The Two Psychologies

Psychiatry, Behaviorism and the Psychology of Evil & The Psychology of Light///

Wardens///

The beginnings of psychiatry were rooted in the social need to deal with fringe characters, and the earliest nut-houses existed more for the convenience of society than the “cure” of the patients. Nothing much has changed, except that the sale of pharmaceutical drugs has become big business and now plays a large factor in controlling not just the obvious mental patients, but even normal people.

The authoritative role of the psychiatrist has nothing to do with his expertise as a mind doctor; it has to do with his role as one of society’s wardens.

While looking after those imprisoned inconvenient characters, the early psychiatrist had an opportunity for study and experiment.

The social convenience of the majority; and the natural curiosity and experimental inquisitiveness of the budding psychiatrist may be taken as the basic givens of the profession. Undoubtedly some psychiatrists brought a benign and humane disposition to the mix, but the primary motive was always the social convenience of the majority.

Naming

Naming was one of the first functions of Adam. A name defines the place of a thing or person within the economy of the whole and influences the way in which we behave toward the person or thing named. If one is described as “mentally ill”, one can be confined as a matter of course. Labelled XYZ, one gets the drug prescribed for XYZ. Naming leads to treatment. Naming can also legitimize abuse.

The "naming" of the victims of crimes in cases of ethnic cleansing, colonial oppression and rape by the perpetrators of the crimes has a correspondence in psychiatric "diagnosis" or naming. The latter word may be more appropriate when no actual science is involved and no understanding of the case underlies the affixing of a label to the patient/victim.

In medicine where there is no certain diagnosis, there is testing. A provisional diagnosis may lead to certain tests, or even to certain treatment. Medication is often offered in this provisional or experimental fashion. Does the drug work? The answer, of course, depends on the criteria of success. If the patient is sedated and less of nuisance than formerly, this might be viewed as a successful outcome, from the point of view of social convenience. If the sale and use of the drug affords profit to some, it may be said to be good business. But this has nothing to do with the well-being of the patient.

Name-calling should not be taken so seriously.

In fact the psychiatric concepts of "normalcy" and "deviance" are merely social concepts, relative to an existing social system. During the Cold War, dissidents in Communist countries were frequently housed in psychiatric facilities; so, in the west, were women who wanted the vote, before the shifting social "norms" made this achievable. In still earlier times witches were burned by those then functioning as the wardens of society.

Lacking in psychiatry is a positive concept of mental, psychic and spiritual health. There is evidently no time to look into these abstruse matters. Since diagnoses are wanted at the speed of business, those must be found who are willing to pronounce verdicts without the benefit of understanding.

Whatever deviates from "normalcy" may be stigmatized in a conformist society; it makes no difference what the standard of conformity may be. Such a standard is indistinguishable from prejudice; a concept of "normalcy" that is statistically related to current prejudices has no intrinsic significance and cannot be taken seriously.

Behaviorism

The basic problems of behaviorism can be expressed simply. First, the principle of the will is disregarded. This means that the subject of this science is not man but something less than man: man minus his most important principle, whatever such a creature might be called. Second, the difficulty in making predictions about the actual man is based precisely on the fact that a man is in fact endowed with free will. The wish of behaviorists to remove this "difficulty" so as to be able to make predictions is based not on any necessity of psychology but on the convenience for study of the pseudo-man studied by behaviorists.

As in psychiatry, the problem is the lack of a positive concept of man. Both psychiatrists and behaviorists are sadly invested not in understanding the human being, but in understanding (and controlling) something less than human.

The limitations of behaviorism might not be pernicious, were the discoveries of behaviorists incorporated into a larger view of psychology, but this is rarely the case. The social eagerness to manipulate and control becomes a predominant motive. The result is an effort to "contain" the free spirit of man that is contrary to evolution.

Evolution of Consciousness

In fact the concept of evolution seems to be missing from the language of contemporary psychologists, who assume that evolution is a merely physical concept, and that modern man is a result, the end-product.

In fact is it more useful to assume that evolution is a continuing process, that the evolution of concern to man is primarily psychological and spiritual, and that the whole meaning of life is tied up with the way in which an individual human being understands this. The same may be posited of society as a whole.

The concept of "normalcy" refers to a statistical average and says nothing about whether the "normal" is good, bad or indifferent. It is merely a statement of social relativity. The concept of psychological health, by contrast, requires a consideration of individual factors, such as evolutionary status, and appropriate self-determined goals, which go beyond the over-emphasized vocational training and the "fitting in" that has become "normal" only because materialistic degeneracy has become fashionable.

There are two sad results of prevailing trends. One is that modern psychology serves a repressive function related to the strong social desires for conformity. The other is that the higher function and possibility of psychology, serving the liberation of man, is under-utilized.

Medicalization in psychiatry and behavior-management both have negative consequences, in that they attempt to solve "problems" based on a misunderstanding of their nature. The over-reliance on pharmaceutical drugs, in the one case, is based on a primitive interpretation of the "human" as a sum of chemicals; over-management in the other is based the desires of the managers, rather the potential of a living soul. In both case the higher evolutionary prospect is disregarded and may even be thwarted or subverted.

Anxiety, for example, may be an indication of an evolutionary threshold involving a challenge to expand. The anxiety is not itself a problem in any real sense. Medicalization may take away the symptom, but the result will simply be to defer the real opportunity. This is not a solution but a setback.

Although greed has been normalized, it is still a pernicious factor in the social life of the human race.

A sickly social stew arises out of the combination of these makeshift ideas. Monopoly capital, inability to unleash the higher creativity of the soul, and the growing control of forces of conformity and repression, produce ultimately destructive explosions. Apart from obvious terrorism, there are manifold forms of social violence, including the excessive readiness of fundamentally unhappy people to go to war without adequate reasons.

If psychologists were really performing a service, instead of simply buttressing the status quo, they would be adamant about the necessity for the creation of a Department of Peace. There is little interest in this, however. Perhaps there is no money in it.

Social Engineers

The psychiatrists and behaviorists may be limited in their thinking, but at least they are mostly decent, well-meaning people. Many others, who like the behaviorist idea of molding society and use it for their own purposes, are less benign. These include the many social engineers with an agenda. It is now difficult to find unbiased information about any subject, since purveyors of information all have their own agenda and all are trying to mold people according to some design.

The result is the abnormal and unhealthy intensification of political life. It is unhealthy because political ideas are not debated openly and honestly. The "debate" is underhanded and process-oriented. The open debate is a fraud. The real contest is covert, subversive and disguised. Political activists these days like to think of themselves as secret agents.

Creativity is about shaping the material world, but it is not about shaping other people. If we have respect for people, we allow that it is in their interest to shape themselves and their own lives. We may offer ideas or other assistance, but we do not deny to others their basic freedom.

The psychology of light is educative, not manipulative. This manipulative psychology, whether it is called behaviorism, psychiatry or politics, belongs to a lower sphere of activity, in which persons are treated as if they were not fully human. They are regarded as machines to be programmed, targets to be destroyed, or collateral damage.

The War against the People

The tendency of people in all walks of life to engage in social engineering may be ugly and unwholesome, but at least the activities of such people are fairly transparent and are subject to the normal checks and balances. However, there are also operations that remain wholly covert and without significant check.

As long as an operation remains covert, we can know nothing about it. We can comment on an operation only as it becomes public, at least to a degree. All covert operations place the people at a distance from their own government. It is said that such operations are a military necessity. That may sometimes be the case, but there may also be reasons for secrecy that have nothing to do with national security. The idea that secrecy is necessary for the "national security" may be only a cover story. In the absence of transparency, it is impossible for the people, or even, at times, their representatives, to discover the facts of a given case.

This is cause for concern, especially when the details of some covert operations become apparent and we discover how far removed they were or are from serving any national security interest. This is particularly true of the Targeted Individuals program.

The Targeted Individuals Program

The latter program demonstrates a willingness to institute the most brutal police state practices with the aid of the latest refined technologies, which facilitate both the covert nature of the project and the subsequent ignoring of outstanding abuses of human rights.

The expansion of the program in the past two decades suggests that there is an intention to employ this or a similar set-up to police or govern the people of the USA completely outside the framework of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Anyone familiar with the program will testify that it is the embodiment of pure evil. It is everything that Americans find appalling in the images of Nazi terrorism brought to a refined perfection by the same mentality. It is an attempt to institute the psychology of control without check, without debate, without even the knowledge of those who will be subject to the system under development.

The expansion of covert activities proceeds in tandem with the loss of privacy. In the TI program, in which this dual development finds its extreme embodiment, it is evident what this means. It means the "police" or private groups made "invisible" by possession of the TI technology are relieved of all the burdens of moral restraint or adherence to law. It means that the target person loses all privacy and all rights as a citizen or even as a human being. Since the target person may be anybody, the situation arises in which all laws and moral restraints are replaced by the whim of those in the place of power.

Male “Hysteria” and the Doctrine of Overwhelming Superiority

The development of “scientific” psychology has been stunted owing to many unexamined prejudices rooted in patriarchal materialism. For example, “hysteria” in women was widely recognized. The male counterpart was invisible. Yet the entire preoccupation with warfare (disguised as defense) may be attributed to paranoid over-reaction (augmented today by data collection).

After spending hundreds of billions of dollars on data collection, the main result is the revelation of the intelligence problem with which the effort began.

War has other motives as well, but these are typically disavowed when an effort is made to obtain the endorsement of war mobilization from the people. Greed, for example, has been a huge factor and is especially so today when so much money is involved in the military-industrial complex. Peace is no doubt the greatest threat to the parasites who feed at the trough of the “defense” budget. Greed itself may only be another type of fear, namely, a fear of not having enough, based on a poverty-consciousness or imagination of scarcity.

Paranoia itself may be rooted in genuine perceptions, and it is probably a mistake to tell the paranoid person he has “nothing” to be afraid of. The problem is to place the fear in context and proportion to the reality.

The movement from fear to aggression can be swift. Generally, the difference is based on the assessment of the odds. If the odds are overwhelmingly on our side (or we imagine them to be so), we are all in favor of war. If we imagine that the odds are against us, or that there is alarming possibility of our being hurt, we are more disposed to avoid an encounter.

Needless to say, there is nothing at all noble about such emotions or the actions they sponsor. This is not to say there is no such thing as valor. But heroism is rare, whereas the common motives are not.

As female “hysterics” have been said to act sick or imitate sickness, so male “hysterics” act out, but in a different manner. The male “hysteric” acts strong. If he were actually strong, he would not have to act, just as someone truly sick does not have to act sick. Women, unable to have much influence in the external world, manifested somatic symptoms through their own bodies. Their male counterparts, acting socially, have manifested their symptoms on the social body.

Just as women learned to win the reward of attention or protection by acting sick and producing the symptoms of actual sickness, men, similarly striving for attention and rewards, learned to produce a facsimile of masculine strength and toughness.

Since men also controlled the language of psychology and social intercourse, male “hysteria” was never recognized. It was, after all, normal.

In both male and female “hysteria” emotions are expressed in a somatic language. This is seen today in the bloated military budget and in the aggressive language used in the historically male provinces of business and in politics. Even women entering these fields typically adopt male mannerisms, since people do not know what a woman's sensitivity might mean in political terms, or in the management of a business. Whether this is a lost knowledge or one that has never been found is unclear.

In a more personal sense male “hysteria” is manifested in the controlling behavior with which men have often attempted to get a handle on their wives and girlfriends. Such “hysteria” is often disguised with logic and references to reasons that sound plausible but in fact have nothing to do with the issue at hand; as long as the attempt to "control" has a chance of success, the male “hysteric” may be quite cool, but as soon as he is thwarted he flies into a rage and may resort to violence.

In women the traditional symptoms of “hysteria” have been more mysterious only because more direct expression was denied them. To get away from gender stereotypes, we may categorize “hysteria” as extroverted (male “hysteria”) or introverted (the familiar female “hysteria”).

Social Hypochondria and Exaggeration

Malingering and hypochondria today assume a social form. They underlie and are supported by the vast health-care system. Many profit from the inordinate pre-occupation of everyone with his or her inevitably declining health, and the general desire for a postponement of death.

Since it is profitable to exaggerate a need, exaggeration is learned in business class. The social effect is the opposite of temperance or stoicism, the virtues of ancient times.

As those who profit from the defense business have a vested interest in exaggerating the external dangers faced by the nation; as those in the health business have a vested interest in exaggerating our reliance upon doctors and drugs; the news media have a vested interest in exaggerating a snowstorm. The drama is riveting. Is it a nuclear war? No, it's only two inches of white stuff.

Clearly, these are co-dependent relationships. Normally we think of co-dependence as the problem of two individuals, but it can also exist in the relation between two groups, as, for example, between the group of male “hysterics” pushing security and the sheep-like general populace, hoping to be protected or at least left alone to graze. Today it is absurd to be concerned with this or that individual. The great problems are social, not individual.

Media pre-occupation with individuals, like the obsession with Trump, distracts from and veils the real problems, which remain largely unconsidered.

To return to the Targeted Individuals mentioned before, the problem lies not with the individuals targeted but with clandestine social machinery that has become so poisonous as to embark upon a program reminiscent of the worst Nazi horrors, placing a star upon designated American citizens.

How does this come about? It follows basically from the psychopathology of the militarists, in conjunction with the sheep.

As a nation of extremes, America is becoming absurd. The external enemy has no need to come after us. We are following the path of our own self-destruction; like a child with a suicide belt who has been told he is wearing a safety belt.

Immunization

Given the advances in the use of the dark psychology, there needs to be more general educational programs in resistance to indoctrination, external programming and manipulation. In short, there must be an education in freedom.

If people are the gullible victims of fake news, this is not entirely the fault of those who spread fake news. It means the people who are “taken in” have not been properly educated. They were taken in because they were gullible and had no defenses or immunity. Immunization is a side-effect of an education for freedom.

Our information networks are generally contaminated and cannot be simply trusted. This means everyone who uses them must be capable of filtering out the false, the fake, the exaggerated, the biased, and propaganda generally.

Disinformation is a weapon used by anyone who takes a “military” view of things, and today this includes businesses, news media, political parties, and possibly even one’s own mother and father.

Trust is something that must be earned. There is little reason today for people to trust governments, companies or news media.

Restoration of Public Trust

Since individuals within our intelligence organizations and government have made such ample use of plausible denial, the presumption of the probable guilt of members of these organizations, and the untrustworthiness of statements made by members of our government, is the natural result. To restore trust, transparency is essential. All current operations must be brought into the light of day. Funding for intelligence organizations must be contingent upon the housecleaning that is so necessary. Noxious programs must be dissolved.

A Problem of Discrimination

Psychic phenomena can now be mimicked by technology. This creates a new problem of discrimination.

Psychic phenomena have long posed a problem for science. In the nineteenth century H. P. Blavatsky documented the efforts to validate or discredit spiritualistic phenomena in her classic Isis Unveiled (1877). In general there are both real phenomena* and fraudulent cases; there are also cases of real phenomena that are misunderstood. Now we must add a new category: phenomena produced technologically that mimic genuine psychic phenomena.

Take the instance of "channeled writings." Do these writings in fact originate in any mind other than the author's? This is the first question asked. Again, we would assert that both possibilities exist; that such writings may be simply a download from the individual writer's own (unacknowledged) self; but that they may also be the result of an actual spiritual telepathic contact. Now we must consider a third possibility: electronic technologies can be used to project voices and/or thoughts. It is not necessary for an individual to understand the source of such a communication to serve as a faithful recorder. Thus the human recorder may not interpret the phenomena correctly and may make false assumptions about the source. If the source wishes to be deceptive, and if the recorder is disposed to be deceived, then deception is easy.

In fact the new technologies greatly augment the powers of deception in society and create a corresponding need for the education of citizens in discrimination and cautious judgment. In this effort scientism and fake rationality are not much help. To deny the existence of subtle phenomena on the basis of one's ignorance while calling this same ignorance "science" and offering "explanations" that merely confuse the issue is the apotheosis of prejudice. It is also notably unscientific; even a serious journalist does not behave in this manner.

The worst instance of this ignorant scientism is found in the skepticism related to the Targeted Individuals program, and to the failure of psychiatrists and journalists, as well as laymen, to acknowledge that covert electronic technologies are being used in systematic attacks on ordinary American citizens. The same citizens are used as guinea pigs in non-consensual experiments that endanger the health and well-being of the subjects.

The new covertly developed technologies make possible invasive 24 hour surveillance through mind-reading, auditory harassment through the projection of sound, either live or recorded, and the subjection of those targeted to an array of non-lethal weapons (which may also become lethal weapons). The total package is a multi-purpose system that provides for continuous unlimited surveillance, interrogation, harassment and/or torture, as well as multi-pronged experimentation.

The fact that this system or a variant of it has been in operation for decades and remains unknown to the general public is ominous for the continuation of our constitutional republic, since it suggests: 1) the existence of an empowered police state mentality that has thorough contempt for law, morality and human rights; 2) the ability of this mentality to operate covertly and thereby avoid either the need for public sanction or the possibility of checks; and 3) the ineffectuality, complacency or complicity of those forces that should be in the vanguard of a resistance: the domestic police forces, the representatives of the people, the major media and the health profession, particularly the psychiatric profession.

It should be noted in relation to the failure of the latter that the technological system as described above mimics (in those who are attacked) those symptoms described in diagnostic manuals as paranoid schizophrenia. This is obviously a deliberate effort to discredit those who are targeted, thus further isolating them, so that they may be used and abused with impunity. Most psychiatric professionals are merely dupes of the system, and are only guilty of incompetence; some (who may be regarded as extreme perverts) have knowingly contributed their expertise to the creation of the system.

__________

* The Nature of Personal Reality (1974) by Jane Roberts is an excellent example of quality work by a spiritual medium.

The Ends Served

Another problem for science lies in the distinction between pure and applied science. The "pure" scientist who offers his research for ends that are unknown (to the scientist) has some resemblance to an intellectual prostitute. This is especially evident when the "ends" turn out to be quite sordid; as has been the case, for example, for research that has facilitated non-consensual human experimentation conducted in the form of "covert" operations. The monkey sees, hears and speaks no evil.

In fact the "ends" of those in charge of covert operations and other large business and government programs need to be questioned and examined by those with greater intelligence and conscience; and who might this be if the scientists excuse themselves at the outset? Legislators and judges similarly cede to immoral and criminal entities the ultimate decision regarding the validity of the ends served by a covert operation. What do these legislators and judges know about such operations? Only what they are told; in short, what those conducting these operations want them to know or believe. The basis for a true decision on the part of those charged with oversight is therefore lacking. This results in merely nominal (essentially fake) oversight and failure to distinguish between legitimate national security efforts and the use of the words "national security" as a cloaking device for activities that do not serve the national security interest and frequently are counter-productive to the national security interest.

Congressional Investigations

Congressional investigations into the perverted and corrupt practices that have become standard operating procedure for intelligence organizations have typically faced a stone wall of essential non-cooperation or have been carried out in the manner of a charade. If real investigations are to be conducted, funding for intelligence organizations must be drastically reduced, held up or withheld altogether pending dramatic evidence of their cooperation with the civilian government in dissolving all programs that serve no legitimate national security interest. This will provide these organizations with the necessary incentive to participate in their own overhaul.

The Psychology of Evil

The evolution of consciousness is defined according to an existing matrix.

Humanity is from the first breath bound to a matrix of limitation. Release from bondage, however this is defined, is fundamental to the evolution of humanity and the evolution of world civilization.

How this matrix of limitation is defined and understood is a basic conditioning factor in the psychological life of mankind. Interpretations that facilitate human liberation may be called spiritual; interpretations that “muddy the water” and solidify the condition of bondage, are the reverse of spiritual.

In the process of experimentation, in trial and error, man may move in the path of his own liberation or in a reverse path. Retrograde experience is not evil, since it is simply the manner in which man acquires an understanding of the nature of his problem.

Duality exists to present to man the opportunity of choice with the full understanding of what he is choosing. The choice is a key to the divine experiment of human life on earth. Any attempt to robotize the human race, to produce conformity with a social pattern, while by-passing the free will of man, is fundamentally evil.

The preference of free men for capitalism over communism had to do strictly with the greater opportunity offered to the free spirit of man by the nations organized according to the capitalist economic model.

This was, however, only a preference for one system over another at a given historical period. It did not constitute an unlimited endorsement of capitalism, under any imaginable development. With the collapse of the communist model, we witness a unipolar world in which capitalist economies, now virtually all nations, are increasingly subject to the deforming characteristics of monopoly capitalism.

Nation states are alike in facing the problems of increasing disparity, which have their apotheosis in the concentration of power. The concentration of power is economic, political, scientific and military in every "great" nation and extends not only the resources of the world, but also, increasingly, to the access to information, and to the power to shape what the people are allowed to know or believe or hear about.

The concentration of power is also present in small nations. One may read, for example, the story of Tek Nath Rizal, who describes the exercise of power in Bhutan. Such horrors illustrate the evil of power without honor or responsibility, and we in the USA and other "advanced" nations like to believe that we are beyond such extremes. In fact we have more to worry about, for three reasons:

1) In the "great" nations and especially in the USA the concentration of power is at its greatest;

2) The real facts relating to the development and deployment of power have become more and more opaque over the recent decades;

3) The disposition to use power for purely evil purposes may be noted by anyone who takes the trouble to look at the basic facts.

The exponents of the evil psychology have in mind a reverse evolution or a dark age for man that includes the revival of slavery, the creation of weapons for systematic genocide, and the creation of those social structures that will tolerate or actively assist these retrograde efforts.

The smiley face of the new fascism is a form of camouflage that indicates the next (open) phase is not yet prepared and may still be opposed by the active resistance of the public. There are obviously many people of good will in the USA who are absolutely opposed to efforts along the lines indicated. For this reason they are kept in the dark as much as possible. If they cannot be kept in the dark, they are marginalized or erased, if possible. This is made possible through the extensive use of "covert actions" and the veil of "national security" along with an effective control of major media and major actors in the political drama.

Genocide and racial "cleansing" have been and are being today carried out more or less openly. Few people object, if they are not directly implicated.

To increase these dark possibilities there are today stealth technologies that permit similar processes and results without even a visible trace of the authorship of the actions taken.

The American Split Personality

Everyone is aware of the bi-polar nature of American politics, but it is time to look at this bi-polarity from a psychological perspective. If we do so, we may find in an intelligent social analysis of the peculiarly American problem a clue to the necessary policies and transformations, if America is to have a "great" or even a decent future.

First, we would emphasize the fact that there is a great deal of good will in America and a large majority of people who believe on some level in the American idealism; in contrast with this we have policies in place that are largely malefic. The discrepancy suggests the degree of democratic alienation. The processes of government have become so arcane, so opaque and impenetrable to the will of the ordinary voters that American democracy is seen to be increasingly a fraud. There is little real representation on serious issues.

This lack of real representation is largely attributable to the growth of secrecy at the heart of our "defense" establishment, and to the steady encroachment whereby an unelected and essentially criminal pseudo-elite control national policies. Not only "defense" policies, but economic policies and policies governing the control of information and education are increasingly determined by covert processes. Elections become a sideshow, the modern "circus" serving as little more than entertainment or distraction, and representation is a fraud. The major media are fully on board, making "issues" out of relative trivia while leaving the real stories uncovered.

This is not altogether the result of a diabolical plan. It is partly the result of stupidity and lack of interest. It is partly the result of minor corruption coming to the aid of major corruption. Although the blame could be distributed widely if an accounting were to be made, contemporary finger-pointing and scapegoating merely serve to distract from the fact that the problem has a systematic character.

Psychologically, a split personality is first of all a problem of consciousness. The American national problem must also be seen in this light. Americans are unable to see themselves as Americans; part of the reason is their identification with a party interest over and above the whole. An unwholesome specialization of interest is added to the limitation of party identification. If our policies are carried out covertly, how can the public feel any responsibility?

If the CIA decides to replace an elected leader in another country with someone considered (by whom?) more suitable, the electorate naturally feels no responsibility, having had no part in the determinative events, and having, even after the fact, no knowledge of them. If, later, the citizens of that country are aroused in hatred of America, Americans are naively baffled by this outbreak of hatred. They feel innocent and aggrieved. If someone accuses the CIA, it is sufficient to deny the facts and keep them out of the mainstream news (and therefore out of the consciousness of most Americans).

In all this, different players and parties are playing different roles. In most cases they are not even acting in concert. The result, viewed from outside (from a foreign country), may be a perception of American hypocrisy and duplicity. But within America itself this simple self-recognition is lacking.

This is a psychological problem verging on mental illness. The consequences for political and economic policy and for the practical affairs of life, is bound to be dire.

Representative Government

The presumption of democracy or representative government is that the people determine the nature of government, and that the government policies are then determined by the people through their representatives. The reversal of this democratic pattern is the shaping of the public by the government to suit those temporarily in power. This shaping always has the tendency of keeping in power the same people and the same thinking, even when that thinking has become stagnant and retrogressive, or contrary to the interest of the public or the will of the people.

When "freedom" was pitted against the totalitarian powers, the choice was an easy one, because the issues were at least fairly transparent. The situation is different today. In the new world every nation, or at least each of the "great" powers, pretends to be a democracy respecting human rights while secretly pursuing policies of a totalitarian character. This is made possible by a heavy reliance on covert actions and dirty tricks. In this respect there is little difference between Putin's Russia, Bhutan under a corrupt king and Trump's America, between the KGB, the CIA or the local police thugs in the Philippines. Nationalistic rancor is merely the entertainment that disguises the basic pattern of dominance and repression, which is increasingly the same everywhere. In this world no one can believe the statements of their own leaders, for the Lie has become a staple.

The underlying reasons for disturbing changes in the pattern of life of the western democracies are not hard to find. Advancing disparity and concentration of power produce desires, needs and values in the owners and possessors of power that are completely at odds with the desires, values and needs of those who possess nothing but the bare fact of their citizenship.

The mere fact of this citizenship, in so far as it is associated with ideas of democracy, representation, human rights and checks and balances, ultimately becomes dangerous to the possessors of power; if taken seriously, it limits and even threatens that power. The growing concentration of power is therefore matched by steady erosion in the basic rights of citizens, and the gradual disempowerment of individual citizens, in favor of property owners. Further, conscious recognition of this fundamental change is masked by the hypocritical pretense that it is not taking place.

The condition of representative government is that the people shape their own government. The newly developing condition is the opposite: the government shapes the people according to the type desired for whatever purposes are established by the government or by those with the power to influence or play a role in the government. We are already familiar with this pattern, because it is the pattern of the totalitarian governments with which the USA and her allies fought during and after WW II.

The change has not been sudden or even conscious. It has been a gradual or incremental development, akin to the gradual corruption of an individual personality over a lengthy period of time. The newly emerging totalitarianism is even more dangerous than that manifested during the earlier era, because it is facilitated by sophisticated technologies, and many of its operations are wholly unknown to the citizens. This lack of recognition or understanding is a major element in the disenfranchisement of the majority, who are trained to accept their ignorance as normal and leave the serious matters to the experts.

Progress and Retrogression

We emphasized earlier the evolution of consciousness. This evolution, historically, has taken certain principal forms, including mass education, representative government and the universal recognition of human rights, which have expressed the highest achievement of the advanced nations. Prosperity, when based on positive values and not mere conquest or theft, has been based on a judicious mix of capitalist incentives and social considerations, helped sometimes by fortuitous natural conditions. With the end of the Cold War there was hope for a peace dividend. For a time the prospect of producing global prosperity did not seem so far-fetched. Currently the world is in a retrograde cycle.

It is obvious that representative government is inseparable from the education of the people. If they are uninformed or kept in the dark, they are also effectively disenfranchised and disempowered. Without power they cannot uphold even their basic human rights or defend those of others. The psychology of light is intimately related to the education of the people; it is related to the demand for representative government and for transparency and accountability in government; and it is supportive of universal human rights, irrespective of race, class, gender or national government.

The psychology of darkness or evil is identifiable as precisely that which opposes all of these objectives.

Repressive Forms of Government

Repressive forms of government exist to maintain or advance the power and privilege of a dominant class or party. This is first of all a local or national situation, but it is also one that is exported into the international arena when a nation based on such a power structure becomes powerful enough to impose its will on less powerful nations.

The relation of the USA to Latin America, for example, has been one of repressive dominance. The foreign policy of the USA has consistently blocked progressive movements in its southern neighbors and supported the indigenous forces of repression, who have in turn provided benefits to American entities.

This repressive foreign policy has been in effect even when domestic policies in the USA have been more favorable to justice and human rights.

One reason for such a relationship is the relative lack of interest of the majority of Americans in the foreign policy compared to domestic policies. This lack of interest allows a small group to control the foreign policy. Additionally, there may be indirect benefits accruing from domination and repression that are enjoyed without qualms of conscience, since ignorance is bliss.

We must emphasize over and over that just and universally progressive policies require a clear-eyed understanding of existing relationships. This is impossible when propaganda is accepted as a substitute for truth. It makes no difference where the propaganda comes from; whether it comes from the left or the right, from a foreign country or from one's own country. If it distorts the understanding of reality, it will also affect the formation of policies in a retrogressive manner.

Worse than propaganda and spinning are secrecy and covert actions as norms of operation by government funded agencies. This practice renders these agencies and those active within them unaccountable. Under these conditions one must expect the culture of corruption, which is universally associated with the concentration of power, to reach unparalleled heights.

Repressive regimes are free to be repressive because there is no accountability and no system of checks and balances. This is the case even when such regimes are fairly transparent, as is the case in the Philippines, where the Duterte regime is made up of obvious thugs and murderers. Thuggery that is made invisible through an apparatus of secret prisons, sophisticated electromagnetic technologies, and complacent media may be glossed over by effective PR, but the problem is actually magnified. This deceptive sophistication permits odious crimes to remain invisible as well as unpunished.

Transparency

Advocates of secrecy and covert actions oppose transparency generally on grounds of national security. However, this is not sufficient justification. The conclusion that a given program or action serves the national security is based, at best, on an interpretive analysis that reflects a political bias. At worse, such a conclusion is the means whereby a corrupt agency or individual protects a private fiefdom from interference by outsiders, i.e., other citizens and their representatives.

At the very least the advocates of covert actions and programs have the responsibility to dissolve programs of a pernicious and obscene character that violate every human norm. If they cannot do so; if, in short, they cannot police themselves, there is absolutely no reason to trust them or to absolve them from public scrutiny.

“National security" and military spending account for the single greatest government expenditure, yet there is only a minimal scrutiny or questioning of ongoing and proposed operations. You can be sure that when there is a "government" shut-down, we do not begin to close our expensive bases or cancel new contracts with the defense industry.

In addition to allowing corruption on a titanic scale, the lack of oversight provides a convenient cover for incompetence and inefficiency.

The Iraq debacle following the gratuitous invasion of 2003 was said to have originated in an intelligence failure. If so, why were the agencies involved not reduced in status, as would be the case in the private sphere? The evidence of incompetence and corruption should result in de-funding and prosecution, as it does in the real world.

It is evident that many of our intelligence agencies have far too much money to play with, since it is wasted so lavishly, with such poor results for the trillions of dollars of expenditures. Even basic policies should be re-considered. It would be a shame to waste hundreds of billions of dollars every year merely out of inertia because no one could be bothered to do any real thinking.

National Security

The concept of national security begins with the concept of the nation. If we know what the nation is, we can draw some conclusions about what dangers the nation faces, and how the nation can be guarded against those dangers.

In fact there is wide disagreement about the very definition of our nation, as is evident from the intense polarization in the nation’s political life. These means also that people will have widely different ideas about how and from what the nation is to be protected.

Clearly, neither the FBI, nor the CIA, nor the NSA, nor the local police department, nor the armed forces, should serve a partisan interest. Likewise, it is absurd to consider such facets of the national life on the basis of the employment they provide, or the lucrative contracts involved, as if our nation’s foreign policy were to be held hostage to the desire of weapon makers for arms sales.

In the event of a genuine disarmament, it would be reasonable to give consideration to the economic consequences for the many soldiers moving into civilian life and the many workers who would, in consequence, face unemployment; and to provide alternative opportunities; but it is not reasonable to maintain foreign policy positions that have in their motivation the aggrandizement of arms makers or the maintenance of a military status quo, for economic reasons.

The Loss of Civility

Along with the acceptance of torture and the decline of civil rights under the more recent interpretations of the security state, we witness a general decline of civility. Suspicion has become a major ingredient of police work. After the long years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan many returning soldiers have entered local police forces or acquired positions in the security infrastructure. They have become used to the idea that the enemy might any moment appear in the guise of civilians. As a result citizens have become suspects.

The major media have become gossip columns, filled with accusations, which are treated as if they were convictions. The principle of innocence until proven guilty is replaced by the principle of guilty until proven innocent. We hear that someone is being investigated, and we are supposed to assume the worst. Smear campaigns take the place of an honest debate of issues and problems.

Given the rancorous division of the two parties, each side treats the other as if they were enemies of the state. A third group despises both major parties and assumes that corruption is the universal characteristic of those in power.

These are all examples of a national disintegration. Compared with the emergence of the USA after WW II as the supreme world power, we may ask how this sad situation has come about.

First, WW II was a national effort and in its aftermath the strong habit of acting in concert restrained partisan interests. Second, there was less economic disparity, as well as a better balance of capitalist incentives and social safety net, which had the effect of contributing to a strong sense of national unity. In the aftermath of depression and world war, there was less greed and outlandish extremism, and a great deal more common sense. Existing problems, such as the civil rights of black and other minorities, were openly faced.

Today we have a professional army. This is what everyone wanted, but some of the consequences have not been good. In the earlier day war was the business of every American and not, therefore, something to be entered lightmindedly. Today this is not the case, and many people feel that our modern wars are merely the wars of special interests, which do not evoke a real national engagement.

We are a nation in danger of fracturing into splinters. This too is a national security problem, but it cannot be solved by entering into another arbitrary war or by increasing the police state methodologies that have already gone too far. Nor can it be solved easily by new legislation, since it is a spiritual problem.

As the breakdown of civil life is further extended into the institutions of our nation, the politicization of the FBI has become a matter of public debate.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact all of our institutions are heavily politicized and none more so than those connected with "national security." At its worst, this results in the growth of an "elite" criminal class that threatens the subversion of our constitutional republic and its eventual replacement with a full-blown police state. For the individuals and groups involved, the assertion of "national security" is simply the means to usurp the apparatus of government to pursue a partisan or private agenda, as "national security" is interpreted to mean whatever serves to aggrandize, protect or immunize this criminal class.

This is easy to do, since there is little transparency and little supervision of entities entrusted with great power; who are, moreover, raised above the law. The result is a complete absence of the proper checks to excessive power provided by the Constitution.

Light and Darkness

In general, while the psychology of light emphasizes the autonomy of the individual and the individual's capacity for self-determination, the psychology of darkness would control and shape people externally through the various extraneous technologies and control mechanisms. These include brute force, torture and the application of pressure in one form or another, including in recent decades the latest electromagnetic technologies, which act from a distance and may remain unnoticeable, except to those targeted.

The latter remain unknown to the general public as their use is covert. The ignorance of the public regarding these new technologies greatly increases the general vulnerability. These technologies are weapons that are being used against ordinary citizens. They are not being used to fight criminals or to protect the nation against terrorists. They are being used on an experimental basis to achieve the capability of a totalitarian social control through the effective elimination of democratic processes, by-passing both the Constitution and the human rights agenda shared by all normal human beings.

The belief that this type of operation is related to a legitimate national security effort is fantasy. Unfortunately, a fantasy world is actively fostered by a disinformation campaign emanating from the same source, since an informed citizenry would be relatively immunized against the abusive use of these technologies.

Disinformation is another weapon of the dark psychology, as the ignorance of those to be controlled makes control and subordination easier. Where the psychology of light fosters education and liberation, the psychology of darkness lays the emphasis on indoctrination. Not the truth is important, but the agenda of the controllers.

This is why we stress the need for transparency in all national security and police operations. The abuses made possible by covert actions and secrecy far outweigh any conceivable benefits. Secrecy becomes a cloak for incompetence and corruption. The "benefits" are found to be of a strictly partisan or private nature, or imaginary.

Organized Bullying

Today the world has far less to fear from the "terrorism" of malcontents than from organized bullying and intimidation. The latter emanates from the centers of established power.

Power can be good or evil, depending on why and how it is used, and for what cause. When it is used in excess, when it serves the cause of darkness, when it subverts justice and fosters abuse and crime, then it is an evil use of power. This is a simple definition that anyone with common sense will understand.

Everyone understands that a malcontent exploding a bomb in an innocent crowd is a terrorist. Reasonable actions should be taken to stop such actions. This includes not only police measures but honest efforts to consider the root causes of such events. Often the evil impulse that finds such expression has its genesis in acts of bullying or injustice. If an individual or group suffers injustice or humiliation, the aggrieved party may nurture hatred; this hatred will express itself one way or another, and the expression will usually be negative (akin to the cause). The bomb event is simply an especially dramatic and noticeable consequence of the unfortunate process in which negativity germinates.

Our main concern should be with the centers of power that have the maximum capacity to set in motion the process that culminates in evil consequences.

In the last analysis both government and economic power are subject to the will of the people who tolerate, support or advocate existing systems. If those systems are abusive and unjust, the people are responsible. This is an interpretation of "democracy" that places the responsibility for the actions of the existing centers of power with the people. This does not refer simply to voting. Elections can camouflage essentially undemocratic systems of governance. Conversely, a decently administered government may reflect the will of the people even if there are no direct elections. The important thing is not the form of the government; the important thing is the honest effort of those temporarily entrusted with power to act with justice and to benefit the people of a nation, or of the world, taken as a whole,

As there is no perfect system or model in the world today, we must accept that there may be alternative approaches to governance, depending on the individual circumstances or traditions of a nation or community. We stress only some basic points, since they underlie both individual development and the development of communities.

The main problem today is the excessive concentration of power, which leads to various forms of oppression, injustice and exploitation. The defense of minorities and the global realization of standards of civilization, leading to the gradual abolition of the most atrocious practices, must be the global priority.

Toward this end there be must an increasing acceptance of some basic standards of humanity. Naturally, the so-called "great nations" could play a leading role. But this would require them to re-define "great" in ways that support global peace and prosperity.

This means ending the abusive use of power as a first principle. Every "great" nation claims that its power is only for defense, but this is an obvious lie that suggests that the adjective "great" is unwarranted. Hypocrisy and falsehood have nothing to do with greatness. When we see candor and transparency and good will in place of bluster and hypocrisy, we will have more reason to conclude that a nation is becoming great.

A "great" power is not afraid of insignificant enemies and has no need to threaten. A "great" power does not resort to bullying or petty, deceitful maneuvers. Machiavelli never had an opportunity to serve a great power. His small-mindedness was a symptom of the dark ages, not a model for the brighter future.

The Shapers

The vast majority of psychiatrists and behaviorists are not of an evil orientation. They mean well. But their knowledge of human psychology is limited to the outermost fringe of the whole man; they over-emphasize the importance of the brain and of the physical body, generally, and remain ignorant of the most important sources of human empowerment. Their thinking, rooted in the general bias of western materialism, is both a cause and an effect of that larger matrix of limitation. Their half-baked ideas, taken up by those with only half their intelligence, have been turned toward the shaping of society, and every government and business today functions on a behaviorist model in the effort to shape citizens or employees and make them conform to a standard that has been set by policy makers. This is done in the name of efficiency and even, sometimes, in the name of enlightenment, but its major effect is to inculcate a deadening conformity and paralyze the creative energies of mankind.

We have today so many programmers and indoctrinators, and so few educators. The intense desire to shape others and to make them conform to one's ideas reveals an inner poverty and a lack of respect for the human essence, leading to the desire to withhold information, to censor and spin the story so that the "correct" conclusion will be drawn. This is the beginning of violence. Truth itself is disrespected because the agenda is held to be more important.

Reliance upon disinformation campaigns, secrecy and covert operations has the effect of de-legitimizing a government. Statements emanating from a government that relies on fraud and hypocrisy are ultimately meaningless. Treaties are then equally meaningless. Relations between nations are poisoned at the root, since "the given word" has become null and void. As it is more controlled for the sake an agenda, the "news" is likewise increasingly worthless. Those gullible enough to be shaped by such information ultimately become the deformed children of their progenitors.

The Russia Investigation

It seems Russia meddled in the 2016 election. This is a matter of some concern, but it is difficult to assess, in so far as the whole story is not offered to the public. The story is released by our intelligence agencies through the major media which, in exchange, play the hypocritical game of concealing our own covert activities. This deprives the public of any context or ability to intelligently consider the issue. Indeed, the public is not intended to intelligently consider the issue. The public is intended to draw the conclusion desired by the managers of public opinion.

Although it is quite probable that Russia did meddle in the manner asserted, it is more alarming that Americans would be so stupid as to be easily swayed by fake or obviously biased news. Two conclusions are immediately possible: first, that more of an effort needs to be made to immunize the American public against indoctrination and manipulation through biased information, misinformation and disinformation; second, that we require transparency in our own government.

Transparency could lead to the public demand for a cessation of attacks on Russia carried out by American intelligence agencies, if such are or have been taking place, without public knowledge or consent. Whether or not there have been such attacks, the public has the right to know and to be informed. Without this information, there is no basis for any public opinion about Russian interference.

Additionally, we must be certain that there is no interference in domestic elections from our own intelligence agencies, a possibility far more concerning than that posed by foreign interference. Agencies that have acquired the habit of acting without check or boundaries can hardly be relied upon to keep a check on themselves.

Subversion and Hypocrisy

It will be evident to any thoughtful person that the capacity to shape public opinion through disinformation or through the withholding of key facts is essentially the subversion of democracy, since an uninformed or deliberately misinformed citizenry is deprived of the power of real choice and easily manipulated. It makes little essential difference whether this subversive power arises domestically or through a foreign power.

The ever enlarged domain of covert operations and secrecy makes democracy a sham. Powers never intended by the framers of the Constitution have been granted to the most unworthy of entities for purposes mistakenly regarded as in the national interest. A brief history of the known (in retrospect) actions carried out in the aftermath of WW II will suffice to make clear how ill the nation has been served by this cancerous growth.

Apart from the "known" covert operations are many that remain unknown. If the veil is lifted, what horrors will the public discover? The litany will unfold a long history of nonconsensual human experimentation and a disregard for human rights, demonstrated consistently both abroad and at home, while deniability, the friend of covert actions, has provided to hypocrites the opportunity to play at virtue like actors.

Pravda

The problem is compounded by the fact that there are many sources of misinformation. The technique most appealing to modern liars is the art of the selective and misleading focus or emphasis; since it is the most difficult to refute, it has become practically universal. Our news services are not exempt, since they are “fed” by those with an agenda. Often they are only too willing to ply an agenda, in return for the advantages that accompany their compliance, as in the cozy relation between the major media and our intelligence agencies.

This brings us to the Russia investigation and the problem facing the public which is trying to digest the “news”. If the news media, along with our own intelligence agencies, have acquired a reputation for misrepresentation, they cannot be trusted. How then can we know if they are actually telling the truth, or merely disseminating more disinformation, or biased information, as a cover for “classified” operations? Obviously we can never know; and so, equally obviously, we can never trust our own government or the major media which act, whenever prodded or required to do so, as the willing puppets of government disinformation.

There are still a few news sources that at least attempt to present the true facts, but these sources are frequently handicapped by a lack of resources. Who, after all, can compete with the heavily funded intelligence agencies of the USA or the major media?

Successful campaigns of organized lying do not contribute to the long term stability and welfare of the nation. They weaken the national credibility and sever the bond between the people and their government.

A Murky Business

Three types of threats to the nation arise through the absence of government transparency and oversight: 1) politicization; 2) corruption; and 3) incompetence.

Politicization in the spheres of national security, judicial appointments and enforcement of the laws is a fundamental threat to the nation, involving subversion at the root level of national purpose. The army, police, intelligence agencies and judiciary cannot serve a partisan agenda, without destroying the foundations of the nation. Actually, politicization is a subtle form of corruption. The agent of a political agenda believes himself to be a patriot and is often unaware that his pursuit of a partisan agenda while on duty is a dereliction of duty.

The army may be deployed for the wrong reasons, but at least the reasoning for a deployment is subject to debate and national scrutiny. In the case of covert operations there is no such debate and no such scrutiny. It is not enough to have a few individuals signing off on programs that substantially effect (and potentially subvert) the openly declared policies of the nation. When covert operations acquire significance in scope and are normalized as a culture, then a culture of corruption is created in tandem with the habits of secrecy. Covert operations are usually justified on the basis of military efficiency. But efficiency is related to a purpose. If there is no declared war, there can be little use for military style operations, without specific public approval.

As the sphere of covert operations has grown, together with sky-rocketing budgets, we can hardly be surprised to find that the richly rewarded participants find more and more need for their own services. There are so many feeding at the trough. In addition to massive arms procurement contracts, military bases, contracts and employment, and promises of contracts, there are secret experiments, government contracts for private institutions and scientists, access to secret information, and the expectation of consulting fees in the private world after one's government "service".

Is it any wonder that this whole world smells like an untended outhouse? Secrecy is what we have in place of disinfectant and deodorizer. When so many are rewarded merely for breathing and have such a huge stake in perpetuating the status quo, is it any wonder that it is virtually impossible to have a serious national debate about America's defense policy or foreign policy?

In addition to politicization and corruption are the honest mistakes that inevitably occur in any business activity. Honest mistakes can be corrected through the re-structuring that follows the exposure of weaknesses. In the covert world of national security and modern policing, however, those whose incompetence might be exposed shield themselves with "the need for secrecy" and, instead of becoming more efficient, ask for a bigger budget or extended powers.

Suspicion, Vigilantism, Lunacy

The fact that police work and national security measures are increasingly undertaken in relation to possible activities rather than actions already taken elevates expectation and suspicion into primary categories. Formerly these were secondary categories of marginal or speculative significance.

These categories of concern enormously increase the importance of the subjective or psychological element as this is related to the interpretation of events and relationships, bringing into expanded play the political persuasion of the interpreting agent as well as any personal bias.

At the very least this suggests the need for a more sophisticated psychological training of all police and national security personnel. Among the uniformed police in the cities the need for greater police sensitivity and better community relations is obvious. The need for this type of “higher” education in the Department of Defense, the NSA, the CIA, the FBI is even greater. Here again the necessary reforms are handicapped by the self-protective culture of secrecy and the habit of covering up. Whereas modern police methods require a more sophisticated mentality, reliance on sophisticated technologies merely empowers the old primitive mentality. This means that the brute psychology of intimidation and threat has acquired new technological means; and even as problems are magnified, they are concealed from the public.

As a result, the self-appointed secret police have not only acquired the tools that make possible universal, intrusive and continuous surveillance; they have conferred upon themselves additional powers to act at whim and without the slightest consideration of the Constitutional or human rights of those affected; they undertake witch-hunts in which designated individuals are subject to attack, abuse and/or torture; and they even use innocent citizens, including disabled children, for non-consensual human experimentation, in the testing of new systems of control and domination.

The Roots of Terror

The major acts of violence and injustice have their origin in the centers of power and not on the fringes of society. This is a major fact characterizing our contemporary world reality.

Concern about terrorism is valid if it leads to the eradication of the roots of violence, but this can only happen when our understanding of violence and injustice is no longer biased or focused selectively on certain specific acts, while ignoring others which are just as bad, if not worse. The biased understanding is a shell game that perpetrates the systems of injustice.

This means we need to work toward the elimination of bias and prejudice universally and have fair reporting of world news, and stop "spinning" the news to conform to this or that agenda. We need to eliminate or greatly reduce covert actions of every kind, so that people can know what is being done not just by "the Russians" but also by "the Americans.".

This means exposing those who want to play the dirty game, whether they are in Russia or in America. The issues of violence and threats of violence are not primarily based on a nationalistic axis. There are good people in every nation. There are also pigs and perverts in every nation. The decent people of the world need to stand together and recognize the criminal element as it exists in every nation.

Fake News

Recently, the major media have been focused upon the FBI investigation of a former Trump associate. The question is whether the individual in question, Carter Page, was placed improperly under surveillance without adequate cause. The debate displays the division of the two major parties and becomes a major spectacle on the evening news. We have no opinion about the case itself. What stands out for us are the implications of the presented story, which overshadow the minor partisan drama over the the conduct of the FBI in this one case.

The implications are that "inappropriate surveillance" is something highly unusual and therefore warranting special interest in the case of this one high profile individual. The implications are that both major parties are zealously concerned with the standards of law. Neither implication is even remotely close to the truth. Whether this is owing to ignorance and incompetence, or to conscious duplicity, on the part of the those providing the national spectacle, it make little difference as far as the television audience and the electorate are concerned. They are left not merely uninformed but deceived in the assumption that they are tuned to "the news."

Like the disinformation that attends covert actions, fake news diverts the attention of the public toward a given spectacle (which the invisible "shapers" desire the public to hear about and discuss) and away from the more significant fact.

In common parlance this is called changing the subject. Some items are too touchy to be discussed. Some honest people will say outright that they do not want to discuss a subject. Others, to avoid an unpleasant subject, act as if they were temporarily deaf and simply launch a new subject (to get away from the subject they don't wish to talk about).

In personal matters, there may be no need for the airing of a subject, but when it comes to the national business it is indispensable for the public to be informed. If the major news media avoids unpleasant matters, such as the build up toward an unnecessary war or the latest mechanism for instituting systematic injustice, it fails to fulfill its avowed purpose.

The story not told is that intrusive, unjustifiable surveillance and systematic harassment of arbitrarily chosen individuals is commonplace, and that these activities are either carried out or permitted by our law enforcement agencies. The fiction that we are a nation of law and order, with respect for human rights, is maintained by an apparent consensus of major media, elected representatives and intelligence agencies, who prefer to keep ordinary American citizens in the dark; not merely uninformed but actively steered away from the real facts.

Democracy in Bhutan

The control of the news and the loss of independent reporting goes in tandem with the police state. The story is then whatever the thugs in charge of the government say it is. If this is done smoothly, and if the people are not sufficiently alert, they may not notice that a pretty story is substituted for the truth. Perhaps they are too busy to care. If that is the case, they can kiss their democracy goodbye.

Even Bhutan claims to be a democracy.

What things are called and what they really are, are two different things.

If a small group of people can control all of the outlets of news, education and promotion within a society, they can even announce that they, the leaders, are divinely ordained. By the second or third generation people may begin to believe it.

Subversion in America

Whatever the validity of the Mueller investigation, be it righteous or a witch-hunt, the FBI may yet be shown to be guilty of far grosser failings that have yet to reach the light of day. The Mueller investigation will at last be judged by the evidence produced. The more outstanding cases of failure by the FBI and law enforcement agencies are those in which existing incompetence, effective bias and gross corruption remain concealed from public scrutiny.

Obvious failures are evident in the recent cases of mass shootings, the school shooting in Florida that had been preceded by ample warnings, including a direct tip to the FBI; the Texas church massacre, in which the shooter was a veteran with a record of domestic violence prior to his discharge, and the Las Vegas concert shooting, for which the shooter prepared by purchasing numerous killing machines in the year before the attack. Even if the gun purchases were legal, the purchase of so many weapons in a single year should certainly have rung an alarm, given the access to modern surveillance and communication technologies and voluminous records regarding even the trivial behavior of ordinary American citizens. Beyond these outstanding cases, which, incidentally, were never presented to the public by the media in the light of police incompetence, there are programs, organized and criminal in nature, that operate with impunity throughout the country, including but not limited to the psychotic Targeted Individuals program.

The latter program enables private groups with access to the newest secret technologies to subject arbitrarily chosen individuals to unlimited surveillance, harassment, abuse and torture. In addition, these individuals are used as guinea pigs in non-consensual experiments designed to test the efficacy of a new generation of weapons.

These are electromagnetic weapons that can target the brain and nervous system of any individual, enabling mind-reading as well as numerous forms of attack, both non-lethal and lethal. Since these weapons operate virtually invisibly and (so far) the individuals thus attacked have no recourse through the justice system, the system may be recognized as an embryonic form of social control that is totalitarian to a degree that would have excited the envy of Stalin or Hitler.

In relation to these criminal activities, which threaten the nation far more than the trivial meddling of Russia in the 2016 election, the FBI has done nothing other than cover up evidence. Some people relate these activities to “the deep state” but I dislike this term, as it seems to confer a legitimacy on activities that are blatantly subversive.

As for Russian meddling, more attention given to education will make American citizens aware of the dangers posed by disinformation, misinformation, propaganda and fake news. They will be immune to deception by virtue of their own intelligence and discrimination.

Toward this end we might give a bonus to teachers who teach their students how to think.

The Two Psychologies

If we examine the extreme duality of human life on Earth, we find on the one hand a pan-human destiny to realize mastery (the outcome of the evolutionary process); and on the other, multifarious individual and collective hells inhabited by those who have yet to achieve mastery (and who may even be far removed from that objective).

One psychology supports the evolutionary process universally; the other acts to retard or prevent evolution at any cost. The evolutionary psychology supports the educational process, the free dissemination of information, truth in all communication, dissolution of unnecessary boundaries, gradual disarmament through understanding and consensus, and the free choice of individuals and nations in charting their own future.

The psychology that fosters the control and subordination of individuals, social groups or nations is contrary to evolution. Such efforts, whether based on ignorance or evil motive, are indistinguishable from the promotion of slavery and human trafficking. Given the dangerous trend toward “totalitarian” solutions growing within and emanating from the centers of political, military, economic and technological power, it is the common interest of the human race to be vigilant in defense of liberty. The growth of democracy must be in tandem with a continuing educational process that fits all citizens for a substantial role in the formation of their own destiny.

The greatest danger for humanity today lies in the secret technologies and weapons that have been developed over a period of decades through covert operations and experiments. The greatest filth is found not on a stage or in open debate and questioning but in the hidden prisons and laboratories, where crimes that outrage the imagination are committed daily by perverts wearing white smocks, military uniforms or suits. For reasons almost beyond comprehension they have been granted unlimited budgets, immunity to prosecution, and the opportunity to create a new hell on Earth.

Apart from the extremes there are many mediocre conditions, but it is useful to have in mind the extreme parameters as the basic context for thinking. Characterized by mediocrity, thinking fails to mobilize the highest energies or deal adequately with the grossest problems of contemporary life.

On the one side: candor, transparency, universal human rights, democracy, continuous education and ascent. On the other: covert actions, smoke-filled rooms, nonconsensual human experimentation and torture, with fake news and fake elections to camouflage the disenfranchisement of the great majority.

Democratic Elitism

One of the great sources of the mediocrity of modern life is the existence of various pseudo-elites. These are groups that stand between humanity and the higher destiny of the race. We call them pseudo-elites because they are not enlightened; they merely believe themselves to be. Their arrogance, greed, lust for power and self-satisfaction is the bane of civilization. Often they occupy positions of leadership for which they are distinctly unqualified. Although they are may have been able to attain positions of relative eminence through ambition, self-interest and cunning, they lack the true qualifications of leadership. It is necessary for an alert citizenry to see these people at their true worth, and avoid ceding to them undue influence, or powers and responsibilities that they are unable to discharge with wisdom and integrity.

The so-called "experts" are all too often merely "experts" in their own eyes, or in the eyes of the gullible, who are easily hoodwinked.

If we examine, for example, the record of defense spending over the course of the last sixty-five years, we shall see that the enormous expenditures had very little positive value. The two most important wars were both completely unnecessary and wasteful. The record of minor interventions is equally disturbing. Frequently American power was used to institute or shore up brutal dictatorships and in opposition to socially progressive movements.

Despite the enormous record of failure on the part of our "intelligence" agencies, we continue not only to under-write their activities with unlimited budgets; we exempt them from scrutiny, on the presumption that the "experts" know what is best and that ordinary people cannot be allowed to know what is actually going on.

This is a false elitism, which we would counter by positing the idea of a democratic elitism that begins with the ultimate respect for each individual human being.

The object of education and psychology must be to liberate to the maximum degree possible this inherent value, both individually and socially. While avoiding violent upheavals through a hasty approach to an ideal, social, economic and political relationships must be re-ordered to reflect the more illumined outlook.

In fact, intelligence belongs to each individual and is not and cannot be the prerogative of a special agency. It is absurd for modern nations to play the old game of power politics when there is so much more to be gained, for the great majority, from reasonable cooperation.

Do we want world peace and the end of terrorism? Then we must remove the roots of unnecessary conflict. Above all, it is necessary to end systemic injustice, which exists in a variety of forms.

Systemic Injustice

One form of injustice originates in the presumption that only a small group of people, a pseudo-elite, is allowed to know the national policy.

A consequence of this is the further presumption that the lives of all citizens may be exposed in every detail to intelligence operatives whose activities remain in the shadows and beyond scrutiny.

Another form of injustice is seen in the unequal application of laws, owing to prejudicial enforcement. This occurs not only within the nation but internationally. In this respect the desire of some nations to possess nuclear weapons is considered unlawful, whereas other nations have such a right. This, of course, has nothing to do with justice; it has to do with power politics. If, instead, the great nations lead the way toward disarmament, they will have the moral authority to demand the disarmament of the smaller nations.

The many forms of systemic injustice are far more harmful than the individual acts that are so often highlighted in the evening news. An individual scapegoat merely conceals a systemic problem. Abu Ghraib, for example, was ultimately attributed to the actions of a few individuals, whereas it was an expression of a national cultural disease, a self-righteous intolerance and a lack of human respect enshrined in the acceptance of torture.

Fake Debates

In addition to fake news we have fake debates in which issues are discussed in such a prejudiced and misleading fashion that no real light on the subject is possible. This is partly the result of the parceling of debates to fit the format of major media and the attention span of hyper-active children. Whatever the cause or causes, the accepted, conventional style ill serves the public; it reinforces existing prejudices and extremism, when precisely the opposite is to be desired.

There can be no national consensus on the practical issues of life if there is not a prior agreement in understanding. Justice begins with the mental capacity to justly appraise both situations and people. If this quality is not developed through education, the electorate will be incapable of contributing to a functional democracy.

News programs for grown-ups will help to build the qualities needed for citizenship instead of inflaming the pre-existing bias of a partisan audience. How sad it is that after more than a year of the Russia “investigation” we have heard almost nothing about the substantive policy questions. While the anti-Trump forces revel over every trivial item that seems to reflect discredit on Trump, Trump seems only concerned with how the matter relates to his personal standing. Neither attitude is useful.

The substantive questions concern the fundamental course of America’s relation with Russia. Is an improvement of relations possible or desirable? If Russia has been acting in the old Cold War spirit, we might ask if American actions, including those (covert actions) of our own intelligence agencies, have prompted this reversal of course. Of course it would be desirable to have a more cooperative relationship with Russia, assuming that that were possible. Our “experts” like to say that this is only possible, given a change in Russian behavior. But American behavior is also a factor. The presumption that our own actions have always been beyond reproach, or that we could not adjust our own policies, is arrogant. Underlying this arrogance is the hypocritical cloak of our unquestioned security empire.

In Fog We Trust

Our vast defense industry has created a need for dangers and enemies, even if these are only imaginary. A flea must be magnified into a giant. It is now a matter of employment, job security and lucrative contracts. It is also, to an extent, a matter of honor and glory, or at least respectability, for those who partake of the benefits.

If the threats are relatively minor, why the big budgets? As a result of a truer perspective, the generals could suffer a public relations fiasco, appearing ridiculous or unnecessary. People might wonder if the defense industry is an unrecognized form of welfare, or worse, a scam.

The bloated military establishment has its own self-interested motives for domestic and foreign policies that shore up the belief in the need for the vast military establishment. Like every bureaucracy, it becomes self-serving.

Hypnosis

Our existing political and economic structures are based on mass belief systems, which in turn have been built up largely through mass hypnosis.

Hypnosis is not in itself evil. Natural hypnosis may be employed constructively. The problem arises through the negative condition in which the hypnotized person or group is unaware of the process taking place. Unaware, a person or group is unable to play an appropriately positive, adult role. In the present instance we have in mind American society as a whole.

Media constructions that rely on the combination of image and sound are a powerful agency in the formation of beliefs. These agencies by-pass in many case the more rational factor in human judgment. Many news shows repeat the same things over and over. This is a hypnotic technique based on the theory of repetitive articulation. Repeating something over and over does not make it true, but it does create, in those who are negatively predisposed toward acceptance, a belief.

Compare the quality of political debate more than two hundred years ago, when our forefathers considered the newly proposed Constitution, with the quality of debate today. The essays of the Federalist appeared in the newspapers of the time and were read by ordinary citizens.

The comparison is not flattering to the present generation. In the absence of transparency and open, thoughtful debate, the methods that by-pass reason are powerfully deployed by those who would shape belief and behavior. For the modern behaviorists and social engineers, reason is an inconvenience, and freedom and dignity, like God and free will, are dead.

The Police State

There is in hypnosis (except in the condition of self-hypnosis) a division of the conscious actor and the passive agent into two distinct parties. The social engineer or behaviorist who imposes a conscious belief plays an indoctrinating role. Like the Communist "educators" in the original police states, the "shaper" molds his "students" like a sculptor working with passive clay. He does not expect or want the student to think, except within certain narrowly defined limits.

Very young children are frequently treated in this manner. To an extent this must be the case. But even very young children ask questions and begin to think for themselves, sometimes rejecting the commands and suggestions that are offered by their elders.

The use of suggestions and commands has a social place, but it should not be relied upon excessively. The social division of positive, imposing agent and passive, receptive agent is only appropriate in certain limited situations. The creation of a military-style hierarchy throughout society, or the reduction of the population to a permanent childhood, would be a sad development.

Those who assume that social engineering is a left-wing phenomenon should recognize that "the police state" need not follow the Communist model. Today behaviorist techniques are widely employed by all capitalist nations. Abu Ghraib

We have already noted that the major acts of injustice and violence emanate from the centers of world power. Possession of power tempts the holders of power to abusive acts. Although anyone can be abusive, the abusiveness of those who have no power is as nothing compared to the abusiveness of the powerful.

At Abu Ghraib those who had invaded Iraq without just cause rounded up Iraqi citizens, incarcerated them, subjected them to abuse, torture and humiliation; and then labeled their victims terrorists. Of course this was a total inversion of the factual reality. In this case the Americans were the terrorists.

The Americans did this because they were able to do this. They had the power, but not the restraint that governs the mature and the just.

We have also noted that the event was not as exceptional as we might have wished; rather, it was characteristic of emerging trends in America, as elsewhere, in which those who hold power dispense with considerations of fairness, justice and human rights to do pretty much whatever they wish. To rub salt in the wound they also control the story or the “history” of the event. False histories are facilitated by covert actions, disinformation and effective control of the national media and discourse.

In the light of actual history, as distinct from the “official” or falsified history, America is no longer occupying any kind of moral high ground and has little business chiding other nations or offering her own example as a beacon for the world. Most people around the world recognize the hypocrisy of America’s double standard.

Many people in America are profoundly idealistic and believe in America’s professed values, but these well-intentioned people do not control the armed forces, the intelligence agencies, the police departments, or even the marauding private investigators.

The issue of “gun control” is symbolic of these larger facts.

Just as unarmed children become targets of those with guns, so are those without power subject to oppressors at every level of society.

The police are less interested in serving the public than in serving the wealthy and the powerful. They protect property, not people. There is no equal justice, because the disparity in the economic life is translated into the corruption of power, and reproduced in countless acts, great and small, of prejudice and abuse.

Double Standards

Contrary to the popular assumption that the new "threats" require greater funding and unlimited freedom of operation for the police and security apparatus, excessive funding and freedom to act without due supervision contribute to the creation of a police apparatus that is inefficient, as well as corrupt and abusive.

The unlimited data collected merely hides the pertinent police data. Numerous tips could not awaken the sleepers at the FBI to the impending slaughter of schoolchildren in Florida. As usual, the police were most active after the shooting, putting up prom decorations around the site, and engaging in the vast PR business of modern police departments.

The need to do something too often trumps the need to do something intelligent. The easiest thing to do is to oppress the minorities and the poor, making them the targets of suspicion, endless "investigations" and harassment.

For the privileged sectors of society, relatively immune to these processes, ignorance is bliss. They are free to believe that all is well and that the police are merely doing their job. This point of view is largely supported by the major media, as well as by the majority of elected representatives. It is the point of view of the dominant sector. Thus a bifurcation exists in the very consciousness or perception of reality, and society is divided along an axis of experience and belief.

As preventive measures become primary factors in police and security work, the mind-set of those involved, including any bias or prejudice, is increasingly significant. Police act not according to the evidence that a crime has been committed but with the intent to prevent crime; yet anticipation and suspicion follow the subjective bias of those working in the police or security sector. This subjective factor requires greater, not less, of the ordinary checks and balances; greater, not less, of transparency and supervision.

To a degree, existing problems of systemic injustice result from the excesses of specialization, which dispose persons of one mind-set to gravitate toward police and security work, while persons of another mind-set gravitate toward other fields.

Abuses acquire a veneer of normality for those on “the inside” of specialized operations. This “malignant normality” has long infected the CIA, but in recent decades, as a result of the consolidation of power by pseudo-elites, the same malignant processes have achieved wider distribution throughout the American security system. An outstanding example is the Targeted Individuals program, in which covert technologies, developed over decades at a cost of billions of dollars to tax payers, are made available to perverts, sociopaths and derelict veterans, who carry out programs of invasive surveillance, harassment, data collection and illicit human experimentation, while simultaneously indulging their own private desires. A culture of "malignant normality" invites those who operate within its context to engage their worst potentials. Although everyone has the potential for bad or criminal behavior, the norms of social life provide some protective boundaries and encouragement to better tendencies. In relation to the abusive culture of the security state, those protections are effectively dissolved.

In effect, potential criminals are granted immunity in advance of their crimes. They are bolstered by the feeling that they are part of a ruling and authoritative clique, and not bound by the laws or ethical standards that govern society as a whole.

Behavior Modification: Ideal and Non-Ideal

Even if one disputes the contention that freedom and dignity are necessarily illusions, the benevolent intention of a writer like B. F. Skinner is impossible to deny; nor should we confuse behaviorism with the psychology of evil. The problem arises as we pass from the high-minded idealism of a work such as Walden Two (1948) to the actual practice of those modern social engineers who employ their own crude version of behaviorist theories.

Among the suppositions of Skinner's classic utopian novel are 1) the idea that we are transiting from a competitive ethos to a cooperative ethos; and 2) the idea that only positive reinforcement is desirable and useful. The first idea may be true in some larger historical context, but not, certainly, in terms of the immediate present. The second idea is only wishful thinking, since the context is not yet present in which it can be widely realized.

In spite of the lack of such a context, the behaviorist theory has "caught on" in a crude, popular fashion. It animates the partisans of on both sides of the political spectrum. It animates journalists, schoolteachers and the managers of businesses. It even animates the soldier and the policeman. Whereas the ideal behaviorism in Skinner's utopian context employs only positive reinforcement, these crude secondary thinkers rely heavily on ideas of negative reinforcement, i.e., punishment.

Punishment may range from the extremes of torture, death, death or torture of family members, or the threat of the same; to more moderate remedies such as the loss of a job or the loss of benefits or the ostracism that follows from a campaign of slander and/or gossip.

On the conservative or reactionary side, for example, many "social" thinkers believe so firmly in the competitive ethos that they find usefulness in examples of homelessness, joblessness and poverty. For those who follow this line of thinking, increasing control of the population is facilitated by keeping large numbers of people unemployed, homeless and/or poor. Poor people are more easily controlled. Because they are afraid to lose their jobs (if they have jobs), they are likely to put up with adverse working conditions or submit to virtual or "voluntary" slavery. Fear and punishment are used by these "social" engineers to preserve or extend the existing disparity.

Competition, fear and punishment are fellow travelers. As crude, egoistic measures, they easily slide into torture, war and terror.

Beyond Social Engineering

Practically speaking, when behaviorist techniques are applied not to laboratory animals but to human beings, all they amount to is the familiar carrot and stick. The denial of human free will and the failure to comprehend the spiritual essence of life dooms the behaviorist thinker to the rind of human possibilities.

Of course individuals may be influenced by the social groups to which they are related, but if this is a one-way street, it will not be a positive development either for the individual or for the societies that rely on such measures. We must suppose, on the contrary, that individuals also influence and shape society, unless we are to do without the unpredictable spiritual, creative element (the most important factor) in human life. If they accept the fundamental importance of the creative factor, the social engineers will not have a closed system with which to work. This may disturb their equations and plans, but that is a small price to pay for the sake of a free society.

It is true that freedom and dignity, as commonly understood, are frequently bogus concepts, pertaining to the unexamined life. The assumption that freedom is necessarily related to the capitalist economic system is a misunderstanding. Assuming that they have free choice, individuals and groups may choose to support and confirm the prevailing capitalist idea, but they may also choose to reverse or alter course. The essence of freedom is that they do have a choice.

The scientism of the behaviorists misses the essence in its preoccupation with the rind of life, and the social engineers, taking their cue from this half-baked science, follow suit. Since theirs is the prevailing view, we see today the fruit of this type of thinking: an increasingly closed system in which fundamental problems are unsolvable.

If, for example, the capitalist idea is integral to the status quo, social engineers may be involved in reinforcing it. However, this merely retards those creative developments that fall outside the dominant paradigm. It does not insure progress or the best possible social result. Planners made similar efforts to stabilize Soviet Communism long after the defects of the system had been revealed.

The main effect of such stabilizing efforts in the "victorious" west has been an increasing robotization of humanity, with creativity ever more narrowly channeled within the existing paradigm of the status quo. In pursuit of the automatism of the system, man, "liberated" from moral responsibility, is unable to bring to an end the violence of modern life, or to reduce the extreme disparity and inequality.

Behaviorist ideas have not replaced the use of force, as Skinner hoped. They are allied to the use of force in a misguided effort to create a permanent status quo, out of a fear that radical change could only be for the worse.

Freedom

Freedom is, positively, a realization; before that it is only a potential for realization, and an opportunity to realize that potential. Skinner and others are right to point out that the prevailing ideas of freedom are largely illusory. We are not "free" societies because we have capitalist economies and periodic elections. The former may suffocate us as much as any other totalitarian social structure, and the latter may be a sham. We are free only if and because we have a maximum opportunity to decide for ourselves our own values and way of life.

Such freedom may be limited by legitimate social desires to restrain the obnoxious behavior of individuals, but the degree of this "restraint" and coercion may also be in excess of what is desirable, if a society is to maximize its potential for freedom and creativity.

Any consideration of social engineering begs the question: who is engineering the "wisdom" of the social engineers? The problem of leadership was never satisfactorily answered by the Marxists; nor has it been satisfactorily answered within the so-called "free" world.

The Fanaticism of the Pseudo-Elites

Plato, dealing with the problem of leadership, made the wisdom of the guardians of his imaginary republic the cornerstone. We, unfortunately, have no wise men to show us the way; only tinkering conceited apes, pseudo-elites.

The main characteristic of the pseudo-elites is not wisdom but arrogance. Those who are exceptionally eager to reform and re-shape the behavior of others are generally those suffering from a psychological defect. Women understand this better than men do, for women have been dominated and bullied for many centuries. They know that excessive confidence and conceit frequently accompany the will to control and dominate in an unbalanced extroverted consciousness.

Among psychologists, the division between liberators and controllers creates two radically different approaches to the problems of individuals and society. Efforts to control others imply a lack of respect and the presumption on the part of the controller that he possesses a superior knowledge that gives him the right to dominate. The primitive thinking of invaders and aggressors from the dawn of time is thus dressed up with intellectual justification, as camouflage and hypocrisy. This gives birth to the fanatic, an ignoramus who over-estimates himself.

Hens

A major limiting characteristic of the dominant psychological schools is that they have drawn too many conclusions from a study of mediocre and inferior personalities. Another is that they have have generalized from transitory conditions that merely indicate a stage of development or a specific mode of exteriorizing the consciousness.

Even though erroneous, such conclusions become effective determinants at the social level. As they are incorporated into the common patterns of thought, they help to form a social matrix of limitation.

Some theories become self-fulfilling prophecies. A person who believes he will become ill actually suggests to himself his own future state and may, subsequently, succumb to his own self-hypnosis. This is not, however, realized. Instead he concludes that he was right all along in his expectation, as if the fate preceded his own creative activity.

Our "hypnotized" materialistic psychiatrists and behaviorists are like robots in their pursuit of a pre-established way of thinking. They know so little about the soul that it is absurd that their conclusions and "diagnoses" should be taken as a "final word" on the subject or accepted as a judicial mandate.

They scratch the surface of the soil expecting to find oil.

The Anatomy of a Corpse

Modern studies lay great emphasis on the brain and other physical factors and have accumulated much knowledge in these areas. Unfortunately, the largely unconsidered areas of the human soul are of even greater significance than those about which knowledge has been accumulated.

That which is known receives excessive attention, and from this small area many applications are developed by physical science. That which remains unknown cannot be dealt with in the same manner but does not lose its significance because of the ignorance of the investigators. That significance becomes evident negatively in errors of theory and practice, and in the inability to progress beyond a certain point in unfolding the mysteries of the human organism.

The resulting distorted picture, based on the physical bias of materialists, yields a pseudo-understanding of man, that is, in some respects, worse than the simple ignorance of the natural man, whose mind is uncluttered by false theories.

Unfortunately, distorted though it may be, this picture seeps into the general consciousness, infecting social life. Ordinary people make the mistake of concluding that the "experts" know what they are talking about and they accept the verdict of the "experts" in many areas in which they would be better served by their own common sense.

The "Brain" Problem

The idea that free will is an illusion is intimately connected with the materialism that posits the supreme importance of the brain. While the important role of the brain within the physical aspect of the organism is recognized, the role of the physical body within the total organism is not recognized. The missing factor is, however, even more important than the factor that is studied.

If the brain is merely a passive agency for the transmission of information (and one conceives that agency to play a supreme role in the human constitution) it makes sense to conclude that man is completely shaped by environmental factors. Such a man is essentially a robot.

The conclusion that man is a robot leads to an intense interest in the ways and means by which the robot is programmed. Much of this research is and has been carried out covertly in "classified" programs. Therefore the general public remains unaware of the results of that research and also of the sordid applications of that research. Programs funded by oblivious taxpayers have made possible illicit human experimentation, carried out, evidently, with the intention of perfecting a new generation of weapons and totalitarian techniques for social control.

Satellite Countries

While the evolutionary goal is to increase the consciousness of the human race, the goal conceived by the materialists who use the research of behaviorists is to confine and shape the consciousness of the vast majority according to the desires of those who wield preponderant social, political, economic and military power.

The vulnerability of the brain to invasive mind-reading and electromagnetic attack has captured the perverted imagination of military planners, swimming in tax dollars collected under "national security" claims. Since experiments are conducted covertly, they remain beyond public scrutiny. In effect, people are paying for their own enslavement.

Even NASA has been co-opted and has become complicit in setting up widespread Nazi style experiments, which require satellite linkage. Once again it is sufficient to breathe the words "national security" to have potential investigators fall on their knees and prostrate.

These processes and developments have not gone so far as to be irreversible, but the time is running out for people to wake up. It should be needless to say that democracy pre-supposes that the people shape their government, not the reverse.

Silent Complicity

The perverted applications of science are necessarily carried out under the veil of secrecy. Both secrecy and funding are obtained through the claim of "national security."

Owing to the manner in which the "system" works, scientists are both unwitting dupes and witting contributors to immoral and vicious projects. The research has focused on the passive and malleable aspect of the brain. The free will of the active spiritual principle remains outside the domain of materialistic research. The result is to downplay the principle that offers freedom while producing results that make possible eventual control of whole populations at a distance.

The "system" is sustained and supported not merely by a small group of active conspirators, but also by the many who occupy the gray area of silent complicity. This includes not only those who know about these activities, but also the many who don't want to know.

Many who have attempted to "out" the story in past decades have created a picture of a vast organized conspiracy, and we often hear today about the "deep state." In fact the real story may be less about a coherent conspiracy that about the public apathy and the many representatives, in government, media and law enforcement, who simply fail to do their duty, speak the truth and uphold the law.

Negative Creation

It is not a coincidence that materialistic research serves to provide new weapons for the fear-mongers. The materialistic consciousness develops (negatively) around ideas of scarcity, fear and hatred. Spiritual consciousness develops positively with the recognition that humanity is endowed with the power to build a world of light. The consciousness is creative in one way or another, but in the negative case the building activity takes place in the shadows. The world created is a reflection of the negative source ideas and beliefs.

The concentration upon evil does not bring evil to an end. The concentration upon evil brings about more and greater evil. As the bigots of the Christian church instituted inquisitions, crusades and witch-burnings out of their complete failure to understand the message of love or the high road offered by the Teacher who supposedly founded their church; today the security culture, born in fear and hatred, attempts to eradicate dangerous "others" while failing, through the same sluggish materialism, to realize the high road.

Whether the consciousness is positive or negative, it creates in line with the basic pattern of thought. Change the pattern, and change the world. The materialist begins his studies with limiting negative assumptions and elaborates the effects of a negative pattern.

Flushing Dollars Down the Toilet

The latest news item is that nuclear power plants, electric plants and water plants in the USA and Europe are all vulnerable to Russian hacking. If true, the main conclusion is that the money we spend on national security is flushed down the toilet.

It is ridiculous, really. These technologies were invented in the USA, like the nuclear bomb and so many other wonders of our day. If computer technologies cannot be made immune to hackers, then they must not be used for critical activities. Presumably, that thought would have arisen prior to their implementation.

Curiously, the national security community has focused on the acquisition of hacking abilities but has not been too keen about protective technologies. What that means, ultimately, is that there is no such thing as a business secret or a ballot box that cannot be compromised.

If it is necessary to go back to paper ballots, so be it. Life goes on.

No one gets rich selling paper for ballots. That’s a good thing. When we begin to confuse the self-interest of businesses with the national security, the judgment of policy makers becomes clouded.

The Leadership of Fear

Various negative religious, pseudo-scientific and cultural beliefs foster fears which then take shape through mass political and administrative campaigns. One vast consequence of these ignorance-based objectives is the bloated and largely counter-productive security state.

Security is the avowed purpose but in fact insecurity is both the basis and the net result. As fear is the foundation, it infects the thinking that leads to choices and actions; as the power of suggestion becomes active, the over-emphasis of dangers and enemies becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Just as the medical community suggests a variety of diseases to which one can succumb, so does the security community continually emphasize the dangers posed by various nations, groups and ideas. As people accept the blueprint of disease from numerous advertisements, so do they accept the fact that they are surrounded by enemies.

Perhaps in the beginning there is little to fear from the aspirations of a small country or from the aspirations of a disadvantaged group to enjoy a greater share in the life of their own country. When we target these countries and groups and treat them as enemies, we easily create the enmity that may not even have existed prior to our own hostile actions, just as the abominations of Abu Ghraib became a recruiting station for anti-Americanism.

New Thinking

Before we can have a Department of Peace with a sufficient mandate to function effectively, we need an entirely new type of thinking. This new thinking must spread throughout the electorate before it will be possible to alter the modes of relationships between and among nations and throughout the global economy.

If we describe the old ways of thinking as negative, we can describe the new as positive. Peace is created by creating peace, not by focusing resources on existing or possible enemies. This can be a step-by-step process, with measures taken to adjust to the new approach. The main thing is to change the direction of thought (and of the investment of resources, which follows thought).

Negative thinking is reactive. Positive thinking is proactive. Reactive thinking is like playing with black in chess. It means being at a disadvantage from the first move. It means that the primary intention is established by someone else; but if it is not our intention that governs the sequence of events, we are fundamentally alienated and unable to make use of our best capacities. With negative or reactive thinking we lurch from disaster to disaster. Even when initiatives are taken, they are made from within a reactive context and become tainted with that context, as, for example, the unnecessary invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The Limiting Framework

Scientists often draw erroneous conclusions from evidence. The "evidence" may be correct, so far as it goes, but the conclusion is only a hypothesis, a theoretical explanation. Even if the hypothesis is incorrect, it may still be broadly accepted. As such, the erroneous conclusion becomes an effectively limiting framework.

This is the negative aspect of materialism, which is essentially a half-brain approach to the whole of reality.

If the importance of sense-knowledge is exaggerated, while other types of knowledge remain undeveloped, this leads to an over-emphasis of hereditary and environmental factors, and creates the concept of man the machine, conditioned but not free, passive clay to be shaped by social engineers.

As science, business and government are amalgamated into a single organized nexus, the application of this half-baked psychology has pernicious consequences detrimental to both the optimal growth of humanity and the preservation of democratic government. Since the latter is defined as the shaping of government by the people, it implies the creative autonomy of the human being, an autonomy denied by the behaviorist. Worse, the social engineer carries the defective theory into practice and endeavors to mold the race (and the electorate), reversing the direction of the government of, for and by the people.

Hopelessness

The oppressive character of modern life has a specific, if unidentified source. Government is un-representative and business life is infected with unhealthy values not because this is an inevitable, but because of the commonly held beliefs that make this way of life seem unalterable. At the root is a failure of philosophy, religion and science and the poor quality of the ideas that underlie civilization. The prevailing ideas foster a half-brained materialistic passivity, fear, conformity, obsessive competition and an unnecessarily poor quality of life.

No one wants to talk about this because of a feeling that the train has left the station, a passive hopelessness that results from the belief that the way things are is set in stone, and that all of the basic creative decisions have already been made. For the individual it is the feeling of being up against mass beliefs. However, mass beliefs are only the sum of individual beliefs and they are alterable just as individual beliefs are alterable.

In a healthy society individuals will have a feeling that their creativity is meaningful and that their world is a reflection of themselves. A healthy psychology will foster this feeling of empowerment and connection. People will not feel alienated from their government or their business activities.

The System, What’s Wrong with It, and How to Fix It

The system (or systems) of violence and oppression are based on the action of power without principle, or power unchecked, and a loss of balance that becomes then ubiquitous throughout the social structure.

In its sexual aspect this is the pattern of dominance of women; in it extreme form, it is the rape culture that often follows wars of aggression, when the “victors” reap their rewards.

Perhaps it is the sign of civilization: that men respect and honor women, and do not seek to make of them mere property. The protection of the weaker by the stronger is the key of honor, without which the strong man is an abomination.

Honor is not the product of the police state; it is the product of culture and the fruit of self-discipline. It cannot be legislated. It is not the product of social engineers. These external efforts, in the absence of attention to essential values, fall short of the desired goal.

Our failure nationally and globally has been to give too much to these external “shaping” efforts, while neglecting essential values. Corruption, both incremental and accumulative, is the result.

The second basis of corruption is the Lie.

When dominance is unchecked, it seldom bothers to mask itself; it proceeds crudely and arrogantly as the straightforward march of the conqueror. But when the outcome is not so sure, the battleground shifts into the world of concepts and beliefs, and of the capture of hearts and minds. Toward these ends, efforts are made to control the story, to define history and reality itself in the way most favorable to a partisan cause.

On this secondary battleground, the main weapons are truth, on one side, and on the other: secrecy and lies, covert actions, misinformation, disinformation and propaganda, all of which distort the whole picture of reality.

If the diagnosis is correct, we can begin to formulate solutions. We cannot allow the unchecked growth of covert processes of government. The governments and the police want the power to track people. People need the equal power to track the watchers, as well as the actions of their leaders and representatives. Transparency in government is the safeguard of freedom.

Even more important, we must re-emphasize those spiritual or cultural values that have been forgotten. These build trust among people. It was said at the end of the Cold War: Trust but Verify. Transparency provides the opportunity to verify that the measures taken are actually those that serve the interest of the people.