Evolution of Consciousness

Glenn Greenwald tells the remarkable story of a little website called WikiLeaks.org. Here’s their mission statement:

Our publisher, The Sunshine Press, is an international non-profit organization funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists, lawyers and the general public. Since 2007 we have exposed thousands of military, political and corporate abuses — fighting off over 100 legal attacks to do so. No WikiLeaks’ source been ever exposed and the organization has yet to lose a legal case. Our disclosures have triggered many reforms, including the removal of two corrupt national governments. We have found that knowledge is suppressed because of its power to change and that only new knowledge brings meaningful change. Ultimately, the quality of every political, economic and personal decision depends on understanding the world and how it came to be that way. By revealing the true state of our world, through millions of pages of suppressed information, we are creating the primary ingredient for a better civilization. Although our work has won many awards, it is your strong support that preserves our continued independence and strength.

Greenwald’s story focuses on a few of their more recent releases. One is a CIA document acknowledging that even though the majority of French and German citizens are against the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan, apathy prevails and their governments remain involved in the aggression. In order to perpetuate this highly un-democratic arrangement (while also anticipating an upcoming “bloody summer” in Afghanistan) the report recommends ways to manipulate public opinion and perpetuate citizen apathy in these countries. It’s a remarkable read, and a glimpse into the depth of political “marketing” that American tax dollars fund these days. A second document comes from the Pentagon, discussing WikiLeaks at length, and suggesting ways to damage or destroy the fledging effort.

I recommend reading Greenwald’s article first, for some good overview and context, and then diving into the pertinent documents…

1. “The War on WikiLeaks and Why It Matters” (Greenwald article)
2. “Afghanistan: Sustaining West European Support for the NATO-led Mission—Why Counting on Apathy Might Not Be Enough” (CIA document)
3. “Wikileaks.org – An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, Or Terrorist Groups?” (Pentagon document)

After delving into this material, I could not help but think of the Star Wars series, pitting the ragtag Rebel Alliance against the all-powerful Empire. Here’s how the editor of WikiLeaks explains himself:

This information has reform potential. And the information which is concealed or suppressed is concealed or suppressed because the people who know it best understand that it has the ability to reform. So they engage in work to prevent that reform . . . .

There are reasons I do it that have to do with wanting to reform civilization, and selectively targeting information will do that — understanding that quality information is what every decision is based on, and all the decisions taken together is what “civilization” is, so if you want to improve civilization, you have to remove some of the basic constraints, which is the quality of information that civilization has at its disposal to make decisions. Of course, there’s a personal psychology to it, that I enjoy crushing bastards, I like a good challenge, so do a lot of the other people involved in WikiLeaks. We like the challenge.

As we get down to the wire on Health Care Reform, the intensity rises. Republican obstructionism has finally been shouldered aside, reconciliation will apparently be used, and Democrats must now decide the final shape of their bill.

A health insurance mandate seems to be a given with this bill, the largest remaining question appears to be whether the Public Option will be included. Much hinges on this decision. A Mandate without a Public Option means government will be insisting everyone purchase overpriced, inefficient, for-profit health insurance. This would, of course, please the insurance industry greatly, but it will also incense voters of all stripes. It appears to be political suicide.

But this is exactly what the Donkeys deserve. By refusing to even discuss the highly-proven Single Payer model, they eliminated any chance we had at a real solution. It seems the main lesson the Obamahns took from the Clintonian healthcare debacle is that you have to negotiate with corporate interests, first and foremost, else they will kill your legislation. The problem is they erred too far in that direction, and we now face an industry-pleasing solution that does too little for the actual people involved.

The Democrats have painted themselves into a corner, and it will be interesting to see how they emerge. If they leave the Public Option out, they’ll please industry but alienate voters; if they include the Option, they’ll appease constituents but enrage their paymasters. Knowing these Democrats, they will either: a) capitulate to industry completely (Mandate, no Option), or b) find some Middle Muddle Way, which would include a very weak Public Option, thus accomplishing the neat trick of appeasing and disgusting both voters and industry at the same time.

It’s a tough call. In the old days, I’d have put my money on “b,” but given the deeply fascist state of our government these days, I’m expecting “a.” In this environment, they’ve learned it’s better to serve corporate interests rather than the people.

Glenn Greenwald wrote a good piece on this subject today: “The Democrats’ Scam Becomes More Transparent.”

“Calling All Rebels,” by Chris Hedges, is a surprisingly inspirational essay on the rather daunting subject of revolution in America. With our backs to the wall, the time to saddle up approaches.

If the Democratic Party were interested in surviving, it would follow the lead of Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) in this video…

The Republican ideology is dead, it just doesn’t know it yet. The practice of the current Democratic Party (being an ever slightly more-conflicted, more-subversive version of the out-and-out Republican corruption) is also headed for extinction. Ignoring the citizenry is simply unsustainable in the long run. You can only exploit the people for so long, before they revolt or perish.

I don’t think the Republicans have any chance of surviving, long term, since representing big business is in their DNA. If the Democrats (and I realize that’s a huge “if”) were to come clean and swear off the bribery, they could hasten both their renaissance and the Republican demise. One fell swoop. But that would take courage and foresight, and I don’t see that coming from many entrenched quarters yet. It is, however, refreshing to hear it every once in a great while, so kudos to Weiner for that!

Earlier this month we had the Teabag Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, featuring Ms. Sarabelle, the dominatrix of the hard right. This was followed by the annual fascism workshop known as CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) in DC. A remarkable quote emerged from this year’s show when the heavily pin-stripped Liz Cheney, railing against the current state of counterterrorism in this country, said, “there’s no polite way to put this, but that kind of incompetence gets people killed.”

Now when I hear words like “terrorism, incompetence,” and “people getting killed” I immediately think of 9/11, back when Liz’s daddy was Vice Incompetent. That gang was so busy making the rich richer, and vacationing, that they had little time for the barrage of intelligence briefings coming in that summer, strenuously warning them of imminent attack. For example, the brief titled Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US was delivered August 6, 2001, but our heroes bravely continued vacationing the rest of that month, only making it back to headquarters in time for the actual attack.

But that was then, and now, with Liz on stage, in what should have been an awkward moment, reality did not intrude. A couple minutes after making her cluelessly hypocritical statement, Liz introduced the original incompetent himself, jolly old St. Dick, to a rousing ovation. You’ve got to hand it to these demagogues, they certainly know their audience. Knowledge? facts? independent thought? critical thinking?…nah, none of that here, no “elitist” intellectualizing for this mob. They prefer leading with the gut.

Meanwhile, in between all this Teabaggin’ and CPACin’, a bunch of retrograde zombies arose from their graves to scribble out a sophomoric manifesto they call “The Mount Vernon Statement.” It’s a remarkable collection of 537 words that say next-to-nothing, beyond some vague sense that these guys are dead set against progress. The last thing in the world we should do is evolve, for god’s sake! Instead, they seem to be suggesting that we all curl up in George Washington’s lap and go back to sleep. This movement is obviously tapped out of ideas (beyond “no taxes, no regulation,” of course, those polar stars of the greedy man ethos). This is a shining example of politics at its worst, stirring the emotions while befuddling the mind. The document is available online, and I recommend giving it a once over, just to marvel at the gassy, empty rhetoric.

At bottom is a list of signatories that reads like a macabre Who’s Who of Democracy’s Demise: Meese, Norquist, Regnery, Feulner, Bozell, Viguerie, etc. It’s a shame their old friend Abramoff is behind bars, else he could have joined the fun.

A well-researched book that takes a close look at this destructive group, and their cynical perversion of the conservative movement over the past fifty years, is The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule by Thomas Frank (2008). It’s helpful to know how these traitors to American democracy think and operate. As an old Chinese general once recommended, “know thy enemy.”