Once upon a time, I used to live in a country of laws and rules that were supposed to never be broken. Then along came some rich, white men who re-wrote the rulebook to in effect say that the rules don't apply to anyone whose net worth is above a certain amount and who only acquire their wealth by fixing the game and taking from the poor. (As Bernie Madoff learned, not manipulating the system first and just taking from the poor will get you prison time.)
Then along came an airplane (or four) and suddenly life became much brighter for these Wealthy, White Men. On 9/11 the wealthy, white men of America had a chain orgasm. They suddenly had a tangible scapegoat upon which they could heap all sorts of justifications to create the perfect master/surf state in the country which used to be based on laws and rules that were supposed to never be broken.
Before the "terrorists" struck, the scapegoat was the evil "Liberal". This is all well and good, but it required a major and laborious spinning of the liberal policies to make them sound evil. "Terrorists" had a built-in lingo that sounded pretty evil without the bother of spin. After all, you really had to work at it to spin "We want to give people a hand up" into "Death to America!". But the terrorists were skipping the spinning part and going straight to the "Death to America!" part. Even BETTER, the other groups already IN the country of laws and rules that were never supposed to be broken that were saying "Death to America!" (which were made up of people who tended to support the professed agenda of the Wealthy, White Men, mostly because they didn't have a damn clue what the Wealthy, White Men were REALLY up to) – the Timothy McVeighs and others who plotted to destroy the country – began to drop off the radar because the "Terrorists" were of a different race (which really isn't true), from a different country, and, more importantly, were of a different religion! That could bring out all sorts of hatred and fear!
After 9/11, the evil "Liberal" was mostly replaced by an even more evil "Terrorist".
The Wealthy, White Men who, by that time were almost impossible to be rid of, embarked on a new tactic: To make America afraid. Fear is an important thing, both to life and manipulation. Catering to prejudices works in manipulating people, but making them AFRAID, then seeming to offer them solutions that almost, but not quite, addresses that fear, turns crafty, scheming politicians (who, of course for anyone who's read my book, know are merely the lapdogs of the Wealthy, White Men) into "war heroes" who can do photo-ops in front of gigantic "Mission Accomplished" signs which proclaimed things that weren't true.
"Terrorists" think creating fear will work by bombing and shooting people. Well, if Palestine and Israel (or any two sides) are any example of how well this works to actually influence things positively toward one's goals, terrorists should have spent more time in History class. France notwithstanding (because it almost never did in the last century or so), when applying violence to a society, they don't react with fear. They get angry and unite.
This is a Very Bad Thing to the Wealthy, White Men of America. A united country is impossible to control without stripping away all of the framework upon which the country was founded – liberty and democracy. While this IS a goal of the Wealthy, White Men, it's further down the road once they own everything and the rest of us own nothing.
Unfortunately for the Wealthy, White Men, the United States was united in the months following 9/11 in a way it hadn't been since World War II. The Wealthy, White Men (Hither-to to be known as WWM's because it's getting tiring typing out Wealthy, White Men all the time) had the perfect scapegoat, but had to deal with this whole "unity" bullshit standing in their way of USING that scapegoat to their own ends and seizing ultimate power over all of us.
What better way to bring about a fear mentality than to declare "War on Terror", as if dropping GPS-guided munitions on an emotion was POSSIBLE, let alone practical? But we have a long history of saying if you hurt us, we will hurt you back even more, so it seemed like the thing to do at the time. War means fighting which means money pumped into the military-industrial complex by the trillions while the fear-mongering propaganda machine churns out stories and reports that are designed only to instill terror in the hearts of the average (VERY average, even BELOW average) American.
Of course, one of the main WWM goals in seizing ultimate power over all of us is the suspension of all liberties and freedoms, but it can't be done overnight, even though they made their first steps toward breaking the laws and rules that should never be broken. The extremely inappropriately named "Patriot Act" comes to mind as an example of this.
No, violence isn't necessary to instill fear in people. Just the threat of violence. Making it SEEM like your life is about to be suddenly and senselessly taken by some angry stranger at any second, driving that point home over and over and over and over and over again, creating useless "Terrorist Threat" systems that can be easily manipulated for political gain (Remember who the politicians work for!) to keep the fear going. Putting out news as propaganda designed to keep people afraid helps. THAT'S what creates "terror".
So, why fear?
Simple, fear makes it easy to make people do really, really stupid things. And when you're dealing with a large minority of abysmally stupid people to begin with, it makes the job that much easier. Now, truth be told, this group is already afraid, even though the cause is indoctrination (environmental) rather than genetic. Recent physiological studies have proven that most conservatives have a high reaction to fear and tend to seek simplistic answers. The more of a part of a brain that is stimulated, the more it tends to develop, apparently. Historically, the United States has been center-right politically, which means there are a lot of conservatives out there who have a high reaction to fear and tend to seek simplistic answers. They are a ready-made resource for manipulating.
Why terrorism?
The WWM's of the country recognized one major thing about the 9/11 attacks: They were directed at the financial centers of the world – the World Trade Centers. They also targeted the Pentagon and, likely, the White House (or possibly Congress).
Let's look at these acts from a somewhat different perspective – that of a terrorist. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that terrorists are actually fighting AGAINST the WWM's of the world. Yes, yes, I know they say they aren't, and almost certainly aren't, but let's just go there for a second. We CAN go there because the WWM's are supported by a bunch of frightened people who wouldn't DISBELIEVE the possibility of them being specifically targeted by "terrorists" because terrorists hate WWM's. But on the off chance that it's true, what would be the result of WWM'S being targeted by terrorists actually be?
Well, a combination of things, actually. First of all, saying that we must rise up and combat terrorism so that a privileged few can contune to suck the financial blood of the world doesn't play well in Peoria. It's hard to get behind putting life, limb and conative ability on the line for a bunch of wealthy people who have never done the same and only want to get more wealthy. So make it about the country and protecting the country. Call it Patriotism. Try to shout down the people who rightly point out that it's nationalism, not patriotism.
Secondly, the WWM's want to keep their lives and toys, so they'll push trillions of someone else's dollars toward the Defense industry to create machines of war and armies to do their fighting. Why spend your own money doing that to keep your skin intact when you can make money by making other people spend their money and lives and reap the profits? Alright, step two done – take fiscal advantage of the situation.
Third, make sure to take other advantage of the situation. Play down the "Death to Wealthy Corporations and American Influence Here In Our Country!" rallying cry (which has been mentioned as a reason why terrorists hate us) and play up the much-simpler chant "Death to America!". This distracts the basic conservative from what the WWM's have been doing all along even better because they can get angry liberals to go along with it.
Fourth, keep an eye on the goal. The ultimate making lemonade out of lemons situation is that by putting this in terms of "national security", they can start to erode our civil liberties and rights without the bother of revolutions, insurrection and civil war. Do it an inch at a time and eventually they will have full control over everyone.
(But make sure those pesky liberals don't get any credit for anything good! God forbid THEY get anything done. It's important that if anything is to be done, it's the conservative way or no way at all! After all, if the liberals actually did something GOOD, the country would probably notice and it would make the conservative spin machine have to work THAT MUCH HARDER (remember, they're only good with simplistic answers) to spin a good thing into a bad thing.)
So there you have it, boys and girls. The WWM's of the world, who want to dominate the whole world, the are fighting the people who want to tear them down. The terrorists have won because they turned you into a fearful people willing to sacrifice your liberties and freedoms all for the sake of "security". They have turned the population of the United States into a bunch of simpering cowards "sheltering in place" with a whole city "shut down" because of ONE MAN, and who have the pitifully minuscule mindset of chanting "USA, USA!" when he's caught as if a whole country looking for one man INSIDE THAT COUNTRY was a challenge worthy of cheers.
And then, the pawns of the WWM's in this nation of laws and rules that should never be broken urges the President to break the most fundamental laws and rules for this one man – a citizen, no less – because they're afraid he's working with someone else who may hurt us.
A strong nation doesn't need to say it's strong. It proves it by adhering to its laws and rules that should never be broken. It doesn't change its way of life, its rules and laws that served for more than 225 years, for the sake of meeting a new challenge. EVERYONE will die, sooner or later. Whether in a bombing in Boston or crossing the street without looking both ways first, death comes for us all. People who are afraid shelter in place. They cower behind the illusion that if they are safe, so is the nation. But a nation is more than a chunk of land and a bunch of people. It is a collection of ideas and needs, of strengths and weaknesses and above all of laws and rules by which everyone abides. Those laws and rules give us the freedom to have ideas and needs and strengths and weaknesses. Without them, we have no country. Without them, we have anarchy. We can not abandon them and retain anything resembling a national identity.
Now, remember this all started off with the words "Once upon a time..." That means this is a fairy tale. But it doesn't mean it's entirely untrue. Every fairy tale has a moral. And the moral of this fairy tale is never let fear tell you what you think WE should do. Always think first and then do what's best for all of us. Expediency paves the road to hell and we're preparing the bricks to lay it now. And when we get there, the Terrorists will be grinning at us, knowing they won because we danced to their tune.
