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Technorati"The Stepford Wives" tells the chilling story of once smart, independent women who get abducted and turned into tamed, mindless robots.
I have a theory about a similarly subversive process that turns grown men once capable of independent and reasoned thought into robotic extremists. Call them Stepford Republicans. The nefarious transformation always occurs before the individual gets close to becoming a Republican president or vice president.
Stepford Wives become robotically subservient only to their husbands; they pose no threat to the rest of us. But Stepford Republicans become subservient to right-wing forces of corporatism, war and prejudice. Once converted into mindless ideologues, Stepford Republicans are a threat to us all.
The prototype of a Stepford Republican is President Ronald Reagan. After his apparent abduction and alteration, he became an instrument of corporate power in the White House: union-busting, downsizing, cutting school lunch funding. This is the Reagan many remember: champion of the overdog.
But when Reagan was still a sentient being, he was actually a bleeding-heart advocate for working people. He denounced budget cuts ("millions of children have been deprived of milk once provided through the federal school lunch program") and tax cuts that "benefit the higher income brackets alone." He assailed corporate profiteering, and labeled a top Republican "the banner carrier for Wall Street." He hailed unions and complained that "labor has been handcuffed by the vicious Taft-Hartley law."
In other words, before he was robotized, Ronald Reagan could be a warm, compassionate human being - and I offer a remarkable tape to prove my theory.
Many Americans have long suspected that Vice President Dick Cheney is an android. What they may not know is that - before being Stepfordized into a neoconservative drone - he was capable of non-ideological thought that would allow him to choose a peace option over war, able to use human reason to figure out why invading Iraq would inevitably lead to "quagmire." This short video clip offers compelling evidence.
Today, Mitt Romney is such a robotically rabid spouter of social-conservative dogma that he's won the praise of radio rightists like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. Offered as evidence of his Stepfordization is this video revealing a once human and tolerant Romney who seemed to care deeply about women's rights and abortion rights, and resisted any connection to the policies of Reagan-Bush. It was this pre-abduction Romney who boasted that he would do more for gay equality than Ted Kennedy.
John McCain was also horrifically rewired toward servile courtship of the Religious Right. Dramatic evidence of McCain's Stepfordization is caught on video: "Before" footage shows you a strong human speaking bravely against right-wing "agents of intolerance" like Jerry Falwell; "after" footage reveals a lifeless, docile tool of those same forces.
Perhaps you can't accept my theory - despite the powerful taped evidence I offer - that these Republican icons are victims of Stepford-like abduction and transplant.
If so, I'd like to hear an alternative theory as to why these individuals betray their own principles or intellect - why they turn themselves into fawning servants of economic forces or ideologies or social movements they once abhorred.
The blind pursuit of power, you say? I'm simply unwilling to believe that human beings - even top Republicans - are so inherently opportunistic and corrupt.
I'll stick with my abduction theory.
Jeff Cohen is a media critic and author of "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media."
70 Comments so far
Show Allrebelnow February 1st, 2008 1:35 pm
Idealistic, caring, going to save humanity, acquaintances from the past, who went into law school in order to save the environment, or help the poor, often ended up being recruited by large corporations.
sorry to rain on your parade: my best friend left the Army after 42 months in Vietnam to go to law school to be a "warrior for the ecology" and spent the next 25 years doing EXACTLY that; my wife has spent 24 years woring with mentally handicapped and abused children; my login name says it all about where I srand
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lord Acton, 1887
To call Ronald Reagan - "If they want a bloodbath, that's exactly what they're going to get"(press conference about Vietnam war protesters) or Mad Dog McCain, who was dropping cluster bombs and napalm on the Vietnamese at the same time the Great Communicator was babbling away, anything but fascist monsters is insane. Whatever they said prior to their installation in office when they could show their true corporatocracy colors is bullshit.
Ever listen to talk radio? Limbaugh, Savage, Dr. Laura... they all have this 'go to commercial' sound, Limbaugh's sounds like zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZ---DONK! (- ;
An avenue for subliminal programming? Things like- trust rush, when confronted with unpleasant facts- denial, then irrational outburst. Sure it's 'crazy', but then again so is 'losing' $2.3 Trillion dollars and not a single congressperson will investigate it (Hon. mention Cynthia McKinney)- those trillions could fund any propaganda op imaginable.
Anyone remember the 2004 Dem Convention, they had similar 'weird sounds' that were noticeably out of place, and teams of minders removing 'unapproved' (peace) signs.
ncycat: I don't agree with you. They have never changed. It's all about power and priviledge. Always the same objective. It seems to be a timeless human characteristic for some. I wonder if it is in their DNA or something.
I have an idea! Every politician/corporate slim that is found guilty of fraud, corruption, greed, crimes against humanity, and/or treason against the Constitution be sterilized? And all of their living children? I wonder if that would weed the idiots out of the gene pool. Kind of like eugenics in reverse. Ethnic cleansing without the blood and death. Would that be considered cruel and unusual punishment? I mean, the elites got away with it for years by sterizing the poor and others they didn't think were "pure". It seems to me that turn around would be fair play.
Bah. These people are as changeable as the wind--weak, corrupt and evil.
Rebel Farmer - Well said. There's trouble in Teletubbyland.
Why isn't anybody in Congress or the media even asking who the Bushies are eavesdropping on with those warrantless wiretaps? I wouldn't put it past them to use extortion to get some cooperation from Reid, Pelosi and all the others.
What I'm hearing in many of these comments is "Why can't others see what is being done to them against their best interests"? I hear brainwashing, the MSM, television, drugs, too busy surviving, corporate power, greed, etc. I have one more to add: I can remember wondering why the Soviets never rose up for freedom. Then I realized that they had never in their long history ever experienced freedom.
The same is now true for many Americans. They have never known a time when they were citizens instead of just consumers. Many have never witnessed a time when most were not just wage slaves. Many have never known or personally experienced the power that the working class can have if they join together. Especially the young have never experienced the hope that they too can rise to the middle class through an honest days work. I suspect that many assume that the justice system and congress would always be there to protect their rights. And like the Russians, always assumed that things would always somehow return to "normal" if given enough time.
We live in a time when most people have never had to fight to hold on to their freedoms and democracy and women's rights and civil liberties. We as Americans do not have a shared historical memory or culture. And the pace of change in all areas of society is so rapid that it is impossible to adapt. And as Americans individually cannot adapt quickly enough, neither can our institutions. We have become so fragmented just trying to figure out what the hell is going on and how to incorporate change into our every day lives, it's almost impossible to do anything else. It seems that America is headed for a colossal and collective nervous breakdown.
"I'm simply unwilling to believe that human beings - even top Republicans - are so inherently opportunistic and corrupt.....I'll stick with my abduction theory."
As others have implied, it seems more likely that the obvious level of corruption and greed within the Republican Party is primarily responsible for their "conscious" decision to allow themselves to become abductees. I find it difficult to believe they were taken against their will.
Again, Ladies and Gentlemen of the chorus, do yourselves a favor and read Cathy O'Brien's "Trance Formation of America -- the True Life Story of a CIA Mind Control Slave". She's not talking aliens and little green men. She's talking psy ops and black ops so psy and black that it is stupifying -- especially when one looks at the plan that swung into operation on Day One of Bush II's administration, and when one must then admit that the horror Cathy O'Brien is describing is for real. And where was "Dick" Cheney during the Reagan years? Cathy will tell you. She knows. She was there. And so was Cheney, pulling the strings of the man that Cathy knew as "Uncle Ronnie". Oh yeah, and Bush the First has a leading role in this book. Bush the Second (and please God the last), only a teenager at the time, has a walk-on. Then there's Gerald Ford, Senator Byrd, and Hollywood's Jack Valente, and Bill and Hillary, and L.L. Bean, and Boys Town, the Grand Ole Oprey and scads of your favorite country-western singers, a who's who of congressional and senatorial types, Noriega and the drug cartels, and ... but you get the picture. It's fascinating stuff, great pre-election reading. Must-read fare really, for those who want to stop wondering what's going and and KNOW what is going on. Check out the reviews and comments on Amazon. Then spend the entire rebate, that the government now wants to send to you in order to stave off the coming world-wide depression that the characters in Cathy's book have engineered, and blanket the USA with this book. Only the truth can set us free. Truth outing is the only chance that we have.
We ARE different, we who read and post here. But we are, like the blind men and the elephant, each perceiving a small piece of the picture. The piece that I rant about is one I have watched slowly dismantle American neighborhoods, families, and individual thought. It is the piece which has destroyed the printed word as the major medium for news, ideas and learning. It is, of course, your television. The neo-cons know [goddess help us, we academics taught them] that if they repeat the same message over and over, people will believe it. TV has destroyed literacy, and there is now a TV in every child's bedroom as well as living room. All media are owned by 5 individuals or corporations. All they need is 50% of the votes and they get that via the idiot box. As long as there is a TV in every living room there is little, if any, hope of regaining what we have lost.
lizard is correct. You would think it would be a good thing that the likely Republican opponent in the coming election would be either a synthetic bobblehead or an aging soldier given to saccharine vocal inflections and sudden, Strangelovean seizures of rage. Americans are masters of parody, and since both of these men are already cartoon characters they will surely be lampooned to smithereens. But not so fast. Nixon was a cartoon character, right out of Tales From the Crypt. Reagan was the essence of all vacant minded sitcom grandpas, and it was impossible not to imagine Bush senior without institutional pajamas and a psychiatric attendant. We've been here before, convinced that there's nothing to worry about, that Republicans are only trying to scare us, and damned if America didn't elect them. They elected George Bush and re-elected George Bush. It's America that scares me.
My husband and I have wondered why we are soooo very different in our views from people who grew up in the very same families and times. We laugh and cite "the Matrix" blue pill/red pill choice. But we really wonder. One difference between my husband/me and our siblings is that we are the youngest and watched their mistakes and learned from them. We also both had close brushes with death in our young ages. (Harry Potter's Thestrels?)
But seriously...we can't seem to find any reasonable explanation. We too own our home, have kids, and work...yet we don't sell our souls for security. We are almost too busy and that may explain the disconnect between the average American and politics - just too darn busy to really pay attention.
If one wants to make it in the Republican Party they soon learn not to have any individual opinion. They follow the party line right down to their pro-life stance or they don't make it in the party! Those who don't toe the mark don't get on committee's or get finances for reelection. The Republican's control their members with a iron fist. That's one of the single biggest reasons I quit voting Republican all together. One is just voting for another Republican clone when they do! Someone who will go along with the fascist philosophy and not utter a word of condemnation. Who will spew the same right wing slop on call! I can't say I am all that happy with Democrat's but right at the moment they are the least of the evils! Until the Republican party cleans up their act I will continue to vote Democratic!
I have always wondered why neo-cons cannot think for themselves. Now I know why.
First people change their minds. For every time someone mentions Dick Cheney's 1991 speech on not going to Baghdad, one should watch Al Gore's speech on the same subject.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3842994276590746235&q=al+gore+on...
He talks about Iraq's ties to Terrorism, Nuclear Weapons and quotes Richard Pearle. Kind of sounds like a Neo-Conservative. One can also look at Micheal Gordon & Bernard Trainor's Cobra II (written about Iraq 2003) and The Generals' War (written about Iraq 1991). In 1991 they argued for the 2003 War, and then back off that claim in 2003.
Secondly, where you sit is where you stand. When one goes from a regional candidate to a national candidate there constituency changes. This is clearly demonstrated by Madeleine Albright as a member of Senator Muskie's staff wrote a letter to then president Carter detailing the importance of the "law of the Sea" to local fishermen. She was hired by Carter, and found the letter she wrote and responded that the national interest was in not signing the law of the sea.
Lastly, it is terribly intolerant to consider anyone who changes his mind (and now disagrees with you) "Brainwashed." I don't consider the people i disagree with Brainwashed. I generally think they have a different perspective, or possibly wrong. To view someone I disagree with as brainwashed hardly leaves any room for compromise (which is nessissary for any functioning democracy), the alternative will lead to violence like what we see in Kenya.
One thought that keeps crossing my mind is that the Administration controls the Congress through fear. It is possible that Bush and Company has conjured the idea that there is a terrorist nuke somewhere in America and that absolute cooperation from the Congress is essential, thus no impeachment. That would also explain expanded Presidential powers with respect to domestic terrorism and FISA. It would also explain support for waterboarding. Congress appears fearful and largely silent.
I would anticipate that if a loose nuke in America is the fear, that it would be purposefully leaked prior to the next election thus turning the voters toward John McCain. But maybe it's all more simple than that. The candidates wives do appear to be Stepfords as well.
It's simple--read "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins where he tells how, as an independent contractor for US AID and the State Department he set about subverting third world governmental leadership.
The bargain is simple: play along with us (the imperialist, banking, multi-national corporate elites who really run the world) and we will make it worth your while monetarily--we'll even take care of the "legacy thing". Resist us and you will either be literaly or socially dead(which for most celebrity hungry politicians is the samne thing). We will also go after your loved ones. Arundhati Roy has aptly described it as being the choice between "the checkbook or the cruise missile".
John Hinkley (whose family was real close to "Poppy" Bush) tamed Ronald Reagan. That's why JFK was so hated--he was the last occupant of the White House who really conducted himself like a President) because he quite frankly didn't care.
JFK was stricken with Addisons Disease whose primary treatment back when he was diagnosed with same was massive doses of testosterone (which might go a long way to explain his legendary libido) and knew he had a limited life-span as a result.
That and little brother Bobby in the AG's office to keep J Edgar Hoover's Gestapo, the FBI, on a short leash, along with a multi-million dollar fortune he iherited as a Kennedy gave him a measure of invulnerability for a while anyway.
Stepford --- Step and fechit. It's the same immoral trash that sees a way to make money without working and a way to play at wars without risk to themselves or their children.
"Robotized Stepford Republicans" - or democrats for that matter - is a nicely catchy concept.
Maybe the simple explanation for this robotization is that life's more complex than allowed in the false consistency demanded by the polarization of public opinion into expressions of opinion through top-candidates of two monolithic parties.
Staying "on message" in order to get through in the emotionalized, three-word attention-span of the Corporate Media demands a gross denial of any candidate's human nuances. Net result is that political candidates are pulled into the corporate profit-agenda in order to be heard at all.
That way the structure of "news" has a largely self-fulfilling profit-oriented theme. The old saying manifests itself - that it's no surprise top-politicians are liars and crooks because only liars and crooks can make it to the top in politics. It's a vicious circulation spinning. Robotize your views and you may float to the top, by dropping contact with your true self and the humanist intentions that made you want to enter the updraft.
It's an alchemical transformation cursed by the max growth-motive fixed in the profit-seeking that's legislated into the purpose of Corporations. For a Corporation to be non-profit, that must be explicitly stated in its definition of purpose at outset. Only hard-thought exceptions to the rule are legally allowed to be anything other than oriented toward maximization of profits. Max profits is made the default option of US (and Western) society. No wonder our ecological base is crashing from over-exploitation.
That's the main sickness leading to robotization of anyone cooperating with corporations - which political candidates must in any privately, corporate-funded election-campaign, as different from public-funded and cost-limited campaigns.
Gorsegrower- While she has said very little, I recall Jane Wyman's brief comment implying that Ronald Reagan's right wing choices broke up their marriage. Studies show that Alzheimer's sneaks up on people years before the overt symptoms appear. A well-known newswoman saw Reagan in an Alzheimer's moment in April of 1986. And in 1987, Thatcher was overheard saying,"Poor thing- There's nothing between his ears." The big question is, Who was running our government? During the Bush administration, I have little doubt that most of the decisions have been made by Cheney or those paying or pressuring him. Where was Cheney during the Reagan years? Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Ergo stepfordization.
Since the topic here is alien abduction as a possible theory in the strange possession like behavior of US leaders, I'll suggest a fascinating book, The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft. It's about Hitler's obsession with the occult. He built the SS around occult theories. Ravenscoft tells how Hitler believed he channeled a Lucifer like personage during his speeches. The SS was an occult body, believing in an "other worldly" mission. They sent specialists to Tibet to hire and study with Tibetan Lama's, believing they had special occult powers. The swastika is an ancient Buddhist (maybe pre-Buddhist)symbol, that the Nazi's utilized believing it was a power symbol.
People are starting to sound like the Ancient Greeks who attributed the unexplainable, hypocritical, and mysterious behavior of humans to the pantheon of Gods who toyed with humans and utilized them as pawns in their power games.
Ron Paul is a Stepford Politician, too.
But the people in charge of his programming are from the Religious Right, which explains why he opposes reproductive choice for women and civil rights for gay people.
You can't proclaim that you deserve to be president because you are "for the people" while conspiring to take people's rights away.
I would never vote for Ron Paul.
I feel the same way that Doom n Gloom does. I can't make the pieces fit. I don't know if it is because there too many pieces to this puzzle, if the puzzle itself is all one color instead of a picture, or if I'm holding pieces to multiple different puzzles who's pieces will never fit together.
Remember the scene in Star Wars when the good guys get trapped in a giant trash compactor? And the walls are slowly closing in on them? That's how I feelabout the situation we are all in now in America. Only I have come to the conclusion that we aren't going to escape. We are all going to be squished and thrown away......
Bush and deadeye Dick's spying program has given them ammunition against each and every person in congress.This is my hunch.
The answer is easy. Go back to those teenage years when dad and mom had the keys to the car. Chores were done fast. We all know who controls the keys to the car(we just pretend). No! it is not the free voter. American democracy is operated on the time honored principle; one dollar one vote.
There is something that the public does not know. It is powerful enough to change otherwise thoughtful people. It has neutered the Congress. I have not been able to logically connect any idea with reason. There are weaknesses to any thought that I might generate. Nothing fits.
Truthseeker58 is so right, I mean left.
What is going on?
One day there was hope, and everyone was saying all the things we've all been wanting to hear, then the the next day it was the invasion of the body snatchers.
At first they (the dems)all were for ending this nightmare and the next debate (everyone but Kucinich) was talking about well maybe we'll be out of Iraq by 2013.
Is it something in the water? Kucinich just couldn't get anywhere, no one backed him with impeachment. No one even let him speak. He was uninvited to the debates.
Discredited.
The man is the real deal. Now they are trying to destroy him by taking his seat away. He is one of the very few in congress that is not owned.
It's just a chess game, black and white. The issues are unimportant, just gender ,race and appearences seem to motivate
discussions when we are not distracted by the latest celebrety calamity. People are sheep and can be easily herded in any direction. Scary stuff....we are so ripe for facism.
I bit off the subject but I can not help but notice one side of McCain's face appears larger than the other. I am aware that since Roves hate campaign destroyed this nutjob in 2000 that he has had his nose so far up bushes ass that I'm guessing it is one of bushes turds that is just too hard to swallow and he has not received permission to spit out yet. any thoughts?
As I am informed that the enlightening spread for Common Dreams reaches out throughout planet Earth, I should add The Parable of the Three Villages has just gone up on all online book sellers worldwide clear out to Japan.
First enthusiastic review appearing in Amazon is by none other than the great children's troubadour Raffi.
Please pardon the commercial message, but I must point out that before I became more lofty as scientist and statesman, I was, after all, the very commercial minded publisher of Poor Richards Almanac.
B.Franklin
Mr.Cohen is quite right. We noticed this phenomenon back in my days, too, but being over 100 years earlier than Freud weren't able to come up with a reasonable psychological diagnosis. In sifting possibly relevant work among your contemporaries I find the nearest thing to an answer in a book by psychologist David Loye and utopian theorist M.M. (for Moira Mencius) Khan entitled The Parable of the Three Villages. Purportedly a story on a recently unearthed ancient artifact, the tale of the three villages of the saintly Osanto, the vicious Snarlsgrrrrr, and an ostensible analogue of life in your time, Mystifu, the parable tells of the attempt by Snarlsgrrrr to take over the others. Chief among its devices is a new breed of robot reflecting exactly what Mr.Cohen is identifying. They are called Comconbots, a compression of the Compassionate Conservative Robots. Their masters are so repellent ComConBots have been invented to smile, and joke, and ingratiate themselves with target Mystifuians, thereby infiltrating this poor village, which I must say does remarkably mirror your lives, so bombarded with information overload they can no longer think straight. Prophetically, I should hope not, Mystifu winds up going down the drain in total environmental and moral disaster, until rescued by Osanto, with Sages, I must say, I find remarkably evocative of the qualities your saintly organization MoveOn and other enlightened bodies are now finding in that excellent prospect for president Barack Obama. I must, however, tell you, from my own experience in our fight to launch the American revolution, that I deplore the pathology and impracticality of vicious attacks by progressives against your excellent alternative candidate Hilary Clinton. You should consider yourselves fortunate to have two such excellent and potentially noble candidates vying to rescue you from the most disgraceful period and presidency in the short history of our blessed America. It
is our fervent hope (that is, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, as well as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, and Eleanor Roosevelt) that the two will secretly agree to appoint the other as Vice President, upon victory. Such a truly inspiring pair for leadership is the only way the truly great American leadership the world so desperately needs at this point can prevail over the rush of all the poison of racism and sexism and corporatism and rightist religious insanity to the support of the sad latest puppet of the Tories, this Senator McCain. May God preserve us from such a fate! We shall pull for them with everything we can from the hereafter, for the two great potential leaders you have been given at this time can!
I have often wondered if someone wasn't doing brain transplants or mind control on these people. It's just too strange to see democrats most calling themselves[christians] voting for war and funding at every turn. Acting against the self interest of the populace in brazen fashion.
It's a subject worth studying. What ever it is it has put this country at great peril. Mortgaging our future with an un American imperialist agenda.
Nobody is raising a hand against The Bush Crime Family because, of course, "America" is in bed with them---Hoping that they'll do our imperial dirty work while we, with faux naivete, look guiltily away and keep our faces in the consumer "lifestyle" trough. That's what we allowed them to kill a million Iraqis for, right? Our accustomed lifestyle? And goodness, nobody on the corporate infomercial called STUPA TUESDAY wants to be seen as anti-business! There'll be peace as soon as the Judeo-American empire has devoured enough of its own children...
Maybe they're brainwashed, drugged, threatened, castrated, or programmed. But, whatever it is, there's enough of it going around to have made all of us take notice.
What's really interesting, though, is how did we, here on this forum, acquire an immuntity to this malady? I'm beginning to really wonder, and speak with like minds about what it is in our make-up (brain, chemistry, what?) that has kept us from being blinded.
I am dead serious. We have all been there: in groups where we felt we were the only sane person present. Sometimes we wonder if we are the crazy one. And we flock to forums like this, meetings, marches, etc. for our liberal fix. Lately, I've been finding I need a fix more often, lest I go stark raving mad.
Are you with me here?
Alternative theory #421:
"The Phone Call In The Middle Of The Night Theory"
The NSA (and others) have been illegally spying on us since at least 7 months before 911 - that's nearly eight years unsupervised and, so far, the feds haven't found a single terrorist, sleeper cell, or anthrax killer. And eight years is plenty of time to learn every gory detail about, well, just about every one of us three-times over.
So a Mitt or McNut steps off the reservation... and the call comes in... we know what you did last summer... and suddenly, the robot appears at Bob Jones U goin' all Jesus this and Jesus that and gays suck and bomb bomb bomb Iran and shit...
Just a theory, natch.
jjpeter is right. I wish he were wrong but he is not.
What they call good business is theft. What they call globalization is murder. If they could be disposed of there might be some hope but we who are writing on this CD thread are capable of the worst crimes of any neocon. If we were not we wouldn't be able to see it. What we cannot be at all we cannot see either.
People are not born greedy bastards---it has already been pointed out how easily decent, ordinary people can be and are seduced by the gods of mammon. Nazi Germany was no fluke. The Zimbardo experiments at Stanford proved to my satisfaction that evil is not something that can be drug into the street and shot.
Oh, there may be the occasional spiritual athlete who is a little better than the rest of us, but they are one in a thousand, and most of them never have the opportunity to show the rest of us how it's done.
When God created each step of creation he "saw that it was very good". I think he had no way of knowing just what a vicious, cowardly, small-minded, ignoble, shabby thing he had created out of innocent clay.
Ronald Reagan and his father were very pro FDR, because FDR's policies saved their lives. Then something happened. It was probably the realization that you usually don't make much money advocating for the poor. The poor can't pay you much to work for them. The rich can pay you to advocate for them. You might have to sell your soul and be a liar for hire. You might have to stomp on other people and their dreams. You might have to help the rich steal from the poor. You might have to learn to ignore what people think and say about you, but your rich benefactors will protect you. They will name oil tankers after you. If you out a CIA agent, they will contribute to your defence fund, pay your fines, and pardon you. Honey, you don't have to know history or anything else. All you have to do is stand in front of the TV cameras and get our message out. Don't pay much attention to the questions the reporters ask you. Don't worry about giving an honest answer or an intelligent answer, just give our answer.
The answers are contained in the Psychology textbook definitions of Cognitive Dissonance and Stockholm Syndrome.
The Republicans have found a way to induce Stockholm Syndrome in only a couple Hours instead of the normal Weeks or Months.
It's a secret they refuse to allow the CIA to use against terrorists because it would allow the to End the "War on Terror" in just a few months. All they would have to do is catch just a few REAL Al Quaida members, administer the treatment, and use them to help catch the leaders. Once the Leaders had been treated, the rank & file could be located, treated and all of them Released because they would then be Staunch "Bushies".
Of course, ending the "War on Terror" would cut off the Profits...
Is there somewhere in the dark hearts of policymakers deep in the White House, at some level, a conscious experimentation with field-testing "Big Lies" to see if and how well they can be made to fly? Recall the curious and *repeated* (like a jackhammer) assertion by Bush, now echoed by others such as Mitt Romney not long ago publicly, that as far away and as long ago in the dim, dim past as 2002, that Saddam Hussein "refused the inspectors" and therefore the US had to invade. That flies in the face of the most highly-publicized, well-reported, and widely-known opposite reality (the Hans Blix UN investigators at work in Iraq with Iraqi cooperation). The first time Bush said this one could say this was an error because Bush has a problem mangling words and ideas (surely his staff would quietly set him straight on the point). But it kept being repeated and repeated. What was (is) going on there?
Was this a conscious field test of a small-scale Big Lie, with the objective of seeing how a blatant falsehood, opposite of the most well-publicized reality in everyone's recent memory, can shape public consciousness to believe the opposite, simply by repeated assertion? Or what?
Assuming Mitt Romney was not party to such a conscious lie (if that is what it was on the part of Bush and Bush's handlers), the Mitt Romney echoing of the canard then becomes evidence that even someone with above-average IQ such as Romney could also be taken in by it. (Preferring the most benign interpretation here.) God help us all, we're in Orwellian times.
If there is conscious Big Lie field-testing happening, combined with all the other unitary executive doctrine, domestic militarization, domestic spying, and fear-mongering in the name of the War on Terror (at the same time that Musharraf openly says, as of a few days ago, that there is no attempt to capture Bin Laden who is in Pakistan, and this is acceptable to Bush as it has always been and billions more foreign aid keeps shoveling to Pakistan) ... we are in deep trouble.
It may be too late even for someone as marginally diverting as Obama to take power through traditional electoral means. We will see.
On blatant high-level refusal to prosecute crime--dealing with massive arms sales and nuclear proliferation--when it is done by lobbyists and administration hacks for the most corrupt US allies, see Sibel Edmonds, "The Highjacking of a Nation, Part 2"
http://nswbc.org/Op%20Ed/Part2-FNL-Nov29-06.htm
Also check out the website "Let Sibel Edmonds Speak"--this is the Sibel Edmonds whom Daniel Ellsburg terms "highly credible".
http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/
Stepford Republicans is right--humorous since not literally true, but makes the point. How to diagnose a Stepford Republican? One simple way is to ask what they think of the Sibel Edmonds case. Dumb looks are the Stepford response.
mahaffey February 1st, 2008 12:27 pm wrote:
Once they've climbed to the top of the heap, it takes a lot to bring them down.
This short statement summarized the biggest flaw of the American political system, concentration of power. There is a simple solution: eliminate the executive branch. Wait! Don't go away. Give this some serious thought. Really! Why not have all decisions currently made by the White House made by an elected body of a few hundred people each of whom have to answer to their own electorate? We'd have no war, no imperialism, no favoring of large corporations, and no shipping of jobs overseas. What's that you say? All we would get is disagreement and deadlock. Yes, of course. Isn't that better and immoral wars and genocides in the fictitious name of freedom?
We are told that America's biggest threat is Islamic extremism. It seems to me that America's biggest threat is our own executive branch, which in every administration becomes corrupt. I think the executive branch should be scrapped entirely.
I like leeAnnGees'idea re infitrating the hot spots of corporate and political power.Unfortunately,the idea has already been used by the present incumbents and they can spot someone dodgy (like themselves)from a mile away.
Perhaps the military,with a budget of $700 billion odd,could be the place to start;intelligence does not appear to be a prerequisite for high promotion,as the conduct and results of its activities since 1945 seem to attest.
Reagan was a Democrat in college, they say. His conversion took place at his kitchen table, presided over by Nancy's father and aided by one or more southern California car dealers. Then GE provided the carrot. Nothing very dark or mysterious here, just another routine co-optation.
Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby weren't exactly the sharpest tools in the box were they?
I tend to agree with jerrys here, regarding the threats etc. When you have as many firearms available to all the lunatics outside of the asylum, it is a pretty easy job to start bumping off the people who start to stray from the gameplan.
You don't like the Iraq war - bang bang.
You don't agree with the US empire - bang bang.
You are not going to do what you are told - Well, I could go on, but I guess you get the picture.
DON'T BITE THE HAND WHICH FEEDS YOU!!
When it comes to politicians, dont listen to what they say. Look at what they are doing and have done in the past and who is funding them. Otherwise, you will be hopelessly confused.
The robots are the American people.
It is greed. The even sicker part is, they are fairly cheaply bought.
A golf vacation here, a hooker there, $20,000 for a campaign contribution, and the politician hands over billions of dollars worth of public land, or tax dollars or tax breaks or oil rights.
I can't explain why John Kerry gave up before the votes were counted, or John Edwards gave up before Super Tuesday, or, worst of all, Dennis Kucinich giving up the impeachment bill.
I think the Johns are scum, but I had faith in Dennis. Sad.
I'm inclined to agree with jerrys Confession of an Economic Hitman theory. They threatened them with the "jackals".
I have an alternate theory, although it's quite similar. There was an old Star Trek TNG episode in which many of the top Star Fleet adminstrators were taken over by aliens which crawled into their bodies and used them in an attempt to take over the universe. Anyone whose body contained one of these aliens could be identified by a small tail-like apendage protruding from the back of the person's neck.
In order to defeat the aliens, Captain Picard and his crew had to pretend to also have been infested with an alien. They used surgery to fabricate the little tails. In the end, of course, the forces of good prevailed, and the mother-of-all-aliens, who had implanted herself in a Star Fleet flunky, was exposed and violently destroyed.
It's wishful thinking, I know, but maybe some of the candidates and politicians who now seem to be joining the ranks of aliens are just pretending to be taken over by the body snatchers. Maybe they can actually get into office and ...
Oh, well, it was just science fiction to begin with.
Dear Friends,
Please read "Trance Formation of America" by Cathy O'Brien. It's available on Amazon. And it's the only way that you will get cued into what is really going on. At first you'll think she's nuts. But keep reading, and you will find the putrid, psychopathic underbelly of the neo-con world unfolding word by word. Your mind won't want to accept it. But begin to recognize the MK-ultra mind-controlled zombies functioning in our government, including our president, and you will realize that the lady has the scoop.
Well, Cheney was defending the BushI decision, backed by Colin Powell, to NOT go into BAGHDAD . . . we had invaded Iraq!
And, presumably, the insanity of the PNAC had not perhaps taken total control -- but it was post-the first'93 attack on the WTC.
BushII and Cheney have committed impeachable offenses to carry out an agenda for PNAC and the oil industry -- not to mention the Pentagon. By the time Cheney had gotten to the White House, he had been deeply involved with Halliburton --- and the Halliburton money still pays for his time every day!
I think if this were a matter of "abduction" -- by aliens, at least --- that we'd have seen some POSITIVE results --- not new violence.
American foreign policy has been hand in glove with American Big business for years. The governments job is to lay the foundation for business to enter a country, set up shop, and reap the profits.
Ah, profits - therein lies the rub. Cheney, et all, want to do "business" with the world. They are corporatists, and when they ascend to power (the Republican's the globalists), they twist the govt's mission to match the dictates of the CEO's. To them, this world is profit and loss, loss and gain. Those measures alone are the criteria for success or failure, regardless of the human cost.
The military is their muscle, the means with which they force their will on the unwilling. This unholy alliance finds its compliant partners in places like Indonesia, the Philippines, Colombia, Chile, Egypt, Africa, you name your third world nation.
And the disenfranchised that result from this policy, foment into resistance, seeking equality, and sharing of the wealth, the antithesis of the main motive PROFIT.
Profit is slave owner, the people are the its slaves.
The Cheney clip is indeed ironic, but I wouldn't attribute his clarity to some sort of pre-corrupted state. It seems more likely that he was just doing his job, i.e. articulating the position of the Bush I administration which he probably didn't really believe. Sanity should not be retroactively conferred in his case. He seems perfectly willing to make apparently sincere statements that belie the actual nature of the subject matter (whether it be his real views on Iraq, WMDs, the "success" in El Salvador, etc.)
Maybe another way to think about it is: What kind system is American politics such that it attracts, nurtures and rewards such character?
Jeff, I think you've hit on an excellent metaphor that explains the mechanism at work on the right. thanks for this.
"If you want to take the revolution out of a revolutionary, give them a mortgage."
Once people have "dug in", and have property and possesions to protect, they see threats all over the place to their gain, whether ill gotten or honestly acquired. Just see how much traction "raising taxes" has gotten the repigs. Its a direct threat to the ME attitude the dug-in have.
Consider this -
Laws of the EGO; fear, worry, selfishness, vanity, anger, criticism, envy, hypocrisy, prejudice, jealousy, hate.
Laws of the SOUL; faith, hope, charity, aspiration, sympathy, non-interference, kindness, courage, forgiveness, duty, love.
God lives in each of us, the cosmic energy sustains you and me and the entire universe. Connect with this electricity, vibrant and nurturing and loving, and no Stepford rewiring would DARE come near.
All I can say is this, there is a disconnect between people(citizens-btw we can no longer objectively determine who is or is not a citizen) and leadership (elected leaders-btw we have no real confidence that elections being fair or accurate). So we have a lot of uncertainty about who we are. Now inbetween the people and thier leaders are multinational corporations that function as people (without the limitations of being human). So instead of going forward, maybe we need to look at the process that got us here and fix that first...
liberal,
Great rants!
I just watched the clip linked in the Cheney paragraph from the article above. Watch it and you'll be stunned. He argues against invading Iraq, in 1994, because it will end up being a "quagmire", it will fracture the country, there will be too many deaths and Saddam is not worth that, etc.
I like Jeff Cohen's tongue in cheek abduction theory, dismissing the "power corrupts" traditional explanation. Unfortunately I have seen similar transformations, though on a much smaller scale, with people I have known. Idealistic, caring, going to save humanity, acquaintances from the past, who went into law school in order to save the environment, or help the poor, often ended up being recruited by large corporations. The money is fantastic and they got sucked in. Before you know it they are working for an insurance company trying to screw over some poor widow who lost her husband in an accident, or helping defend a corporation against pollution laws.
It's astounding how the human mind can wrap itself in self righteousness despite all the obvious hypocrisy it engenders.
allow me to continue my rant if you be so kind,
I really believe that something very dark and sinister is happening to the citizens of this world. I actually know very few humans that actually still do exist. Bill Moyers has remained human, as well as most of you on CD, and Thom Hartman on Air America Radio, and once in awhile you can still come across a human on the street or in a store, they look very different from the plastic people, or aliens or whatever they are. and they are polite and seem to like music, usually from the 70's like Classic rock, and they remember the values of FDR and JFK and still spout them freely with devotion, and they yield for you in parking lots, and pull over to help out if you have a flat or help you shovel snow. There are still a few humans left out there, but it is with great sorrow that I tell you probably too few to rise up and return to prominence. Humans (liberals) are a dying breed. It seems the aliens started in Roswell and killed Kennedy and have been cross breeding ever since. How else can you logically explain Newt Gingrich?
Dennis Kucinich has obviously been 'got at' [threatened with ???]
While campaigning for John Kerry in 04 I came across this malady. No matter how much evidence you lay in front of these people, they cannot be swayed. "look the sky is blue" Their reply, "no its not our president who is a good man says the sky is green". Now, truth be told, I know many repugs and they are all very very sick and insane people, no bullshit. they still believe that Saddam was behind 9/11 and they applaud the Iraq war and Ronald Reagan is their deity. No joke people, still. Even with all the evidence in. We now live in "through the looking glass" The world is complete bullshit with alternate realities. Now are you going to tell me that there isnt something wrong with these people? Maybe they are pod people, or maybe robotized, or drugged or lobotomized, but Republicans are fucking sick individuals.
Come on Jeff. Ronald Reagan was a PR man for GE in one of his careers. It's not suprising or out of character that he would carry the corporate banner.
And John McCain, I still have this memory of John McCain at the Anita Hill - Clarence Thomas hearings, a picture of a rabidly misogynistic man, really just bone-chilling.
A better theory is that it comes from a human trait to remember the good in people rather than the evil.
The abduction theory is a nice way to sanitize fascism, but I think it fails to take into account the pandering of politicians. All they have to do is raise their public profile and popularity by saying whatever sounds good to a wide spectrum of folks. Once they've attained a certain level of popularity, media regurgitation and party standing reinforces that popularity. Once they've climbed to the top of the heap, it takes alot to bring them down.
With Dennis Kucinich out of the race Ron Paul is
our only hope. Change parties and vote RP in your
local primary/caucus if it's not too late already.
I don't agree with RP on everything, but he is the one
DK endorsed. They voted against all the wars, the patriot
acts, etc.
Audio of Kucinich talking about Ron Paul as a running mate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By_zxa1qnj4
Dennis Kucinich asked about Ron Paul on Free Minds TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py8cXlLyX18
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
Since when was Reagan for the working people? When he was the screen guild president during the McCarthy hearings, he supported the rabid anti-communism trials, and turned his back on those caught up in it. His anti-union attitude when governor of Calif. is well known, ask any farm worker.
He didn't change, he just became more of what he really was.
Earl Simmins was right about showing your true colors when elected, but with Reagan he showed his true colors before he was elected.
It may be that Bush has let the top people in Congress know that a bid to impeach will lead to nucular war and/or martial law. Who knows, just about any crazy idea is viable in our current situation.
Veteran, '66-68
when you put a gun to someones's head and threatened both them and their family, most everyone would change............
this after you've already proven you're not afraid to use it (MLK, JFK, and RFK)
read "confessions of an economic hitman" to find out how this REALLY works
It seems that lust for power or money can leave morality lying in the dust. History is full of such happenings. But I do like Jeff Cohen's theory. Somebody should do brain scans on these characters - no telling what might turn up.
I, too, often have wondered about the Stepfordization of our candidates once they get in office. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THESE PEOPLE???
I remember Nancy Pelosi before she got Stepfordized. She was a fighter, and when she first became the head of Congress, the headline on a progressive magazine above her picture on the front with her determined fighter expression read, "Are You Ready to Rumble?" Welp, that was the end of THAT Pelosi which we never saw again. And Obama gave that great speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. Where did THAT Obama go???
People seem like progressive fighters, and then they go meet with bush and cheney, and they come out like pod people doing their bidding and smiling all the way. WHAT THE FRICK IS GOING ON IN WASHINGTON ?????? Pods??? Do they hold a chloroform mask over their faces and bring them in a bare room to "deprogram" and "reprogram" them????
Even Dennis Kucinich was going to file impeachment papers against bush this week. He was FIRED UP to go knowing it was the right thing to do. And the so-called judiciary meeting wants to meet with him first, and he comes out with no intention of filing the impeachment papers after all. And seems at peace with it. What happened?????
SOMETHING is happening to them.
Get elected first, then show your true colors. Hasn't it always been this way since the election process started ?