A THOUGHT ON THE EXTERNAL THREAT GIMMICK
By Publius II
It works. It worked during the Roman Empire and has ever since. And it will continue to work into the indefinite future, unless people pause and think long and hard enough to see thru this incredibly durable bit of fakery.
Just what is it that works so well and for so long? The ruler of a country frequently sees the natives getting restless and this scares him/her. Nearly every ruler knows he is at best unpopular among the masses.
A ruler is not a leader. Instead of earning the respect of the citizens he/she must command it. Therefore he sits upon an unsteady throne. The people are not happy, and those of them who think begin to suspect that the real enemy lurks within. So it is with any top-down government.
In his book For Good and Evil, Charles Adams referred to “—— the destructive forces we have put into motion, forces that are far more dangerous than any outside invaders.” (Publius II amends this observation to replace “we have” with “the government has.”) Adams showed how unrestrained taxation can destroy a society. To say that today the taxman is unrestrained is to be at risk of understating the case.
During a typically unsteady time the ruler casts about for a distraction that will preoccupy the people. He (mostly) often turns to some foreign ogre who, he assures the peasants that, unless he acts against it, will surely devour their children. Furthermore this is a testosterone high: the Great Father and Protector.
Here at home a textbook case is found in a campaigning Donald Trump. “Trump Doubles Down on fear,” News & Observer 7/24/16. “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,” he says. It looks —— he will not need a congress to make laws, so we can forget about this gang of career politicians and also the Constitution.
He was not done. “—— threat and fear of illegal immigrants, who in his telling are murderers. ———. He repeated his false claim that we have unlimited immigration and claimed they are stealing our jobs.” This accusation has been proven inaccurate time and again.
The external threat gimmick can work in both directions. North Korea’s Kim Jong UN depends very heavily on the nearby armies of America and South Korea to stay in power. If these would leave him alone his government would crash. But until that happens mutual paranoia will reign, Trump’s visits notwithstanding.
In the US demands for more regulation (of the Internet, or air quality, say) have often been interpreted as calls to protect children. Politicians react to appeals by using (abusing?) children, because this use makes more and more restrictions on citizens’ liberty easier to pass into law.
It also opens wallets and purses. During the Clinton era a journalist warned readers to reach for their wallets whenever Bill mentioned children.
A thinking citizen can anticipate the response whenever someone questions these restrictions: He/she is unpatriotic or a traitor. Once that declaration is in force it effectively shuts down any further discussion. No one wants these labels attached to him. Jefferson: “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
George W. Bush was an unsteady ruler from the start. Rather than receiving a strong mandate from a large margin of victory in 2000, he slithered into office through the back door. Then came 9/11 and the mandate he sought dropped into his lap.
Maverick congressman Ron Paul: “Following the 9/11 disasters, a militant Islamic group in Pakistan held up a sign for all the world to see. It said: ‘Americans, think! Why are you hated all over the world?’” This action generated practically no ink in the US news media (not so in the rest of the world).
Referring to the 9/11 attackers, Bush said, “These men hate freedom.” The kicker was that too many unthinking citizens believed him. Today the sad result is obvious: three wars and talk about a fourth (Iran). Iraq looks encouraging according to current news clips, but Afghanistan and his war on terror are failing.
Citizens were totally cowed for a couple of days, until the Great Protector declared war on a tactic called terror and nearly everyone was happy. At least this is what poll results showed.
A glance at Dan Gardner’s book Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear is helpful.
While discussing terrorism he torpedoes wild claims that “this conflict is a fight to save the civilized world” (George Bush) or that terrorism’s threat is “existential” (Britain’s then-Prime Minister Tony Blair). Then he destroys the more self-serving statements made by the terrorism industry that has mushroomed since the September 11th attacks.
Because citizens remained naïve, they hunkered down and depended on their suddenly-popular “leader” to save them from the terrible foreign menace. The news media are often press agents for the government so they cooperated.
Today’s doubters could note the same time-worn pattern played out right after the terrible earthquake in Japan. As usual, media hype caused millions of panicked citizens to suddenly question the safety of any and all US nuclear plants. Top Washington officials carefully kept their winks and thumbs-up signs secret.
Citizens saw and heard “linked to Al-Qaeda,” “state-supported terrorism,” “axis of evil” pounded into their minds again and again. It is possible that the government ordered this media hype, in which case it was cooperating with Al-Qaeda to maintain citizens in a state of panic.
In November 2010 there was a huge hullaballoo over full-body scans and (presumably legal) groping as the alternative for fliers. Unless US foreign policy changes al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups will go on stoking fear and nibbling at citizens’ freedom and dignity. (Quote from a 11/23 webcast: “Thanks a lot, bin Laden!”) Pocket Gofer 11 elaborates.
Then-congressman Ron Paul: “Osama bin Laden, a wealthy man, left Saudi Arabia in 1979 to join American-sponsored so-called freedom fighters in Afghanistan. He received financial assistance, weapons, and training from our CIA, ——-.” It is intriguing to observe that Afghans were called freedom fighters when fighting the Soviet army while some of the same men later were called insurgents.
The invading Soviet Russian Army stayed in Afghanistan for ten years, which provided lots of time for freedom fighters to import US-made weapons. Many of those weapons are still around and being used against US and other NATO soldiers. But this truth is suppressed.
Also suppressed is the fact that in 1993 the US had 70 percent of the world market in international weapons trafficking. The other big traffickers, such as Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, each had less than ten percent.
Paul again: “Since the use of power to achieve political ends is accepted, pervasive, and ever expanding, popular support for various programs is achieved by creating fear.” Top warriors in the pentagon are seeing dreams come true.
The so-called “Patriot Act” forced “patriots” to accept less freedom, presumably in the name of defending freedom. Benjamin Franklin said “those who give up freedom for more security shall have neither.”
What is amazing is the longevity of the external threat gimmick. Surely some thinking citizens have seen thru this distraction long before now. They have, but the ruler and the elite class in government control the news media so their voices cannot be heard.
In 1787 the media were not controlled by government. James Madison, considered the father of the Constitution, could speak freely: “Perhaps it is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.”
Today this truth stings as it asserts itself. Immediately after 9/11, Susan Sontag, Rania Masri, Sarah Shields and others offered rational explanations for the attacks. They pointed to roughly 50 years of consistent humiliation of Muslims by government foreign policy in the Middle East. These writers were in effect silenced.
What great luck for the rulers in Washington! Here was a huge and fresh ogre dumped in their laps. Naturally they jumped on it.
The people were emotionally stirred up. Any explanation based on reason would get in the way. “Americans, think!”
Robert Fisk in his book The War of Civilizations devoted its entire chapter 21 entitled “Why?” to an explanation. Maybe people should feel lucky that the government’s campaign to suppress free speech does not yet extend to book burning.
Why did the government smack down those who asked why, calling them unpatriotic and worse? Rulers live and thrive on gut reactions for at least two reasons. Emotional responses make much better copy in the media, and it shuts out of people’s minds the rational process of serious thought.
People lap up high drama and violence. When fed emotional fluff they don’t have to think.
Furthermore for members of the elite class war pays far more than peace. The only problem is keeping members’ children well away from combat zones. For the high and mighty this is actually a non-problem. Surely it was not for Clinton and George W. Bush, who dodged combat duty during the Vietnam War when they were young men.
Government by a leader is guided by reason. He/she knows that once people have blown off some steam they will turn to reason. But this takes time, which a ruler does not permit as he/she responds to rage among his unthinking and demanding constituents with more rage. Whenever such rage feeds on itself and there are weapons and soldiers handy there will be war.
Experienced journalist and author Joe Klein: “—— true leadership means taking the country to a new place and describing the journey in words that are fresh, specific, and real. It means telling us things we don’t know and things we don’t want to hear — the very opposite qualities from the market-tested political speech that arises out of polling and focus groups.”
Eisenhower was such a leader. Ambrose’s book Eisenhower describes five major international crises that arose during his eight years in office. Each time Ike’s generals implored him to go to war. Each time he went eyeball-to-eyeball with them and made them blink. The man had seen the horror of war. (Ike was a field general; not a paper-pusher.)
Career soldier Eisenhower’s philosophy of peace prevailed while he and his advisors rationally discussed each crisis until they found a peaceful solution. Ike knew enough to take the necessary time, even while hotheads howled.
When he was inaugurated the Korean War was almost over. During the remaining 7.5 years of his administration he placed not one soldier in harm’s way and gave up not a square foot of US territory. Top warriors in the pentagon were among the very few citizens who were not happy with Ike’s leadership.
Taking time to pause is vitally important, especially when violence strikes at home. A thinking citizen might wonder: if top officials’ policy making had been guided by reason over the previous several decades, would 9/11 have happened?
Now it becomes obvious why the US government has risked citizens’ lives and treasure to get the nation involved in three wars (at last count) that they did not authorize. Because government is force citizens must finance these conflicts and send their young people to fight, kill and die in them.
Recall Thomas Paine, who wrote that if those who must pay for and do these violent things had some say in declaring war “We should hear but little more of wars.” Democracy is citizens governing themselves.
Even with substandard education young people are smarter than they were a generation or more ago. Nevertheless the pentagon has had to lower enlistment standards and increase bonuses. Thus it is today filling quotas that it could not do only recently.
There exists today a sharp upward trend in suicides among fighters; the rate is highest in 30 years. The media will not compare the amount of the net increase in enlistments with the increase in amount of suicides in a severely overstretched armed force. But a citizen might wonder where this will end as more young people begin thinking.
Over the years the department of “defense” has morphed into a foreign war machine. The last time an enemy soldier set foot on US soil was 1815. Rigorous training of young fighters is intended to block out any thoughts of why they are being sent far overseas to fight against nations that do not threaten America.
Some degree of brain washing has always been necessary in warfare because the natural human tendency is to run away from great danger. But today the young are beginning to think about what government is doing to them, both overseas and here at home.
With updated body armor and better field hospitals there are fewer deaths than in previous wars such as Vietnam. But a thinking citizen might question the quality of lives saved: missing limbs and eyes, permanently injured brains, PTSD, and broken families. In addition, President GW Bush cut funding for the Veterans Administration and its hospitals. Apparently he saw these half-alive people as simply damaged goods.
And then there are the estimated 600,000 dead plus many maimed Iraqi civilians on the other side that get so little ink. The Pentagon hides this mass tragedy by calling it “collateral damage.” (Some of these were killed by al-Qaeda and other jihadis. But without US fighters in Iraq these groups would not be there.)
Congressman Ron Paul: “Arguments against —— a war once started are always said to be endangering the troops in the field. This, they blatantly claim, is unpatriotic, and all dissent must stop.”
Fortunately, this claim did not stop protestors during the Vietnam War. It may not stop protestors this time as well. March 19, 2009 marked the sixth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq and thousands of thinking citizens joined a protest on that day in and near Washington, DC.
Paul again: “Two hundred and forty-one men were killed (in Lebanon, 1983), and the Marines were taken out … and he changed his policy there. We need the courage of a Ronald Reagan.”
In 1961 President Eisenhower retired. He enjoyed good relations with the press thru his years as a world figure. “I have found nothing but a desire to dig at the truth … and be openhanded and forthright about it.”
Reporters knew Ike was an honest man. Many have said that truth is the first casualty of war, but not with this guy. Today the very definition of truth has been politicized, even when there are no wars.
He fought the pentagon tooth and nail, and he won repeatedly. “I am getting desperate with the inability of the men there to understand what can be spent on military weapons and what must be spent to wage the peace.” Pocket Gofer 18 elaborates.
Additional thinking leads to another conclusion. From the government’s power-seeking viewpoint and love of unearned money the best foreign policy is to keep a steady supply of ogres in the bull pen.
For 50 or so years the government has sent soldiers over much of the world. Today there is some sort of US military presence in about 175 countries. The foreign policy causing this situation has earned the nation the reputation of world bully.
If the supply of ogres gets low simply create more. Attracted to violence, the news media cooperate. In March 2011 it looked like Libya was next. Unthinking people yet again hit the panic button. Yep: it works every time.
They seem to have forgotten Jefferson: “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.” They shouldn’t.
What kind of society would sweat blood over the execution of a possibly innocent citizen convicted of murder, and at the same time and without a second thought launch a missile or drone that kills dozens of innocent civilians? Jefferson would suffer an apoplectic fit.
A 2003 website poll by the European editor of Time magazine asked which country poses the greatest threat to world peace. Among several hundred thousand responses, 7% named North Korea, 8% named Iraq and 84% named the USA. (That is not a misprint.)
North Korea is an excellent case in point. The war ended in June 1953, but 66 years later a treaty of peace has yet to be negotiated. The US maintains at great taxpayer expense around 28,000 fighters and their families in South Korea, presumably in response to an external threat from the North.
But NK’s President Kim Jong Un sees the situation thru a different lens. Here are two armies threatening his country. Every year the two combine to repeat what they call “team spirit” military exercises, presumably to keep him in a constant state of panic. He has spent billions he doesn’t have to build several of nuclear weapons.
His nation’s economy is a basket case. Millions are starving. There is no way his huge army could sustain a war beyond a couple of months even if he was foolish enough to attack. He knows this. For 57 years there has been no such attack, but the ridiculous double external threat has spread panic in both directions. Is this crazy, or what? Nukes? Today they are merely a diplomatic bargaining chip.
A new threat has grabbed huge media attention for two reasons. One is global warming’s ability to defy accurate measurement. The other has people asking the government to save them from its presumably terrible impact over the next, say, 100 years.
Combine media hype and top politicians’ turbo-charged windbaggery and the result is perceived as a real threat by a gullible public. And no one can deny that this ogre has great staying power.
Michael Crichton’s 2004 State of Fear is a surprising book. He exposes the flawed science and exaggerations that support the global warming scare. Crichton includes extensive evidence to back up his arguments.
He clearly wants the science in his book to be taken seriously. The media have ignored this book, but today there are scientists working on spreading the truth.
As of Spring 2010 it looks like a climate change pill will be difficult for the public to swallow. The media should be and probably will be caught with their pants down. (The wimps will not admit it.)
Meanwhile internal ogres abound. People’s fears are constantly stoked by cooperative news media. Along with serving the government’s interest they cater to citizens’ appetites for bad news.
Whenever a society enters decline its people naturally tend to engage in the socio-psychological game of “Ain’t it awful?” Each bit of bad news is hyped by the media, and then gullible ordinary folks hype it some more. This action generates still more news and exacerbates a vicious cycle.
Career politicians more interested in self service than in public service are sure to make noises about each tidbit. They will do something aimed at the appearance of constructive action and harvest the resulting votes.
But the reality for them is this little thing is no problem for the elite class. There is also the risk that the riffraff might get uppity, so nothing effective will be done and the rabble will remain well and desirably panic-stricken.
These rich rascals truly believe they can fool all of the troops all of the time. The grim fact is they have been getting away with it for decades.
There is no end to examples: E. coli, H1N1, salmonella, fires, floods, hurricanes, mugging, robbery, murder, rape, kidnapping, drought, child abuse, etc. There is some truth to all this concerning both categories of menace, foreign and domestic.
But the kicker lies in people’s blind faith in government as the solver of all problems. “Good grief; ain’t it awful? The government must do something.”
This response has gradually become a knee-jerk reaction. This is blind dependency when what should be emphasized among citizens is skepticism of government and exposing its hidden agenda.
Maybe all is not lost. Recently there have been a few faint signs of the news media beginning to think along with their customers. The tide may be turning.
PG8 says give the market a chance. Here we say give reason a chance.