The Manchurian Protesters
– by David Matthews 2
In the world of comics, one of the most despised villains is a character called Darkseid. Famed cartoonist Jack Kirby created the character as the embodiment of evil, ruling over a world that is devoid of individuality and hope. Although human in appearance and mannerisms, the people of the planet Apokolips were considered nothing more than animals. “Hunger dogs”, as Darkseid described them. A dystopian society to the fullest; where the horrors of Dante’s Inferno are considered luxuries.
Every so often there would be someone who would stand up to the will of Darkseid. He would be seen as a savior to the masses. He would give them hope and let them dream of a better life. He would inspire them to throw off their shackles and to rise up and take on the soldiers of Apokolips. He would lead them to a great gathering place where he would tell them that they would then get rid of Darkseid and bring freedom to the people… not hunger dogs, but PEOPLE!
And it would be at that point that Darkseid’s soldiers would arrive and slaughter everyone assembled, leaving only the person who led them there alive, who would then be praised by Darkseid for doing exactly what he was told to do. This would be yet another one of Darkseid’s plans to weed out the vestiges of hope that exist in the masses and to extinguish it completely, leaving nothing but misery and despair, which Darkseid relishes in.
Sounds despicable, doesn’t it? Something only a depraved mind would come up with, right?
Well that’s the nature of evil.
But what if there’s more truth to this than fiction?
I’m sure some of you have heard of the term “Manchurian Candidate”, even if you never saw either of the two movies or the book that it all came from. Basically it’s about a sleeper agent that is conditioned by outside forces to act only when the time is right, and then to stage a coup and take over. The candidate would be the “ideal” one to lead given his sterling record.
Some people have already invoked that term in regards to our current President, Barack Obama. They firmly believe that the “plot” has already been hatched and that the “sleeper” has already been put in power.
But what if we’re not dealing with one well-conditioned “sleeper”, but rather with a group of “sleepers” that have been gradually conditioned not to stage a coup, but to sustain the status quo? To essentially create despair and misery here in the real world?
Okay, ponder this little scenario: you have general discontent. People are not happy with what is going on in government. They want change, and they feel like they are being marginalized. They feel like they’re going overboard with what life is constantly dictating they NEED to do. The message is out there that government is weak, government is impotent, government is corrupt, and they’re blind, dumb and DEAF to the plight of the ordinary hard-working American. They believe that those in government are fixated on satisfying their own egos than in actually doing anything significant. That’s the message they’re expressing.
And then in comes these GROUPS. Not just ONE group, but a whole phalanx of groups. They go by different names and some of them have these really vocal spokespeople. They all wrap themselves up in patriotic colors and use patriotic language and they speak in simple terms to the masses. They stroke the egos of the masses and reassure them that they’re NOT imagining things. They ARE being marginalized. They ARE feeling left out. They ARE being ignored. And, no, it’s not fair, and, no, it’s not right, but THEY will be on your side, won’t they?
The seduction is done so deftly, so skillfully subtle, that they don’t even realize what has happened. They’re promised change. They’re promised that they’ll be heard. They’re promised that they will be respected. They just have to be patient and be loyal and things will happen for them. They WILL have what they want.
But the funny thing is… even when they do everything that is asked of them, things really don’t change. The system still works against them. They are still getting ignored and marginalized. In fact, if anything, they are getting marginalized and ignored quickly and more frequently and even worse than before.
And then they’re told there is this “enemy” that wants to destroy everything they have. An “enemy” that makes the same kind of promises, gives the same kind of speeches, but everything this “enemy” does is to destroy the masses. They are not getting what they want or need because this “enemy” is stopping them. They have to stand up to this “enemy” and fight this “enemy” and oppose everything that this “enemy” stands for. THEN they’ll have what they were promised earlier.
It is the perfect protest group; idealistic, loyal, and willing to make any kind of sacrifices for the cause, including sacrificing their own expectations.
Sound familiar?
Now think about this: you know all those conservative and neo-conservative voices out there that LOVE to talk about the small business owners? They ADORE small businesses, don’t they? They idolize small businesses. No, seriously, they do. They put small businesses on pedestals and demand that we WORSHIP them.
Funny thing though… NONE OF THEM WORK FOR SMALL BUSINESSES! They all work for Clear Channel, News Corp, Cox Communications, Time-Warner… all of which are big corporations. And their chief sponsors are not small businesses either. They’re major corporations and multinational banks. Do you see small businesses in any of this?
Oh but they’ll talk the talk, won’t they? They’ll talk about how we need to help out the small businesses owners in this country. They’ll talk about how we NEED small businesses owners to keep jobs in this country.
And yet they had no qualms about having the lion’s share of the 2008 bailout money go to big corporations. Let’s bail out the banks and bailout AIG and bail out Freddie and Fanny, because they’re all “too big to fail”.
How ironic… they glorify small businesses but then bend over backwards with money that isn’t theirs to support the businesses that are “too big to fail”. And if anyone asks about it, they’ll just blame “the enemy”. It’s all the fault of ONE senator and ONE Congressman... even IF they weren’t in power until very recently.
Now add this into the equation: you ever hear of the FairTax Plan? Great plan. Would completely revamp the way we look at taxation. The group behind it has been pushing for it since 1995. They’ve had rallies, books on the subject, even talk show hosts and presidential contenders pushing for it. It keeps on getting proposed in Congress and it gets hundreds of sponsors and co-sponsors.
And yet… it never gets out of committee. It doesn’t even come up in the committees and sub-committees. All of those sponsors and co-sponsors, people that think this is a really GREAT plan, and yet it doesn’t make it out of the committees and sub-committees, never mind make it to the floor of either the House or Senate.
In fact, when President George W. Bush wanted Congress to explore tax reform, the very first thing that his advisors said was that they WOULD NOT include the FairTax Plan into ANY discussions! And nobody complained! All of that support… all of those promises made… for what? To keep the tax system the same as ever.
Congress changed political allegiances twice since 1995, and yet despite all of the talk and all of the promises and all of the rallies and demonstrations and books, this great idea to reform the tax system is STILL not any closer to becoming a reality!
And the same applies to pretty much EVERY kind of reform measure proposed.
Look at political reform. Outlaw one tactic and the people behind it find ways to get around it. Let’s ban robot-calling… except for OUR robot-calling. OURS is “too important”. Let’s outlaw the special interest advertising… but not OURS. Let’s ban certain kinds of campaign contributions, but we’ll write in exemptions for the national conventions.
Everyone wants a third political party, or so the polls and public sentiment so decree, and yet the rules are changed to prevent a third party from ever getting any kind of mainstream voice. There are DOZENS of third-party choices out there, but nobody wants to pay any attention to them because they supposedly “can never win” even though they may have overwhelming support.
Why not support those groups? Because they are told that it is more important to stop “the enemy”. They have to stop “the enemy” from gaining any more control over the process. MAYBE in a few years after they make sure that “the enemy” has been defeated they can talk about a third party choice… but not right now. The stakes are just “too high” for them to even consider it.
Let’s get brutally honest here… we in America are getting PLAYED! We ARE being deceived! We ARE being conned on a level that is unprecedented in human history. WE ARE living a lie!
Change and reform are presented to us like a siren’s call. We’re lured in, convinced that we can make a difference, and yet we end up supporting the very people who have prospered off the status quo, and thus have no incentive to actually CHANGE things like they promised. We may be upset about it, but we won’t do anything about it, because we’re conditioned to believe that we NEED the status quo in place to fight off “the enemy”.
The ultimate intention is really no different than the grand schemes of Darkseid, or, for that matter, of the villains in the 1975 movie “Rollerball”. It’s all designed to destroy hope and dreams of a better life. The people who are behind these grand schemes, the ones in power, dangle hope and change before us knowing full well that as long as they are the ones behind it, it will never happen. And to convince you to abandon hope and change, to prevent you from going behind their backs and bringing in the change that they DON’T want, they have a ready-made “enemy” for you to hate and despise with all of your might.
The major power-brokers, the ones fueling these protest rallies, are your real enemy, but you’ll never recognize it. They have whipped you and they have conditioned you like Pavlovian dogs to follow your Master’s commands, but you’ll never admit to it. It’s just easier to live in the delusion than it is to accept that you’re a pawn.
That, too, is just part of their game.
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