Mostly Water: Other Content Contributed by Users

Propaganda: From the Class Room to Hollywood: The Scientific Outlook (Part 4)

Brent — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 08:58:52 -0700

"I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology. Mass psychology is, scientifically speaking, not a very advanced study... This study is immensely useful to practical men, whether they wish to become rich or to acquire the government. It is, of course, as a science, founded upon individual psychology, but hitherto it has employed rule-of-thumb methods which were based upon a kind of intuitive common sense. Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called 'education'. Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the Press, the cinema and the radio play an increasing part." - Bertrand Russell, 1952 (p40)

Scientific Technique and Education: The Scientific Outlook (Part 3)

Brent — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:14:25 -0700

"Education in a scientific society may, I think, be best conceived after the analogy of the education provided by the Jesuits. The Jesuits provided one sort of education for the boys who were to become ordinary men of the world, and another for those who were to become members of the Society of Jesus. In like manner, the scientific rulers will provide one kind of education for ordinary men and women, and another for those who are to become holders of scientific power. Ordinary men and women will be expected to be docile, industrious, punctual, thoughtless, and contented. Of these qualities probably contentment will be considered the most important. In order to produce it, all the researches of psycho-analysis, behaviourism, and biochemistry will be brought into play."

The Rule of the Scientific Expert: The Scientific Outlook (Part 2)

Brent — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:49:54 -0700

"Equality, like liberty, is difficult to reconcile with scientific technique, since this involves a great apparatus of experts and officials inspiring and controlling vast organizations. Democratic forms may be preserved in politics, but they will not have as much reality as in a community of small peasant proprietors. Officials unavoidably have power. And where many vital questions are so technical that the ordinary man cannot hope to understand them, experts must inevitably acquire a considerable measure of control." - Bertrand Russell, 1931

Canada's 'Apology' to Indigenous Not Accepted!: A Response

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:49:29 -0700

Canada's 'Apology' was a sham photo-op for neo-con Bush-puppet PM Stephen Harper and for some Indigenous people was definitely NOT ACCEPTED!. USURPATION AS GENOCIDE continues..

Stockholder Daze at Lake Pottahwuattabe

anne — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:05:59 -0700

Every four years or so the hen house at Lake Pottahwuattabe hosts an
open house for its stockholders' annual general meeting.
One year some animal rights' activists disrupted the proceedings and
in the ensuing mischief ................

The Mass Media Division of UNESCO: UNESCO, Its Purpose and Its Philosophy (Part 5)

Brent — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:12:01 -0700

"Taking the techniques of persuasion and information and true propaganda that we have learnt to apply nationally in war, and deliberately bending them to the international tasks of peace, if necessary utilising them, as Lenin envisaged, to "overcome the resistance of millions" to desirable change. Using drama to reveal reality and art as the method by which, in Sir Stephen Tallent's words, "truth becomes impressive and living principle of action," and aiming to produce that concerted effort which, to quote Grierson once more, needs a background of faith and a sense of destiny. This must be a mass philosophy, a mass creed, and it can never be achieved without the use of the media of mass communication. Unesco, in the press of its detailed work, must never forget this enormous fact."

Chavez Revamps His Intelligence Services: The Corporate Media React

Stephen Lendman — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:24:37 -0700

By Stephen Lendman - June 07, 2008

Reports keep surfacing about new threats against Hugo Chavez. Given past ones, they can't be taken lightly. Chavez is alerted and reacts accordingly. Case in point: revamping Venezuela's decades old intelligence services. It's long overdue and urgently needed given the Bush administration's tenure winding down and its determination in its remaining months to end the Bolivarian project and crush its participatory democracy.

Guiding Society Through Art and Science

Brent — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:27:42 -0700

"The scientific method has firmly established itself as the only reliable means by which we can increase both our knowledge of and our control over objective natural phenomena. It is now being increasingly applied, though with modifications made necessary by the different nature of the raw material, to the study of man and his ways and works, and in the hands of the social sciences is likely to produce an increase in our knowledge of and control over the phenomena of human and social life, almost as remarkable as that which in the hands of the natural sciences it has brought about and is still bringing about in regard to the rest of nature"

Zapatistas Defend Autonomy

blackandred — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:58:31 -0700

By John Gibler - Znet

This past Wednesday, June 4, a military convoy of about 200 Mexican soldiers and federal and municipal police attempted to enter Zapatista villages under the pretext of searching for marijuana plants; something patently absurd in communities that have maintained a self-imposed "dry law," prohibiting all drugs and all forms of alcohol throughout Zapatista territories for nearly fifteen years.

Bush's Secret Deal Would Ensure Permanent U.S. Occupation of Iraq

blackandred — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:05:08 -0700

By PATRICK COCKBURN - June 5, 2008

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November.

U.S. Extorts Iraq to Approve Military Deal

blackandred — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 13:21:53 -0700

By PATRICK COCKBURN - Counterpunch

The US is holding hostage some $50 billion of Iraq's money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation indefinitely...US negotiators are using the existence of $20bn in outstanding court judgments against Iraq in the US, to pressure their Iraqi counterparts into accepting the terms of the military deal...

The Loathsome Smearing of Israel's Critics

blackandred — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:44:25 -0700

by Johann Hari - Thursday, 8 May 2008

In the US and Britain, there is a campaign to smear anybody who tries to describe the plight of the Palestinian people. It is an attempt to intimidate and silence – and to a large degree, it works. There is nobody these self-appointed spokes[people] for Israel will not attack as anti-Jewish: liberal Jews, rabbis, even Holocaust survivors.