Waging peace: Combatting war propaganda and propagandists (Part Three)

Resisting the pull of the war propaganda vortex

Calvin Mulligan December 29, rev. Dec 31, 2023. (c) Futurescapes.ca (All rights reserved)

We live in a world of deception. Few things we’ve been sold in this world are “as advertised”, including war. Humans tend to be credulous consumers of information, so it’s a given that we’ve all been deceived by war propagandists — likely on multiple occasions. Who wants to continue being canon fodder in information wars waged by the Powers-That-Be? Once we declare, “enough is enough”, we can view our failures in discernment as learning experiences. Didn’t a wise man once say that it’s only a mistake if nothing is learned from the experience?

Here are 15 tips and techniques that you can use to avoid being pulled into the vortex of war propaganda in your quest to discern and defend the truth. Practice applying them daily in order to develop your propaganda-detection radar, recognizing that even in the best of circumstances we can’t possibly know the whole truth.   

1. Opt for default skepticism: In the post-truth era, every message coming from from the exterior world of establishment institutions, fake leaders and professional liars should be met with skepticism as a matter of course. Major General Smedley Butler (1881-1940) America’s highest ranking US military man at the time, published his assessment in 1930. The title of his book tidily summed it up — “War is a racket.” If the world had absorbed Butler’s insights, it’s unlikely we’d be on the brink of another world war 93 years later.

2. Stay frosty: This military expression is encouragement to compatriots to stay cool under fire. It’s also good advice to citizens caught in the thick of information/propaganda wars. Propagandists will try to ensnare and immobilize you with emotive stories. They eagerly weaponize human emotions using children in particular. Thus during the Syria conflict, the West used the identity and purportedly the thoughts of an 8 year old Syrian girl to mobilize Western public opinion against Syrian President Assad. I tried in vain to alert my former church librarians to the fact that the book this girl supposedly authored (“Dear World” 2017) was in fact Western war propaganda. Stay in your left brain so you can exercise logic and critical thinking when you are bombarded with propaganda constructs. Two of the more notorious examples are stage-managed wonderkind Bana Alabed (Syria conflict) and Greta Thunberg (environmental propagandist).

3. Avoid a rush to judgement. Let’s face it; most of us aren’t directly engaged in kinetic war, so it’s important as citizens that we resist the rush to judgement. Give that screaming headline or video account of an alleged war atrocity a few days to see if it can survive some scrutiny. Passing on such stories only gives them credence. Besides, how will you retract the story once it’s distributed far and wide if it discredited? I’m still encountering sources citing the fake “beheaded babies” story launched at the outset of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

4. Demand evidence: Baseless assertions don’t constitute evidence of the truth. It’s remarkable how many articles printed in mainstream propaganda media demonizing the designated enemy are 100% evidence-free. Distill the content and all you’re left with is unsupported claims and assumptions, smears and tired cliches.

4. Seek corroboration from multiple sources. One way to evaluate the credibility of a report or article is to seek corroboration of the story from three independent sources (triangulation). A single story widely circulated throughout the mainstream media echo chamber remains just a single uncorroborated story, but it can do immense harm if it’s false and intended to mislead.

5. Assess the credibility of the source: Check the track record of the journalist behind the story and his/her employer when it comes to truthful reporting? Based on their respective track records, for example, both journalist Sara Sidner and CNN get negative credibility scores. Sidner was the so called “journalist” that reported the unsubstantiated Hamas-beheaded Israeli babies story. And CNN is the long-standing champion of fake news.

5. Ask yourself “Qui Bono?” In a forensic investigation, one of the first questions an investigator asks is: “Oui Bono?” or “Who benefits?” (from the crime?) It’s a good question to ask when assessing the veracity of a report — specifically, who would benefit if you and the larger audiences were to believe the story? Who would benefit if for example if the public was convinced one side or the other was engaged in war crimes?

6. Open up your analytic lens and look up: The propagandist wants to keep your info “headlights” set on dim and narrowly focused on the immediate. Resist the containment and consider events leading up to the story as well as the outcomes trailing from it. During the Russia-UA conflict, the establishment’s fake analysts conveniently “forgot” the 2014 Maidan Square Coup (supported by the US) and resulting displacement of UA’s PM. They also “forgot” the UA’s many violations of the Minsk Accords leading up to Russia’s military operation in 2022. It obviously worked as NATO’s war propagandists successfully lured millions into waving blue and yellow flags. An honest look at the actual history in the region however, would demonstrate that the term “unprovoked invasion was flimsy propagandist bulls*t.

As UK author, Martin Geddes puts it: “Where we are divided as humanity, attention should be on locating the hidden hand that manipulates us.” In short, who or what globalist entity may be managing both sides of the apparent conflict?

7. Treat anonymous sources and institutional spokespersons as suspect: How much credence should one give a statement issued by the military of one side of a conflict or another or one of their allies? The short answer is none until it can be independently corroborated. If one took the various reports of UA military success over the past two years at face value, you would actually believe that Ukraine was about to announce a victory. Realistically, this never was a reasonable expectation. The credulous UA flag wavers were being fed a rich diet of war propaganda.

8. Disregard the pronouncements of “fact checkers” and supposed “mis-info” gerus. In general, the so-called “fact checkers” are establishment-sponsored entities designed to deflect criticism and discredit competitive claims on behalf of their sponsors. In short, they reinforce the official narrative and their shills as such are incapable of objective, independent assessment.

9. Consider “astro turf” committees and organizations with official-sounding names suspect. Such entities are formed in order to create the appearance of substantive “grass roots” opposition to the establishment’s designated bad guy or a facade appearing to be an authoritative source of  intel. Such groups may in reality amount of no more than a handful of partisans united in their hatred for the political villain du jour or manufactured opposition. Consider that the false Nayirah testimony designed to capture the support of US citizens was guided and coached by big league PR firm, Hill and Knowlton hired by a Kuwaiti astroturf PR committee called the Citizens for a Free Kuwait.

During the Syrian conflict, it was learned that Western media were largely relying on one individual operating out of his apartment in London as the authoritative source for their stories on the conflict. The rather pretentious name of his organization, “the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” implies objectivity and independence. But the patronage of the anti-Assad Western media suggests the converse.

10. Recognize the use of weaponized language as an indicator of bias or advocacy. Presumably, intelligent people seek independent, thoughtful, and objective analysis of a conflict. And presumably, the source is committed to presenting factual information and allowing the reader the opportunity to reach his or her own conclusions. But during war, we’re bombarded with propaganda thinly disguised as objective journalistic analysis. The critical difference is the latter seeks to persuade rather than inform.

Consider the frequent and typically one-sided application of the term, “terrorist” in the context of the Israel-Hamas war. Even those who dare to protest genocide and call for a cease-fire risk are painted “terrorist sympathizers.” Objectively, who is a “terrorist” in this situation? Strangely, I haven’t seen the term applied to the Israeli forces that reportedly bombed hospitals and killed woman, children and civilians in the thousands. Is this a case of one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter? In any case, the use of weaponed language in this manner is indicative of either advocacy journalism or genuine war propaganda.

11. Sensitize yourself to the feeling of being “herded”. Growing up on on a livestock enterprise, I learned at a young age how to herd beef cattle in the desired direction (the corral, pasture, or up the chute into the truck for market). You made yourself “large” by waving an old hockey stick and making noise to rouse the languishing cattle and get them moving in the right direction. War propagandists do the same to us; they use exaggerated or sensationalized information to arouse outrage and nudge us to support their war-making. Developing a sensitivity to what it feels like to be herded by the propaganda media can be an essential survival skill. The herding of the masses with the respect to the UA war, the Vaxx war, and now the Israel-Hamas war is a case study in the use of propaganda and mass mind control. Learn to recognize and resist it.

12. Trust your gut. Sometimes, when reading or hearing a commentary we’re left with a vague sense that something is off. Don’t dismiss that feeling. Your radar may have picked up on an anomaly at the subconscious level. It can be a timely signal to investigate more closely.

13. Ask yourself what’s being ignored or omitted. What’s not being said may be more important than what is being said. So ask yourself what is being omitted from the story. How much of the real story has been edited in order to subtly guide you to a foregone conclusion? What questions weren’t asked? What issues were completely ignored?

14. Spot cliched talking points. Propagandists seed their material with what they consider to be “sticky” or memorable phrases and/or memes. “Unprovoked attack” got a lot of mileage during the Russia-UA conflict. Israel’s so-called right to defend itself has been frequently been touted in the current conflict. (Upon reading this phrase, you and I are supposed to respond: “Oh, yeah of course…how could I have forgotten that”?” and move on.

But not so fast. Some have countered by asking since when does a military occupier and warden of what’s been called the world’s largest prison camp (Gaza) have any such “right). Is it time to play another “victim card”.

15. Pay attention to what and who is being censored: War propaganda campaigns are, in reality, wars against the truth. One truthful report can defeat a war-maker’s entire false narrative. The truth can expose war crimes, false flags and other forms of theatre. Thus war makers go to great lengths in their push to achieve “narrative supremacy” censor competing sources relentlessly. Some go so far as to kill journalists while attributing such deaths to the fog of war. Don’t buy it. In the context of the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports that as of December 23:

• 69 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead (62 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese);
• 15 journalists were reported injured;
• 3 journalists were reported missing;
• 20 journalists were reported arrested; and there have been multiple reports of assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship and killings of family members.

I don’t harbour any respect for war propagandists or any sympathy for their bloody cause. Their job is provoking conflict, securing public support for wars and sustaining them until their masters’ bloodlust and hunger for profits and treasure is satiated. War propagandists (usually hired gun PR firms) are Satan’s servants dutifully working to ignite hell on earth. We can pray that God delivers us from their evil of course, but waging peace requires more. Among other things, it means learning how to recognize the adversaries’ tactics and how to counter them. In the words of the protest hymn of the sixties, we shall overcome.

— Calvin

End notes:

Dear World: A Syrian girl’s story of war and plea for peace (2017): https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dear-World/Bana-Alabed/9781501178450

Journalist casualties in Israel-Gaza war: https://cpj.org/2023/12/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/

Abby Martin explains why Israel is targeting journalists in Gaza (“They’re killing the truth”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch

CNN reporter who “confirmed fake beheaded Israel babies promoted Libya intervention propaganda in 2011

https://www.sott.net/article/485234-CNN-reporter-who-confirmed-fake-beheaded-Israeli-babies-story-promoted-Libya-intervention-propaganda-in-2011

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

https://www.google.com/search

Registered Israeli foreign agent driving contrived campus antisemitism crisis

https://www.sott.net/article/487058-Registered-Israeli-foreign-agent-driving-contrived-campus-antisemitism-crisis

Christian Zionism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism

How the government manipulates the facts (with Pilger) (Courtesy, Doug)

https://www.youtube.com/watch

Credulous or dishonest journalists regurgitate pro-war propaganda

https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Galen_Carpenter/2023/10/16/credulous-or-dishonest-journalists-regurgitate-pro-war-propaganda/

30 years after our ‘endless wars’ in the Middle East began, still no end in sight: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/30-years-after-our-endless-wars-in-the-middle-east-began-still-no-end-in-sight/

War is a racket

https://ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html

Israeli government propagandist wrecked over October 7 intelligence failure narrative

https://www.sott.net/article/487057-Israeli-government-propagandist-WRECKED-over-Oct-7-intelligence-failure-narrative

Bearing witness to atrocity: 15 ways to bypass Israeli media censorship (Veteran’s Today): https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2023/11/bearing-witness/

World on fire sends global defence orders soaring

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/world-fire-sends-global-defense-orders-soaring

Waging Peace: Combatting War Propaganda and Propagandists (Part Two)

Calvin Mulligan November 27, rev Nov 29 2023 (c) All rights reserved

The Devil’s Craft

“The public needs to understand how they were  manipulated, why they were manipulated and who is manipulating them. ”  – film producer, Mike Smith 

At a time when war-mongers are intent on setting the world on fire, the need for members of the public to understand the tactics of war propagandists couldn’t be greater. The mind-manipulators are intent on manufacturing public consent for WWIII. But as my grandmother used to say, forewarned is fore-armed. Alvin and Heidi Toffler’s book, “War and Anti-War” (1995) provided peace warriors and truth seekers with important insights into how we might arm ourselves against the illusions of war propagandists. The book describes six techniques or tactics regularly applied by practitioners of the dark art of perception management. The six are: atrocity accusations, hyperbolic inflations, dehumanization and demonization, polarization, divine sanction and meta propaganda. 

Atrocity accusations

The Kuwaiti baby incubator tale described in Part One is typical and by no means the first time an atrocity accusation was used to incite war. War propagandists routinely wrap incendiary accusations of enemy abuses in emotive, gut-wrenching narratives. They know how to rattle our brains with gruesome accounts of enemy assaults against babies, children, women (particularly pregnant women) and even livestock and pets. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not suggesting that vile war crimes aren’t committed in the course of wars. They are… routinely. The alleged crimes that have already been reported and will continue to surface regarding the Ukraine and Israel conflicts will sicken us. My point is simply that war propagandists don’t require or await the discovery of actual atrocities; they fabricate them in order to ignite public outrage. 

In the case of the Iraq-Kuwait conflict, the fabrication was babies tossed from incubators; in the Ukraine conflict it was Viagra-boosted Russian soldiers raping Ukrainian woman; and in the Israel-Hamas story, it was Hamas-beheaded babies and raped women being dragged through the streets. Atrocity stories are frequently constructed using doctored photos, fake video footage, heaps of rubble, sobbing crisis actors posing as grieving mothers, pools of fake blood, children’s toys and other props. The Hollywood movie, Wag the Dog, (1997) provided viewers with a behind-the-scenes look at how to fabricate an attack and ignite a war — a case of art imitating life. 

Promoting a false atrocity accusation is the equivalent of tossing a lighted match on a pile of gasoline-soaked dry kindling in situations were political tensions are already running high. Once fear and public outrage take hold, the population is primed to demand that its government act in its defence. Wary peace seekers caution against rushing to judgement and seek independent investigation of atrocity claims. War mongers, in contrast, argue that such niceties must wait until later, because right now there’s a war to be fought. In the Israel-Hamas scenario, Senator Lindsay Graham, ever the eager Zionist-controlled war-maker shouts “Kill ‘em all” and Israeli lawmaker Moshe Feign urges Annihilate them.”  

While the beheaded Israeli babies claim was refuted within a couple days, the story was quickly repeated and to some extent had already achieved the desired effect in terms of igniting public outrage.

Hyperbolic inflations: 

This is exaggeration typically based on a kernel of truth. The war propagandist seeks to magnify the perceived threat or the potential impact of an enemy’s assault in order to amplify public fear and anger. The hyperbole bolsters the claim of victimhood and provides (false) justification for proportionate vengeance. A single isolated incident can be stretched to mammoth proportions — from a dangerous threat to one’s family, or a community to an“existential threat” to the nation (Heard that scare term lately?)

Portraying an attack event as a threat to national security can be very effective. Those with reservations about going to war can now more be more readily persuaded to sign up in defence of their family and their nation. And those determined to resist the marketing campaign can be cynically smeared and shamed as “unpatriotic” and “terrorist sympathizers”.  

Observers will have noticed that the number of Israeli citizens reportedly killed by Hamas in the October 7 attack, has now been reduced from 1,400 to 1,200. One can further reduce that number to reflect two additional factors. One is that a percentage of that total were likely Israeli combatants. A second is that a significant number of the reported civilian deaths have now been attributed to crossfire by IDF ground forces and Israeli helicopter pilots acting on a Hannibal Directive ordering them to shoot anything that moved. Yes, such orders include fellow Israelis. 

One shouldn’t assume that war propagandists lose any sleep over their falsified reports and their deadly consequences. The unspoken guiding principle is the-end-justifies-the-means. And while military combatants may understand the deceptive nature of the war propaganda bombarding them, credulous members of the public don’t. I doubt the average citizen knows the role that the false flag dubbed The Gulf of Tonkin Incident played in fully engaging the US in the Viet Nam War. Similarly, how many observers considered the possibility that the lack of an explanation for the October 7 stand down of Israeli defences suggests that it too is a false flag?

It’s a different war, but the world has yet to come to terms with what may one day recognized as the greatest example of hyperbolic inflation in human history — the aforementioned Great Scamdemic. Mark Crispin Miller, an NYU professor of media studies, describes the operation as a propaganda masterpiece. In this case, a criminal cabal successfully inverted the perceived reality of the masses. Billions worldwide embraced the safe and effective lie and now millions have discovered the truth is the exact opposite — dangerous and ineffective.

De-humanization and demonization  

The systematic dehumanization and demonization of an adversary is often a telling indicator that the global Powers that Be (PTB) are attempting to drum up a war. The objective of dehumanization is to reduce the designated enemy to the status of a soulless subhuman in the public mind. So war propagandists paint their adversary “black”, the epitome of evil and beyond redemption. It’s essential to characterize the enemy in these terms from the perspective of the propagandist. Once characterized in these terms, efforts to engage in dialogue appear pointless, and war the necessary response. And a bestial enemy warrants one response — complete annihilation.

This is the art of war and it’s a war of weaponized language. Terrorists, animals, rapists, butchers, savages, barbarians, cockroaches and rabid dogs are standard pejoratives in the propagandist’s lexicon. Another favourite is “Nazis”, a label applied to the Iraqis in the Iraq-Kuwait conflict, and for something more exotic, there’s Orcs, a term Ukrainians apply to Russian soldiers.

Israel is an old hand at dehumanizing its enemies in peace and in war. Its propagandists have been dehumanizing Palestinians long before the recent conflict. Writing in Haaretz in 2010, Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy observed, “Considering Israel’s absolute self-righteousness, dehumanization of the Palestinians, and its extraordinary capacity to lie and manipulate, we are dealing with a psychopath.” Israel’s media allies like the BBC routinely edit Palestinian humanity from public view. UK political analyst, Craig Murray, notes: “The BBC simply does not treat the Palestinians as human, whereas the emphasis on Israeli personal victimhood is incessant and unrelenting.”

The practical military purpose of dehumanization is in itself anti-human. In an article entitled, “The Dehumanization of War: A meditation for Veterans Day“, the authors contend that “Human beings won’t kill other humans if they truly believe their lives are as worthy as their own.” So opposing forces must be sufficiently dehumanized in the mind of the soldier to overcome a natural resistance to killing. Dehumanization cuts both ways however. Doesn’t a percentage of war vets silently agonize that they too have been dehumanized by their killing of other humans? Wouldn’t such inner anguish contribute to their high rates of depression, PTSD and suicide? 

The civilian casualties of war are the victims of a more subtle form of dehumanization. War reporter, John Pilger claims that 70% of all casualties in the Viet Nam war were civilians. War-makers casually dismiss such devastating civilian impacts as an unfortunate but unavoidable, unintended consequences of war with the euphemism, “collateral damage.” Just two words is all it takes to devalue and dismiss the lives and losses of ultimately millions of forgotten victims of war. Such is the devious effect of word warfare. 

Polarization

Polarization, is the process of creating a “them-versus-us” divide consistent with the age-old divide and conquer strategy. A classic example comes from President George (“Strategery”) Bush 2001: “You’re either with us, or with the terrorists”. Bush demanded Americans and their allies decide if they wished to be cast as patriotic US citizen or allies of terrorists. Polarization adds a moral colouration. One side is presented as the white hat-wearing good guys and supposed victims, and on the other as black hat-wearing villains. It’s paint-by-number simplicity for those with no appetite for inconvenient truths.

Polarization misdirects our attention and energy and distorts reality in two ways. First, it narrows the observer’s field of vision, editing out a larger, more complex political reality. The so-called Russia versus Ukraine war would be more accurately described as a proxy US-NATO-CIA-MI6-Mossad war against Russia. Acknowledging that of course would require an uncomfortable look at military and geopolitical interests and objectives underlying the conflict. And that in turn may reveal our own self-interests and complicity.   

The second distortion is that polarization glosses over more granular, albeit vital detail within each of the seemingly opposing camps. Consider how the hard Israel vs Hamas framing of the story pushed the recent protests by 100s of thousands of Israelis against their PM into the background. So who exactly are the Stand with Israel supporters standing with…”Jewish” Israel or Zionist Israel pursuing a Greater Israel fantasy?

It’s remarkable how quickly unwitting citizens can be herded into one camp or the other constructed by the establishment. Carried by an emotional tide, many people overlook the fact that both sides are managed by invisible globalists powers higher on the pyramid of power (Deep State, Illuminati, Cabal, Khazarian Powers-that-Be). And remaining “invisible” beyond our line of sight enables the PTB to continue their string pulling puppetry.

Divine sanction

War propagandists are eager to claim divine sanction and signal to skeptics that they have heavenly approval for their ventures. The subtle or not-so-subtle message is: “God is on our side supporting our righteous cause“. Such messages are all the more potent among believers if coupled with references to biblical prophecy and delivered from the pulpit by a trusted religious authority.

Netanyahu, described as a Satanist by some, cites scripture to justify his military assault on Gaza consistent with Israel’s policy of collective punishment (of the citizenry). “You must remember what Amalek has done to you as per our holy bible.” He is speaking to more than fellow Israelis. His pitch also reached millions of “Christian Zionists”. The members of this audience (some may say cult) are convinced that as good Christians they are bound to support Israel come hell or high water as an article of their faith. It may be the most effective use of the divine sanction tactic of them all. For others in both religious and secular communities, silence and inaction in the face of  genocide is, figuratively speaking, “a bridge too far”. 

Meta Propaganda

Meta propaganda is propaganda used to counter or discredit the enemy’s messaging, or alternatively to amplify the propagandist’s claims. If the propagandists can destroy the credibility of an adversary, it’s a big win as most of the adversary’s subsequent claim’s are more likely to be dismissed as disinformation. Note how quickly the strike on the hospital in Gaza was followed by Israel’s assertion that it was the result of a failed Hamas attempt to launch one of its rockets. Had Israel’s claim stood, imagine how dispiriting it would have been for Hamas supporters. In effect the message would have been: See…incompetent Palestinian terrorists are even pose a deadly  threat to fellow Palestinians? The Israeli claim however, was subsequently refuted by an American armaments specialist who identified the bomb as American made.

The mainstream media echo chamber is a reliable meta propaganda system capable of amplifying a lie many times over through circular reporting and self-referencing. The propagandist’s account might cite a CIA-planted story in the New York Times or Washington Post or an unnamed source in order to give his or her claim an element of credibility. As other media pick up the fake news story, it gains momentum and audience reach. But clearly, these are no measure of the original stories accuracy but such meta propaganda concerning perpetual “baddies” — Russian, Iran and China — has often taken credulous Western audiences captive.

Another generator of meta propaganda are the so-called “Fact Checkers” established to reinforce false claims and deflect counter claims while giving their verdicts the appearance of independence. Again, it was a different information war, but how many of the Great Scamdemic’s lies were prefaced with “Fact checkers say……”? Such efforts to put the stamp of approval on their sponsors’ lies can’t be taken seriously. I have yet to find a truly independent fact checker capable of honestly and objectively adjudicating truth claims.

The fact that small armies of people are engaged on a daily basis in manufacturing and amplifying corporate narratives with little respect for objective truth is disconcerting at best. A headline concerning Big Pharma player, Moderna is telling. It reads: Moderna’s ‘disinformation department’ monitors 150 million websites for ‘anti vaccine’ narratives. One wonders when it was that wariness concerning the many documented side effects of vaccines became religious heresy.

Whether it’s an information war intended to convince you to accept a risky medical treatment or to secure public consent for war, the modus operandi is the same. It’s tidily summed up in Mossad’s “old” motto: “By way of deception thou shall make war”. 

Continuing challenges and some positive signs amid the darkness 

This brief review of six common war propaganda tactics confirms a couple things. First, it confirms that peace-makers must inherently do battle with war-makers and their propagandists. Candidly, it’s not a stretch to describe the latter as shameless professional liars, truth-twisters and reality-fabricators. As illustrated above, they wield an array of sophisticated tools and tactics (Far more than this space allows). In fact, the foregoing vastly understates their capabilities in an era of deep fakes and AI-driven propaganda. More sobering, the PTB war-mongers and their partisans in the military-security industrial complex lack the moral constraints anchoring the majority of our society.

Second, it seems clear that many ordinary citizens, captive of the mainstream media echo chamber and subjected to a daily barrage of war propaganda, are ill-equipped to discern the truth. They have become unwitting casualties of war. And it would be foolish to underestimate the challenge their entrancement presents to the cause of peace.

That said, if the Israel-Hamas story is in any way indicative, there are signs that the once unassailable war machine is no longer “bullet-proof”. As devastating as events paying out in that theatre are, I see reasons for optimism. Specifically, the Neocon-Zionist Propaganda-Manufacturing machine appears to be losing ground to the challenge of an awaking world-wide population. Consider the following: 

• Analysts are investigating Middle Eastern war propagandist’s claims and refuting them in the alternative media;  
• Whistle-blowers, witnesses, military insiders and honest journalists are revealing the truth about what’s really going on in the Israel-Hamas conflict (to the chagrin of the military propagandists);
• Alleged Gaza war crimes are being reported and prompting some national leaders and watch-dog agencies to call for their investigation;
• Protests against the war are bringing peace-seeking people together across national, political, social and racial lines;
• At least two high profile officials (individuals in the UN and US State department) have resigned in protest regarding their employer’s complicity;
• In the wake of what may be an October 7 false flag attack, ordinary Israeli citizens are demanding accountability from their Liar-in-Chief; 
• Some UK war vets have returned their medals to #10 Downing Street; and
• Thousands of young Americans are signalling they have no intention of risking their lives fighting for Israel. 

Call me crazy, but I believe the above bode well for our long running struggle against the demons of darkness. I say that knowing things are likely to get darker before the dawn. Nonetheless, with God’s help, let’s continue to stumble bravely toward the flickering possibility of peace. Our goal is peace as John F. Kennedy called for it 60 years ago, “…for all men and women — not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time.”  

— Calvin 

End Notes (for Parts One and Two):

Peace war and 9/11: a cinematic portrait of Graeme MacQueen, a warrior for peace: https://edwardcurtin.com/peacewar-and-9-11-a-cinematic-portrait-of-graeme-macqueen-a-warrior-for-peace/

The Nayirah testimony (atrocity propaganda) Wikipedia 

https://www.youtube.com/watch

Nayirah Testimony Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony

Citizens for a free Kuwait 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_for_a_Free_Kuwait

Gulf War, Wikipedia 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War

Nayirah, Kuwaiti girl testimony (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmfVs3WaE9Y&t=1s

Beware of stories about babies in incubators: https://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/beware-of-stories-about-babies-in-incubators/

No, Hamas did not behead 40 babies in an Israel kibbutz last Saturday 

https://www.sott.net/article/485160-No-Hamas-did-not-behead-40-babies-at-an-Israeli-kibbutz-last-Saturday

Christian Zionism 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism

New poll shows most Americans support Israel after Hamas attacks

https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/video/new-poll-shows-most-americans-support-israel-after-hamas-attacks/

Credulous or dishonest journalists regurgitate pro-war propaganda

https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Galen_Carpenter/2023/10/16/credulous-or-dishonest-journalists-regurgitate-pro-war-propaganda/

Out of Shadows

https://www.youtube.com/watch

Into the Light https://twitter.com/IntoTheLightFLM?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

War and Antiwar (1995): https://www.amazon.ca/War-Anti-War-Making-Todays-Gloabal/dp/0446602590

Perception management

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_management#:~:text=Perception%20management%20is%20essentially%20a,it%20is%20true%20or%20not

Six tools for managing perception

http://changingminds.org/techniques/propaganda/six_tools_perception_management.htm

‘The Holocaust’: — the biggest and most destructive lie of the 20th century 

https://stateofthenation.co/

Moderna’s ‘disinformation department’ monitors 150 million websites for ‘anti vaccine’ narratives: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/moderna-artificial-intelligence-anti-vaccine-narratives/

US weapons expert debunks Israel’s denial of Gaza hospital strike: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231018-us-weapons-expert-debunks-israels-denial-of-gaza-hospital-strike/

Before they launch missiles they launch propaganda campaigns

https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/before-they-launch-missiles-they-launch-propaganda-campaigns-a65d7eb2531e

Netanyahu quotes scripture to justify Gaza genocide

https://www.youtube.com/watch

Israel implemented ‘mass Hannibal directive’ October 7, 2023: Israeli pilot 

https://www.sott.net/article/486279-Israel-implemented-mass-Hannibal-directive-on-7-October-Israeli-pilot

No ceasefire in the propaganda war

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/11/25/no-ceasefire-in-the-propaganda-war/

Meta-propaganda in the digital age — China media project:  https://chinamediaproject.org/2022/01/27/meta-propaganda-converges/

The dehumanization of war: A meditation for Veterans Day

https://original.antiwar.com/Kelly_Denton-Borhaug/2023/11/09/the-dehumanization-of-war-a-meditation-for-veterans-day/

Nothing screams Christian values like massacres and mass weapons sales: https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2023/11/04/nothing-screams-christian-values-like-massacres-and-mass-weapons-sales/

What really happened on Oct 7? Is speaker Mike Johnson really a tru pro-liberty speaker?  

https://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/4451/What-Really-Happened-On-October-7-Is-Mike-Johnson-A-True-Pro-Liberty-Speaker.aspx

Christian Zionism 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Zionism

Wag the Dog

https://www.google.com/search?q=Wage+the+dog&oq=Wage+the+dog+&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i10i512j46i10i512j0i10i512l7.4375j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:49dab74d,vid:steA_PZPkc8,st:0

US weapons expert debunks Israel’s denial of Gaza hospital strike 

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231018-us-weapons-expert-debunks-israels-denial-of-gaza-hospital-strike/\

Hocus Pocus; The 300 year usurpation of Judaism by Zionism: https://thecovidblog.com/2023/10/31/hocus-pocus-the-300-year-usurpation-of-judaism-by-zionism-the-fiat-currency-blood-sacrament-and-the-vaccine-pogrom-pre-genocide-of-world-war-iii/

Weaponizing your enemy’s children: Dehumanizing of Palestinians has goes mainstream

https://www.sott.net/article/485830-Weaponizing-your-enemys-children-Dehumanization-of-Palestinians-has-gone-mainstream

I’m a Jew and not a genocidal racist — Why do Israel “supporters” keep telling the world that I am?:  https://off-guardian.org/2023/11/10/im-a-jew-im-not-a-genocidal-racist-why-do-israel-supporters-keep-telling-the-world-that-i-am/

CNN reporter who “confirmed” fake beheaded Israeli babies promoted Libya intervention propaganda in 2011 https://www.sott.net/article/485234-CNN-reporter-who-confirmed-fake-beheaded-Israeli-babies-story-promoted-Libya-intervention-propaganda-in-2011

“No such thing as innocent civilians” https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/no-such-thing-as-innocent-civilians?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=257742&post_id=137983311&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=4v87x&utm_medium=email

Atrocity propaganda in WW1 (video): https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/atrocity-propaganda-in-world-war-one/

Atrocity propaganda on super steroids

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2023/10/17/atrocity-propaganda/

Manufacturing consent 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent

Top UN official in New York steps down citing ‘genocide’ of Palestinian civilians

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/un-official-resigns-israel-hamas-war-palestine-new-york

“Justified vengeance” and the history of Israeli “false flags” (2001-2023). Palestine portrayed as “the aggressor”: https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-invasion-of-gaza-operation-cast-lead-part-of-a-broader-israeli-military-intelligence-agenda/11606\

Israel admits it killed its own at Nova music festival 

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israel-admits-it-killed-its-own-at-nova-music-festival

UK Veterans return war medals to Downing street: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/08/forces-veterans-protest-downing-street-against-british-airstrikes-syria

Israeli army vets admit role in massacres of Palestinians in 1948: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20140217-israeli-army-veterans-admit-role-in-massacres-of-palestinians-in-1948/

“Wiping Gaza off the map”: Big money agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s natural gas reserves: https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-gas-oil-and-trouble-in-the-levant/5362955

Israel’s comically bad disinfo proves they are losing the PR war 

https://www.sott.net/article/486046-Israels-comically-bad-disinfo-proves-they-re-losing-the-PR-war

All lost, total failure achieved  (Scott Ritter)

https://www.youtube.com/watch

Israel has permanently lost the argument

https://www.sott.net/article/485512-Israel-has-permanently-lost-the-argument

Is the Gaza genocide being used to promote (a) fake “multipolar world” as a “solution”: https://off-guardian.org/2023/11/21/is-gaza-genocide-being-used-to-promote-the-gr-multipolarity-as-a-solution/

The coming age of AI- powered propaganda

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/coming-age-ai-powered-propaganda

Peace speech by President John F. Kennedy  June 10, 1963

https://www.google.com/search

Waging Peace: Combatting war propaganda and propagandists (Part One)

Calvin Mulligan October 25, 2023 (c) All rights reserved

“The first casualty of war is truth.” (Hiram Johnson)

The other war

Pick a war — any war — and you’ll find that apart from the kinetic war fought against an official enemy, another war is being fought every bit as intensely. The goal of this war is to capture the hearts and minds of the members of the public. This conflict pits committed peace seekers and truth seekers against the global Powers-That-Be (PTB), their war propagandists and their partisans. And like it or not, it’s this contest which ultimately determines how long the military conflict and blood shedding can be sustained.

The work of the war propagandist is fabricating a compelling narrative supported by sufficient lies, disinfo, false flags or other forms of theatre to secure a beachhead in the public mind. Our job, assuming you count yourself among the world’s peace warriors, is to expose them and their deceptions and reveal the truth to the world. We have serious work to do as history is replete with examples of our adversaries’ stunning successes — far too many in my lifetime alone. There’s one fabrication that I must never forget because its consequences were so devastating.

On October 10, 1990 and a seemingly traumatized young Kuwaiti girl testified in a quivering voice before the United States Human Rights Congressional Caucus regarding her first hand encounter with invading Iraqi soldiers. “…Nayirah claimed that after the Iraq invasion of Kuwait, she had witnessed atrocities at the hands of Iraqi soldiers. I recall recoiling at her gut-wrenching testimony: “They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators and left the children to die on the cold floor. It was horrifying”. Her story was corroborated by Amnesty International. Accounts of Iraqis pillaging Kuwaiti hospitals and brutally removing babies from incubators as they did so, had been advanced earlier by Kuwaiti officials in communication with the UN and President George Bush. The incubator story had legs and spread. The only problem was that subsequent investigation failed to uncover any evidence her story was true.

Some background is in order. Nayirah’s testimony was given under the guidance of PR firm Hill and Knowlton. H and K insisted that it had no reason to question her story (really?) and it just  “provided witnesses, wrote testimony, and coached the witnesses for effectiveness”. H and K had been hired by a Kuwaiti astroturf PR committee called the Citizens for a Free Kuwait. All in all, H and K collected $12 million for its services. In the run up to Nayirah’s testimony, H and K conducted focus groups to determine the best strategy to influence public opinion. The study found “that an emphasis on atrocities, particularly the incubator story, was the most effective.”

Bingo! The baby-incubator story was ultimately cited by American politicians and US media as justification for going to war in support of Kuwait. It was reported President Bush referenced the incubator story six times in subsequent speeches and seven senators cited the story as the reason for their voting to give the Bush administration authorization for the Gulf war. It wasn’t a new tactic per se as propaganda in one form or another has been used to ignite and justify wars (manufacture consent in the words of Herman and Chomsky) for decades before and after the Iraq-Kuwait war. (Vietnam War, War in Lebanon, Libya, Iraq 2, Yemen, Somalia, Syria and the recent NATO proxy war with Russia in the Ukraine.) Does anyone seriously believe we can end wars without exposing the audacious deceptions of war propagandists?

When will they ever learn?

It was telling, albeit disheartening to read last week that according to a CNBC survey conducted October 11-15th, “nearly three-quarters of Americans believe it is either somewhat or very important for the U.S. government to provide military aid to Israel in its war against Hamas.” Wow. Is this the same country that’s essentially bankrupt, where food bank lineups grow each month, the real estate market is crashing, and millions of middle class Americans struggle to make ends meet? Is this the America that describes itself as predominantly “Christian”? And is this the same America that’s been lured since 1990 into endless bloody wars in the Middle East courtesy of war propagandists and pawns like Nayirah?

The results of the CNBC survey clearly suggests that the war propagandists are winning the information war. I don’t know the demographic breakdown of the survey respondents, but certainly, my generation, Baby Boomers, should know better. We helped make Pete Seeger’s, “Where have all the flowers gone” an anthem of the the anti-war movement of the sixties. And yet, more than five decades later, the credulous sheeple are being mindlessly herded into the war-makers’ corral. Again I find myself asking the question Seeger posed in the song’s refrain: Oh when will they ever learn? Oh when will they ever learn?

Learn what?, you might ask. Well, we the propagandized seemingly have a lot of lessons to learn … about the PTB, their penchant for war-making, and the tactics of propagandists. Perhaps we might we also learn why or how it is that we are  played for fools time and time again. That would be a start. And then we might consider how we could become genuine peace warriors and bring an end to the mad marathon of war. Thank God, we have credible sources and inspiring examples to draw upon. One shining example of a true peace warrior is Canadian Graeme MacQueen, a McMaster University professor of peace studies and the man behind the movie, “Peace, War and 9/11”.

Lessons from the life and work of Graeme MacQueen

More than anything else, MacQueen’s life and work tell us that beyond attending peace rallies and summits, signing petitions and lobbying politicians, the peace warrior diligently exposes the deceptions of war propagandists and the war system they serve. During the last two years of his life, MacQueen collaborated with a colleague in producing a film revealing the results of his personal investigation of 9/11. As you may recall, 9/11 was presented to the public as a “Pearl Harbour”-like attack on America and justification for righteous vengeance against Arab terrorists.

Ironically, the comparison to Pearl Harbour is apt given that as MacQueen describes it, the original Peal harbour was a “managed” event designed to bring America into WWII. Similarly, 9/11 was orchestrated to sell a frightened American public the “War on Terror.” Unfortunately, the recent CNBC survey suggests that the public’s appetite for war propaganda remains unsatiated even today. The majority response to the conflicts in Ukraine and now Israel confirm’s MacQueen’s observation: “If you’re an uncritical flag waver, then you can be manipulated into doing anything.” And it seems that a majority of Americans have been deftly manipulated. Is there anything more disheartening than seeing unwitting family members, friends and colleagues being quietly herded into the MSM echo chamber and hearing the door click shut behind them?

Ignorance is no excuse for our continued complicity in wars orchestrated by the global PTB. Can’t we see that ultimately, it amounts to complicity in our own destruction — spiritually, economically and geo-politically. The dark magic whereby the PTB ignite the passions of the populace in order to fuel conflict is no longer a mystery. In fact, their methods have remained largely unchanged for decades, presumably because they work so well.

Logically, the training of any warrior begins with a study of the enemy and his methods. One could start with viewing the MacQueen’s documentary, “Peace, War and 9/11” narrated by MacQueen himself (Link). Among other things, it teaches us that war-makers aren’t interested in the truth or the public interest. And when official war narratives are held up for scrutiny, they shatter like glass given the lack of evidence.

Another useful source for the instruction of the aspiring peace warrior is a book entitled: War and Antiwar: Making sense of the global chaos (1993), by Alvin and Heidi Toffler. The book describes six common tactics employed by the masters of perception management. The six constitute a powerful analytic lens for assessing mainstream news reports on any war including the latest ones. Those equipped with this lens will be able to readily differentiate between even-handed, objective reporting and skewed partisan promotion of an official war narrative.

To Be Continued. Next: The devil’s craft: Perception management

When Conscience Calls

Calvin Mulligan October 20, 2023 (c) All rights reserved

Within the dank confines of modern management theory and practice, matters of conscience are given remarkably little consideration. And HR departments, pre-occupied with dutifully box-checking delivery of the latest ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) initiatives, seem detached from the ethical struggles and stresses of employees. Perhaps its considered a non-issue, now that moral rectitude has been outsourced to the enlightened ones at the WEF and the UN. (It’s a matter for another day, but their attempts at erasing morality or its globalization could be ranked among the latest crimes against humanity.)

Back to organizational life. One the one hand, I’m sure it’s pretty clear to most employees that their individual virtue points score mattes. So they better keep up appearances at those indoctrination…excuse me, I mean cultural marxist-flavoured training sessions. But when do moral convictions and personal ethics matter? And how does a conscientious employee manage the tensions between personal values (often informed by experience) and the values underlying corporate policy and decision-making? Let’s see. After forty years in organizational life, how many forums on personal ethics and corporate values was I invited to attend? As best I can recall it was “zero”.

The influence of personal convictions and conscience haven’t been entirely extinguished however. This week I read that a gentleman named Josh Paul, former Director of Congressional and Public Affairs at the US State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, resigned on LinkedIn. The resignation was an expression of dissent concerning the Biden Administration’s plan to seek Congressional approval for an unprecedented military aid package for Israel. After 11 years with the State Department, Paul called the decision “an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias” and “intellectual bankruptcy” and said he couldn’t work in support of a “shortsighted, destructive, unjust” policy.

Paul stated: “I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued — indeed, expanded and expedited — provision of lethal arms to Israel — I have reached the end of that bargain,“

The letter Paul posted to LinkedIn explaining his resignation appears here: via DocumentCloud:

Paul knew his job entailed “moral complexities” when he signed up. And knowing that, he did something going in that I suspect many civil servants fail to do; he drew his moral-ethical line in the sand. In effect, he made himself a promise or entered a contract with himself. In a sense, his resignation was the fulfillment of that contract.

“I knew it was not without its moral complexity and moral compromises, and I made myself a promise that I would stay for as long as I felt I the harm I might do could be outweighed by the good I could do. In my 11 years I have made more moral compromises than I can recall, each heavily, but each with my promise to myself in mind, and intact. I am leaving today because I believe that in our current course with regards to the continued – indeed, expanded and expedited – provision of lethal arms to Israel – I have reached the end of that bargain.”

Whether you have as sensitive a job as Josh Paul or not, there’s an abundance of wisdom in clearly demarcating your ethical line in the sand. Better yet, articulate it on paper ( perhaps in even more specific terms) where you can reference it periodically. Until it’s clearly articulated, there’s strong likelihood that in the heat of battle, the line will blur or be forgotten. Or, under coercive pressures from management and colleagues, you’ll be tempted to move the line. There are of course the complaint and insecure “yes, boss” civil servants who are prepared to completely erase it. Just keep in mind that, neither “just doing my job” or “my boss told me to” constitutes viable defence when ethical failures become known. Nor will “the end justifies the means” be considered an acceptable explanation or rationale.

While we witness fresh examples of moral cowardice and compromise daily, this, more than ever before, is a time for courage, integrity and bold truth-telling as it is all the more rare. Twenty five years ago, I exhorted my colleagues working under work pressures to recognize that sometimes they would need to act as if their mortgage was paid (whether it was or not.) What price do you put on the sweet serenity of living with a clear conscience or the inner peace that comes from knowing you fulfilled your first contract with yourself or with God? Without explicitly telling us, Josh Paul has told the world that he answers to something or someone higher than his (misguided, in my view) bosses at the State Department.

I encourage you to read the text of his letter in full as it may provide some fresh oxygen for suffocating consciences. And too many have been suppressed for the last three years. Organizations do a lot public posturing and pontificating concerning their commitments to core values, but when the heat’s on and their overseers bluster and thunder, it can be another story. Then their magicians go to work and shizzam, a convenient, unwritten “notwithstanding” escape clause is discovered.

At this point, the pearl-clutching ESG virtue point grifters are no doubt assuring themselves that they or their organization would never stoop to that. Really? Suffice to say, the trampling on employees’ human rights, and the callous disregard for bodily sovereignty and religious freedoms during the Scamdemic was beyond Guinness World Record Book level. The fate of the corporate commitments to uphold much-vaunted core values and guiding principles remains a mystery. (And to my knowledge only one provincial premier has issued a public apology for the abuses heaped on non-believers.)

The Great Awakening heralded among the growing world wide “freedom” world community has no doubt taken on varied meanings. To many it is a rebellion against the soul-killing rule of the transhumanists, a vision of life- affirming alternative to the globalist Great Reset. Proportionately, it’s also a spiritual awakening — a reviving of individual and collective souls. The Josh Paul resignation is a declaration as much as anything — testimony to the fact that a spark of human conscience still burned within the US State Department — at least until October 18, 2023.

End notes:

Top State Department official resigns in protest of Biden’s “blind support” of Israel,

Tumbling toward the abyss: An observer’s notes from July of 2015 on the precipitous decline of democracy

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes.ca (c) October 12, rev, Oct 13,14 2023 All rights reserved

Over the course of my life, I developed a habit of periodically looking back at my earlier work as an analyst and futurist to see, for better or for worse, how accurate my “foresightings” were. Typically, the exercise produces a mix of emotions. It’s not unusual to be first encouraged by discovering a genuinely prescience observation, and then in rapid succession discouraged by the fact it failed to spark a meaningful response. “Really? We saw the signs back then…but didn’t take action?” On other occasions I’m empathetic given that while some developments were foreseeable, there was so much more that was obscured or we didn’t wish to see at the time. And that in turn left us vulnerable to ugly — potentially catastrophic — “surprises.”

You could say that futurists are in the business of “surprise reduction” or “surprise modulation.” During the last chapter of my formal career, I served as resident futurist in the strategic planning unit of a federal crown corporation. After eight and a half years with the corporation, I retired in March of 2015 and began updating our home — a prerequisite to putting it on the market. Between bathroom renovations and updating kitchen cabinets, I dug deeply into social, political and technological trends in particular that had begun to surface during my career. And as you will see, these trends weren’t exactly pretty. But I was retired now with no obligation to the corporate norm of limiting oneself to happy talk. So, if this wasn’t the time to look reality in the face, then when was that time?

My work habit was to periodically describe apparent trends in capsule form in a rough list and develop the list of trends until it comprised what could become the outline for a future paper or book. Then, in order to ensure the list wasn’t lost amid the crises du jour, I would send the compilation of themes to myself in an email under a working title for future reference. The hope was that I would be able to flesh out the content into an essay or a book once more pressing projects on my agenda were completed or in retirement.

Today, I’m revisiting, for its instructive value, the content of one of those summative emails that I sent to myself fresh into my retirement (dated: July 1, 2015).

Subject: “Book: Confronting Troubling New Tyrannies: Awakening to the harsh realities of the New World Order”

The preamble contained a call for “courageous forward-looking leadership” able to move beyond “false debates” and for continued vigilance and monitoring of developments in the US . The content that followed was variously described as “early analysis of lessons from America” and “losses to globalization” and the “so-called New World Order.”

The preamble also contained this ominous note:

“It seemed like the tyrannies of the past, the kind that we learned about in history class, were different. It seems from the perspective of the average citizen at least that they were directed at external forces — enemies outside the gate, the castle, or the country. The new tyrannies are led by our own governments and directed at us — the citizenry. And now we find ourselves seeking protection from those presumed to be charged with protecting us.”

Threats (to democracy)

1. Constant and unrelenting propagandization, misinformation and misdirection via mainstream media 

2. Loss of national sovereignty as national governments subordinate policy to the predatory profiteering of mega corporations.

3. Forced or covert application of technologies among the citizenry without prior knowledge or consent. (e.g. weather manipulation) Using the populace as guinea pigs.

4. Default commitments of Canadian military resources and personnel via NATO to an agenda of endless wars. 

5. Commitments to global agreements and directives (issued by international bodies) — decisions in which citizens have no voice or vote.

6. Loss of privacy and (protections for) personal information. 

7. Loss of human sovereignty because of thought control, and behaviour management and desire to hack the human mind.

8. Criminalization of dissent.

9. False flags carried out by governments (in order to justify new controls on the domestic population and foreign wars). 

10. Destruction of democratic processes (and abuse) at the hands of powerful lobbies (one could add “extremist activist groups”).

Two other ominous threats appeared at the bottom of the list which could have been incorporated into threat #3: Interestingly, these trends or threats were combined in the implementation of he diabolical Covid Vaxxademic operation five years later in 2020.

— Thought control and behaviour management.

— Technological fascism — vaccines

The email concluded with the caution: “Beware the campaigns of distraction.” 

Note: I continued to add to the list of forces bearing down on Western democracies in 2015 and 2016. A future article will deal with my attempt to bring the crisis to the attention of politicians and others.

Conclusion:

To some of us at least, the proverbial writing on the wall concerning the future of Western democracy was apparent by 2015, and it was legible. In short, we were tumbling toward the abyss, blissfully unaware or in a state of denial. The attacks were coming from all angles. The most troubling aspect of the situation was that those charged with preserving and protecting this precious legacy we called “democracy”, as imperfect as it was, were complicit in its destruction. It was one thing of course to spot a burning crisis and its beneficiaries and quite another to find and mobilize compatriots to confront it.

On July 27, I shared the following rather depressing observation with my sister: “America as we’ve known it is dead, and sadly, the majority of Americans are unaware of it. …If for example, they understood that George and Jeb Bush’s grandfather, Prescott, helped finance the Nazi war machine, would they have Jeb Bush sitting at second position in the polls as a possible republican candidate“.

The situation was equally depressing in Canada. The formerly somewhat naive me had little idea how difficult it would be to find the “courageous, forward-looking” variety of leadership I was seeking. There didn’t appear to be any such leaders in sight. Nor did I have any idea how disheartening it would be to discover that those in official leadership roles were traitorous puppets reciting scripts prepared by their psychopathic overseers. I had no conception of the diabolical plan that the globalists were planning to unleash on the citizenry in 2020 (Let’s say that my conception of evil was rather under-developed in light of what was to come.) And sadly, I had no idea how many so-called “progressives” and neo-liberals harboured inner fascists with zero tolerance for non-compliers. It would be some time before my dark night of the soul passed and I began to encounter other patriotic, freedom-lovers pushing back against the globalist agenda.

It’s often said, that God doesn’t give us more than we can bear at a particular time. Would any of us been able to handle a preview of our entire lives when we were 25 years of age, let’s say? I’m guessing that most would be overwhelmed. So, I’m grateful that only some elements of the near future are visible to most of us. Ignorance may not be bliss, but mercifully it does protect us to some degree from being overwhelmed.

The eight years that have elapsed since my email-to-self have seen many of us become battle-hardened warriors in the on-going globalist war against humanity. Most of us in the freedom movement have shed our innocence and now grasp the fact that this is the struggle of the ages — the contest for all the marbles. We’ve stopped looking for the cavalry to ride to our rescue. (The military-security industrial complex has been instrumental in our captivity.) Many of us have come to believe this is the struggle we were born for. And we’ve come to terms with the fact there can be no surrender… no retreat given the implications of a loss to the Sabbtean totalitarians and all we hold precious and sacred.

At the same time, we accept that there is no going back to what once was. History is about to turn a page and begin a new chapter. And we’ve been given the opportunity to help write it. God willing, it will be a story of freedom regained. If so, I pray succeeding generations will be born with a sacred scar in their memory — a permanent reminder that the price of freedom really is eternal vigilance. We forgot that lesson once; we must never forget it again.

Could we see a righteous student rebellion against indoctrination by a captive public education system?

Calvin Mulligan Futurescapes.ca September 28-23, rev. Oct 7. 2023 All rights reserved 2023 (c)

It’s their future 

I’ve been an advocate for engaging our kids and youth in general in our historic struggle for freedom from global totalitarianism for some time now. That said, I suspect parents may be torn between wanting to preserve their children’s innocence on the one hand and wanting to arm their offspring with an understanding of today’s harsh realities on the other. It’s worth reminding ourselves that it’s their freedom and their future that we’re fighting for. And if fail to arm our successors with a realistic understanding of the predatory forces stalking humanity, they easily become prey. And yes of course, the introduction to the machinations of the PTB should be thoughtful, paced and age appropriate, not a emotive dump likely to overwhelm young minds. Some parents have mastered this. I recall asking a young man of about 35 years old I’ll call “Charlie” what it was that opened his eyes to the the evil plans of the PTB. I was expecting Charlie to link his epiphany to something recent like vaxxaeddon. His response surprised me: my mom was talking about this stuff when I was in my crib. Hats off to you, mom wherever you are. You conveyed the new facts of life to your offspring in a timely and meaningful way. And that may have spared him permanent injury or saved his life when he had to discern the truth amid the Covid Propagandemic. 

Is mass student rebellion on the horizon?

A new contingent of “Charlies” may be about to emerge. American futurist, Clif High recently reported that the forward-looking scans of his web bot suggested that the revolt against indoctrination via the public education system may be about to ignite in schools. He adds that his podcasts are attracting a growing youth audience. The implication here is that student rebellion against public school indoctrination and identity politics-driven may be moving beyond spot protests and become a full blown trend.High envisions a revolt of sufficient strength to rattle the public education system baffling and buffeting administrators and educators and leading to resignations. 

We’ve seen the local signs and some anecdotal evidence of course. Before the summer break, a friend told me of his encounter with a small group of junior high students cussing about something in animated terms as they exited the school and walked down the street. Curious,  as to what had aroused their outburst, my friend approached the group. Thinking they were about to receive a lecture regarding their generous use of “F” bombs, someone apologized for their language. No, my friend was just curious what had agitated them. It turns out it was the June LGBTQ++ indoctrination on steroids they were being force fed by their school. On September 15, “hundreds of students in the Perkiomen Valley School District north of Philadelphia staged a walkout in response to the school board allowing students who identify as transgender to use whichever bathroom they like.” The male student who organized the walk-out explained, “The girls were upset. They didn’t want men in their bathroom.” 

Neither group of protesting students is alone. Grade 11 student Josh Alexander launched a protest against the pro-transgender bathroom policy of his high school, St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Renfrew, Ontario. Again his concerns for the safety and privacy of female students was a motivating factor behind Alexander’s protest. 

What if…? 

Let’s play a game of “What If? What if:

• Clif High has actually detected signs of a genuine, about-to-emerge mass student rebellion in the US against public school indoctrination and social engineering?

• a similar revolt also ignites among Canadian students in coming months? 

Some questions and a thought exercise

Given the current level of parent frustration with school boards in Canada, would the student and adult factions in revolt against public school indoctrination and perverse policies become one?

How widespread, enduring and impactful could mass student protest be? Could it for example translate into permanent withdrawal of large numbers of students from the public education system?

Could it lead to more disturbing revelations regarding infiltration of the public school system by cultural Marxist, pedo influencers and secret policies?  

What would be an appropriate response on the part of the existing parent- managed home schooling community?(purely observers, advocates, facilitators, a soft landing for those exiting, visionaries promoting a superior alternative?)

If the protest held, would the alternative parent-manged system be able to accommodate an influx of students exiting the public system? (Is the parent-managed system scalable? Is there the leadership within its ranks to guide its further growth and development? What new resources are needed?)

What is the freedom community’s message to conservative teachers and administrators who find themselves trapped within a public system increasingly hostile to their personal and professional values and principles? 

In summary… 

We’ve ventured into the realm of some known unknowns and unknown unknowns here, so there are a lot of questions that can’t be readily answered and issues easily anticipated. But, it’s not too early to ponder the above questions as a thought exercise or even a future planning exercise within the parent-managed education community. I suspect that when the public education edifice cracks and breaks into pieces, the naked emperor’s minions won’t be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Will those of us supportive of parent-managed education rise to the challenge of providing a viable alternative?

End notes:

Kid Wars (Clif High audio) https://clifhigh.substack.com/p/kid-wars#details

Odessa Orlewicz: Canadian schools showing high school freshmen how to sh*t and pi*s on each other and drink semen from others (See Lumsden, SK) https://stateofthenation.co/?p=187656

Pennsylvania students protest pro-trans bathroom policy, S.A. McCarthy, The Daily Signal, September 20, 2023: https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/09/20/pennsylvania-students-protest-pro-trans-bathroom-policy/

Pennsylvania Students Protest Pro-Trans Bathroom Policy

Canadian Catholic School student who was suspended for protesting transgender bathroom policy speaks out, Peter Pinedo, Catholic News Agency February 22, 2023.  https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253702/canadian-catholic-school-student-who-was-suspended-for-protesting-transgender-bathroom-policy-speaks-out

Campaign Life Coalition calls the Million Person March for Kids a victory (some good photos and video) https://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/clc-blog/id/296/title/a-historic-day-for-parental-rights-in-canada-

The anti-American sexual perverts who dominate the California state assembly make it impossible to be a parent in California:  https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/09/17/the-anti-american-sexual-perverts-who-dominate-the-california-state-assembly-have-made-it-impossible-to-be-a-parent-in-california/

The anti-American sexual perverts who dominate the California State Assembly have made it impossible to be a parent in California

“Isaiah work”: What are the returns on labours of love? 

Calvin Mulligan (c) September 28, 2023 Futurescapes.ca  All rights reserved

““Blessed is he who plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.”— Indian proverb

NOTE: This commentary grew out of a conversation initiated by a compatriot in the freedom movement. I’m taking the liberty of extending our conversation “outward” in that others in the freedom movement may derive some fresh perspective or encouragement from it. Our conversation was based on an article entitled, The Resonant Remnant, an old testament reference the obscure minority that heard the message of the prophet Isaiah. The author references the often challenging work of leaders who confront the established order. 

Modern day management theory places immense importance on the ability of aspiring leaders to orchestrate organizational change (change leadership). Hundreds of books and articles have been written on the subject, thousands of classes taught on the subject and hundreds of millions spent on related consulting services worldwide. But when it gets down to the real nitty gritty, organizations have complex inner lives of their own. Often, deeply entrenched competing interests and habits prevail and the change campaign fails short,  a victim of “organizational gravity.” According to some analyses, failures in this realm are more common than successes. Truth warriors can take some comfort in this when confronting their own lack of success in awakening others to important truths and imperatives over the last three years. And presumably, a kinder, gentler and more realistic assessment of one’s performance will in turn help ward off debilitating discouragement, regret and self-recrimination.

I need to revisit and re-think my idea of success in this truth war as much as anyone. My failure to communicate effectively concerning the vaxx threat to the health and lives of those I care about is apparent. Earlier this month, my former church reported the “unexpected” sudden passing of one of its congregants, a 68 year old gentleman who was required to be fully-vaxxed in order to attend church services. I was still grieving his loss when I learned that a Manitoba cousin had also died suddenly (vaxx likely, not confirmed). In January of 2021, I sent both of these folks a personal email sharing the results of my investigation on the subject and warning them away from the vaxx. The 68 year old gentleman was analytical in his bent and had a degree in physics, so why didn’t logic prompt him to decline the vaxx? It must be true then that Hell, is not only devoid of love, it’s also devoid of reason. 

It’s a hard lesson for those raised on the mechanistic Western model of how the world works. In reality however, the laws of the universe pay little attention to the principles of Project Management. In God’s great scheme of things, A plus B plus C doesn’t predictably lead to D. This is called the Age of Unreason for a good reason. In a previous edition of this letter, I shared an alternative to our logic-driven approach to winning friends and influencing Covid believers. It’s a right brain, heart-to-heart approach employing narrative and artistic media — stories, documentaries, musicals and “other”. Beyond that, in the interest of our mental health and well-being, we might also revisit the terms of reference and our expectations for our mission. What is the true nature of “truth-warrior” work? What are realistic expectations in terms of possible outcomes? 

The author of The Resonant Remnant would likely define the terms of reference for the kind of “Isaiah work” truth warriors undertake along these lines:  

Your role will be planting “seeds”, the harvest will be left to divine hands;

You won’t reach the masses, but rather a smaller remnant with ears to hear and with whom your message resonates;

Most of what you say will fall on deaf ears;

You won’t know who comprises the resonant remnant per se and are unlikely to meet its members face to face;

You can’t know the means whereby your message reaches the receptive remnant; thus, in effect you’re speaking “into the wind”;

There will be no formal or official acknowledgement of your contribution (in this life at least);

The size of the harvest won’t be known for some time — perhaps not even in your life time;

You won’t find the resonant remnant through your efforts they will find you or your message of their own accord; and

You can expect the usual hostility accorded those who deliver unwelcome messages or inconvenient truths.

This isn’t conventional selling either. As author, Eleutheroo puts it, the Internet provides for “a virtual marketplace of ideas where each can present their ideas and works, not with the intent of selling a product, but of sending out a signal that will be…received by those on that wave-length. 

“Isaiah” work has no rational appeal for ordinary men and women who are deeply attached to the hive mind. It’s too nebulous and unpredictable, too risky and decidedly unsexy. There’s clearly no prospect of achieving big time Influencer status with a large following of adoring fans and gratuitous virtue points. This work is reserved for selfless individuals prepared to plant in rain or shine in faith, deaf to the ridicule and confident of a harvest in due course. Yes, there may be the occasional word of appreciation from some member of that elusive remnant, but ultimately this is a labour of love and its operation consigned to the realm of mystery.

A labour of love is it’s own reward. And as the author puts it, the measure of its success isn’t a matter of material or numeric gains. It’s the joy and fulfillment found in living out one’s calling. This is the joy of living on that higher plane where talent, motive and mission are marvellously fused. The screenwriter for the movie Chariots of Fire (1981), captured the joy of such a partnership with the divine. The  lead actor playing the Sottish Olympic athlete, Eric Liddell, summed up his passion for running: “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” I doubt that it gets any better than that. Shine on fellow truth-warriors!

End notes:

The resonant remnant, Alethea Eleutheroo:  https://pleromic.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/the-resonant-remnant/

Chariots of Fire:  https://thecourieruk.shorthandstories.com/chariots-of-fire/

Quote investigator: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/04/29/tree-shade/

Eric Liddell, Torchlighters, https://torchlighters.org/eric-liddell-1902-1945/#:~:text=Olympian%20Eric%20Liddell%20is%20often,suggest%20Liddell%20actually%20said%20this

Video: Pfizer’s “secret” report on the Covid vaccine. The evidence is overwhelming. The vaccine should be immediately withdrawn worldwide. https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-pfizers-secret-report-on-the-covid-vaccine-beyond-manslaughter-the-evidence-is-overwhelming-the-vaccine-should-be-immediately-withdrawn-worldwide/5780561

The stealth and subtlety of propagandists: Beware the band-wagon or “inevitability” con

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes.ca September 3, 2023 rec. Sept 7 2023 (C) All Rights Reserved 

“Now the serpent was more crafty (subtle, skilled in deceit) than any living creature…”  Genesis 3:1

“You need to understand you’re being manipulated, and if you don’t know how you’re being manipulated, you’re never going to be able to fight it.” — Mike Smith, Producer, Into the Light 

The inevitability or “band wagon” con

Mark Twain’s once observed that it’s easier to fool someone than convince the individual that he had been fooled”. The truism reflects our debilitating ignorance regarding the power, pervasiveness and pernicious nature of propaganda. Our dismissiveness in this regard is a measure of our vulnerability to propagandists and their craft. Such naivety leaves the Powers-that-Be (PTB) free to go about their daily business of distortion and deception. In a recent blog, Aussie journalist, Caitlin Johnstone cites a fellow twitter warrior who warns readers that “…the most effective propaganda is the subtlest.” From a distance, the standing rule of propagandists appears to have been go big or go home. Consider such big hits as the “Russia did it” lie, the “Middle Eastern terrorists with box-cutters did it” lie, the “lone gunman” assassin did it, “six million Jews” and the “safe and effective” lie? Logically, the big whale lies are proportionately more likely to attract scrutiny and exposure in the long haul. Conversely, our mind’s watchdogs are less likely to sniff out subtle deceptions. One example in this category of subtle subconscious shapers is the inevitably con. (“Inevitability appeal” or “bandwagon” as per wikipedia)

Our adversaries work hard to create a perception that their agenda for the masses and the plans they intend to implement in the future are inevitable. It’s clever in a diabolical sense, because it leads the victim to conclude that resistance is futile and surrender is the only option. In fact, it’s better than that. Done properly, this tactic actually pre-empts the very idea of resisting. It doesn’t enter our conscious mind, and thus we never critically evaluate it or the alternatives. Rather, we  receive it as “understood,” pre-ordained, God’s will, a foregone conclusion, a given or a done deal. It’s worked well for the most part. Things we perceive as a given bypass our cognitive filters, neutralize the will and secure our compliance without a fight. And at that point, a pliable subconscious begins adapting to the expectation. Thus we surrender without knowing it, becoming on too many occasions, enablers of an unwanted future.  

Stealth and subtlety — trademarks of highly effective propaganda

Psychological warfare is inherently war by stealth manipulation of the mind. Sun Zu understood its pre-emptive potency. In The Art of War, Zu contended that supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting. The inevitability or bandwagon appeal is a way to win battles pre-emptively. The Twitter analyst’s warning should be taken seriously as we’re engaged in a no-holds-barred information war whether we like it or not. And in this context, contrary to the maxim, ignorance doesn’t equate to bliss. It’s more likely to make you a casualty of war. On the the subject of subtle manipulation of the public mind, governments have convinced themselves that creating “nudge” units is an innovation in the public interest. An examination of the vaxx frenzy will demonstrate otherwise. It’s already evident that the behavioural insights team (BIT) influence over the UK’s vaxx policy over-rode basic human rights, public health and medical considerations. If government’s were following any science at all it was human psychology and behavioural science. Goebels would be proud.

The craft of covert manipulation involves, at the granular level, creating pretentious word concoctions, shading word meanings and strategically framing the choices presented to target audiences. This is done in order to predispose thinking and behaviour in the intended direction. The most subtle form of persuasion conveys the message implicitly rather than explicitly. (No, you never said that; you but you implied it.) And implicitly conveying the sense that the latest globalist delusion is inevitable is an effective way of penetrating unguarded minds. Hired-gun PR agencies specialize in manipulation by stealth drawing on their knowledge of human psychology, social psychology and behavioral science.

I’m inclined to add neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to the list of weaponized sciences employed by propagandists. One example is the strategic use of the word, “eligible” when it came to enticing folks to get vaxxed. Typically, the word “eligible” has positive connotations as in the case where someone is deemed qualified to participate in a competition or placed in the pool of contestants for a prize draw. Individuals who were told they were “eligible” for a Covid injection, actually were being invited to play a version of medical Russian Roulette which, depending on the batch, could leave them sick, impaired or dead. It gives new meaning to the word disingenuous. One can only hope that the same people who were injured as a result of an adverse reaction to the vaxx will also be declared “eligible” for an apology from vaxx proponents and generous compensation by their governments.

When medical fascists were trying to convince us to accept the risky experimental vaxx, they employed language that implied everyone was capitulating to the so-called mandate and accept the vaxx. (and the numbers were exaggerated for good measure.) This was implied in terms like, “the last mile” or “last leg” of the vaxx roll-out. Pro-vaxx MSM articles appearing in MSM would underline the importance of completing the “last mile” or “final leg” of the campaign. The implied message is that the mission would be would be accomplished as a matter of course. This wasn’t a matter of “if”, only “when”, and it would be sooner rather than later. Soon it would be a case mission accomplished. A thick layer of bullshit veneer was applied to give the long-planned eugenicist-inspired project the glossy appeal of a bold moonshot venture.

Oops! Like any good authoritarian wedded to the belief that the end justifies the means, the disingenuous propagandist left out such minor details as viable alternative therapies, natural immunity, a faulty PCR test, medical ethics and the human right to bodily sovereignty. Unquestioning vaxx acceptance by angst-ridden citizens was the only path forward. This intentional exclusion of other considerations and options brings to mind an observation on tyranny from Alan Bloom, author of The Closing of the American Mind (1987). It invites us to consider what the propagandist has strategically omitted versus what is being said.

The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities, that makes it seem inconceivable that other ways are viable, that removes the sense that there is an outside.

The strategic editing of reality 

Consistent with the Bloom observation, “nudge unit” bureaucrats serving propagandizing governments have little difficulty obscuring or editing parts of our reality offering choices beyond their policy objectives. Again, the Covid Propagandemic is illustrative. The globalist bullies had to convince us that Ivermectin, Vitamin D, azythromycin and hydroxychloroquine were ineffective and/or dangerous. (They were suppressed, demonized and banned for good measure.) In Bloom’s terms, the tyrants made those other avenues of prevention and treatment seem inconceivable. Once people accepted that false premise, the job of convincing them that the vaxx was inevitable became much easier. 

It was as if the globalists’ cowboys were contracted to conduct a round-up at “the ranch.” The cowboys cracked their whips (made threats) and shouted (fearful consequences) to startle the herd get feet moving in the right direction. If added carrot shaped enticements like a return to normality and privileges to increase the appeal. Before it realized it, a large segment of the herd was psychologically and emotionally fenced in. Then the cowboys drove their subjects like cattle into the corral and down a narrow chute where they could be systematically injected/and branded/ID’d before being released back into the herd.

The Great Reset or Greater Expectations? 

As we’re bombarded with an increasing volume of toxic propaganda regarding the Great Reset, Central Bank CBDC’s, Smart Cities, (fake) Climate crises, 5G surveillance, ID implants, Russia and more Covid injections, watch for the subtle signs of the inevitability or band wagon con. This covert mind-warping technique is an inherent feature of globalist programming. The corollary of the opening Mike Smith quote is that once you know the magician’s tricks, you need not remain captivated by his sleights of hand.

Transhumanism’s psychopathic hucksters are good at projecting a confidence that belies the reality. Its aspiring high priests like Yuval Noah Harari and Ray Kurzweil, the “Singularity” salesman, exude a presumptive atheistic arrogance. Perhaps it’s linked to an underlying god delusion. If the advocates of totalitarian transhumanism possessed an ounce of humility, they would know that their plans for humanity are far from inevitable. The more likely outcome is that an awakening humanity will reject their not-so-great Great Reset, look up and pursue a decidedly more uplifting vision. Clear-headed liberty-seekers realize there’s nothing subtle about the choices facing us. 

“Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! (Deuteronomy 30:19)

End Notes

It’s not the blatant propaganda that gets you, Caitlin Johnstone, https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2023/07/19/its-not-the-really-blatant-propaganda-that-gets-you/

Nudge Units: Where they come from and what they can do, Zeina Afif, World Bank Blogs, October 25, 2017.

blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/nudge-units-where-they-came-and-what-they-can-do

The ‘Nudge unit’: Ottawa’s Behavioural Science Team investigates how Canadians feel about vaccines, public health and who to trust, Susan Delacourt, Toronto Post, February 21, 2021. https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/the-nudge-unit-ottawa-s-behavioural-science-team-investigates-how-canadians-feel-about-vaccines-public/article_64d00ec0-cf95-5e8e-ad27-7a9b3046d169.html

Biggest Lie In World History; There never was a pandemic. The database is flawed. The Covid mandate, including the vaccine are invalid, Michael Chossudovsky. Global Research, August 13, 2023. https://www.globalresearch.ca/biggest-lie-in-world-history-the-data-base-is-flawed-there-never-was-a-pandemic-the-covid-mandates-including-the-vaccine-are-invalid/5772008

Kurzweil claims that the singularity will happen by 2045

https://futurism.com/kurzweil-claims-that-the-singularity-will-happen-by-2045

Sun Zu Brainy Quote

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/sun_tzu_384922

Propaganda techniques, Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_techniques

The Closing of the American Mind: How higher education has failed democracy and impoverished the souls of today’s students, Alan Bloom, 1987. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Closing_of_the_American_Mind

The Art of War Revisited: Unleashing a “right brain” strategy to breach the matrix 

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes.ca September 2, 2023 all rights reserved (c) 2023

“We cannot confront bigots with nukes and battleships. But our talents, our muses, and our hearts are here, with us, ready to join the battle.”  (Andre Vltchek) 

Matrix: “a term describing  a controlled environment aor situation in which people act or behave in ways that conform to roles pre-determined by a powerful person(s) who decides how the world is supposed to function.”  (Urban  Dictionary)

Confronting the formidable power of the propaganda machine

As the whine of the engines propelling the Big Propaganda Machine grows louder once again, we’re taken back to the perplexing question of how to awaken an entranced segment of the population captivated by its illusions. It’s not a trivial question. I suspect most members of the freedom community aren’t prepared to surrender more territory nor newly-awakened friends, family and acquaintances to the control of globalist Powers that Be (PTC). Propaganda is the latter’s specialty, weapon of choice an means of control, so the matter of how to overcome its mind-altering influence over humans is central to the question of who will prevail in the current information war.

Few of us have pondered the enormous influence of propaganda over the lives ordinary citizens. Russia-born American, Andre Vltchek, philosopher, investigative journalist and film maker (1963-2020) did and considered it an existential threat to humanity. Based on his observations as a globe-travelling investigative journalist, Vletchek felt that much of the confusion and chaos he witnessed could be attributed to the fact that the world is inundated with Western propaganda. The passage of time has only served to confirm his analysis. The propaganda-driven vaxx frenzy is convincing proof. One source estimates the toll from Vaxxageddon at 20 million deaths and more 2.2 billion vaxx-related injuries worldwide. The fact that this depopulation campaign continues to this moment is a perverse tribute to the power of propaganda. It also underlines the urgency attached to the mission of finding an improved approach  to breaching the matrix and awakening the propagandized. Clearly, the above numbers are more than enough to warrant labelling propaganda a“weapon of mass destruction” of the first order. 

The frustrating limitations of a “facts and figures” counter strategy

Pausing to periodically assess the success of our counter insurgency and our war strategy is essential. The thrust of our approach for the past three to four years has consisted of researching, documenting and publishing a litany of lies, human rights abuses, and criminal activities attributable to the PTB. We fully expected that the hard evidence revealing that the SARS Cov 2 pandemic is a diabolical global conspiracy would be persuasive enough to figuratively awaken the dead or at least the sleeping. It wasn’t. By way of illustration, I shared two substantive research papers containing the findings from my personal investigation into the Pandemic-Vaxx narrative with more than 225 contacts. This included family, friends, acquaintances and former colleagues, many of whom are professionals in the fields of dentistry, family medicine, pharmacy, finance, education, the clergy and law. As of this date, I’m hard pressed to recall more than one or two who have responded along the lines of “Thanks for the alert, I’m now seeing what you reported.” I wasn’t seeking anyone’s agreement with my findings per se, but what did surprise me was the decision by some “professionals” to not even peruse the papers, let alone discuss the findings. A pastor working on a masters degree and a nurse assigned a role in rolling out the vax, both responded to the effect that they wouldn’t be reading my research paper. It appears that following the science actually means submitting to the propaganda. 

No doubt many other concerned freedom seekers urgently shared independent red pill analysis of the manufactured pandemic and vaxx campaign with family members and friends up until the point that the latter, like me, were told to stop. It’s been both discouraging and perplexing to say the least. So, given the limits of a factual or evidential approach, I was intrigued by an article by Vletchek entitled “How to fight Western Propaganda.” Perhaps he had the antidote. Vletchek frames our challenge this way:

“When the most powerful and the most destructive force on earth employs all its persuasive might, utilizing everything from the mainstream media to educational facilities, in order to justify its crimes, when it spreads its poisonous propaganda and lies in order to oppress the world and suppress hope, do we step back and begin endless and detailed work on precise and objective narratives? 

My simple application to the Covid-vaxx narrative is that bringing Covid-fixated family members, friends and acquaintances face to face with reality will require more than presenting them with hard facts and figures. Yes, we probably have enough evidence of medical malfeasance and monstrous daily Cabal wrongdoing to fill libraries and keep lawyers busy for decades. And it’s growing by the day. But seemingly it’s not the stuff that appeals to the propagandized masses living in a (fabricated) reality somewhat detached from ours. To borrow a well-worn rural Saskatchewan response to lost travellers seeking directions to their destination, “You can’t get there from here.” It’s increasingly clear that those trapped in the Matrix cannot or do not process facts and logic. This may in part be a matter of the way humans are wired. Cognitive scientist, Roger Schank says: “Humans are not ideally set up to understand logic; they are ideally set up to understand stories.” This is completely consistent with Vletchek’s call for a more emotive strategy employing powerful narratives to reach the entranced. 

Obviously, there’s a need to prioritize our targets. Many, if not most Vaxx Zealots may be beyond reach — by  humans anyway. Realistically then, it’s a question of how to more effectively engage those who still possess eyes capable of seeing and ears capable of hearing, The qualification here is that we’ve learned that the eye can only see what the mind is prepared to comprehend. And the individual’s mind sets boundaries concerning what it’s prepared to comprehend. Unsurprisingly, it retreats when presented with uncomfortable truths presenting a threat to their worldview. The retreat is triggered by at the cognitive dissonance headache or shock that results when paradigms clash. I compare it to the way livestock retreat or avoid contact with an electrically-charged pasture fence. They don’t like to get zapped. 

The call for a “right brain”- powered counter strategy 

Daniel H. Pink’s book, “A Whole New Mind” (2005) explains humans are literally “of two minds” in that our brains are divided into left and right hemispheres. While we use both hemispheres to do things, they have different capabilities. The left hemisphere is “sequential, logical and analytical.” Engineers, software programmers and data analysts draw heavily upon its capabilities. The right hemisphere is “non-linear, intuitive and holistic.” The right with its capacity for inventiveness, empathy, joyfulness and meaning is what is most relied upon by “artists, inventors, designers, story tellers, caregivers, consolers and big picture thinkers.”  

It’s not surprising then that Vletchek, a film maker, investigative journalist and philosopher would call for what amounts to a more “right brain”-powered strategy to overcome the propaganda-induced spells of the PTB. 

“Or do we confront lies and propaganda with our own narrative, supported by our intuition, passion and dreams for a better world?” 

“To win over billions of people, we have to inspire them, to fire them up. We have to outrage them, embrace them, shame them, make them laugh and make them cry. We have to make sure that they get goose bumps when they see our films, read our books and essays, listen to our speeches.” 

Rather than trying to persuade the skeptical with logic, Vletchek’s approach would seek to connect via feelings at an emotional or spiritual level. We don’t try to reason with people who are drowning or under an hypnotic spell. Perhaps we shouldn’t expect to reason with those subjected to what is perhaps the most intense and sophisticated psy op in human history. 

While Vletchek wasn’t speaking to events of the last four years in particular, he saw the propagandized as poisoned or anesthetized. He advises: “We have to detox them, make them feel again, wake up natural instincts in them.”  

There may be some value then in thinking differently about those who reject our claims. Would our response be more effective if we viewed opposing Covidians as in a similar state to those suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, indoctrinated by a religious cult or experiencing a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Are they comparable in some sense to wounded prisoners of war (POWs)? Viewing truth-defying Covid believers differently naturally prompts a reframing of our mission. Rather than it being one of persuasion via discussion and debate, it then become one of reviving and resuscitating people suffering from prolonged exposure to mind-altering toxins. 

Clearly, some segments of the population are more resistant to propaganda-based warfare and more resilient when it comes to recovering from its adverse effects than others. (I believe about 25-30% of Americans either rejected the vaxx outright or quit at two; the Canadian number may be a bit lower.) Vletchek’s call to wake up the “natural instincts” of the propagandized seems appropriate. In a different context, it brings to mind the contrasting behaviour of two categories of mothers. On the one hand, the protective “mamma bear” confronts educators regarding the sexualizing and indoctrinating of her children. And, on the other, the cultural Marxist-indoctinated mother voluntarily wheels her children into the public library for a tranny grooming session. (Chances are her porch is decorated with a blue and yellow UA flag.) And some, apparently suffering from Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, eagerly bathe in the reflected public attention her child’s gender transitioning saga gets on her social media accounts. The futility of trying to reason with the deeply propagandized in the latter category seems as obvious as the impairment of their natural maternal instincts. 

Unleashing our moral imagination 

For each of us, finding the courage to speak out publicly was Step One. Shaping powerful narratives that meaningfully convey truth to captives of the Covid illusion takes something more. It requires the kind of moral imagination Andre Vletchek calls for. It’s the kind of right brain-fuelled creative output that inspires, outrages, embraces, shames, ignites laughter, and induces tears. The intended outcome is the same whether the medium is books, films, essays or speeches; it’s to revive spirits, revitalize the senses and foster spiritual healing. 

We’ve already glimpsed how powerful the awakened moral imagination can be. Our meme-writers have been skewering our unscientific, delusional controllers for some time — often brilliantly. Satirists like JP Sears and Babylon Bee entertain while reducing our tormentors to the size of laughable Lilliputians. New films are awakening audiences to the nature of the Deep State’s propaganda-built matrix. In 2020, Mike Smith released his “Out of Shadows” documentary, “an expose on how Hollywood and MSM manipulate the masses by spreading propaganda throughout their content.” In August of this year, Smith followed up with Into the Light, “a movie made to bring to surface that psychological operations are present and active in today’s society.” The appetite for docu-films like this and films like Call of Freedom is likely to bring other players into the alternative movie field. Last week, a high profile individual in the liberty movement mentioned in passing that he’ had recently attended meetings with other like-minded individuals to discuss the kind of film projects a re-invented Hollywood might undertake as the old one decays. 

There’s immense room for creative media production capable of “inoculating” our kids and grandkids against the predatory grasp of demonic forces. Liberty-minded blogger, Brandon Smith, convinced of the need to engage youth, has committed to “producing conservative/liberty movement entertainment content to compete with woke Hollywood.” The teaser for his “coming soon” graphic novel, “Mountain Hollow”, looks like it would intrigue the kid in me.https://alt-market.us/update-alt-markets-first-graphic-novel-mountain-hollow-will-be-published-soon/  

A fellow truther recently informed me about the Brave Books venture. The website tells us that Trent Talbot (founder and CEO) “saw the inappropriate content being pushed upon children and realized the need for a wholesome alternative. He left his career as a practicing ophthalmologist to found Brave Books and the rest is history.” As a first time author of a kids’ book myself, I share Talbot’s conviction regarding the need to provide children with wholesome alternative content. 

Breaching the walls of the Matrix 

Klaus Schwab of the WEF may brag that his organization has penetrated the cabinets of client governments, Canada’s included. 

I take heart in the idea that the walls of the PTB’s Matrix aren’t built of concrete and steel. Rather I think of them as composed of a densely-woven thatch of lies and false narratives in a continuous state of decay. Thus, they are even more penetrable. And as the lyrics of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” suggest, nothing can block the infiltration of “the light”. 

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets in.

No state narrative comprised of lies and deception, no matter how often it is recited, can withstand a steady, well-aimed barrage of truth over the long term. The PTB propagandists know that, and that’s the reason they’re working so frantically to find new ways to censor, cancel and de-platform. To paraphrase the Jack Nicholson movie line: They can’t handle the truth.

It’s a long term struggle, but the Resistance appears to be breaching the barricades and reaching expanding audiences. Some media productions like Smith’s films are exposing the operation of the Propaganda Machine itself. Success is more than a matter of audience numbers. Sometimes the victory is simply in bringing a once-hidden subject like child trafficking to the fore and into the public conscious. In that process, a predatory criminal activity once deemed undiscussable in polite company becomes visible and discussable. And each time one of the PTB’s dark, dirty secrets is exposed to sunlight, the enemy get weaker and its position less defensible. (As we’re discovering, that’s not the PTB’s only similarity with vampires!)

The uptake and reach of Smith’s Out of Shadows is noteworthy and suggestive of a growing appetite for truth. Smith reports that it had “over 100 million views” in the first year and was translated into 24 languages, something he describes as “a God thing.” It makes the Great Awakening seem like less of a dream and more of a possible reality in our life time. Moving forward, the freedom camp’s call to arms is part invocation and part exhortation. It’s a call for heavenly help mobilizing an army of inspired creative writers, artists, producers, actors and entertainers. And it’s a call for talented artisans to infuse the truth-to-freedom message into a wide array of media content, publications and public presentations. To these folks we say, give us your most moving and entertaining plays, musicals, movies; your most informative documentaries; your most gripping kids’s tales and graphic novels; your most hilarious stand-up routines and sharpest satire; and your most poignant stories and powerful speeches. 

Andre Vletchek has passed, but he leaves us with this rousing reminder of what we must bring to the struggle against oppression. 

“But before we win our final battles against imperialism, nihilism, fascism, exceptionalism, selfishness and greed, we have to fully and effectively utilize our most powerful weapons: our visions of a better world, our love for humanity, our passion for justice. 

Thank-you, Andre. Well said. 

Note: An article by VN Alexander published in the OffGuardian on September 10, 2023 make the case for essentially the same approach — using art to reach the brainwashed or propagandized.

See: How do we reach the brainwashed? https://off-guardian.org/2023/09/10/how-do-we-reach-the-brainwashed/

Endnotes

Update: Alt Market’s first graphic novel. “Mountain Hollow” will be published soon, Brandon Smith, August 12, 2023. https://alt-market.us/update-alt-markets-first-graphic-novel-mountain-hollow-will-be-published-soon/

How to fight Western propaganda, Andre Vltchek, May 15, 2015.

https://countercurrents.org/vltchek150515.htm

Andre Vltchek’s sudden death, Robert Hunziker, CounterPunch, September 25, 2020. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/25/andre-vltcheks-sudden-death/

Out of Shadows, Mike Smith, MUBI.com

https://mubi.com/en/ca/films/out-of-shadows

David Nino Rodriquez and Mike Smith, Into the Light, Beforeit’sNews.com.

https:/z/beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2023/08/david-nino-rodriguez-mike-smith-into-the-light-video-3797466.html

Into the Light, 

https://www.intothelight.movie/

Brave Books

https://bravebooks.us/

Anthem, Leonard Cohen, Album, “The Future,” 1992, AZ Lyrics

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/leonardcohen/anthem.html

The Development of Moral Imagination, Darcia Narvaez and Kellen Mrkvia, The Ethics of Creativity, Chapter 1091, pages 25-45, Springer Link

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137333544_2#:~:text=Moral%20imagination%20involves%20not%20only,people%20and%20lifescapes%20at%20hand

Whole New Mind, Daniel H. Pink, Riverhead Books, New York, 2005.  

https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/book-reviews/view/19827/a-whole-new-mind

Speak from the heart: Be yourself and get results, Steve Adubato with Theresa Foy DiGeronimo, The Free Press, New York, New York. 2002. https://www.amazon.ca/Speak-Heart-Yourself-Get-Results/dp/141658448X

No Surrender! Finding serenity, freedom and meaning amid tyranny

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes.ca (c) All rights reserved, August 2, 2024

“But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be in dread.” I Peter 3:14 

There’s no denying the Powers-that-Be are engaged in a brutal no-holds-barred war against humanity. Nor is there any denying it has taken a heavy toll on hearts, minds and bodies. After seven years of intensive psychological manipulation, it may be useful to ask how others historically have remained sane and whole in the midst of prolonged war and captivity. Nietzsche’s famous line: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how”, comes to mind. To paraphrase, one who has a purpose in life can endure almost any misery. 

Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychologist (1905-1997) and author of Man’s Search for Meaning (1946) drew strength from Nietzsche’s dictum during his own imprisonment in multiple concentration camps in World War II. In fact, he made it and his surroundings a matter of personal study. He discovered that prisoners “who did not lose their sense of purpose and meaning in life were able to survive much longer than those who had lost their way.” I would add that maintaining a positive view in term of a possible future can also be important. Frankl made a habit of visualizing himself giving lectures to receptive audiences in the future. He concluded that many prison camp deaths were more appropriately attributed to loss of hope and meaning than a lack of food. There’s something instructive in Frankl’s personal tactics and findings regarding the significance ofa sense of purpose  and meaning for those in oppressive circumstances.  

At times like this, it’s natural for our escapist impulse to emerge; “Just make it all go away….please!” we may pray on occasion. But that’s not the Creator’s approach to refining the human spirit, nor is it Frankl’s formula for finding meaning. The latter asserts that “man’s freedom is not freedom from, but freedom to” confront life’s challenges and find meaning in the process. Frankl describes three sources of meaning: work, loving relationships and suffering. “What man actually needs”, says Frankl, “is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.”  

Well, we’re about as far from a “tensionless state” as I can imagine. Seemingly, it’s during oppressive circumstances like ours that it’s most important to seek clarity as to who one is and what his or her mission in life is. It’’s not simply a matter of keeping hope alive and sustaining our mental health and well-being. It’s also a matter of our ability to contribute to the cause, a matter of performance. Sun Tzu (The Art of War) linked knowledge of self, along with knowledge of the enemy, to success in battle. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” 

Logically then, clarity regarding oneself and life mission can: 

• reduce vulnerability to distraction, self-interest and malaise (as Frankl suggests).;
• focus the mind and our efforts, thus enhancing our contribution;
• enable an individual to transcend pain and hardship; and 
• bolster confidence and contribute to well-being and personal satisfaction.

The emboldening effect of a sense of purpose is clearly illustrated in the lives of individuals that have surfaced in the current struggle against tyranny. We’ve seen numerous resisters take bold action in defence of ordinary people, despite the personal cost. The nurse who substituted saline solution injections for the risky vaxx comes to mind. While I seek to avoid “fandom”, I’m buoyed in spirit by the examples of those who put their employment, lifestyle, reputation, relationships and in some instances their life on the line. This includes both high profile names in research and medicine like Tenpenny, Merrick, Cahill, Yeadon, McCullough, Bridle, Hodkinson, Trozzi and countless others who dared to defy the regime. 

I’ve heard it said that the most powerful man or woman in the world is the one who needs nothing. Their values and sense of purpose (or divine calling) is such that these individuals can’t be bought. In the case of the Great Covid Deception, they demonstrated their independence. They didn’t need social media “influencer” payola, approving “atta boy” and “atta girl” back pats from superiors, applause from colleagues, the camaraderie of vaxx cult members, approval of family and friends, Big Brother’s false assurances of safety and security, the affirmation of spouses nor special privileges from the state. Nada! They are anchored by a deep understanding of who they are and their assignment and guided by closely-held values and moral principles. 

Perhaps it’s this powerful anchoring which enables these resilient individuals to pivot when their situation requires it. For much of their lives, the four Brunson Brothers, (American trumpet players), believed their role was entertaining with their brand of trumpet music. But their musical careers never took off. In recent years, they have taken on a new challenge. The four brothers and committed patriots, none of whom are lawyers, have brought a pivotal case to the US Supreme Court. The decision could have massive implications if the court determines that members of Congress failed to fulfill their oath of office and investigate the situation when the integrity of election results is in doubt. (See 2020 US election)

The Cabal/NWO coup of 2020 has shattered world views and shaken many out of life-on-autopilot. We’ve had to face the figurative “man in the mirror” and decide what’s of ultimate importance. I recall reading about a soft-spoken Australian man who was subjected to a lengthy interrogation by Australian “gestapo” in 2020. He spoke calmly and clearly regarding his stance in support of fundamental human freedoms and his willingness to die defending them. I’m sure that the Canadian pastors who have been imprisoned for keeping their churches open during the lockdowns have thought a great deal about their respective missions in life. The heat of this conflict has, in many respects, been clarifying. Some may recall hearing the personal declaration of a defiant Oklahoma MD in a 2020 Vaccine Choice Canada interview? His statement, “I was born for this fight” continues to resonate. It doesn’t sound like the sentiment of someone reconciled to enslavement. Rather, it’s indicative of an individual who relishes his assigned role in an undertaking of major historic significance. 

No one knows with certainty the duration or the outcome of the great struggle that now engulfs humanity. We’ve been told that we can expect some very disruptive events to unfold in coming months and with it, potentially significant casualties. For now at least, continued tyranny can be expected. So, in Frankl’s terms, freedom from that reality seems remote. But if we embrace his understanding that genuine human freedom is freedom to …, our outlook is very different. Has there ever been a greater opportunity to exercise the freedom to love and serve others, speak truth, stand for peace, seek forgiveness, call for justice, repudiate evil, expose darkness and deception, demonstrate courage, rally the faint-hearted, nurture health and healing, protect the innocent, comfort the grieving, and imagine and create the new…? The possibilities in this agonizing and momentous struggle are endless. 

— Calvin 

Endnotes

Vicktor Frankl, Happiness and Meaning: The bottom line, The Pursuit of Happiness. https://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/viktor-frankl/

Vicktor Frankl: A “Man’s Search for Meaning”, The Financial Philosopher. https://financialphilosopher.typepad.com/thefinancialphilosopher/viktor-frankl-mans-search-for-meaning.html

The Art of War, Sun Tzu, translated by Lionel Giles. https://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html

Golden Jackass Hat Trick Newsletter, July 2023, by Dr. Jim Willie (subscription) 

Man’s search for meaning, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning