Thecutter says, that mainline media, like CNN for instance is brainwashing the American public. They no longer present information, like in the case of the 9/11 attacks they were presenting the headline: "War against America".
And this brainwashing was very, very dangerous.
I agree, we, or better said our ancestors, have been there before.
And I think she is absolutely right, the whole media spectacle was intentionally staged to produce a feeling of helpless shock and subsequent irrational anger and thirst for revenge, a New Pearl Harbour, as the PNAC writers had planned or a new "Reichstagsbrand"incident, like Hitler had staged.
But no matter, what some thriller movies say, brainwashing is not permanent. It needs constant reinforcement and it can be undone.
For some people it might take a little longer (like for my German grandma. She was 90 years old, when she finally accepted, that Hitler was NOT a good guy with only a few corrupt subordinates. Most everybody else in Germany only needed a few years after the war to realize how indefensible Hitler and the whole Nazi ideology was.)
I think the brainwashing by Corporate Media in the US is not so very different from what the Nazis did in Germany, when they took over all of the media. It is just a bit more sophisticated, since they make it look is if there was a variety of opinions, when in reality the media agrees on just about everything that is of any political consequence, just like all the mainline parties, both in the US and in Europe agree on the same economic course, just fighting about smokescreen issues.
Anyway, the brainwashing worked on me for a while, although I´m not an American. By now I think I can very well understand the feelings of many Americans. The events had hit home, undermined the normal feelings of security. They, like me, were not able to think critically at that moment.
For me the whole thing was also a bit too close to home. In a rather strange coincidence, September 11, 2001 was the day my husband was sceduled to fly for the fist time in his life to America. He wanted to help a friend who was in trouble there.
We turned on the TV to look at the Icelandic video text for information of eventual flight delays - nothing unusual there. Then we changed to German satellite TV, to pass the time for a little game show, something similar to Trivial Persuit, we sometimes watch together.
The first tower had fallen already. My youngest son came home from school, and together we watched the second tower implode – life.
“It´s falling, it´s falling” he cried. “No, no it isn´t” I said. “They just show the fall of the first one again.” Not believing my own eyes.
Then my husband left. He was picked up to be driven to the airport, it´s an hours drive. Nothing was clear yet about those attacks, and I was unable to think or talk coherently for the rest of the day.
Then, there came the news about the plane, which had hit the Pentagon and the one that had crashed in a field. There were rumours that other planes might have been kidnapped, still in the air,dozens maybe, possibly ready to be crashed into some other buildings - nobody knew anything.
My son went to the phone, calling his Dad on the cell-phone: "Papi, another plane has crashed. Papi, please don´t go."
Of course my husband was sent back from the airport. All flights had been cancelled that day and the next few days as well.
And of course, even if he had flown a day earlier, the chances for him to have been on one of those flights were very slim, but still, for children chances and statistics don´t matter.
The next several weeks my youngest son got out bed every morning, hours before everybody else and turned on the TV, watching news; only the news-channel, nothing else, no cartoons, no children´s stuff, only news. He didn´t eat very much either.
When finally the Afghanistan war began, I told him, that Afghanistan was very far away, and when they have caught the Osama binLaden and his men, then everything would be all right again.
He still kept watching the news to see, when they would catch Osama.
They never caught him.
My youngest son was 10 years old at the time.
How many American children were there at the time, the age of my son or a few years older, waiting for Osama to be caught, so everything would be alright again?
How many of them are now in Iraq wanting to catch Osama or Zarqawi or some other Emmanuel Goldsteinn, so everything would be alright again?
Was it Hitler or Göring, who said, that the general population do not want war, but that the leadership only has to tell the people that they are attacked and then they will be ready for fight any war.
The lies haven´t changed a bit, the methods just have become more advanced.
And still, "brainwashing" gives you the image, as if your whole thinking facilities can be taken over by some outside power forever.
But they´re not even succeeding with all of the soldiers. Even in such a restrictive environment as the military, some soldiers start thinking for themselves, recognizing that what they´re doing is ethically wrong. Some of them break down pychologically others become dissidents, American soldiers and Israeli soldiers alike.
Dissident thoughts are spreading within the military and their families.
History does not have to repeat itself. It could, but it doesn´t have to.
We know more now, than the dissidents before and during WWII and even the dissidents from the Vietnam war. We should be able to learn from the experiences of our ancestors.
