CONFRONTING GODZILLA (Corporatocracy) (PART A)

Confronting Godzilla (Corporatocracy) — Part A
Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C

Original written September 5, 2017, Posted January 29, 2018. All rights reserved
 
The truth today, however, is that the United States is neither a democracy nor a republic. Americans are ruled by a corporatocracy: a partnership of “too-big-to-fail” corporations, the extremely wealthy elite, and corporate-collaborator government officials. – Bruce E. Levine1
 
DAPL and Standing Rock
Is it a case of life imitating art or art imitating life? In the long running cartoon TV series, The Simpsons, the sinister Charles Montgomery (“Monty”) Burns is the embodiment of the dark instincts of corporate America. Mr. Burns, a shriveled specimen of a human being who bears a striking resemblance to Nathan Rothschild, is the owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and Homer Simpson’s boss. A trademark Burns response to perceived threats is ordering his assistant to “release the hounds” allowing his vicious guard dogs to attack intruders, enemies or even invited guests. As to his modus operandi, Burns “uses his power and wealth to do whatever he wants, usually without regard for consequences and without interference from the authorities” (Wikipedia).
 
Some encounters between the two sides in the Standing Rock – Dakota Access Oil Pipeline standoff were ominously Burns-esque in nature. The protest was launched against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), by a reported 500 Native American tribes. They considered the project to be an assault on sacred ancestral sites and environmental threats to the Missouri River.
 
Even though the US Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit for building the pipeline under the Missouri River last November, an executive order signed by President Trump the following January instructed the army corps of engineers to “review and approve” the project “in an expedited manner.” After the final easement was granted in late February of this year, “the move was enthusiastically greeted by Energy Transfer Partners, the pipeline’s developer.2
 
In September of 2016, the Monty Burns-Simpsons parallel at Standing Rock was complete with its “release the hounds” moment. Protestors complained that in one clash with the security firm employed by Energy Transfer Partners, they were pepper sprayed and bitten by their guard dogs.3 
 
It’s been 30 years since the publication of Our Common Future offered the world a more enlightened approach to economic development.4 We were led to believe that we had entered the era of Sustainable economic development, one that would see a more judicious integration of economic objectives with social and environmental priorities. Are we supposed to believe that the “resolution” of the DAPL-Standing Rock dispute in some way fulfilled the promise of Our Common Future? Or, did it merely expose the willingness of the federal government to subordinate social and environmental interests to those of Big oil and its financial partners?
 
In weighing this question, consider among other things, that the CEO of Energy Transfer Partners donated $100,000 to the Trump Campaign, the Republican National Committee and State Republican Parties.5 And, Kinder Morgan reportedly paid $115,000 to Massachusetts state police to stop protests against the DAPL pipeline.6 More recently, the Dakota Access Pipeline developer has sued Greenpeace and a number of other environmental groups. Energy Transfer partners alleging the group, engaged in “racketeering and defamation that increased the cost of construction by at least $300 million.”7
 
The tyranny of corporatocracy
There’s hard evidence that US citizens have lost their influence over American politics and policies. A Princeton-Northwestern Universities study examined1,800 US policies enacted between 1981 and 2002 and compared them to the expressed preferences of average Americans. The researchers found that an economic elite dominates America.
 
… economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.8
 
The DAPL-Standing rock outcome wasn’t surprising in the least. What it did do was confirm the stark reality that a corporatocracy governs the American Empire. A corporatocracy is defined as “the rule by an oligarchy of corporate elites through manipulation of a formal democracy”9 Robert Gore sees it as more than a matter of large corporations exercising undue influence over the government. He argues that America’s large corporations and its government have merged. Gore adds that while the two retain their own distinct legal structures and managements, it’s no longer possible to separate them or delineate their individual contours.
 
Gore struggles to find adequate descriptors of the product of this forbidden marriage, settling on “big,” “rapacious,” “intrusive” and “conjoined blob.”10  It’s reminiscent of the language Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine used to describe the investment bank, Goldman Sachs. In Taibbi vernacular, it is “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.”11 The commonality mirrored in these two descriptions is the concern that large corporate entities interests are preying on America.
 
The analysis of American author and lecturer, Marianne Williamson is no less blunt. She labels this new form of governance as “corporate totalitarianism.”12 Political philosopher, Christopher Wolin differentiates this form of totalitarian from its Stalinist and Nazi predecessors, and describes it as “inverted totalitarianism.” As he explains, this is a system where corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy and economics trumps politics.
 
Inverted totalitarianism is different from classical forms of totalitarianism. It does not find its expression in a demagogue or charismatic leader but in the faceless anonymity of the corporate state. Our inverted totalitarianism pays outward fealty to the facade of electoral politics, the Constitution, civil liberties, freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, and the iconography, traditions and language of American patriotism, but it has effectively seized all of the mechanisms of power to render the citizen impotent.13
 
Ultimately, Wolin’s inverted totalitarianism, Williamson’s corporate totalitarianism and Gore’s corporatocracy imply the same kind of governance. The forbidden marriage of government and corporate interests has birthed something ugly and oppressive. As we come to better understand the psychology and appetites of this beast, we will discover it is every bit as dangerous as the fictitious out-of-control freak of nature, Godzilla.
 
A slow-motion coup
So what happened? How did it come about that a political Godzilla rules the American Empire? Graham Vanbergen contends that the “creeping colonization of public life” by corporations resulted in a “slow motion coup d’etat.’ He adds that globalization has continually compounded corporate power and consolidated its influence on global governance.” Government for its part, ignored signs an advancing coup. The warning signs that should have prompted corrective action appeared in a year 2000 study by Corporate Watch, Global Policy Forum and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). The study found:

• 200 of the approximately 40,000 worldwide corporations had global reach and influence;

• The top 200 companies were bigger than the combined economies of 182 countries and wielded twice the economic influence of 80 per cent of all humanity;

• As worker wages stagnated, corporate profits soared and wealth concentrated; and

• Corporate concentration was greatest in the trading, banking, automotives, retail and electronics sectors.14

 In 2011, three Swiss mathematicians published the results of their efforts to map the network of connections between transnational corporations (TNCs). Their goal was to gain insights into the structure of economic power. Working from a database of more than 43,060 TNCs, they isolated a “super-entity” of 147 tightly- knit companies at the core of the TNC network. This super entity controlled 40 per cent of the total wealth in the network. All but one of the top 50 within this node were financial institutions.15
 
For its part, the financial sector, made a determined effort to free itself of its regulatory chains in the mid-nineties. Susan George describes the campaign. 
 
From the mid-1990s, the largest American banking, securities, insurance and accounting transnational corporations joined forces and, employing 3000 people, spent $5 billion to get rid of all the New Deal laws passed under the Roosevelt administration in the 1930s – the very laws that had protected the American economy for over sixty years. Through this collective lobbying push, they won total freedom to remove any money-losing assets from their balance-sheets and move them into “shadow” banks that appeared nowhere on their balance sheets. They became free to create and trade hundreds of billions worth of toxic derivative products, such as bundles of sub-prime mortgages, with no regulation whatever. 16 
 
A “liberated” banking sector has come to wield enormous political influence in recent years. Consider for example, the Wikileaks revelation that Citigroup bank chose Obama’s 2008 cabinet.17 Goldman Sachs is considered to be even more of a political powerhouse. Katherine Fisk describes Goldman Sachs’ reach into the Oval Office. 
 
They are the power in the Oval Office, where what Goldman says determines policy. The financial advisors behind the Vatican. The funders of fast track to get the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement through Congress. They are the hand that pulls the strings on both the Democratic and Republican nominees for US President, who is just the next “crisis actor” that will sit in the White House, while He Who Would Be King steers from behind.17
 
Wall Street’s dominance of the White House didn’t end with the Obama era. Despite Trump’s criticisms of Wall Street throughout his campaign, he promptly surrounded himself with Goldman Sachs alumni once elected.18
 
The mega corporate invasion and ascent to governance finds something of an equivalent in a viral infection. The corporate virus first invades and acquires control of its government host, and then, once established, systematically feeds off public resources. The US government’s annual bill for corporate welfare is $100 billion. It comes in many forms – grants, tax credits, bail-outs and other types of assistance. The arguments for and against aside, it’s noteworthy that Corporate welfare disproportionately favours big business.” Of an estimated $18 trillion awarded between 2000 and 2015, 99 per cent went to large companies and 78% went to 12 large US and foreign banks.19 Now that gives new meaning to the phrase “taking care of business,” doesn’t it?
 
It can be difficult for members of the public to follow the machinations of the ruling corporate powers behind the coup. Typically, they are drip fed the news an issue at a time, which makes it inherently difficult to grasp the big picture. Those seeking critical analyses must penetrate the fog of corporate PR, journalistic puffery, censorship and disinformation. And the wall of secrecy that screens the public eye from the dealings of government with their corporate friends further impairs their scrutiny.
 
Government’s long retreat
As the term, slow motion coup d’etat implies, the conquest of government didn’t occur over night. Ralph Nader, in an interview with Chris Hedges, suggests the creeping coup began around 1970. He links it to a decision by the Democratic Party to aggressively compete with Republicans in the electoral fund raising competition for corporate dollars. From that point on, the Democrats were more intent on courting the favour of big business than putting the brakes on its excesses.20
 
It should also be said that the coup wasn’t completely a matter of the raging ambitions of big banks and other TNCs. Government was a facilitator of the coup. Looking back on my own career, much of it of working with various levels of government, it’s clear how trends in government management opened the doors to corporate encroachment. Five of the most popular and enduring management trends in government over the past thirty five years have been:

• Recurring drives for increased operational efficiency frequently leading to reductions in public resources assigned to delivery of services, the monitoring of industry activities and regulatory enforcement;

• Pursuit of private sector-public sector partnerships (“Triple P) in service delivery and infrastructure development;

• Privatization of government programs (widely celebrated and “sold” in Maggie Thatcher’s day) 

• Recurring de-regulation campaigns with some aimed at industry self-regulation with a stated intention of fostering increased innovation and international competitiveness; and

• The shifting of scientific research once financed and carried out in the public sector to private sector corporations.

The effect of the widespread adoption of these management approaches and strategies over a period of decades is obvious. Government’s regulatory role eroded as responsibilities and resources were shifted to the private sector. In reality then, government leaders and public servants were respectively, champions of and collaborators in the power shift. Whether they clearly demarcated and enforced limits on corporate encroachment is another matter. When it comes to the management of natural resources, for example, Colin Todhunter challenges the idea that profit-driven transnationals have a legitimate claim to be custodians of natural assets.
 
“There is the premise that water, food, soil and agriculture should be handed over to powerful and wholly corrupt transnational corporations to milk for profit, under the pretence these entities are somehow serving the needs of humanity.
 
Todhunter argues that these natural assets (“the commons”) belong to everyone and their stewardship is a matter of the common interest. As such they should to be managed by local people “assisted by public institutions and governments acting on their behalf.”21 When governments fail to protect the commons, preferring instead to serve corporate interests, we get the DAPL-Standing Rock kind of outcome. This brings us to the pivotal matter of accountability.
 
The broken chain of accountability
One can think of healthy democracies as systems characterized by a continuous chain of accountability linking “the people”, governments and corporations. When that chain is broken,  it has far reaching consequences. David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World, puts it this way:
 
The healthy function of society requires that governments be accountable to the electorate and that corporations in turn be accountable to democratic governments. Our ability to deal with every other issue of our time — from climate disruption to inequality to violence — depends on that accountability.22
 
Neither governments nor corporations appear to be particularly concerned about the problem. So even as concerned citizens call for more accountability and transparency from transnational corporatations (TNCs), the corporatoracy acts to reduce both further and slam the shades down. In June 2016, Vanbergen reported efforts in the EU parliament to criminalize whistle blowing.  
 
Just a few weeks earlier, we discover that the European Parliament voted in favour of the “Trade Secrets Protection Directive – a law that gives corporations alarming new superpowers to prosecute and criminalize whistleblowers, journalists, and news organizations that publish leaked internal documents.23
 
This EU parliament’s move to criminalize whistleblowing reminds me of the attempts by the US livestock industry to do the same in several US states using what’s were dubbed by critics as “ag gag” laws. Such legislation is designed to criminalize undercover investigations of livestock abuse. Three states introduced ag gag laws in 2011 and 2012 and a flurry of other bills followed in other states in the years following.24 A battle that started in the nineties regarding the issue of public transparency continues in 2017 producing both wins and losses for animal welfare activists.25
 
David Korten explains how the globalization of the operations by TNC’s made it even more difficult to hold them to account. In some respects globalization untethered TNCs from national allegiances and regulations.
 
The lack of corporate accountability is amplified when a corporation sheds its allegiance to any place, person, or public interest. It may be chartered in the United States, park its profits in Bermuda to avoid taxes, contract with sweatshops in Bangladesh, sell its products in France, and be a subsidiary of a parent corporation headquartered in Brazil. In effect, it is stateless and operates as a power unto itself, and has no concern for the interests of any people or place.26
 
Transparency and accountability are areas where PR double speak prevails. While governments and corporate powers talk a good game in terms of their commitment, but their actions say something else. There have simply been too many counter moves like those described earlier to take the jive talk seriously. And the oft stated concern for the protection of whistleblowers is an equal pretence. There are simply too many stories of whistleblowers whose careers were terminated and their lives turned into a living hell, or worse yet, ended under suspicious circumstances to believe the official party of those corporations vested in   the corporatocracy game.
 
Godzilla’s delusions
One of the things that makes the corporatocracy particularly dangerous is its delusions. There are troubling signs that Godzilla suffers from some kind of narcissistic personality disorder. The grandiose “feeding the world” sloganeering of Big Ag transnationals, for example, suggests they are either misguided, propagandizing or suffering from a kind of god complex.27 Here’s a reality check.

• More than 50% of the agricultural exports to its top 20 importers were for animal product or meat;
• 2.3% of the world’s most undernourished countries’ diet comes from exports from the United States; and
• Less than 1% of US agricultural exports went to the world’s 19 most hungry or undernourished countries.28

And then there’s the fertilizer manufacturer, JR Simplot, who thinks that it is “Bringing earth’s resources to life.”29 Really? Now there’s a serious god complex! Someone should tell the brain trust at Simplot that 1 square metre of rich soil can harbour up to a billion living organisms. I won’t even bother with Big Pharma which appears to be pretty busy inventing imaginary health conditions.
 
The marketing mavens at Coke also occasionally drift off into la la land. Author Jill Richardson flagged an ad featuring a young girl who harbours a desire to grow a garden for the world. She grows up and goes to works for Coca Cola and says that she’s fulfilling that dream. How does that work? Richardson provides the reality check. First choosing to drink Coke isn’t helping the poor. At best, Coke is a sugary drink that provides no nutrition. People may drink it because they enjoy the taste.30 That’s it.
 
There are also clear signs of co-dependency in the government-Big Ag/Agribusiness- industry marriage. The most telling sign is the tendency on the part of government to serve as an enabler and defender of corporate ag’s abuses of the public trust. It’s a deeply disturbing development with a chilling effect on public employees wishing to do the right thing as good stewards of the public trust.
 
A survey of 1,300 USDA scientists in 2017 found that nearly 10% of them believe superiors have tampered with their work. The research of one USDA scientist revealed that a lucrative pesticide might be harming pollinators such as bees. When this researcher published a report cautioning against use of department-approved pesticides, he found his career began to fall apart.31 In short, questioning the official, corporately-approved narrative can be career-limiting.
 
Canadian scientists could identity with their USDA counterparts. During the administration of former PM, Stephen Harper, many Canadian scientists took to the streets to protest their muzzling under restrictive media relations policies aimed at message control. A number of specific examples are cited in a paper entitled: Muzzling Civil Servants: A Threat to Democracy?.32
 
Godzilla’s god complex has taken on new and alarming dimensions of late. Major Corporations are now becoming arbitrars of public morality. Peter Hassan cites the example of the domain hosting company GoDaddy.com which booted neo-Nazi website, Daily Stormer from its servers on August 13, 2017 in the wake of a deadly antifa-alt right confrontation in Charlottesville, Virginia. GoDaddy decided that a Daily Stormer article trashing the victim of the clash was offensive.             
 
Sometimes it’s a case of telecoms or on-line media services responding to pressure from an aggrieved political faction seeking to extract some form of “justice” in response to a perceived wrong.
 
Fox News cancelled “The O’Reilly Factor” in April after advertisers pulled their money from the show amidst a slew of sexual harassment accusations against host Bill O’Reilly. The advertisers pulled the ads following an intense pressure campaign from left-wing activists who claimed the advertisers had a moral obligation to defund “The O’Reilly Factor.”33
 
The dangers of corporatocracy-sanctioned censorship by monopolistic telecoms should be readily apparent. The mechanisms for suppression of free speech by Google and Facebook in favour of the politics du jour, for example, are in place and being applied with new rigour. Jordan Peterson is a professor at the University of Toronto, who has dared to challenge the fascistic tendencies of post-modernism inherent in Canada’s gender legislation, among other things. In August 2017, he was surprised to discover that Google had arbitrarily blocked him from his YouTube account with no explanation. Peterson rightly finds the treatment worrying.34
 
He’s not alone. It appears that Google is now censoring videos deemed “too politically incorrect or not advertiser friendly.” Once Google demonetizes a targeted YouTube site, the uploader cannot make money from its content. Former US Congressman, Dr. Ron Paul and his YouTube Analysis Channel, the Ron Paul Liberty Report was abruptly targeted. Julian Assange of Wikileaks suggests Dr. Paul was punished for his recent criticism of Donald Trump for sending additional troops into Afghanistan. He labels this “economic censorship.”35
 
Graham Vanbergen’s article: “The truth war is being lost to a global censorship apparatus called Google” is disturbing. The article describes how social media has become a tool of the CIA, and how Google has become a global censor, skewing searches toward politically correct sites. The stench of corporately administered censorship is discernible in an April 25/17 statement by Ben Gomes, Google’s VP of Engineering. Gomes stated that Google’s update of its search engine would block access to “offensive” sites, while working to surface more “authoritative content.” Vanbergen estimated the loss of traffic to just 13 non-mainstream web sites following the changes in Google’s search evaluation protocols.
 
…these losses of readership in the last six months, from highs to lows amounted to a colossal 30.4 million unique visitors a month. I can’t vouch for other websites but at TruePublica the average visitor reads 1.84 pages per visit. At this calculation over 55 million pages of content a month are being withheld from just the 13 websites listed above. It is not possible to come to any other conclusion that Google has blatantly been involved in an act of global censorship.36
 
Big Brother giveth and Big Brother  taketh away. Once upon a time, Google enlarged our world through its powerful search service. Now, the Ministry of Truth has declared the boundaries of our world of information shall be reduced in accordance with Big Brother’s political preferences. Are you getting claustrophobic yet?
 
Godzilla’s anti-democratic tendencies
One of the more serious charges against corporatocracy is that it’s anti-democratic in nature. Ralph Nader contends that today’s international trade agreements are, in effect, democracy-reversing.
 
[Free trade agreements] are trade agreements that don’t stick to trade…they colonize environmental labor, and consumer issues of grave concern (in terms of health safety, and livelihoods too) to many, many hundreds of millions of people – and they do that by subordinating consumer, environmental, and labor issues to the imperatives and the supremacy of international commerce.  
 
Nader argues that this is exactly the reverse of how democratic societies have advanced. Specifically, they subordinate the profiteering drive of companies to such things as higher environmental health standards, abolition of child labour, and the right of worker to fair labour standards. In a truly democratic system, the onus would be corporations to demonstrate that they weren’t harming consumers with monopoly powers, damaging the environment or compromising the rights of workers. But that order has been turned upside down.
 
…its workers and consumers and environments that have to kneel before this giant pedestal of commercial trade and prove that they are not, in a whole variety of ways, impeding international commerce…so this is the road to dictatorial devolution of democratic societies…37 

Julian Assange of Wikileaks has added his voice to Nader’s, regarding the TTP. Assange affirms that the TPP, the largest international economic trade agreement goes ever far beyond trade.
 
Only five of the 29 chapters are about traditional trade. The others are about regulating the Internet and what information …Internet service providers have to collect. …It’s about regulating labor, what labor conditions can be applied, regulating, whether you can favor local industry, regulating the hospital healthcare system, privatization of hospitals. So, essentially, every aspect of the modern economy, even banking services, are in the TPP.38 

The negotiation process for international trade deals remains remarkably deaf to citizens’ interests and concerns. Verbergen recalls that Cecilia Malmstrom, the leading EU trade commissioner for TTIP trade negotiations was asked why she continued to promote the deal in the face of massive public opposition. Her response was telling: “I do not take my mandate from the European people.”39 Meanwhile, US opponents of the TTP were dismissed as “protectionists” for their opposition. There’s some irony in that charge as opponents were concerned that elements of the deal would “undermine the free flow of goods and services by expanding some protectionist anti-competitive policies.” Doctors Without Borders, for example, was critical of the monopoly protections and patents the deal would create for big pharmaceutical companies and their products.40 Now who is being protectionist?
 
In this chapter, we have pulled back the curtain and looked the beast in the eye. As a result of a corporate coup in the mid-nineties, the American Empire is now ruled by a monstrous corporatocracy. The prevailing myth however, is that America is a model of democracy to the world. The corporatocracy perpetuates the delusion, of course as a cover for its operations. This predatory shape-shifting creature is dangerously unaccountable and out of control. Its reach is global,  it’s nature instinctively controlling, its operation parasitic and its mental health unstable.
 
There’s more to learn about the corporatocracy named Godzilla. In the next chapter, we will examine the criminal nature of the Corporatocracy and where its insatiable appetite for power and profits has taken us geopolitically. And then we will turn to the urgent matter of how Godzilla can be recaptured.

Endnotes
1 The myth of US democracy and the reality of U.S. corporatocracy, Huffington Post, May 25, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-e-levine/the-myth-of-us-democracy-corporatocracy_b_836573.html
 
2 Dakota Access Pipeline protest site is cleared, CNN, February 24, 2017 http://edition.cnn.com/2017/02/22/us/dakota-access-pipeline-evacuation-order/index.html
 
3 Dakota Access Pipeline company attacks protestors with dogs and mace, Common Dreams, September 24, 2016, https://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/09/04/dakota-access-pipeline-company-attacks-protesters-dogs-and-mace
 
4 Our Common Future, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Common_Future
 
5 Trump’s greenlighting of Keystone and DAPL is a powerplay that won’t pay create jobs, The Slatest, January 24, 2017, http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/01/24/trump_s_green_lighting_of_keystone_and_dapl_is_a_power_play_that_won_t_create.html
 
6 Kinder Morgan paid $115,000 to Mass. State police to step protests against pipeline, Blacklisted News, August 21, 2017, http://www.blacklistednews.com/Kinder_Morgan_Paid_%24115,000_To_Mass._State_Police_To_Stop_Protests_Against_Pipeline/60447/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
7 Dakota Access Pipeline owner sues Greenpeace for ‘criminal activity’, NPR, August 22, 2017, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/08/22/545310247/dakota-access-pipeline-owner-sues-greenpeace-for-criminal-activity
 
8 The US is an oligarchy, study finds, The Telegraph, April 16, 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10769041/The-US-is-an-oligarchy-study-concludes.html
 
9 Corporatocracy, Urban Dictionary, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Corporatocracy
 
10 The Corporatocracy, by Robert Gore, Straight Line Logic, April 28, 2017, https://straightlinelogic.com/2017/04/28/the-corporatocracy-by-robert-gore/
 
11 The Great American Bubble Machine, Rolling Stone, April 5, 2010, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-american-bubble-machine-20100405
 
12 Corporate Totalitarianism, or not, Huffington Post.com, March 2, 2017, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-williamson/corporate-totalitarianism_b_9361826.html
 
13 Sheldon Walin and inverted totalitarianism, Chris Hedges, Truthdig, November 2, 2015, https://www.truthdig.com/articles/sheldon-wolin-and-inverted-totalitarianism/
 
14 The rise of the corporatocracy, Graham Vanbergen, Information Clearing House, June 21, 2016, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44929.htm
 
15 Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world, New Scientist, October 19, 2011, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354-500-revealed-the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world/
 
16 The rise of the corporatocracy, Graham Vanbergen, Information Clearing House, June 21, 2016, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44929.htm
 
17 Citigroup chose Obama’s 2008 cabinet, Wikileaks document reveals, Global Research, October 1, 2016, http://www.globalresearch.ca/citigroup-chose-obamas-2008-cabinet-wikileaks-document-reveals/5551327
 
17 How Goldman Sachs rules the world and gets away with it, Veterans Today, March 21, 2016, http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/03/21/how-goldman-sachs-rules-the-world-and-gets-away-with-it/
 
18 List of Goldman Sachs alumni in Donald Trump’s administration, Heavy, January 5, 2017, http://heavy.com/news/2017/01/donald-trump-goldman-sachs-drain-swamp-steve-bannon-steven-mnuchin-gary-cohn-jay-clayton/
 
19 Corporate welfare: How big business lives off government subsidy, Blacklisted News, August 14, 2017, http://www.blacklistednews.com/Corporate_Welfare%3A_How_Big_Business_Lives_Off_Government_Subsidy/60316/0/38/38/Y/M.html
 
20 Chris Hedges and Ralph Nader: History of the corporate coup d’etat, Dandelion Salad, November 3, 2015, https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/chris-hedges-and-ralph-nader-history-of-the-corporate-coup-detat/
 
21 Soil, Monsanto and the Agribusiness giants: Conning the world with snake oil and doughnuts, Global Research, August 24, 2017, http://www.globalresearch.ca/soil-monsanto-and-the-agribusiness-giants-conning-the-world-with-snake-oil-and-doughnuts/5605487
 
22 How the power imbalance between corporations, governments and people prevents sustainable solutions, Wake Up World, March 28, 2017, https://wakeup-world.com/2017/03/28/how-the-power-imbalance-between-corporations-governments-and-people-prevents-sustainable-solutions/
 
23 The rise of the corporatocracy, The European financial review, June 20, 2016, http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/?p=6074
 
24 2013 was the year bills to criminalize animal cruelty videos failed, The Salt, npr, December 27, file://localhost/2013, http/::www.npr.org:sections:thesalt:2013:12:19:255549796:2013-was-the-year-every-new-ag-gag-bill-failed
 
25 Judge overturn Utah’s ‘ag-gag’ ban on under-cover filming at farms, The two way, npr, July 8,
2017, http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/08/536186914/judge-overturns-utahs-ag-gag-ban-on-undercover-filming-at-farms
 
26 How the power imbalance between corporations, governments and the people prevents sustainable solutions, The Event Chronicle, March 27, 2017,

27 Why Big Ag won’t feed the world, The Atlantic, January 20, 2010, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/01/why-big-ag-wont-feed-the-world/33666/
 
28 Does Big AG “Feed the World”, or are such slogans just clever public relations?, The Farmarian, November 4, 2016, http://www.farmarian.com/does-big-ag-feed-the-world-or-are-such-slogans-public-relations/
 
29 Simplot.com, http://simplot.com/  
 
30 Soda doesn’t ‘feed the world’, Jill Richardson, Other Words, http://otherwords.org/soda-doesnt-feed-the-world/
 
31 Some USDA scientists say their work has been tampered with – Bangor Daily News, August 31, 2017, http://bangordailynews.com/2017/04/21/news/nation/some-usda-scientists-say-their-work-has-been-tampered-with-maybe-for-political-reasons/maybe for political reasons,
 
32 Muzzling civil servants: A threat to democracy, Environmental Law Clinic, University of Victoria, Clayton Greenwood, February 2013,
http://www.elc.uvic.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Muzzling-Civil-Servants_2012-03-04_2013Feb.pdf 

33. The O’Reilly Factor: cancelled; Tucker Carlson Tonight to replace Fox News series, TVseriesfinale, April 19, 2017 https://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/oreilly-factor-cancelled-fox-news-channel/

34 “I’m very worried” Tucker Carlson and Jordan Peterson discuss Google, YouTube suspension, YouTube, August 24, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQmjuptpDsA
 
35 YouTube “economically censors” Ron Paul, labels videos “not suitable” for all advertisers. Zero Hedge, August 27, 2017, http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-27/youtube-economically-censors-ron-paul-labels-videos-not-suitable-all-advertisers
 
36 The truth war is being lost to a global censorship apparatus called Google, Global Research, August 27, 2017, 
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-truth-war-is-being-lost-to-a-global-censorship-apparatus-called-google/5602578?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles
 
37 Ralph Nader quotes, Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/47237.Ralph_Nader
 
38 Julian Assange on the Trans- Pacific Partnership: Secretive deal isn’t about trade, but corporate control, Democracy Now, May 27, 2015, https://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/27/julian_assange_on_the_trans_pacific
 
39 The rise of the corporatocracy, The European Financial Review, June 20, 2016, http://www.europeanfinancialreview.com/?p=6074
 
40 More than 50 groups call on US Congress to stop TPP, the worst trade deal ever for access to affordable medicines, Doctors Without Borders, April 12, 2016, http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/article/more-50-groups-call-us-congress-stop-tpp-worst-trade-deal-ever-access-affordable-medicines
​
(c) Futurescapes21C, 2018 All rights reserved

OUR DIZZYING DESCENT INTO A POST-TRUTH WORLD

Calvin Mulligan, Futurescapes21C,

Original written May 12, 2017, Posted January 7, 2018, rev. January 10, 11, 2018, Aug 17, 2023 (c) All rights reserved

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” (often attributed to George Orwell)
 
Untruth in US politics
There have been many signs over the years that our society’s grip on the truth was weakening. The Mitt Romney- Barack Obama election campaign of 2011-12 represented a new low water mark in terms of our collective embrace of objective truth. The truth-deficient negative campaign ads elevated half-truths, backhand smears, and innuendos to an art form. At some point, the truth-twisting and distortion became a subject of discussion and debate in the main stream media.
 
I randomly stumbled across a radio interview circa 2012 with a leading PR specialist. The interviewer invited his perspective regarding his profession’s handling of truth. The truth, in his view, was something that could be approached creatively as one ingredient in shaping the desired communication product. While that was pretty consistent with the post-modern view that truth is a social construct versus objective reality, it was no less troubling. Nor was I alone in my assessment that truth-twisting had reached a new extreme.
 
Robert Loevy, a political science professor at Colorado College, said the level of truth-stretching and distortion in that campaign was “the worst” he had ever seen. At the same time, he doubted the fact-checkers would have much influence on undecided voters. Nor did it seem to me that there was any attempt by voters to punish abusers of the truth. Perhaps they simply concluded that there was a moral equivalency wherein the sins of one were balanced by the sins of the other political party.
 
Loevy was right in that campaign officials for both Romney and Obama were undeterred by the fact checkers. Romney’s pollster told ABC news that his campaign “won’t be swayed by outside complaints of inaccuracy. Fact-checkers come to this with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs, and you know what? We’re not going let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” he said.” He almost sounded heroic, as if he were resisting some kind of facts-mad tyranny.
 
Obama’s campaign manger was a bit subtler, introducing the audience to a concept that would reappear years later in the Trump era, the concept of “alternative facts”. As he put it:  “We look at the facts. We vet what we say. We really do try hard to get it right… So there are some times when there are different sets of facts out there. The campaign highlights a set of facts. You may find a different set of facts and make that point.”1
 
Truth-twisting in Canadian politics
US politics isn’t unique in its disregard for truth. Federal politics in Canada also had its practitioners of truth- management. A Canadian journalist recalled his own experience with the aversion toward inconvenient facts; the kind that don’t fit the political narrative. He happened to be standing off stage where a government communication specialist was briefing a cabinet minister about to give a public statement in his campaign for re-election. Overhearing the minister seizing on a statement to the effect that the opposition party was proposing to introduce an abhorrent new tax, the journalist spoke up. He told the two that he could confirm that the opposition had flatly stated that no such tax was being considered. Alas, It didn’t matter, the show must go on and no opportunity to smear the opposition could be wasted. 
 
The incident reminded me of a speech given by Canadian pollster Allen Gregg who also witnessed the decline of political authenticity. Gregg observed an accompanying lack of self-awareness on the part of those engaging in performance politics.
 
“For most of my adult life, I have worked with political and business leaders and have never ceased to be amazed at how different they can be in private compared to their public personae. Time and time again, I have witnessed otherwise funny, thoughtful, caring men and women walk from the wings of the auditorium to the podium, only to be transformed into nothing less than a big, blustering (well, there isn’t a polite way of saying it) bullshitter – in effect, offering up a ‘performance’ and a caricature they think they should be playing.
 
Typically, these performances range from pillorying opponents with hyperventilated allegations of failings; feigned outrage at what others would consider modest grievances; taking exaggerated credit for accomplishments that are better shared; and avoiding any direct and honest engagement of difficult subject matter that has the potential to cause media controversy.
 
What made these performances unbearably grimace-making however, was not the content of the remarks so much as the speaker’s complete lack of self-awareness or appreciation that they were the only person in the room who found their narrative believable.”2
 
While there were lots of rationalizations for the phenomenon of truth manipulation, I hear little discussion regarding the longer-term implications for society. Aren’t politicians engaging in gratuitous fabrications aware of what they were doing? Don’t they realize that their indulgences in spin and untruth amount to poisoning the public well of confidence in politics and government? Don’t they realize that their peeing in the pool of public trust has now come back to haunt them, and ultimately all of us far into the future?
 
The corrupting influence of post-truth thinking
Over the course of a forty years plus career of in various public and private sector settings, I have had multiple perspectives on the decline of truth and authenticity in professional and organizational circles. For a part of my career, I held communication, marketing and PR roles. In other instances, I worked in close proximity with marketing, communication and PR professionals. Neither of these perspectives revealed  a trend toward more responsible stewardship of objective truth or accountability in this regard. It’s certainly not in fashion today. Communications and PR professionals remain remarkably inured to the habits of an industry which treats truth as an ingredient in communications messaging, one to be employed when it suits the purpose. 
 
In time I began to wonder if the public relations profession had a hole in its soul. It was the “fake Kuwaiti nurse” war-making incident that led me to this analysis. When it comes to war-making, it’s understood that securing the consent of the citizenry requires a powerful emotional hook. The case of the Persian Gulf War was no exception. Some kind of atrocity was needed to arouse sufficient public outrage that American citizens would consent to military intervention.
 
The daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US, coached by a major US-based PR firm, and masquerading as a nurse offered the perfect atrocity. She testified that she had witnessed invading Iraqi soldiers tossing babies from their incubators to die on the cold floor of her hospital.3 The naive among us expect communication professionals to hold to an enduring standard of objective truth. But somehow this hired gun PR agency could justify manufacturing a deception that would directly lead to the authorization of warfare and the untold death and destruction that inevitably followed. It seems that selling out on your profession for war profits is a completely survivable crime. The firm continues to do a thriving business. I wonder how providing this kind of “service” aligns with the agency’s stated core values and presumed commitment to making the world a better place. Perhaps its mission statement should read: Deceiving millions to bring death and destruction to humanity. 
 
The see-no-evil syndrome
The Gulf War sell-out is far from an isolated case. You don’t have to look very hard to see the not-so-invisible hand of the corporate mass media and PR agencies in selling other  wars in the 20th century. And, as illustrated, this partnership continues to profitably manufacture public consent for war-making in the 21st century. As I write, there are hired gun PR agencies cashing in on lucrative contracts to paint lipstick on war criminals, demonize foreign governments targeted for regime change by the West and manufacture pro war propaganda.4 5 I may have missed it, but I haven’t yet heard of any high profile PR agencies being blacklisted, ostracized or excommunicated from professional PR associations for their abhorrent crimes against humanity. 
 
The PR profession itself may be the last to express outrage or call the war-makers within its ranks to account. A “see no evil” mindset seems to prevail. When, on occasion, I so much as called attention to the pervasiveness of PR spin and marketing excesses, I encountered three types of responses. They ranged from silence to resignation as in that’s just the way it is and the third, self-righteous denial to the effect that no communication professional worth his or her salt would ever engage in such a thing. 
 
The see-no-evil syndrome also prevails among my agriculture industry peers. They appear to be even less aware and less concerned with the manipulative use of corporate propaganda by members of the “Big Ag” and the “Big Food” sectors. They certainly appear oblivious to its negative consequences among conscious consumers who see corporate PR whitewash for what it is. Rather than call out the corporate abusers of consumer trust, professional “aggies” tend to run to their defense. As a result,  the more conscientious members of the agriculture and agrifood sectors (and ag producers themselves) are left to absorb any reputational damage resulting from consumer blowback.
 
Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) has distinguished itself as “the world’s most hated corporation” and in some respects, among the least trusted when it comes to its product claims and conduct.6 In the past, even as its PR-coated machinations were being exposed, agricultural professionals dutifully defended it. It seems the unofficial code of conduct governing this relationship is “solidarity forever,” or in this case, unblinking ag industry advocacy forever. Is it not disingenuous to relentlessly advocate on behalf of the industry and its members and then go silent or play dumb when obvious abuses of public or consumer trust occur? Surely, something more than the reflex: “We take this matter very seriously…” line is required.

The best explanation that I can find for the predictable “see no evil” syndrome afflicting  professionals and their industry allies comes from Upton Sinclair who explained: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”7 Unfortunately, willful ignorance has become an inherent part of the unspoken code defining the relationship between business professionals in the service sector and their industry customers often referred to as value chain “partners.” 
 
Robert Parry would agree with Sinclair as he attributes the failure to speak truth to power within the professional class to careerism. And careerism dangerously begets groupthink.
 
“In other words, many professionals who are counted on for digging out the facts and speaking truth to power have sold themselves to those same powerful interests in order to keep high-paying jobs and to not get tossed out onto the street. Many of these self-aggrandizing professionals – caught up in the many accoutrements of success – don’t even seem to recognize how far they’ve drifted from principled professionalism.”8
 
There is a price to pay for self-imposed blindness. One is the cost to the reputation of your profession. I recall an incident during the E. coli outbreak at XL Foods in Brooks, Alberta in 2012. The agriculture minister was in the process of answering questions from reporters about the situation. The exchange was abruptly cut short by one of his communications advisors intent preventing him from going further off script. The intervention wasn’t appreciated by at least one observer who in a subsequent story referred to the minister’s communication handler as a ‘”junior fart catcher”. On the scale of reputational rankings, I’m guessing that junior fart catcher falls significantly below that of used car salesman.
 
More recently, during the Trump campaign, a war broke out between mainstream corporate media and independent media. It centres on the issue of their respective trustworthiness and competing claims to truthful reporting of the news. The lengthy history of mainstream media (MSM) infiltration by and collaboration with the CIA and the controlled nature of news reporting had now became a central issue of the day.9 In the wake of its exposure as CIA infiltrated, the MSM attempted a kind of figurative jui jitsu  declaring itself the guardian of the truth on behalf of a public assaulted by “fake news.” Even if fakes news was a real problem,  such nanny state paternalism has no place in a democracy. Foxes so love guarding chicken houses.
 
Around the same time, a secret group, PropOrNot and some academic institutions generated lists of alleged publishers of “fake news”.10 This was followed by smearing and censoring  targeted members of the independent media on their list. The outrage within the ranks of the independent media still boils. Critics of propagandizing members of the MSM now refer to the latter as “presstitutes” and media “whores.”11 In a similar vein, CNN was derisively named the “Clinton News Network” for the obvious political bias it demonstrated throughout the presidential campaign. 
 
Dangers in propaganda excesses
The oft named “father” of public relations, Edward Bernays was more forthright about the manipulative nature of public relations and its excesses than his modern day disciples. Bernays observed in his book, Propaganda (1928):
 
“In World War One it was the propaganda of our side that first made “propaganda” so opprobrious a term. Fouled by close association with “the Hun,” the word did not regain its innocence—not even when the Allied propaganda used to tar “the Hun” had been belatedly exposed to the American and British people. Indeed, as they learned more and more about the outright lies, exaggerations and half-truths used on them by their own governments, both populations came, understandably, to see “propaganda” as a weapon even more perfidious than they had thought when they had not perceived themselves as its real target. Thus did the word’s demonic implications only harden through the Twenties, in spite of certain random efforts to redeem it.” 

While he was clearly dedicated to his craft, it seems that even Bernays suspected that continued exploitive use of “lies, exaggerations and half truths” on the citizenry could backfire at some point as the population became better informed. He once remarked: “The only propaganda which will ever tend to weaken itself as the world becomes more sophisticated and intelligent, is propaganda that is untrue or unsocial.”12 Perhaps he was naive as he appears to suggest that “propaganda that is untrue” can be objectively defined and filtered out. That problem aside, modern day PR practitioners and their business customers, however remain largely indifferent to the reality of growing public cynicism. 
 
Unsurprisingly, recent survey numbers tell us that the trust of Americans in government and trust in themselves has reached a new low. According to a September 2016 survey:

• 42% have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in political leaders;
• 56% trust American people to make decisions under democratic system; and
• trust in both groups is down about 20 percentage points since 2004, new lows in Gallup trends.13

 A September 2016 survey found that Americans’ trust and confidence in mass media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly” had dropped to its lowest level in Gallup polling history. Thirty-two percent said they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the media (down eight points from last year).14
 
The making of a trust crisis
The numbers fail to tell the larger story of a trust crisis of global proportions. Leaders cannot endlessly mine the reserves of public trust. Nor can they callously engineer public deceptions like false flag psy ops in support of policy objectives without consequences. They can’t lie forever with impunity. And they can’t forever paper over their deceits and fabrications with ever more generous applications of “PR solutions.” But they haven’t stopped trying.
 
It’s all coming to a head, and the real world implications are sobering. In article entitled, “The existential question of who to trust”, Robert Parry describes the life or death implications of the trust crisis.
 
“The looming threat of World War III, a potential extermination event for the human species, is made more likely because the world’s public can’t count on supposedly objective experts to ascertain and evaluate facts. Instead, careerism is the order of the day among journalists, intelligence analysts and international monitors – meaning that almost no one who might normally be relied on to tell the truth can be trusted.”15
 
In 2016, the deception-friendly characterization of our times became official. That year, Oxford Dictionaries selected post-truth as the word of the year. It was also the year that the Trump-Clinton campaigns and their media allies took lying and deception to new heights. The post- truth diagnosis came from author, Ralph Keyes who in 2004, asked, “Have we now reached a stage of social evolution that is “beyond honesty?” (Keyes credits Steve Tesich with coining the term.) Keyes flatly states, “Honesty is on the ropes.” One of the signs of the truth malaise described by Keyes is our dishonesty about our dishonesty. People don’t say they “lied”, they say that they “exaggerated,” or “misspoke” – something Keyes calls “Euphemasia.”16 Prevarication and equivocation are equally defining features of the Post-Truth era. 
 
There’s a tangible sense of relief that comes with receiving a long awaited diagnosis. Perhaps it’s the assurance that the pain you have been experiencing is real, not a figment of your imagination. But at the same time, the identification of a health condition also raises new concerns. What additional symptoms are likely to develop? What’s the prognosis? Is there a cure or  recommended treatment? These are all legitimate questions regarding our ailing society’s post truth-trust crisis.
 
To get to the larger implications, I start from the premise that truthfulness and trust are fundamental requirements of a healthy society. The acknowledgement that we have entered a post truth era suggests that there will be growing tensions straining our social fabric. Our once shared common ground is shrinking. The ties that bind us together in common cause are fraying. In the wake of the November 2016 US presidential election, I confided to my family that it wasn’t at all clear to me that the divides in America would heal in the foreseeable future. The trust divide may be too wide.
 
My sense is that differing segments of our society have begun a spiralling descent into truth-deficient parallel universes. Declining truth and trust is likely to give way to further degradation. 

• Decline of truth = destruction of trust
• Destruction of trust = erosion of social cohesion
• Erosion of social cohesion = isolation
• Isolation = collapse of community 
• Collapse of community = rise of a survivalist ethic and deception as a means of coping.

 Keyes sees similar dynamics at play weakening community connections and eroding the fabric of society.
 
“Keyes acknowledges a link between post-truthfulness and the loss of community. “When it comes to post-truthfulness, the fraying of human connections is both cause and effect. Not feeling connected to others makes it easier to lie, which in turn makes it harder to reconnect. Eroded communities foster dishonesty. Dishonesty contributes to the further erosion of communities. As communal bonds wither, unfettered self-interest is unleashed.”17
 
There are lines in William Butler Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming” that eerily resonate with darker future scenarios one can envision.
 
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.18
 
In summary, the dynamics of a downward spiral are in play. Untruth and deception are fuelling distrust; growing distrust in turn, is fostering disconnection and isolation; which in turn creates conditions conducive to more lies and deception. Truth has always had its enemies and deceit its loyal friends. But only the most naive would conclude we arrived at this point as a society by happenstance.
 
Beware the hidden hand of the PTB that subtly guides the the naive and well-intentioned into the seductive grasp of “the end justifies the means” thinking. Can we now see the outlines of a new dark ages taking shape in the fading light? The shadows have always served the purposes of the PTB well, providing cover for their enormous crimes against humanity. Darkness keeps their captives fearful, uncertain and susceptible to manufactured illusions. Like sheep, we can be easily led down precipitous side paths to war or other destinations of our faux shepherds’ choosing. The PTB’s mastery of the art and science of perception management means that they can now sell us anything, including our own destruction. 
 
It will likely be some time before we see the light of new dawn. The appetite for truth is too small, and the power of enforced massive untruths overwhelming. There are too few brave souls resisting the tides of the post truth era. That said, the truth remains a threat to the elites governing our inverted Orwellian world. Consequently, they must hunt it down, capture it and ultimately destroy it. 
 
This isn’t a time for despair, however; it’s a time for new resolve of the calibre of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, the resilient Russian author and survivor of the Gulag Archipelago. It’s time for a revolution. This is a call for a generation of bold truth-tellers, freedom fighters of the Post-Truth Era. Our revolution begins with our rejection the hypnotic illusions and lies of the PTB and defiant truth-telling capable of exposing their deceptions. We can be light amid the darkness of the Post-truth era.  
 
“Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of the light.” (John 12:36)

​Endnotes
1 Politics and truth: Uneasy partners, easy enemies, Yahoo News, September 6, 2012, https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics-truth-uneasy-partners-easy-enemies-222056435–election.html
 
2 A short history of the erosion of trust, the 2011 Gordon Osbaldeston lecture by Allan R. Gregg, http://allangregg.com/on-authenticity-%E2%80%93-how-the-truth-can-restore-faith-in-politics-and-government/
 
3 How PR sold the war in the Persian Gulf, Excerpted from Toxic Sludge is Good for You, Chapter 10, PR Watch.org, http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html
 
4 The Pentagon paid a PR firm $500 million for top secret Iraq propaganda, Mint News, October 3, 2016, http://www.mintpressnews.com/the-pentagon-paid-a-pr-firm-500-million-for-top-secret-iraq-propaganda/221035/
 
5 Saudi’s hire world’s biggest PR firm to push ‘Muslim Nato’, Middle East Eye, April 26, 2017, http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pr-firm-draws-criticism-over-saudi-deal-represent-muslim-nato-1485534964
 
6 Monsanto, the world’s poster child for corporate manipulation and deceit, GMONews, March 26, 2017,
http://www.gmo.news/2015-08-20-monsanto-the-worlds-poster-child-for-corporate-manipulation-and-deceit.html
 
7 Upton Sinclair quotes, Brainywords.com, http://www.brainywords.com/authors/upton_sinclair-quotes.html#l0TqJKm53F2FHPdq.99
 
8 The existential question of who to trust, Strategic Culture Foundation, May 1, 2017, http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/05/01/existential-question-who-trust.html
 
9 Declassified CIA documents show agency’s control over mainstream media and academia, collective evolution, May 11, 2017, http://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/05/11/declassified-cia-documents-shows-agencies-control-over-mainstream-media-academia/
 
10 Harvard’s fake guide to fake news sites. America’s 21st Century  “Index Librorum Prohibitorum”, Global Research, March 14, 2017,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/harvards-fake-guide-to-fake-news-sites-americas-21st-century-index-librorum-prohibitorum/5579697
 
11 Paul Craig Roberts: Mainstream media in total collapse, SOTT, March 20, 2017, https://www.sott.net/article/345952-Paul-Craig-Roberts-Mainstream-media-in-total-collapse
 
12 Propaganda, 1928, Edward Bernays, History is a weapon, http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/bernprop.html
 
13 Americans’ trust in political leaders, public at new lows, Gallop.com, September 21, 2016,
http://www.gallup.com/poll/195716/americans-trust-political-leaders-public-new-lows.aspx
 
14 Americans’ trust in mass media sinks to new low, True Pundit, September 15, 2016, http://truepundit.com/americans-trust-in-mass-media-sinks-to-new-low/
 
15 The existential question of who to trust, The Strategic Culture Foundation, May 1, 2015, http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/05/01/existential-question-who-trust.html
 
16 The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Contemporary Life, 2004, Ralph Keyes, as quoted in “Welcome to the Post-truth era – Welcome to the age of dishonesty, Albert Mohler, July 19, 2005, http://www.albertmohler.com/2005/07/19/the-post-truth-era-welcome-to-the-age-of-dishonesty/
 
17 The Post-Truth Era – Welcome to the Age of Democracy, Albert Mohler, July 19, 2005, http://www.albertmohler.com/2005/07/19/the-post-truth-era-welcome-to-the-age-of-dishonesty/
 
18 The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), potw.org, http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html
 
 (C) Futurescapes 21C, 2018. All rights reserved

​

Storm Preparation

November 14, 2017, rev. Nov. 20, 2017, Dec 6, 2017
© Futurescapes21C

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. (Matthew 16:3)

Growing up on a farm, you learn to read the signs of coming storms. And when you have had a succession of hot dry July days and you see dark clouds building in the West, you hurry to prepare for the fury of wind and hail. You hustle from the field, park equipment inside sheds, ensure livestock have access to shelter and secure anything that could be blown away. Those who were good at reading the signs of what nature had in store and adapted accordingly were less likely to suffer crippling losses and ultimately better farmers. My guess is that the same could be said of those people capable of anticipating and adapting to social-political storms. Preparation and readiness count in farming, ranching and in life. Looking back, I wonder if it was those childhood lessons regarding the importance of readiness that inspired my career in foresight.

US President, Donald Trump recently made a sly reference to “the calm before the storm” that’s has triggered a great deal of speculation.1 No one is entirely certain what he was alluding to at this point. But it could be a hint that something big is coming and if so, some preparation may be in order.  Some suspect it points to war. But the meaning of the comment is opaque. 

A disruptive event of some kind could well be coming. The American Empire is in a dire state. Social and political divisions abound.  America’s political leaders are corrupt, compromised and controlled by foreign and corporate interests. Big Brother is terrorizing citizens with false flags psy ops. And America’s foreign policy has made it the world’s foremost threat to peace. It all points to the need for a revolution. So the suggestion that a storm is on the horizon isn’t surprising. And it would be entirely consistent with my analysis that 2017 was to be a year of Deception and Disclosure.

This isn’t mainstream research or mainstream news. The controlled corporate media is, just that — controlled and indicative of a need for a revolution. It’s a bit different story in the independent alternative media. And while it has also been thoroughly corrupted and infiltrated, truth sometimes trickles through. Some sources in the alternative media and conspiracy research community have been describing a long running covert struggle between forces loyal to the US Republic ( “the Alliance”) and the ruling powers that (“Illuminati, Deep State, Cabal”). They believe that the struggle is approaching a tipping pint, and the Alliance now has the upper hand. Based in part upon anonymous insider leaks, these sources point to a recent series of events as indicators that the tide of the battle has turned.

They include:

• recent filings of an inordinate number of sealed indictments in US federal courts (said to be in the thousands as of Dec 10-17);
• the alleged criminality of the Podesta Brothers and announcement the PD lobby group was shutting down;

• Donna Brazilie’s book exposing Hillary’s dirty election campaign dealings;

• the resignations of three top leaders at the Federal Reserve;

• the arrests of dozens of princes, billionaires and officials and seizure of 100’s of bank accounts in Saudi Arabia;

• the call for an investigation of Hillary Clinton’s “Uranium One” deal;

• seizure and analysis of the contents of Anthony Weiner’s lap top;

• the exposure of Hollywood’s pedophilia problem; and

• the release of the JFK files.

Other’s give no credence to the notion of a corp of “White Hats and a benevolent global Alliance of patriotic forces. It’s hard to say what is real and what is disinformation regarding the so called “coup-counter coup” narrative, but some kind of struggle seems to be playing out. In any case, there certainly is a sufficient real world bases for a storm of incriminating revelations and criminal charges. Whether this will follow isn’t clear. Sometimes in nature, the wind redirects the storm clouds and they blow over, leaving us unscathed. You can’t bank on that however. Preparation, even if it amounts to no more than practice, is a good thing.

But what constitutes preparation? One alternative media source suggests followers “prepare, pray and stay out of the way.” I’ve also encountered a couple of sources that recommend that folks stock up with some additional food and water and have some cash on hand in the event things get tense in the US.  It is difficult to predict how an already anxious and divided US citizenry might react to a series of arrests involving key public figures, for example. Would there be widespread civil unrest and riots in the US? It’s hard to say how harried US citizens would react to political disruptions of this nature. The fact that trust in politicians and the government is at a low ebb wouldn’t help. And the maladaptive responses of Hillary Clinton supporters to her election loss tells me that there are good reasons to be concerned.

In a way, her followers were set up. The corporate media conditioned Hillary supporters to expect a win. It was Hillary’s turn after all. By the time the final week of the campaign rolled around, it was time for Hillary to measure the drapes before her ascendency to the Oval office.2 And then, suddenly, it wasn’t. She lost and the cognitive dissonance was acute and tangible. The weeping and wailing continued for days and weeks. In fact, one year after the event, I read that resisters were encouraged to meet outdoors on the anniversary of the election to howl their displeasure at the skies. So it’s clear that many partisans haven’t yet come to terms with their reality. It seems that the coping skills of these folks, some perhaps social justice warriors needing colouring books, puppies campus safe spaces, aren’t good. The shock an abrupt  change of storm proportions could be significantly greater, however. And once again the mainstream media (MSM) has set folks up for a shock.

This potential shock factor associated with a major unanticipated development of the kind discussed above could register a 6 or 7 on the figurative human Rector scale. If the speculations are correct and crimes such as treason, child trafficking and corruption were involved, a takedown of the criminals would infect a large swath of US members of Congress on both sides of the isle. Because such crimes are international in scope, the reverberations would be world-wide, (see Israel, Saudi Arabia and beyond). The aftershocks could continue for years. Beyond this, rogue elements of the FBI and CIA are likely to be implicated in such crimes. The controlled corporate media may have misdirected the citizenry again. Trump’s enemies allied with the Cabal expect that Mueller’s investigation will incriminate Trump and impeachment will follow. At this point, however, it isn’t clear that Mueller has Trump in his sights. 

The geopolitical order has been shaken and likely will continue to be. My sense however is the public is ill-prepared for world-shaking political storms. One doesn’t sit down and reconstruct their worldview in a day, even when presented with new realities. Disruptions can unleash a powerful combination of emotions: anger, fear, disappointment, surprise, and embarrassment. It can be psychologically overwhelming. I recall that within days of Hillary’s defeat, an author who diagnosed himself as suffering from “Post Trump Stress Disorder,” died.3

I was fortunate. Growing up on a farm teaches you that disruptive, even catastrophic events, whether it’s weather-related like a hail storm or it’s a prairie fire, can destroy crops and possessions in minutes. In time, you either learn resilience or your are beaten into submission and defeat. And my Dad didn’t candy coat his world view either. He alerted me to the fact that the world wasn’t necessarily what it appeared to be. The powers-that-be running the Big Show didn’t have the best interests of humanity in mind. We talked at length about the Illuminati, the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, and the latter’s control over the world’s banking systems and thus entire nations. He alerted me to the fact that the Federal Reserve, unlike its name, was not a US government institution, but a private entity. I guess you could call it a different version of the facts of life. 

I’ve explained in an earlier commentary how the observations of U.S. Colonel Andrew Bacevich opened my eyes to the hard truth regarding America’s tyrannical foreign policy.4 Once the surface of the popular perceived reality is scratched and you get past the initial shock, it gets easier. You can grab hold of its edges and pull it back as you would remove a layer of worn  linoleum covering an oak floor. In the process, you discover that a faux reality sometimes hides a hard reality beneath it. At that point, one can engage in denial and replace the linoleum, but it won’t erase what has already been seen. So for those unprepared for disruptive storms, whatever their nature, here are a few protective measures I have adopted for my personal well-being in The Age of Deception (c). If even one helps, this commentary will have served its purpose.

Put your faith in God, not people. Even if admired leaders are given god-like status in government, business, entertainment, religious institutions, or on the international stage, the simple truth is their feet are made of clay. Flaws are a given.

Place the highest value on the truth versus material things. Is there anything that matters more in life than The Truth?

Empower yourself with a mandate for bringing light to darkness and telling the truth “in love” in a way you never have before.

Grant trust carefully, exercising discernment. The con artists, imposters and fake messiahs abound and they specialize in telling people what they want to hear. It depends on what is at stake of course, but when it comes to granting trust to people, it’s a bit like that hand-written sign that was hung next the cash register in rural businesses. Anticipating customer requests for credit, it read: “In God we trust; everyone else pays cash.”

Remember that not everyone has conspired against the truth and well-being of humanity. There are millions of honest men and women working in compartmentalized roles for corrupt institutions for the leaders of the Cabal without any idea what goes on at the top. They only become complicit if they choose to ignore the evidence.

Accept the reality of Evil. There comes a point when the crimes occurring in the dark can only be explained by the fact that Evil is a part of our reality. Satan hasn’t retired. He and his devotees are very busy.

Ally yourself with other truth seekers and truth tellers. Seek out wise people who aren’t influenced by mainstream media narratives or flavour of the week distractions. These are wise people who have their priorities in order and feet firmly on the ground.

Guard your heart and mind. There’s an intense battle raging for hearts and minds. Guard yours keeping in mind that ultimately, as Dylan said, “you gotta serve somebody.” It’s a question of whom you wish to serve.

Resist the propagandizing and mass mind control. Some observers have compared our current political environment and the endless propagandizing to that portrayed in Orwell’s classic, 1984. You can resist the mind-warping effect of relentless propaganda and disinformation by hitting the “off” button and developing new information sources.

Educate yourself as to the ways of the shadow government and the deep state. This means learning the history of Gladio and how psy ops and false flag are used to instil fear and shape the will of the population. 

Forgive yourself. Let’s face it; we have all been fooled. The powers that be are masters in the art and science of perception management, and they have a lot of tools in their tool kit. It’s the Illuminati that are the manipulative criminals.

Cultivate a healthy skepticism when leaders or the media imply we need to just trust them. Cultivate courage, critical thinking, intuition and discernment regarding the truth.

Reaffirm to yourself and your family what it is that really matters. It’s probably not the next episode of The View, the next football game or the irritating employee at work. You can become purposeful and powerful. It’s been said that the most powerful people in the world are those who want nothing.

Avoid the snakes. The Cabal’s servants are constantly seeking new recruits to join their ranks promising as “Hollowood” does, fame and fortune. No thanks.

Expect casualties. Sadly, some folks will be psychologically and spiritually overwhelmed by the tide of change and the inversion of a reality they became attached to.

Be patient in the sense-making process. In time, the truth will become known.

Transcend the false dichotomy of traditional, partisan left-right politics.

Spend time outdoors celebrating the endless beauty and wonder of creation. It can be powerful therapy.

Brace for cognitive dissonance. Coming to terms with the collision between two versions of reality, while knowing only one is authentic, can be painful. I recall the account of feminist author, Naomi Wolf, who told an audience about her shock at first learning that her own US government was staging (false flag) attacks and terrorizing US citizens with “theatre.” Wolf had to go for a walk and have a good cry. In effect she was grieving the passing of a cherished illusion – that of a benevolent government. 

A social-political storm may be about to erupt. If it does, as many in the  conspiracy research or “truther” community expect, the reverberations will be far reaching. Among other things, it could demand a lot of rethinking of what we thought we knew. Some some mental preparation (“stress testing”?) for the impact and aftershocks of such a storm could be worthwhile. Right now, the skies are overcast. But it’s likely to get darker. I wish you peace amid any coming storms, irrespective of their nature. 

1 Trump’s odd and ominous “calm before the storm” comment, not really explained, Vox, October 7, 2017, https://www.vox.com/2017/10/7/16441232/trump-calm-before-storm

2 Remember when Hillary Clinton was the “inevitable” candidate?, Frontpagemag.com, September 1, 2016, http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/264041/remember-when-hillary-clinton-was-inevitable-daniel-greenfield

3 Author dies after diagnosing himself with “Post-Trump Stress Disorder,” The Washington Times, November 25, 2016, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/nov/25/jeff-gillenkirk-author-dies-after-diagnosing-himse/

4 The ‘Global Order’ myth, Colonel Andrew J. Bacevich, The American Conservative, June 15, 2017, http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-global-order-myth/