To consolidate and increase failing political power, the first step is to find an enemy. Demonize this enemy in every way possible. Label it unpatriotic to question the evil of this enemy. Then rally around the flag and kick some serious butt.
Sound familiar? It certainly should!
Subsequent to the horrors of 9/11, those very tactics took a president with a 49% approval rating – the danger point for any smart politician with an eye on history – and launched him to the highest approval ratings of any president in American history. It enabled the passage of the abomination called the PATRIOT Act (quickie review here: “Label it unpatriotic to question . . .”) which gutted our Constitution and ended our way of life forever. It brought the average American on the street (who is a fundamentally decent human being) to support the bombing of a barren and helpless 10th century country right into submission in order to punish the sins of a few evil fanatics.
And, of course, those tactics also made the old dream of an Afghan natural gas pipeline a reality.
Dubya may be pushing the limits with his planned attack on Iraq. He is running out of time – and approval. Nevertheless, those tactics bought him the best eleven months of any president in history. If he failed to use them wisely, that does not diminish the usefulness of the overall plan.
But Dubya didn’t invent the tactics he used to such good advantage.
Dubya’s daddy used them with enormous success in the Gulf War. Do you remember all the stories about Saddam’s troops snatching babies from incubators and throwing them on the hospital floors in Kuwait City? It seems now that they were completely fabricated. It simply never happened, but it gained an awful lot of popularity for a war that never had a thing to do with us! It also gained a lot of popularity for a president who looked America in the eye, said, “Read my lips.” – and lied.
Dubya learned well from his daddy.
Adolf Hitler used similar manipulative tactics very successfully in the years leading up to World War II. He demonized Jews, Gypsies – everyone who had committed the hideous sin of being born other than “Aryan” – which handily distracted German citizens from the horror of their economy at the time, and then he invaded Poland and started some serious whupass. Despite the determination of most of the world to stop him, his own people worshipped him almost as a god right up until the bitter end.
Subsequent to Pearl Harbor (and some believe prior to Pearl Harbor), Roosevelt used similar tactics with great success in the early days of our entry into World War II. They continued to carry popular support right into the last days of the war, when Truman made the decision to use the bomb.
The earliest description of tactics such as these that I have personally read can be found in the writings of Julius Caesar, but I am sure that even earlier soldiers and thinkers used them to control the unruly masses and get an unpopular job done.
Why did these leaders resort to these tactics? They used them quite simply because they work. I should also mention that they also work especially well for leaders who are losing support – or who never had much support in the first place.
Are you taking notes? Good. Because tactics of this type don’t just apply to nations. They work for any identifiable group that is opposed to any other identifiable group.
Another quick review here. What are the elements? (1) Failing popularity or support for your group, (2) find an enemy group, (3) demonize that enemy, and (4) kick some you-know-what. Result? Fantastic popularity, loyalty, support, ad nauseam.
This morning, I had the misfortune to read an ad for the August issue of Whistleblower magazine with some excerpts from the theme – how Paganism is destroying America by fostering the “New World Order.” Normally, when I read material as ridiculously false as this, I just wonder about the intelligence and/or the education of the author.
Today was different.
Right now, I am especially sensitive to the use of manipulation of public opinion in this manner to gain power and money. So what might have gone unnoticed by me yesterday rose up and smacked me in the face today.
I do not ascribe this sort of nonsense to sincere Christians. Sincere Christians are not insecure in their faith. They have no need to play games with manipulation.
No, the authors of these stories – and others like them – are not sincere Christians. They are opportunists, cold-bloodedly seeking power and money by methods historically proven to work. In addition, their blatantly money-grubbing so-called “churches” are losing popularity at a surprising rate. Which happens to constitute Element 1.
Paganism is the fastest growing religion in western civilization, despite our adamant refusal to proselytize, so the authors have found their enemy ready to hand. Element 2 is complete.
Element 3 is to demonize the enemy. That’s pretty easy. The Roman Catholics started that some centuries ago with the lie that Pagans are Satanists. Since Pagans do not believe in the Judeo-Christian pantheon at all, belief in Satan – let alone worship of Satan – is a bit of a stretch. Nevertheless, that ghastly lie resulted in literally millions of deaths at the hands of the Inquisition, and is still believed by many ignorant people today.
Interestingly enough, Pope John Paul, himself a sincere Christian, has only a few months ago formally admitted his Church’s responsibility and made public apology for those very deaths, among many others.
So now the opportunists are taking a slightly different tack.
It seems (now) that the earth-based religions are destroying America by promoting environmentalism and the U.N.’s “New World Order.”
Really. Uh, huh. This lie flies because very few non-Pagans known anything about us, and they believe without question what their religious leaders tell them.
Oh, sure, Pagans have some brain dead nutcases that get some lurid press now and then by sitting in Lotus position under trees, and I wouldn’t be surprised to find that some of these twits have a mutual love affair with the United Nations. Christians have their share of nuts, too, in case you hadn’t noticed. I don’t think any religious faith is devoid of silly fanatics.
In fairness, It is certainly true that most Pagans are environmentalists. As a group, we revere the Earth which gave us life, and there are few of us who are not concerned about things like destroying the rain forests of Brazil (which produce more than 70 percent of the world’s oxygen, by the way). Breathing – and eating – are very difficult habits to break.
On the other hand, most Pagans also have the pragmatic view that Man is very much a part of Earth’s environment, and I have yet to meet any Pagans nutty enough to advocate the destruction of Man’s habitat to benefit some nearly extinct snail garter! Nor would most Pagans object to further development of our world’s energy resources – while searching for a renewable source of energy, of course. I, for one, prefer an automobile to my feet, as my ample fundament will attest.
Since we don’t cling to the ridiculous belief that Man’s history is barely 6,000 years long, we have a more encompassing view of geological history, recognizing that “global warming” is a part of a cyclical climate pendulum that has been swinging back and forth for many hundreds of thousands of years, and is certainly not a result of Man’s rise to civilization – which, if you think about it, is a singularly arrogant view of the problem.
Now we come down to the United Nations. I have never imagined a more sinister threat to the country that I love or to my personal freedom than I see in the very existence of the United Nations, let alone the very idea of a “New World Order.” I have publicly stated on many occasions that I would dearly love to nail an eviction notice addressed to that evil organization to their Manhattan front door personally.
Just to set the public record straight, I have been a practicing Witch (Pagan/Wiccan) for thirty years. I am a Libertarian activist, and a firearms instructor. I am the Texas Director for Armed Females of America, and I carry a firearm 24 hours a day, so the global disarmament plans of the United Nations constitute complete and absolute anathema to me.
If – if – I agreed with those plans, which are an integral part of the “New World Order” as originally coined publicly by George Herbert Walker Bush, I would be no threat to anyone at all. I would be just another sad and pathetic victim suffering under the yoke of a global income tax.
Please allow me to point out that my very favorite targets for practice shooting are mock United Nations helmets – and I am very sure that real ones – especially occupied – would be even better.
Support the “New World Order?” Don’t make me laugh!
My dearest dream is a return to the literal interpretation of our great nation’s Constitution, most especially her Bill of Rights, followed by the immediate and forceful eviction of the United Nations from U.S. soil. Hell, don’t even bother to give ‘em a boat! Let them swim all the way back to socialist Europe, where they damned well belong.
The First Amendment of that Constitution guarantees my religious freedom – and that of Christians, too, in case you had forgotten.
The Second Amendment guarantees enforcement of the First Amendment. I would strongly advise against any attempt at moving past the Element 3 practice of demonizing Pagans to the fourth element – or “whupass” – stage.
A rapidly growing population of individualist, Libertarian, anti-U.N. and extremely well-armed Pagans are just liable to turn the tables on you.
About the Author
At a tiny 5′1″, Kathryn A. Graham is a licensed private investigator, pilot, aircraft mechanic and handgun instructor in Texas. Also a prolific author, she has written numerous articles, short stories and a science fiction novel. http://www.kathrynagraham.com/
Wandering spirit - Church abuse may cause an individual who has left the church to be uncomfortable with any churches they may visit or may be led to join. The thoughts of past church abuses can keep on popping up in the mind of an individual, making them hesitant to submit to another church leadership.