Self-Censorship in the National Security State

Do you “self-censor?”

It is always good to define your terms at the start of a discussion – as Samuel Johnson observed – it saves argument.  So, self-censoring is defined here as “limiting what one might otherwise freely say either out of respect for other people’s feelings or out of fear of repercussions.”

According to Glenn Greenwald, a climate of intimidation and fear has been created in the USA that is inhibiting Americans from exercising their rights. Not only Americans are self-censoring and relinquishing their rights, but Europeans as well – fearing that their governments might at some point in the future extradite them at US request if the US accuses them of harming US security.

Most of us self-censor everyday.  When someone asks, “How do I look?,” most of us will choose to self-censor and respond with a  “You look great!” and the person who asked the question beams and smiles.  Some won’t  be so kind - “You look terrible!” and the person who asked the question becomes offended and your reputation for being a nice person is forever damaged.  Most of us learn how to play this game at an early stage as part of our social conditioning.

The issue of self-censorship becomes a major problem for a free society when it affects the exercise of people's constitutionally-protected freedoms. 

In the USA, the First Amendment to the Constitution provides that:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” 

In the USA, the Constitution guarantees citizens the right to freedom of speech.  If we have this freedom, then why would people self-censor?

There are several examples that one can point to today as examples of where many people self-censor. Here is a very short list:

• Questioning the official 9/11 story
• Questioning what happened to the $2.3 Trillion missing from the Pentagon budget, announced by Rumsfeld on 9/10, the day before 9/11
• Questioning why nothing happened regarding the thousands of instances of illegal surveillance of US citizens, each instance a felony, by the Bush administration
• Questioning the whole “Al Qaeda” story which underlies the main excuse for the “war on terror” and the ever-increasing erosion of freedom in the USA
• Questioning the origins and legitimacy of the Federal Income Tax
• Questioning the origins and legitimacy of the Federal Reserve System
• Questioning why video evidence of Hillary Clinton’s admitting campaign fraud was never produced during the campaign fraud investigation of Hillary Clinton
• Questioning the reasons for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Questioning how and why the Patriot Act (all 352 pages of it, voted on mostly without being read, which eliminated many freedoms and brought on a regime of societal surveillance never before seen in US history) was all ready to go right after the events of 9/11
• Avoiding expressing support for Wiki Leaks out of fear of official reprisals

People avoid expressing themselves on these and other issues mainly because of fear of ridicule. 

However, sometimes people actually fear that if they openly express themselves on these and other issues, they will show up on a government list and be subjected to some kind of oppression (apparently the case with some supporters of Wiki Leaks, if Greenwald is to be believed).  So, out of fear, they stay quiet. They do not express themselves.  They do not speak out. They remain a quiet member of the herd. And, whether you consider this a paradox or not, these people who have relinquished their right to speak their minds then become willing persecutors of those who choose instead to speak out fearlessly.

The national security state's strategy is to escalate the level of intimidation and deterrent to scare people into silence.

Greenwald claims that Obama is now heading a war against whistleblowers.  The Justice Department is obsessed with prosecuting Wiki Leaks.  Look at what they are doing with Bernard Manning.  The climate of fear begun during the Bush years continues.

Some Americans really believe that the wars in which they are currently involved are being undertaken to "bring freedom and democracy" to other countries.  Without addressing the legitmacy of that premise, wouldn't it make sense to observe what is happening at home?

"Oranges and Sunshine" - Forced Child Migration in Britain

As someone once said, some of the most heinous crimes in history have been done for the best of intentions.


The forced child migration program is one of these crimes.


In a program that ran until 1970, individuals within the British Government were responsible for sending 130,000 poor children to Commonwealth countries, mostly to Australia. Allegedly children as young as 4 years old were told that their parents were dead, and they were then subjected to forced migration to children's homes on the other side of the world.  They were told a fairy story - that they would get oranges and sunshine. Most got instead hard labor, life in institutions, and many suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse.  And the parents whose children they were - what were they told?  Apparently, many weren't told what happened to their children.  Some were told that their children had died.

Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, uncovered the story in 1986, when a woman told her that she had been taken from a children's home in Nottingham and sent to Australia by boat when she was 4 years old.  Ms Humphreys began investigating this story.  She then decided to dedicate her time to uniting the families that had been separated. 

What happens when one makes such a discovery?

Unsurprisingly, she ran into denial - from everyone.  No one wanted to believe that their government could have done something like this.  Sound familiar?

Like many whistle-blowers, Ms Humphreys ran into intimidation and her life began to be turned upside down.  However, as she said, once one finds out something like this, one cannot turn one's back on it.  Therefore she soldiered on as she and her co-workers worked to reunite hundreds of families.


Ms Humphreys wrote a book about her work, called "Empty Cradles."  Jim Loach, a film maker and son of the famous film maker Ken Loach, read the book, interviewed Ms Humphreys, and decided that this story must be made into a film. He was able to convince Ms Humphreys, and "Oranges and Sunshine" is the result.  While it was being filmed, Prime Minister Rudd of Australia gave a moving apology on behalf of Australia to the victims in November 2009. This allegedly compelled British Prime Minister Gordon Brown into making a detailed public apology in February 2010 for what the British Government had done to those children and their families. The victims of this abuse finally had their circumstances officially acknowledged.

As Arthur Schopenhauer, the great German philosopher, stated: 


"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

It appears that this process happened in this case.


Still trust your government to tell you the truth about what it is doing on your behalf?

Are You an Ugly American?

Are you an Ugly American? 

Ugly American is a term which refers to worldwide perceptions of arrogant, demeaning, unthoughtful behavior of Americans abroad. The term comes from the title of a 1958 book by authors William Lederer and Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American.

I recently read on Facebook where someone was obviously frustrated by the debacle in which the US is currently involved – Libya. He wrote:

Rep. West [referring to some Congressman that was speaking] said that the missiles we shot off in Libya the other day [some time in mid March 2011] cost $567,000 each. They fired 1,200 of these. That means it cost us $680,400,000 for that little display of power. F**k that. I say we drop 1 bomb, an atomic one, right in the center of every one of these middle Eastern Hellholes and call it a day.

Now, I understand the frustration. He was reacting to the terrible, horrendous waste that the illegal Libyan war represents - that one instance apparently cost the American taxpayer $680 million (not to mention the cost of others of our wars – Iraq [officially $751Bn as of September 2010] and Afghanistan – [officially $336 Bn as of September 2010] see Congressional Research Service http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf ).

However, what I cannot understand is the willfully blind insensitivity that such a statement reflects.

This is not some video game. 

These people are really having their houses destroyed. 

These people are really having their children killed. 

These people are really suffering. 

These people are really dying. 

How about a little empathy? How about a little “putting-yourself-in-their-place” for a bit?

Almost 100% of these people are just like you or me – they have families, they have jobs, they have homes, they have their hopes and dreams. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and to do well. They have friends and fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters. Sure, they may live in a different culture and they may believe in a different religion. But who cares about that? Leave them alone and let them live their lives. If their government needs changing, let them do what they can to change it if they think it is worth the cost to do so.

The US has no business in Libya, and what is going on there amounts to war crimes.  

What are these scoundrels doing in our names?

Do some people justify this conflict because they say that the US needs oil?

If we need oil, we can buy it. No matter what it costs, it would still be a hell of a lot cheaper for everyone concerned than what it is costing us – both financially, materially, and in prestige – to carry on this unjustifiable and illegal war.

There is so much more going on in Libya that the Western media – the corporate-controlled propaganda mill – refuses to report. What about the 50,000 African mercenaries that the Israeli Mossad sent in to protect Ghaddafi's regime against the rebels? Is this true? Apparently it is open season on anyone in Libya who is black, and is thus suspected of being a mercenary. Is this true? If it is, why haven't we heard about it? I'll give you two guesses.

One thing for certain – truth is the first casualty of war. 

You can be sure that we are not being told the truth about what is going on. I think that what we are being told is calculated to have the precise effect that my friend experienced: frustration, anger and a descent into extremism.

As for the rest of us, let's remember that people are people, just like you or me. And we all deserve to be left alone to live our lives the way we choose. 

That's what we believe in America, isn't it?

Let's not be ugly Americans.

Wisconsin Teachers' Benefits, Uneaten School Lunches, Wall Street and War

Well, the Wisconsin Republicans passed their bill while the "Wisconsin 14" were across the border in Illinois trying to avoid having to have to vote.  And I agree that it is a drag that some of the kids on the free or subsidized lunch program don't eat their lunch, and I agree that it is a drag that the health care mafia and their lobbyists have the cost of US health care through the roof.  That is all terrible and inexcusable.  What is funny, however, is the current focus on the lower level earners, as if that were where the problem lay. If I were a normal person, and not a politician, and I wanted to focus on eliminating the waste of taxpayers' money, I would examine first the biggest and most heinous wasters - the Wall Street crowd and the military-industrial cabal that have impoverished the USA and most of the world.  Let's make some basic assumptions to put things in perspective - without doing any in depth research - just some quick and dirty googling. 

• The "bailout" could cost between $11.7 and $23 trillion; http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/tarp-j22.shtml and http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/29/useconomy-banking.
• Pursuing these illegitimate wars is costing billions a week. As of September 2010, total reported by the Congressional Research Service (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf) is 
• $751 billion for Iraq and 
• $336 billion for Afghanistan; 
• I just checked and it costs $9.8 Bn in 2009 to feed 31 million children in 101,000 schools. Free meals if you are under the 130% poverty level. Sliding scale up to 185% poverty level. This I would think to be suspect as I would imagine that the food for lunch programs is probably sourced by overproduced farm products that would probably sit in an expensive warehouse until they were past their sell-by date and then fed to animals. http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/lunch/aboutlunch/NSLPFactSheet.pdf.
• Paying for teachers salaries and benefits might cost about $6 billion a year.  I got this by multiplying the number of teachers in Wisconsin: 59,552 x the top end of the total alleged package of $100K equals $5,955,200,000 - almost $6 bn, to teach 873,750 students. http://www.localschooldirectory.com/state-schools/WI.

Now, all that said, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't cut back where there is waste.  However, it seems the thieves are busy picking all our pockets while they are pointing across the road saying "Look at those greedy bastards." That's how I see it.  

And this "us vs them" scenario (for which we always seem to fall) means that while we argue over crumbs, these fat bastards are eating all the pies. And we let them because we fall for the propaganda again, and again, and again.  

These are all misdirections.  I mean, if you knew that someone was taking $10,000 from you and that someone else was taking $1 from you, where would your conservation efforts best be expended? Further, if the person taking the $10K from you was the same person pointing out the $1 thief, what would you think?  Now, some people think that none of this stuff about joining together to demand an end to militarism and the growing fascism in the USA matters, as Jesus is coming back pretty soon, right? Well, even if this were so, these are opportunities to stand up for what is right, and an opportunity to be found doing the Master's service, and a chance for earning a "well done, thou good and faithful servant" pat on the back.  

The teachers in Wisconsin may be being paid more than someone else in their position, but the Wisconsin high school graduation rate is #1 in the USA, apparently.  So maybe the people are getting value for money.  And remember, the Republican Party saint, Ronald Reagan himself, spoke movingly about the necessity for free people to support collective bargaining.

Anyway, I think it looks like it that the "Wisconsin 14" knew they couldn't stop the bill, so they left Wisconsin.  I still think this was misdirection, arguing over pennies while the mega-thieves were taking everything. I trust no political party.  Everything should be decentralized and power devolved to a very local level, and the money should stay local.  Small is beautiful. But that is just my view.

What Ticks Me Off about Libya

On one level, I understand why the US and British governments pushed to attack Libya - war is always a great way to get the people's mind off of the economic disasters that have been created.  However, I would think that more people would have cottoned on to how this game is played.

The press and the promoters of these government policies now work hand in hand.  Where are the dissenting voices?  Where is the alternative view?

I don't really care for Ghaddafi (however you spell it).  However, that is no reason to go to war against him, which is precisely what we have done.  Look at how many extremely horrible martinets the US and British foreign policies have sustained over the years (just look at what Wiki Leaks has revealed). Yet, as long as these bloodthirsty puppets were singing our tune, and as long as they were content to let the multi-nationals strip their countries of resources while they took their cut and squirreled it away in offshore bank accounts, they were allowed to exploit, subdue and terrorize their countrymen with US and British blessing (I'm just focusing on the US and Brits here - the other large "democracies" are more or less the same).

If the world really wanted to control Libya's internal affairs (which is exactly what we are doing, but it's ok because we are doing it for democracy, right?), it would simply turn off the money.  No reason for war to do it. Turn off the money, and all of a sudden everyone gets very rational and reasonable.  But war is much more profitable for the warmongers.  Plus, the more you blow up, the more you have to rebuild, and those huge engineering firms are just waiting in the wings - you watch and see who gets the rebuild contracts. The scams that we have seen in Iraq will be repeated in Libya.

Further, the populations of the US and Britain are paying for the Libyan war.  Where did the money come from to do this?  How much does it cost a day to carry out these maneuvers?  Will anyone in the US or Britain be held accountable for these decisions, or will everyone get a free pass just like last time when the double-dealing scoundrels tricked us into the Iraq and Afghan wars?

Pursuing these illegitimate wars is costing billions a week. As of September 2010, the total reported by the Congressional Research Service (http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf) is $751 billion for Iraq and $336 billion for Afghanistan - that is just for the US, and that is just what they are telling us about.  God only knows what grey or black funds there are that are funneling in money to the war through the back door.  Do you trust them to tell you the whole story?  I don't know why you should.  

So, to this on-going, never-ending debacle, we can now add Libya.  

When will we ever learn?