Consumerism - part 2

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Meet Edward Bernays...

Bernays was one of the first to attempt to manipulate public opinion using the subconscious.

He felt this manipulation was necessary in society, which he regarded as irrational and dangerous as a result of the 'herd instinct' that Trotter had described.^{[citation needed]} Adam Curtis's award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, pinpoints Bernays as the originator of modern public relations, and Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine.^[2]

"If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it? The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible, at least up to a certain point and within certain limits."

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After experiencing a wonderfully insightful video provided to me by @profitsee I am compelled to once again tackle the evils of consumerism armed with new knowledge... new insight...

If we are ever to 'fight back' then we damned well better know who the enemy is and how the enemy operates. No?

We MUST be able to shake off the 'psychological chains' which have been used to bind us, if we are to survive. We are the people of the world... The world belongs to US, not the elites who seek to control us mind, body and soul, through whatever means necessary...

The video, to which I will supply a link at the bottom of this post, is two hours in length and worth every single second of anyone's time, IMO. It is a history of the 'planned manipulation' of humankind dated to the early 1920's. It discusses Freud's insights into the inner working of the human mind and the rise of Edward Bernays as the father of 'Public Relations' and the creator of 'The Engineering of Consent'. It is a video that clearly explains how people, the world over, have been intentionally manipulated and molded into, in many cases, who we are today. At the behest of elites, aided by psychologists and marketing genius', who seek power and wealth through control of the human psyche.

Obviously this leads one to ask... Are 'we' really so foolish? So naive as to be easily manipulated by elites in both government and industry? No... not really... We are 'people' who experience the same needs, wants and desires the world over. The elites are the ones who differentiate themselves from us, not we from them.

It seems that Freud and Bernays considered the masses to be 'stupid', to be filled with uncontrolled passions and desires that presented a danger to society. The study of the human mind presented many amazing, enlightening insights as to what a human being is, how human beings 'react' to various stimuli. I fault not the study of the human mind. What I find great fault with is the hoarding and abuse of this knowledge, by elites, for the sole purpose of manipulating human beings in such a way as to coerce them into behaving in specific ways that are not, necessarily, beneficial to themselves but solely for the benefit of governmental and corporate elites.

The elites consider 'us', the people of the world, to be not much more than 'cattle'. To be 'ruled', to be 'controlled', to be 'manipulated', at will... For their own benefit. This is ESPECIALLY true in the United States of America.

Do others, besides myself, see the way in which the opinions, concerns, voices of the American people, right here, right now, are completely ignored by the ruling elites?

We, the people of the world, need to revert to 'need' over 'want'. We, the people of the world, need to shake ourselves FREE from the 'chains' of forced consumerism. Our Chinese and Indian friends are in 'grave danger' of falling prey to the same scheme that has destroyed America...

How do we, indeed how can we hope to shake free from decades of psychological manipulation at the hands of our kleptocratic governmental and corporate elites? Through the acquisition of knowledge. Through a thorough understanding of who the enemy is and what their 'tactics' are. And through communication, as never before.

We, Americans, have allowed ourselves to be 'conditioned' as 'passive consumers'. We have become not much more than lap dogs subject to the whims and desires of governmental and corporate elites. We are all 'taught' at an early age, through a government controlled 'public' education system, to be 'good citizens'. To conform our own behavior to the 'social norms' as they are defined by the very same elites who provide our 'free' education. Conflict of interest?!

Is it not quite obvious to all that the media itself is controlled, to a large degree, by the same elites who wish to enslave us? That the media's main role and purpose is to convince us of the virtuous motivations and actions of our own individual governments? Is it not the media's 'assignment' to convince the 'people' when war is good or when war is bad? Is it not the duty of the media to convince us who the 'bad' guys are and that we, regardless of origin, are the 'good' guys? This applies to just about every industrialized nation, every (independent?) government in the world.

What we have today, in *my* opinion, is a world wide form of oppressive social control. We, the people of the world, are not how we should be... This is not 'who' we are... This is, in large part, who we have been designed to be. We are all but 'servants' to the elites...

This is nothing less than a war for our very souls my friends... If 'we' fail to take it seriously I promise you, with all my heart, that the elites will NEVER fail to take it seriously... It has served them well for many decades now. It is TIME for the enlightenment of human beings!

The elites use tremendous resources, scientific enlightenment, psychological manipulation, whatever means necessary, to achieve their own lofty goals of wealth and power, of self gratification, at our expense...

Check out what planned obsolescence means...

Planned obsolescence or built-in obsolescence^[1] is the process of a product becoming obsolete and/or non-functional after a certain period or amount of use in a way that is planned or designed by the manufacturer.^[1] Planned obsolescence has potential benefits for a producer because the product fails and the consumer is under pressure to purchase again, whether from the same manufacturer (a replacement part or a newer model), or from a competitor which might also rely on planned obsolescence. ^[1] The purpose of planned obsolescence is to hide the real cost per use from the consumer, and charge a higher price than they would otherwise be willing to pay (or would be unwilling to spend all at once).

From that point on, "planned obsolescence" became Stevens' catchphrase. By his definition, planned obsolescence was...

"Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary."

Is this not war at a most basic level? Is it not being perpetrated on us by elites? It seems that maybe to elites ALL is war... No? 'They' seek to use every single thing at their disposal to control our behavior. 'They' have more resources than do we... It IS psychological 'warfare' and China and India are he next 'targets' on the world stage. China and India are already firmly targeted as the world's next economic engine, as the world's next generation of 'shopper classes'.

So all is lost? Yes and no... in my opinion... We have ONE thing now that 'we', the people of the world, have never had at our disposal before... Communication on a grand scale. The evil plots and plans of the elites, world wide, must fail... 'We', the people of the world, have the ability to make that happen. There are only 2 things, as I see it, that the elites cannot live without... Were we to begin to systematically remove these things from their grasp we could truly 'change the world' for the betterment of human beings.

Money and power.

And, quite conveniently in my opinion, if we just remove the money alone then the power of the elites will also vanish. This is NOT rocket science! Even 'we', the people of the world, even the dumbed-down 'shopper classes' can DO this!

Simply STOP buying... Purchase what you 'need' and only what you 'need'. Not what you 'want'. That is the way Americans used to be... before...

STOP purchasing what you 'want'... What you 'want' can wait... That is what defines it as a 'want'... Americans 'want' way too much... Americans 'need' way to little... Do not ALLOW the elites to cast Americans aside as 'depleted shoppers/consumers' only to move on to corrupt the lives, the very existance, of our Chinese and Indian friends...

The reign of the elites must end... 'They' have already, practically, destroyed themselves... Lets all communicate, lets all cooperate, to 'finish them'...

As 'we', the people of the world...

"We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs." -Paul Mazer (a Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers in the 1930s)

Here is the promised link to 'The Engineering of Consent' video (2 hours total)

Greg