ninjutsu

We don't see history as the history of the destruction of the indigenous population, enslavement, conquest, murder, oppression, violence. You know, it's sort of all somehow out in the background. But the main thrust is supposed to be different. There was an article that just came out by this very distinguished conservative historian named Warren Cohen who said the imperial boot is now placed on Iraq and the history of American denial, of what actually happened (and he runs through it pretty honestly) will reframe this as liberation - that's what he calls American Exceptionalism - but I think that's incorrect. It's the behavior of dominant forces without history, and they have got to subdue their own populations. Would the population accept it if they knew the truth? I don't think so.

Certainly no one in power believes it. If they believed it they wouldn't bother with the propaganda. They would just tell them the truth - look, we want to smash up and destroy and rob these people because we want to enrich ourselves. Did they ever say that? No, no one ever says that because they know perfectly well that people won't accept it. If they understand what is happening, they stop them. And that has happened. That's how antiwar movements start - it seeps in and people start to understand and then they won't buy it.

You have to lie to them. You have to deceive them. You have to marginalize them. You have to make them feel hopeless. Otherwise they aren't going to hang on to power. Power is very fragile. It can be overthrown. It doesn't take much to overthrow it, even tyrants and surely in more democratic societies. It's very fragile. So as soon as the discipline breaks down, it will be overthrown and they know it. That's why you have such a massive commitment to propaganda, much more so in the free societies than in the tyrannies.

Like Franco's Spain. It was willing to let people talk about whatever they wanted. If you wanted to start Marxist clubs and so on, it's perfectly fine, because there was a torture chamber in the center of Madrid, and when you walked past it you heard people screaming. So, OK talk about anything you like, but don't forget. In more free societies you can't do that. You have to make sure people don't have their own thoughts and they don't interact with one another. So you need huge industries like the public relations industry to impose passivity, hopelessness, marginalization, and false beliefs. It's required as societies become more free.

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