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What do you think is more important to you, your freedom or the stylishness of your shoes? In my experience, most Americans find the stylishness of their shoes to be more important than their freedom... even more important than whether or not their children and grandchildren will live in freedom.
The proof of what I just said is demonstrated by the amount of time, money, research, or discussion most people devote to the sustainability of their freedoms versus the amount of time, money, research, or discussion they devote to their shoes. I could say the same thing about their entertainment, their wine, their lawn, their car, their cosmetics, their favorite sports team, their choice of dessert, or just about any other aspect of their lives. When I say their freedom, I am talking about their basic human rights, their ability to know the truth about what's going on in the world, their ability to express themselves publicly or hear other enlightened people express themselves publicly.
And that is why we Americans have already lost most of our precious rights and freedoms and why we are well on our way to losing the rest of them.
You cannot make a call from your home or cell phone to another human being without the government being able to listen to and/or save your conversation for later review... who you talked to, what you said, where you were when you said it. The same is true for any text message, email, or attachment you might send or receive. Your privacy is gone. And that's true even if you are communicating with your attorney, doctor, banker, lover or anyone else. Does the government care what you have to say or do? Probably not... unless you take issue with anything they say or do and begin to make a difference. Without privacy there is no real freedom and making a difference becomes a lot more difficult.
What I said above is also true for any person who seeks public office and is working with colleagues or supporters with the intention of changing this reality should they get elected... which means they probably have very little chance of ever getting elected since those in power who have access to that information, respect no self imposed ethical considerations or limitations on how to destroy someone else's credibility, their ability to be heard by a general audience, or their ability to interfere in any way with Big Brother's agenda.
The whistleblower Edward Snowden, with help from Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and others, has made an important breakthrough in bringing to light how most Americans and perhaps most of the first world's populations are currently living lives in a state of involuntary hypnosis or informational fog imposed by a U.S. Government that has transformed itself into a criminal oligarchy whose intention it is literally to rule the world... yes literally.
In his just published book, "No Place to Hide," Glenn Greenwald lays out the approximate breadth, depth, structure and efficacy of our government's plans and accomplishments to date. By doing so, he has given us the opportunity to lift ourselves out of this fog and regain our consciousness. But doing so is going to take a great effort for anyone who has the courage to face this reality, and seeks to return their lives to some semblance of objective sanity.
We have all been subjected to a kind of hypnotic trance state. This has been accomplished by a concerted effort on the part of our government and those who control our educational, political and reporting processes to fill and inundate our lives with official lies and deceits of all kinds, magnified and enhanced by a manipulated and controlled main stream media and assisted by our major institutions which have been intimidated, cajoled, and blackmailed into compliance by the power and influence of those who control immense wealth.
What kind of lies am I talking about: 1. That our military and our military industrial complex has as its purpose to protect and facilitate freedom and democracy here and around the world. That is not its purpose. Our military is systematically destroying freedom and democracy here and throughout the world. 2. That we are in danger of losing our freedoms because of terrorists. No. We are losing our freedoms, not to terrorists but to powerful forces in the world who want us to become weak and subservient so we might serve their selfish interests. 3. That our government is in service to its people. No. Our government is in service to powerful interests who intend to increase their power and stifle or destroy any competition to it. 4. That our economy and the management of it is improving the well-being of its people. No. Our economy is being mismanaged, weakening the lives of most citizens while further empowering those who intend to rule our lives for their own benefit. 5. That our political processes are empowering the wisest and most enlightened citizens among us for the benefit of all peoples. No. Our political processes are keeping our most well educated and enlightened citizens from serving the wellbeing of our citizens and humanity in general.
Some examples: 1. A smaller and smaller segment of our population is controlling more and more of its resources and wealth while more and more people are becoming impoverished. 2. A quality education is becoming available to fewer and fewer children. A quality public education is not being made available to all children fairly and equitably, but is being made available based on the economic status of their parents. Quality higher education is becoming less and less affordable and available rather than more affordable and available, and its cost is impoverishing more and more citizens for longer and longer periods of time. 3. Quality healthcare services are not available to all citizens on an equitable basis even though other countries have demonstrated that it is possible to do just that. 4. Jurisprudence is being degraded so that some criminals have become too wealthy, important, and powerful to prosecute and some politicians are too important and insulated to impeach or prosecute. The Constitution is degraded and demeaned. Basic human rights and freedoms are being lost. Criminals are going free while innocent people are being imprisoned and mistreated without legal due process. The rule of law is being turned upside down. 5. More and more police officers are becoming enemies of the people rather than their friends and protectors. 6. Our environment is being degraded to the point that we can foresee a day when human beings will be hard pressed to live peacefully or happily on this planet. 7. In general, any aspect of progress that you can identify is being stifled when in a legitimate economy and system of government almost every aspect of life would improve over time as we continue to experience life, learn, and evolve.
What can be done about this?
1. First the American people need to become aware of what has happened to them. They need to wake up.
2. It is useless to protest to current office holders since current office holders are the ones keeping all this in place. Every one took an oath of office and most, if not all, are betraying that oath.
3. Until the great majority of Americans understand 1 & 2 above, nothing will change. It will only get worse. Any effort to change things before understanding 1 & 2 above will only make things worse. Why? Because the lies and deceits I have alluded to have altered and corrupted the personalities of those who have consciously or unconsciously adopted them and live by them. And until those individuals are able to identify and sort out those lies and deceits and un-corrupt themselves, they will not respond in a useful way. Since most of us have been corrupted by them, it will not be useful or decent to judge others who remain corrupted by them. It's going to take time to fix this, but we must begin now with ourselves.
4. What can we do to heal ourselves? Seek truth, honor, dignity, compassion, courage, and love. Just consider those six words one at a time... slowly. That's all we need to do. And that's all we should try to do. In fact, putting your heart and soul into doing that is now our only hope.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
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"...and if you haven't the courage to tell the truth, or the consciousness to honor the truth, or the love to love the truth, then one day you will not have the truth to tell, and soon thereafter you will not live in a place that will acknowledge the truth when it is told, and not long after that the truth will not be told, for it will no longer be allowed. You cannot hope to be a traitor to life, and then expect to live in a free and just society."
From "The Answer"
By Mark A. Goldman
“Liberty lies in the hearts and minds of men and women;
when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it;
no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it…”
—Judge Learned Hand
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