Fear, deception and power: how we happily relinquish our freedoms

By Craig McKee

We’re being played like a fine musical instrument.
We often don’t know it, and we don’t want to know it. The truth about how we’re being controlled and manipulated is harsh and unpleasant to contemplate. Instead of accepting it, we prefer to reinforce the illusion of our own freedom.
With shocking events like 9/11, the Kennedy assassination, and numerous apparent acts of international terrorism, we are “traumatized” into willingly transferring what little power we have left to a small but powerful elite that has its own agenda. And the process is accelerating.
Imprisonment without trial, wiretaps without warrants, video surveillance, efforts to control and restrict the Internet, torturing of detainees, monitoring of private emails, and the innovation of airport “body” scanners, are all part of the increasing consolidation of control. And it’s all under the guise of “security.”
In the name of fighting terrorism, The Patriot Act and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in the United States have ramped up the stakes. Obsessions with border security keep us focused on threats from the outside – so much so that we don’t see what we’re giving up.
Instead of trying to understand these events, we’d rather focus on our cell phones, laptops, and video games. As long as we have some flashy toys and a comfortable place to sleep, we won’t make waves. We’ll even defend the elite’s agenda, and ridicule those who stand against it.
This doesn’t mean we’re all consciously turning a blind eye to our own enslavement. But we’re manipulated easily because we’re not aware of the mechanisms of control; we don’t see the connections between events. We allow ourselves to be powerless because we don’t connect the dots.
And that’s just how the people who wield real power like it. But maintaining the illusion that we’re making free choices requires a great deal of manipulation on the part of the powerful. And what’s the key item in the elite’s bag of tricks?
Fear. It works every time.
As long as we can be kept constantly terrorized by external threats, we’ll willingly give up more and more of our freedoms, and we’ll support actions like the Iraq War that kill hundreds of thousands. When the truth of that agenda slips out, as it did in the case of Iraq, we accept explanations of “incompetence.”
This brings us to the ugly truth. Many of the horrible and depraved events that we’ve been confronted with are perpetrated not by terrorists who “hate our freedoms,” but by the people we trust to represent us and protect us.
Who benefited from 9/11? What was the result of the event? Two wars, which were already planned, went ahead. Hundreds of billions of dollars in profit were made, an oil pipeline through Afghanistan got the go-ahead, and our current bogeyman – the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist – took attention away from the real criminals.
George W. Bush drew a clear connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 even though he KNEW it was a lie. A significant percentage of Americans still believe there is a connection. In fact, a lot of people still think – incorrectly – that the 9/11 hijackers entered the United States from Canada. Sorry Sharron Angle, but that’s false too. But it makes a good story. The fact that the FBI was told by the Bush administration to back off investigating supposed al-Qaeda threats in the U.S. (including alleged hijackers on 9/11) doesn’t fit with the official line.
If fear is the greatest weapon of this criminal elite, then the media is their most trusted accomplice. Major media outlets – owned by major corporations that have their own agenda – participate in the obscuring of the truth. And there’s no better example of this than 9/11. Huge, glaring, obvious questions about the holes in the official story are not even asked. And we accept this without getting the least bit angry.
As Peter Finch said in the film Network, “First you’ve got to get mad!. You’ve got to say ‘I’m human being, goddammit! My life has value!’”
How do you think the people that pulled off 9/11 feel about human life? What about the people who helped them cover it up? What about the rest of us?
We need to understand that our political and military leaders are not representing us, they’re working in the interests of the elite that put them in “power.” They create the problems that make us afraid, and then they come to the rescue with a solution that takes more freedom away.
Maybe someday we’ll get mad enough to do something about it – to stand up for what’s right. We certainly can’t wait for the media to do it for us.
The power is there if we want it. If we have the courage to take it.