approved boundaries of the official narratives, we are marginalized, often ridiculed, if not completely censored. Which might be tolerable if the country was in good shape and on a solid path of improvement and progress. I don’t have to point out how totally screwed up everything is now.
I’m for having a decisive say in the way things run. Recognize, this is hardly a weird or controversial demand. It’s the very essence of SELF-GOVERNMENT — which is what I have always been told is the defining feature of our democracy, the great experiment in self-rule. No kings, no dukes, no emperors, no dictators, no pouty paranoid bureaucrats. Just us, we the people!
This means WE THE PEOPLE taking back the power which has been usurped by a class of self-anointed control freaks, influence peddlers, power brokers, professional politicos who have decided that we regular folks are a bunch of clueless children and they know what’s best for us.
Enough is enough. Tyranny under the smiley-face of fake democracy must be stopped IMMEDIATELY!
This is non-negotiable . . .
WE THE PEOPLE MUST HAVE A CHOICE — the decisive choice — whenever anything of consequence affecting our nation comes up for consideration.
So yes, I can say without qualification or equivocation, I’M PRO-CHOICE!
I’ve always considered myself out on the fringe, cutting edge, pushing the envelope. Life is more interesting that way. But this time I pushed things too far.
A few months ago I jumped feet first into a new music project. Bunny Yō is a Q-pop star, unlike any I’ve ever worked with before, unlike anything out there these days. I won’t try to describe her. Just go to the website and try to figure it out for yourselves.
It has not been going smoothly at all. I love the music. I especially love the attitude, because it’s so weird and irreverent. But apparently no one else gets it, at least so far. Bunny’s first single, Orphan Sex Club, has been banned on TikTok. Most of the song’s YouTube videos have been age restricted, which is ridiculous. There’s nothing obscene about any of it. The censors fail to appreciate that it’s a joke. Orphan Sex Club? Come on! Get a sense of humor!
But that was just for starters.
Let me explain something. Bunny is in no position to do any of the technical stuff, none of the promotion, nothing but what she does. So yours truly has been handling everything. I put together the website, designed all the Bunny Yō accessories — t-shirts, truckers caps, coffee mugs — building everything around the Bunny Yō persona, lyrics, music, imagery, doing my best to capture and be faithful to her vision.
Well . . . this t-shirt was where the real trouble began.
Apparently, it caught the attention of some woke bloke and his indignation and gut rage spread through the woke community like monkeypox. They looked at the entire Bunny Yō project and for some reason thought I was making fun of them.
Let me tell you something. As J. K. Rowling will attest, you don’t want to mess with these people. There’s no reasoning with them. They’re like a mob of rabid witch hunters!
Anyway, here I am. In a jail cell of my own creation, waiting for the verdict.
Things don’t look good. My attorney (pictured on the right) apparently studied law at an auto mechanics trade school in Moldova. She raised no objections when a motion was entered — and approved by the court — to skip the trial and just let the jury decide on my guilt or innocence. I still don’t know what I am charged with. No matter who I ask, they just roll their eyes and sneer at me like I’m a big festering sore on the butt of humanity.
Since August of 2021, to promote the Peace Dividend Project, I’ve been interviewing world-renowned thought leaders, scholars, peace activists, journalists, attorneys and the like, such individuals as Noam Chomsky, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Paul Craig Roberts, Abby Martin, Dan Kovalik, Lee Camp, Scott Ritter, Norman Solomon, Cynthia McKinney, Ajamu Baraka, Coleen Rowley, Lt. Col. William J Astore. Most of these interviews have been written, which are then published in a variety of dissident and alternative media magazines. More recently, however, I’ve been doing video interviews.
The one I’m spotlighting here I did this past October, where I interview Professor Peter Kuznick of American University for his views on the current state of U.S. foreign policy. Peter is best known for his work with Oliver Stone on The Untold History of the United States, which has seen exposure both as a book and movie with millions of folks across the globe. It’s a long interview but rich in historical perspective and keen insights on the reasons America is immersed in such turbulent times.
Watch, listen, enjoy!
Peter Kuznick is currently Professor of History and Director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University. His acclaim and popularity are certainly deserved. In addition to his contributions in academic circles, he is in constant demand as a policy analyst and commentator across the globe. He is author ofBeyond the Laboratory: Scientists As Political Activists in 1930s America, and many other important volumes. Peter is best known by the general public for his highly controversial, landmark documentary created with director Oliver Stone,The Untold History of the United States, which has been distributed and viewed worldwide, receiving enthusiastic reception and generating much needed debate.
Let me be candid. I’m not much of a shopper. In fact, rating me one-to-ten on my talent and enthusiasm for shopping, I come in around -2.
I do like buying things. I need a shirt. I buy it. I need a new computer. I buy it.
But shopping? Wandering around, looking at stuff? Comparing prices? Judging quality? Looking at pros and cons, 99% of the time for unnecessary items, thus unpurchased?
I’m just too impatient, not at all interested.
At the same time, I recognize that shopping for many people is a barrel of fun, a great way to spend leisure hours. Even not buying stuff is fine for many. Just browsing, looking, evaluating, comparing, fantasizing — how would this look in the foyer? . . . or . . . does this go with that belt buckle I have at home? — provides “shoppers” hours of relaxation, discovery, even joy. It’s not the destination but the journey. Whatever.
So . . .
With my general antipathy toward shopping firmly in place, initially I didn’t consider my wife’s proposal last weekend with much enthusiasm. She suggested we go to the “longest shopping arcade in Japan” located in Osaka and look around. But we went, because I trust her judgment and what hell . . . Osaka is always wonderful to visit and you only live once. Or something along those lines.
Let me continue to be candid: What a phenomenal afternoon we had. The arcade is called Tenjinbashisuji Shotengai and it’s great! This is from Japan Travel and says it all . . .
“Tenjinbashisuji Shotengai stretches over 2600 meters covering a single long street, altogether seven Chome(s) (丁目- block) boasting 600 shops of various types. The LONGEST shopping street in Japan! From the traditional kimono shops to shops cramped with chicly designed cheap T-shirts, all the way to Osaka only Okonomiyaki restaurants, almost anything can be found in this ‘down-to-earth’ yet unique shopping street.”
2600 meters! — 1.6 miles — which is a lot of shopping. But like it says, not your typical shopping. NO CHAIN STORES! I hate chain stores! Well . . . that’s not quite true. I do buy things at chain stores, when they have something I want. There’s a clothing chain here called Uniqlo — they even have one in New York City I visited several years ago! — which specializes in purely functional attire, no designer label brands, just what is perfectly fine for everyday wear. Half of my wardrobe is Uniqlo.
But generally chain stores are a plague, a global plague turning thousands of malls and arcades into boilerplate shopping experiences, one almost indistinguishable from another.
So the longest shopping arcade in Japan was a truly unique, I have to say fun, experience. All individual shops, some very interesting, and unlike most of what’s sold in the name brand stores, very affordable. Apparently unconsciously sustaining a sweet tooth that day, I bought mountain flower honey and short bread cookies. Also some fresh vegetables.
I’ve been living in Japan permanently — yes, as a permanent resident of the country — for ten years. Been here on and off — mostly on — for almost fifteen years.
My expectations have slowly come into line. There’s quite a bit different about life in Asia and since I live in farm country, much of that relates to . . . you guessed it . . . farming.
Simple example: Back in my home state of Michigan, I saw a lot of corn growing. Here they grow rice and soybeans. When I lived in California, it meant oranges. They grow some oranges here but also lots of persimmons! I really love persimmons, have even written about them.
Recognizing all of those fascinating differences, a recent development here really took me by surprise. I never expected to see anyone in Japan raising . . . [ drumroll ] . . . COTTON!
Yes, literally right near my house is the world headquarters for a new enterprise.
Samurai Jeans world headquarters!
Not just plain old cotton, mind you, but ORGANIC COTTON.
There are several fields, all within walking distance, where they are growing the stuff.
Do they actually use cotton these days? I thought with all of the wondrous synthetic fabrics available now, using cotton and wool and the rest of nature’s bounty was confined to tribal communities in third-world countries with unpronounceable names.
Well . . . I was SO WRONG!
Turns out — my wife and some Google searches informing me — that not only is cotton still popular, it is much preferred by discerning folks, people in the know who look down their noses at apparel made from spandex, polyester, nylon, Gore-Tex, Dacron, polypropylene, acrylic and polyvinyl chloride. In fact, increasing numbers of health-conscious folks suggest it is the direct contact with the skin by these petroleum-based products which is responsible for the exponential increase in cancer, diabetes, immune dysfunction, allergies, and other “modern industrial” diseases. Is it a coincidence that these pathologies made a dramatic entrance front-and-center on the world stage at the exact same time as the massive, over-arching introduction of “chemistry” into all aspects of modern life?
These are certainly important questions. No doubt about it, the debates around pros and cons of technology will continue to rage on. Since there’s so much money being made, it’s doubtful we’ll ever get a straight reading on any of this.
Even so, I know exactly what to do!
I’m going to be the first on the block to own a brand new pair of organic cotton Samurai jeans! Better safe than sorry. If I can look sharp as well, even better!
I’ve commented several times before about the temples and shrines here in Japan. Some context would be helpful.
For six years, as a young boy, I went to Catholic school. Every day we filed into the church for Mass. Then, of course, as required to be good Catholics and in good standing with the Lord, we went to Mass on Sundays. Six days a week I sat through the most uninspiring, boring, frankly meaningless ritual imaginable. Back then, the Mass was in Latin. So I didn’t have a clue what was being said, and certainly didn’t care. Ugh!
It’s easy to understand that because of this forced “spiritual” exercise — which was about as spiritual as doing calisthenics — I eventually completely soured on religion, at least as it was practiced in much of the West. When the summer I turned 15 came around, I couldn’t handle priests, nuns, Sunday Missals, rosaries, confession, communion, churches, hymns, Masses, Heaven, Hell, Purgatory . . . NONE OF IT. I left the Catholic Church and never looked back.
I pretty much avoided churches from that point on. Of course, there was the occasional church wedding and out of respect for the new bride and groom, yes, I inserted myself reluctantly into the house of the Lord. Likewise, out of respect for history and aesthetics, I experienced the unparalleled scale and majesty of a host of cathedrals in Europe, even a couple in U.S., not there to pray but to fill my senses with the glory and awe of inspired architects, artists, and sculptors.
Then in 2006, I started to seriously see the world, much of my travels taking me to Asia. The spiritual vibrations were totally different. Buddhism and Hinduism pretty much set the tone for these countries. I discovered and experienced not just completely different theologies, but a totally unique — to my Western-nurtured sensibilities — psychological space. It was more personal, more introspective, more comfortable, more satisfying.
Going to a shrine or temple for me now is one of life’s simple pleasures. So last weekend, we went to Kogenji Temple in nearby Tamba. It’s not a particularly fancy or spectacular temple but it’s very popular this time of year for it’s maple trees.
It’s difficult and probably intellectually sloppy to make generalizations about religions and religious practices. I just know that spiritual sensibilities are extremely different here — about 180º opposite to my “American” religious experience.
Rather than go into a comparative theological exegesis, which would be long, most likely tedious, and risk after an exhaustive trudge being unwieldy or misleading, let me make a point with some very personal observations and stories.
When I was in Los Angeles working as a recording engineer and music producer, I became obsessed with watching televangelists. I don’t have to say more. You know what that scamming is all about. “Just put your hands on the TV screen and feel the power of the Lord. Then write me a check. God will make sure it comes back to you tenfold. So the more you give me, the more you get back from the bounteous blessings of the Savior!” There was on guy in particular I loved to watch. Peter Popoff was fantastic! He got busted but I guess he’s still at it. He’s a millionaire many times over. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven.” Hmm. Who said that? David Copperfield?
Going way back . . .
I can’t say what things are like now. But when I was a boy, I remember that the Sunday services ALWAYS included collecting donations. At a point about 2/3rds of the way through the Mass, ushers would shove these collection baskets aisle-by-aisle in front of every congregant, unmistakably signaling it was time to pony up. Of course, the requisite sermons at each service also always included appeals for money.
“You think holy water grows on trees? Come on, you cheap bastard!”
I have to say, the final straw for me was my father’s funeral. My mother had died 2 1/2 months earlier. I was still in shock. 14 years old. Both parents dead. As if I didn’t already have a lot of grief to bear, I sat and listened to the priest give the eulogy. You’ve seen this in the movies. Coffin at the front. Holy man in robes trying to give comfort and meaning to the tragedy. Well, the priest at my dad’s funeral decided to use the opportunity — since he had a nice captive audience, trembling, crying, with their defenses down — to talk about the renovations they had planned for the church. And guess what? They needed money! Yes, a great way to pay tribute to the corpse sealed up and ready to bury — we’d go from there to the cemetery in a procession of cars with little funeral flags on their antennas — was to spring for a nice donation to the current Building Fund Drive. I can’t describe how much I hated the man.
Okay, enough of all that “context”. Now we set our time machine to ‘The Present’ . . .
While there are donation boxes in the Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan, making it easy to give financial support to their care and upkeep, NEVER does a monk solicit money. There are fees attached to, for example, them coming to your house to perform some ritual. But the rituals themselves don’t reference such material matters. Even Jesus preached (I’m paraphrasing) rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. Spirit is spiritual. Money is material. If Christians knew about His teaching, then somewhere along the line, it was forgotten. Or buried. Maybe it’s in my father’s coffin.
Having grown up in a major city — beautiful Detroit, Michigan — I never experienced the agricultural cycle, the annual rotation of planting, growing, harvesting. We of course had seasons, rather dramatic seasons since Michigan is so far north and has some very cold winters. But the whole “growing food” thing was a blank slate.
Since living in rural Japan, not only have I discovered the overall cycle but am further educated in the idea of seasonal crops. Everything doesn’t grow at the same time, nor does it become available for human consumption at the same time.
I know what you’re thinking: DUH! Don’t laugh. I helped to rebuild an 8-cylinder Ford engine when I was in high school. I just never never got to around to planting tomatoes or corn, much less soybeans or rice.
Moving on to my big announcement, we just harvested the most recent item to appear on Mother Nature’s Day-Timer — or maybe she has an iCalendar these days, who knows?
Yes . . . [ drumroll ] . . . we just dug out of the ground our crop of SWEET POTATOES!
I say ‘we’ but that’s a stretch of the truth. I’m afraid that inserting a shovel into the soft earth and removing the sometimes huge tubers is above my pay grade. I did other grunt work while my wife Masumi, and her daughter Izumi, did the precision extraction. Here they are at work . . .
Knowledge is power. Fertilizer helps a lot too.
Nothing more to say. I don’t want you readers to get overexcited by my earthshaking news.
Wait! Actually, I’ll add one final comment, something that surprised me. We don’t wash the newly exposed sweet potatoes. Yes, we leave a coating of dirt on them. Apparently, they can last a very long time, not decaying or rotting, if a fine coat of soil remains on their surface. Thinking back on how as a boy, growing up poor, I only took a bath once a week, despite always being covered with a fine layer of dirt. I now see the wisdom of my very lax standard of personal hygiene.
Brainwashing Is Not a Form of Personal Hygiene
BRAINWASHING IS NOT A FORM OF PERSONAL HYGIENE.
Nor is being brainwashed a guarantee of personal bliss, though it’s becoming apparent that there are many who swear by it.
It’s like reverence for innocence. Well, yes, kids sure are sweet, unsullied, open, positive, vibrant, curious. They wear their innocence well and we all envy their abandon. But we’re protecting them. So we bear all the risks and potential for endangerment. They play. We watch the playground to make sure there are no perverts, rabid dogs, or kidnappers.
As adults, it’s a different story. ‘Ignorance is bliss’ and ‘What you don’t know won’t hurt you’ work for a while . . . until the axe falls. Or the bill comes due. Or the door is kicked down in the middle of the night. Being stupidly innocent as an adult can bring heartache and tragedy, in fact, typically does. While embracing wholesome open-mindedness and holistic trust, so as to not preclude learning and discovery, we are also well-advised to maintain a wary eye for the sham, the con, the manipulation, the lie, the entire range of possible mischief humans are capable of.
From what I now see reported on the news, such prudence is no longer at all possible. Evidence would suggest that a dam has been breached. A tsunami of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, deep fakes, propaganda, calculated deceptions, accompanied by a bottomless barrel of salacious scandals and mindless trivia, has flooded the once-habitable terrain of public discourse and understanding. We are drowning in bullshit.
It shows. People are becoming confused, erratic, and increasingly desperate. We’re being constantly bombarded with bad news, rendering us numb, dumb, wary and increasingly frightened. It seems that folks are stressed out to the max. We have the firing squad of 24/7 if-it-bleeds-it-leads news coming at us from every direction. We’re surrounded by crises, personal, political, national, international. It’s beyond overwhelming.
This makes us hunger for both relief and anything that will make sense out of the chaos.
Which renders many, if not most people, vulnerable to brainwashing.
I recently saw a compilation of talking heads relentlessly hammering home completely vaporous, frankly ridiculous but engaging, arresting, highly charged, and clearly effective memes. I presume that a majority of citizens, already reeling and punch drunk from years of propaganda, hearts and minds filled with hatred and fear, stumbling about in the house of mirrors that media has become, react to a frightening degree by buying into what these people are saying. Repetition is like kickboxing. Or like kneading dough. It’s just a matter of time before the target succumbs to persistence and becomes a subdued and unresisting lump, next to be carted off on a stretcher or put in the oven. Or in the case of the TV/smart phone-addicted public, put in a coma-like trance, a hypnotic stupor, an obedient oblivion. Cut to KFC commercial or ad for a miracle age spots remedy. Launch the cruise missiles.
Here’s the video (if you can handle epic levels of tedious repetition).
Seriously? We are fine with media messaging that’s like Chinese water torture? To have our brainwaves flat-lined by nonsensical, hyperventilating, Orwellian vapor. This is not news reporting. To think so is like mistaking a metronome for a symphony orchestra.
But that’s where we’re at.
To suggest for even a moment that somehow this state of mental paralysis came about organically, the result of societal entropy or personal devolution — as if random impulse, modernity, complexity, technology, solar flares, pollen, coronavirus, climate change, over-the-counter drugs, 5G, GMOs, aspartame, and ozone depletion, randomly interacted and the default became wholesale stupidity — is both foolhardy and extremely dangerous. It didn’t just happen. It is part of a plan. That plan is about control and oppression, gross manipulation and enslavement.
Let’s give credit where it’s due. Our manipulators, our oppressors, our autocratic puppet masters, are phenomenal at what they do. They’re organized; they’ve got the bucks; they’ve gained a total monopoly over the seats of power and the social/political levers of control; they are unencumbered by ambivalence, morals, common decency; they are merciless, ruthless, focused.
For just a single but highly representative example, read this article about how the lunatic power elite work to shape the entire narrative about the conflict in Ukraine.
Now, take that level of calculated deceit, cold manipulation, audacity, unscrupulousness, ruthlessness, arrogance, pernicious intent, disdain for we the people, and scornful sense of entitlement, then replicate it over the entire spectrum of social/political ills, crises, and dysfunction — the things we whine about and debate constantly: the economy, wealth inequality, corporate welfare, socialism for corporations and Wall Street, our deteriorating education system, our crumbling infrastructure, our fake democracy, the ruling elite-controlled two-party duopoly, Covid-19 “pandemic”, our entire shameful health care system, the destruction of labor unions, the criminalizing of dissent, the marginalization and disempowerment of minorities, the Fed, the CDC, the FDA, the FCC, censorship, citizen surveillance, our two-tier justice system, and perhaps the worst and most egregious of them all, the expanding militarization of our country and its foolhardy, suicidal pursuit of world conquest.
Yes, just imagine all of this contention as the product of sociopaths and power-drunk bullies, who have no sense of duty to country, or responsibility to you and I normal everyday citizens, smug self-anointed sociopathic despots who are incapable of conceiving of, inaugurating, and promoting anything which doesn’t serve the narrow agenda of an ultra-wealthy ruling aristocratic class — truly sinister malefactors who live and breathe to humiliate and subjugate others, abuse their power and privilege, gain advantage and mount incomprehensible piles of money and affluence, regardless of the harm and suffering it causes everyone else.
Yes, imagine that!
But wait! . . . you don’t have to imagine it after all. You just have to look around you.
Because that is exactly what is going on.
This is what we end up with when WE THE PEOPLE lose control of our country.
This is what we end up with when self-serving oligarchs control the narrative.
This is what we end up with when fed a 24/7 diet of lies and propaganda.
Now the question is: What can we do?
The answer couldn’t be simpler. Or more difficult.
This is where improbable teams up with impossible. Because the only way to stop this is through individual responsibility — everyday citizens taking charge, both of their own lives and our government. The existing private and public institutions which have engineered this juggernaut of blind ignorance and social control surely are not going to change. The puppets of the oligarchy we dutifully “elect” to represent we the people know who butters their bread. They and their ruling elite sponsors reap huge rewards from keeping us dumb and misinformed. So if anything is going to reverse this disastrous course, it will be us as individuals, hopefully working collectively to provide support and reinforcement, wielding the power of ‘NO’.
Obviously, this is a very tall order, as epic in scale as apocalyptic it is to be on the present course. We have to be honest. Perhaps it’s impossible. Old habits die hard. For most of our lives, we everyday folks, busy with their personal lives and trusting by nature, have relied on what we thought were worthy, reliable government spokespersons, TV news anchors, elected representatives, thought leaders, even celebrities, for the honest scoop on the specific events going on across our nation, more generally for our broad understanding of the world out there beyond our immediate reach. But slowly, imperceptibly, they turned on us. They increasingly recited from a intentionally faulty script, designed to hide the truth and substitute a fabricated reality. This was calculated — correctly so — to make us easily manipulable, often voting and behaving against our own interests. They fooled us so many times, we lost count and became completely detached from reality. Evidence? Look at what we put up with as citizens. We are treated abysmally, our government no longer works for us, and somehow we maintain pride in a nation which regards us as some necessary evil it needs to patronize with hollow promises and fairy tales about exceptionalism and greatness.
Most Americans now are totally brainwashed. We everyday citizens have no idea that those who we were certain we could trust are now lying to us with every breath they take. Any resemblance between what we are told and reality is a coincidence, or a convenience because it just happens to fit with the web of lies which surrounds it.
That’s hard for anyone to swallow. It’s depressing, demoralizing, unsettling, infuriating. Worse, “staying informed” has always been and still is so convenient. Just flip on the News at 6, read Time or Newsweek or USA Today. Scroll through Yahoo News on a smartphone. These wonderful trusted sources look and feel as they always have. But now they’re all streams of toxic misinformation and propaganda. And most people have no clue.
So quite honestly, I’m not very optimistic.
But of one thing I’m sure. We can stop this. We know what to do.
The only question is: Will we develop the presence of mind and resolve to . . . ?
STOP DRINKING THE KOOL-AID!