Terror of Psychology and Psychology of Fear

Before going on I must remind everyone... today is the day Israel was to "ramp up" its military incursion and intensity of fighting in Lebanon. I have CNN tuned in as I write. There's been very little coverage, in hours now, about the events happening in Lebanon. A lighthouse was hit with a missle. That is about all the news that has come in to CNN. Where is Anderson Cooper today? For two days, Cooper has been building up the hype on Israel's announced military buildup. Now that the day of reckoning is here... nada, nothing, zilch! There is no "front-line / on the ground" coverage to be found. CNN has been bragging on its ability to be there on the spot. Today CNN is spotless.

I have been warned a hundred times today not to take my liquid or gel toiletries to the airport. Folks, don't you see, it is not enough to have new terror threats. Run-of-the-mill terror threats were beginning to wear on U.S. citizens. Terror threats had to become bigger, better, fresh, and more interesting... at least long enough to get the incumbents through the next election. Everyone is now intrigued with the prospect of "liquid" explosives. This new interest will surely carry through the mid-term elections. But CNN has told me next to nothing about the atrocities occurring in Lebanon although they do report how many missles have hit Israel. Apparently, hundreds of dead kids just don't matter.

My guess is, the powers that be have decided we mere John and Jane Qs are not to know (in real time or ever if they can manage it) the atrocities happening right now in Lebanon. This is not the intended point of my message but it certainly could be the very reason we have this great terror threat plastered over every mainstream news media's TV screens and front pages. This pre-election, terror threat coverage is, however, related to my original and primary point of this message.

My original point is that the number and frequency of terror threats correlate neatly with election cycles BECAUSE of the psychological effects these threats produce. This is the point I hope to address here.

Watch the number and frequency of terror threats rise as major U.S. elections approach. What, do you suppose, is the explanation for the repeated correlation between terror threats and elections since 9/11/01?

Remember, I am one who understands the scientific notion that "correlation does not imply causation." This axiom is a valuable tool used by scientists to retard the human tendency to "jump to conclusions." I am not jumping to conclusions. I am presenting some sobering food for thought.

Coincidence? You decide. Before dismissing this as just another conspiracy fantasy consider this. Never before, in the history of humanity has there been such a perfect storm of circumstances that would allow "powers that be" to exert such precise military, civil law enforcement, social, cultural, religious, and political forces upon the masses.

Human communication has, in the blink of an eye, been catapulted from the paltry effectiveness of "Ye ole Towne Criers" to the ubiquitous power of mass communications. Perhaps the masses are not as psychologically prepared to deal with this new mass communications capability as the creators and controllers of it are prepared to manipulate its use to help achieve their own agendas.

A flea biting the tip of the tail of a dog can jerk the dog's head 180 degrees and shake its entire body... and even make it fall down in the process. Such is the case with today's multinational news media and its supporting communications networks.

Every time I say "Bush" or "W" please remember these are just convenient ways to reference neo-conservatism and its hypa-like tentacles.

Precursor to George W. Bush making everyone keenly aware and fearful of the "evil doers," Bush affiliated global powers utilize the somewhat obscured but real and powerful advances of modern psychology to shape these events and the reporting of them. And remember, "W" is just a dumb and mean spoiled-brat sort of puppet in all of this.

Corporate marketing and polling has advanced, beyond imagination, the science of psychology. The predictability of human thought and behavior has never been more precise. One might compare it to the incredible advances in the science of meteorology. Just as ever-sophisticating global communication capabilities, radar, doppler, and satellite imaging have advanced the science of forecasting weather, technology has advanced the predictability of human thought and actions.

Coca-cola, for example, can at will learn and in a day's time collect data on how a million people respond to a given stimulus, choice, set of choices and etc. Coca-cola can discover for, eventual governmental utility, what makes people tick. Desires, fears, and habits of millions are profiled daily and endlessly by large corporations, universities, churches, government agencies and many other data collecting entities. Every time one fills out and returns some sort of questionnaire or poll (no matter how benign it might seem) one is contributing to a collective data bank somewhere. Don't think, for one minute, that there is not an entire industry of data trading. Governments, of course, have access to any of this "essentially psychological profiling data" they might desire to study.

Even issues like the "timing" of responses to stimuli and the length of residual effects of stimuli are studied. In politics and human behavior control, "timing (as they say) is everything."

So here we are about 90 days in front of all important mid-term elections, elections that find the majority and incumbents in severe political distress. Incumbents, regardless of party, love this atmosphere of fear. Fear is money in the bank and votes in the ballot box for incumbents.

Communications are ubiquitous, i.e., global. Britain's intelligence "discovers and thwarts" another terror threat, a threat that included flights from Britain to the U.S. The recent terror threat in Florida bombed, pardon the pun. The incumbents (whether or not they actually had in any part in the strategizing of this latest threat) benefit from this fresh new wave of fear! All western and pro-western "powers that be" benefit from widespread fear.

George W. Bush, in less time than he actually did anything following 9/11, today comes on TV and says, "see I told ya so."

Mass media obliges Bush's propagation of fear by failing to remind "W" and their viewers, immediately, but Mr President, you said invading Iraq would make us more safe? Instead the media activiely avoids opportunities to expose the holes in this adnministration's stories, claims and recollections of events. All the media contributions to mass confusion about equating Iraq to 9/11 and its resultant hysteria aside, lets look closer at the incongruent "psychological character" of these alleged terror threats.

Our high level security officials say, "be afraid... be very afraid!" In the very next breath, they say, "oh but go ahead and fly you'll be ok."

I just have to ask, "now which is it?" If there is danger don't tell me to "ah go ahead and fly, you'll be okay." I might be a bit crazy but I am not psychotic and I do not suffer from multiple personality... so stop telling me to believe opposing messages delivered in the same breath from the same "official" source!

It seems millions have opted for insanity rather than to ask tough and dreadfully unpopluar questions.

I know I am not alone but this is how I feel. "Am I the only one that sees a fundamental and essentially bizarre flaw in their dichotomous message?" The insane believe and insanely selfish choose to believe reality can be "both ways." These terror threats cannot be both real and dismissible... as in "FEAR for YOUR LIVES!!! " oh, but... "go ahead and fly!"

Powers that be are really just beginning to discover the limits of power at their disposal. They behave somewhat like a kid that has discovered the power and control he has over his new remote control airplane. The sky is the limit.

It is incredibly convenient for governments when the masses, brain-dead from fear and confusion, allow them to have it both ways. These governments also thrive when their masses are greedy enough to self-deceive themselves into believing contradictory messages are acceptable. Who doesn't desire to have "it" both ways? By this I mean, government can control the masses with fear while preserving the economic security of the huge aviation industry. Fear can be propagated among greedy or selfish masses while government picks pockets at airports in the name of security. "Powers that be" encourage everyone to keep flying... i.e., keep spending your hard-earned money because it is really safe to fly. These powers scream FEAR and in an almost insane twist, remind you, "oh but don't stop flying... you are safe."

More insane is the fact that people just don't get it. I have listened to dozens of airline customers waiting for delayed flights or to connect to new flights go on camera and say how scary all this is and yet they stand in line... waiting for hours to get on the first flight they can get. Think about the insanity of this kind of thinking. Are these real and sane people CNN is interviewing?

A quote from an otherwise intelligent looking older gentleman:

Responding to a reporter he says, "this whole airline terror is frightening and despicable.. a silly chuckle... and I hope I have a safe flight." The man then turns and pulls his travel bag a step forward as the mile long line to the counter inches forward.

Maybe my definition of fear is distorted but if I am truly fearful that a terrorist might blow me up on a plane I will not suffer in long lines to catch the first flight I can get. Now, somebody is insane here. Maybe it's me. But if I truly fear a grizzly bear... I don't lock myself inside a cage that I have been warned the bear could occupy. Some would argue, "but maybe the guy has to get to a business meeting. Maybe he has to get home. Maybe his wife is having a baby. I say so what. Yes, so what.

Friends, would this same guy walk through a tunnel that he has been warned a grizzly bear might occupy to get to his meeting, home, or to his pregnant wife knowing she is under no threat from the bear and that she and the baby will be okay (without him being there)? Call me a coward but I don't want to be caged with a grizzly bear under any circumstance.

Either these suspiciously well-timed terror threats are exaggerated tremendously (possibly choreographed for political reasons) or they are real but the powers that be value an uninterrupted airline economy more than the actual lives they claim they are protecting.

I do not pretend to know the truth... I just question those claims presented as truth.

When journalists corner officials into describing they how sure they are that they have all the facts they always, without exception, say there is much they don't know. More often than not these officials are proud to inform the public there are even contradicting bits of information about the alleged threats. Yet these officials encourage people to continue flying.

I certainly hope my point is being made clearly enough. This topic is exceedingly difficult to dissect and discuss even when exercising the most articulate abilities one possesses. A simple "written equivalent to a verbal Slip O' the Tongue" leaves a writer vulnerable to accusations of all sorts. I trust you understand my cause for pause at this point in my message.

Continuing. There is an element of insanity in this post 9/11 terror alert phenomenon. Fear of fear itself and fear of the unknown make for strange mental bed-partners. Mass insanity and even mass suicide can be the result. I am convinced we are presently immersed in mass insanity. Just look around friends.

If one man named Jim Jones can lead 913 of his 1100 Jonestown people into mass suicide imagine what a coordinated effort of the most technically and psychologically sophisticated and most powerful "men" on earth can do. Psychologists have learned much from the like of "Reverend" Jim Jones... so have others who possess insatiable appetites for mass control. I strongly suggest one reads the Jonestown story. How he operated and how George W. Bush is operating bear striking resemblances. There is much more politics to the Jonestown Massacre story than one may recall. Mind control has been a human quest since humanity first realized it possessed a mind that another individual could influence. I promise, reading the Reverend Jim Jones "official" story at the URL shown will leave you speechless... but hopefully not forever.

http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/jonestown/index_1.html

Here is but one excerpt from a very detailed account of the Jonestown Massacre. It would be extremely enlightening to learn a bit or refresh your memory about California Representative Leo J. Ryan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ryan

As Ryan’s delegation was preparing to board their aircraft, Jim Jones called the “Jonestown” community together. He explained to them, as if it were a premonition rather than foreknowledge, that someone on the plane was going to kill Ryan. The consequences of this action would be that those political forces that had been trying to destroy the People’s Temple for years would attack the people at "Jonestown". The “enemy” would descend upon them and kill them mercilessly. This was not a new threat to the community at “Jonestown," they had lived in fear of an unnamed enemy and destroyer for many years, nor was Jones’s solution new to them. He had been preparing them for what he termed “revolutionary suicide” for some time.

George W. Bush is famous for his belief that he was dubbed U.S. President by God himself. In fact, Bush believes, as a result, he is infallible. I am reminded of one of Senator Joe Biden's finer moments. Author and NY Times writer, Ron Suskind, recalls:

Forty democratic senators were gathered for a lunch in March just off the Senate floor. I was there as a guest speaker. Joe Biden was telling a story, a story about the president. ''I was in the Oval Office a few months after we swept into Baghdad,'' he began, ''and I was telling the president of my many concerns'' -- concerns about growing problems winning the peace, the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanding of the Iraqi Army and problems securing the oil fields. Bush, Biden recalled, just looked at him, unflappably sure that the United States was on the right course and that all was well. '''Mr. President,' I finally said, 'How can you be so sure when you know you don't know the facts?'''

Biden said that Bush stood up and put his hand on the senator's shoulder. ''My instincts,'' he said. ''My instincts.''

Biden paused and shook his head, recalling it all as the room grew quiet. ''I said, 'Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough!"

Bush, much like the now infamous Reverend Jim Jones leads by his self-proclaimed God sanctioned instincts laced with his unrelenting purveyance of fear. Name one other tangible leadership quality George W. Bush possesses other than his ability to turn every discussion on its head and into a discussion about terrorism. According to George W. Bush one should support his plan to privatize social security because.... "if you don't support his plan TERRORISTS WILL ATTACK YOU... and perhaps, at his bidding, they will!"

Fear, it is rumored, can cause horses to run into burning barns from whence they are trying to be rescued. This is a bit of a myth but such incidences have happened. Fear, sometimes, causes people, too, to run into what they have, for a time, perceived as their safe haven. Bush and his international cabal present their ideology as a safe haven. Their ideology is no safe haven. The Bush regime is a barn on fire. Yet some people, like some horses, will run back into the deadly burning barn.

Karl Rove and his growing international team of linguists and psychologists are but cogs in the complex machine of terror. Machiavellian psychological terrorists need physical terrorists as much as the physical terrorists need them.

There is no terror greater than psychological terror. Disagree?

Visit an insane asylum. Then get back to me. The insane don't mutilate and/or kill themselves and/or others because they are having such a wonderful time here on planet earth.

Can the whole world go crazy? You bet it can.

The definition of insanity is for one to believe everyone in the world but himself or herself has gone crazy. Folks, call me crazy. But before you lock me up, consider this. If all or even one-half of all travelers literally stopped traveling when a terror threat as serious as this present one supposedly is, would we be alerted at all?

Remember, the US shut down all flights only "after" a terror attack occurred on 9/11. This after-the-fact shut down cannot be compared to subsequent "threats of terror." These threats will continue to serve the "powers that be" and will accommodate their desire to "have it both ways" as long as travelers continue to spend money and travel in complete dismissal of their terror alerts. As long the masses do not actually heed their warnings and keep flying and continue to vote for those that they otherwise ignore, these incumbent powers are as happy as they can be. As far the powers are concerned it's "Mission Accomplished" and without significantly disrupting the airline industry's economy.

These insane travelers will fly and then on election day validate their insanity by voting for those who tell them in one breath, "you are in danger, but not really... so go ahead and fly."

Once on a plane one is committed. Somehow, I just don't think the world is "getting it."

Either there is a grizzly in the cage or there isn't. It cannot be both ways.

Duane Short
August 10, 2006

p.s. Five continuous hours of CNN and nothing, apparently, has happened in Lebanon.