Ignorance is Strength

Ignorance is Strength

  Michel Foucault, in the mid 20th century, detailed the intricate balance between knowledge and power and how the powerful usually control the definition of what the rest of the population calls “knowledge”.

   The sad part is that most of the teachers are not even aware that they are teaching children only half-truths.  We were taught as children that Thanksgiving was about Indians (oops, now it’s Native Americans) and the colonists getting together in a quaint little festival and sharing food with each other.  The real story of the Natives and the colonists is quite different.  Likewise, we are taught about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree (which is pure fiction) and “honest Abe” who freed the slaves.  No one mentions, however, that for nearly Abraham Lincoln’s entire life he was a die-hard racist who staunchly believed in segregation and that the white man was intrinsically superior to the black man.  His racism was one of the talking points that he used in order to rise up to political power.  With the internet and the dissemination of knowledge, we now understand that the histories we were taught growing up in public school are not only false, but purposely dishonest as well.

   Whenever someone comes along and questions the “official” narrative that has been programmed into the population from childhood, that person is deemed crazy, insane, or even dangerous.  However, it is usually the insane person that cannot explain why he or she believes what they believe.  When someone is able to tell a narrative and back it up with actual historical evidence (complete evidence, I might add), how can we deny the plain truth?

 But since the government in power controls what is knowledge and what is not, complete histories (which you actually get to learn in graduate school and beyond, they are not secret) that go against the official government narrative are deemed subversive and dangerous.  It does not matter whether or not the story is true; if the story goes against what people have been raised to think is true, it amounts to a kind of psychological earthquake that causes depression, anxiety, and even hatred on the part of the one experiencing the mental trauma of seeing their worldview fall apart.

   The government advocates ignorance and calls it strength.  For example, anyone wishing to know why al-Qaeda hates the United States needs only to listen to their reasoning.  In fact, Osama Bin-Laden even released a list of reasons why he declared war on the United States.  Much of it has to do with the humiliation the United States continually deals out to Arabs by divvying up their Arabic land as the West sees fit.  Other parts of his diatribe deal with the mass atrocities and mass civilian deaths caused by the West’s occupation and constant belligerent behavior in the Middle East.  And yet the government’s official narrative is something like, “They hate us because of our freedoms” or “Their religion is a religion of hate.”  Don’t read history or go to the “enemy” for the truth; that’s what the state tells us.  Ignorance is Strength!  We’re told that if we just bomb them bad enough, or long enough, they won’t hate us anymore.  Kind of like spanking a child until they bleed; that’ll teach them to disobey!

Slavery is not dead.

I finished listening to the audio book "Underground Railroad" which is about slavery and the attempts to escape the bonds of slavery.  I wasn't surprised at how much I identified with the attitudes, habits and beliefs portrayed by the slaves.  Since my involvement in a federal trial years ago and the terrorism that followed, I have considered myself a slave.

I once had a Methodist minister tell me "Your life must be hell; you are in a prison(slave), but you can't see the bars."  The only time I ever felt free, was when I was out of this country.  And I wanted to stay where I was, but I couldn't because of my poor health.  And as it has been said "A poor person is not a free person."

To show you what I mean about how I can identify with the slave mentality, the primary character in the book is Cora, a runaway female slave.  Whenever Cora would think about a situation she was in, or about someone she had know and didn't know their situation, she would always have negative images and outcomes to the situation or person.

I now live in a state where I have been abused so much and been denied so much that I can be doing something as simple as driving down the road, and negative thoughts will flood my mind like someone will run a red light or a stop sign and slam into the side of my car.  I know that is not going to happen, but the thoughts appear as a result of decades of created negative outcomes.  I hate it and I just can't have any compassion for the people who created my world.  The fascist state of amerika has created a new form of slavery.  It is just as barbaric, cruel and inhuman as the form where people are bought and sold - just more "sophisticated".

And I should point out that while I never experienced the physical abuse of a slave but that was primarily because of the way the torture was carried out and that I was always able to avoid situations where physical harm and/or death was planned by my enemies.  Such as the evil machinations of maste' Kopac.