The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity - Independent Media Center
The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity - Independent Media Center
The Poor-Man's Guide to Modernity - Independent Media Center
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“Public opinion polls suggest that only a small minority (13 percent) of Americans<br />
favor the proposition that 'as the sole remaining superpower, the US should continue<br />
<strong>to</strong> be the preeminent world leader in solving international problems'. ... Moreover, as<br />
America becomes an increasingly multicultural society, it may find it more difficult <strong>to</strong><br />
fashion a consensus on foreign policy issues, except in the circumstance of a truly<br />
massive and widely perceived direct external threat. .... More generally, cultural<br />
change in America may also be uncongenial <strong>to</strong> the sustained exercise abroad of<br />
genuinely imperial power. That exercise requires a high degree of doctrinal<br />
motivation, intellectual commitment, and patriotic gratification. ... Mass<br />
communications have been playing a particularly important role in that regard,<br />
generating a strong revulsion against any selective use of force that entails even low<br />
levels of casualties .... In brief, the U.S. Policy goals must be un-apologetically<br />
twofold: <strong>to</strong> perpetuate America's own dominant position for at least a generation and<br />
preferably longer,...” (211-215)<br />
So, how <strong>to</strong> embark on “imperial mobilization” when the American white man (and the Western<br />
white man in general) are no longer themselves “infected by imperialist emotions ...a quest for<br />
national glory, 'the white man's burden', 'la mission civilisatrice',” kept engaged, and ensnared,<br />
as they all are, in chasing their respective 'American Dreams'? Which, for the vast majority of<br />
'white trash' among them, have their dollars, pounds, and euros, sucked out of their pockets<br />
even before it can reach their dinner tables and their perpetual debt collec<strong>to</strong>rs? <strong>The</strong> political<br />
science principle of achieving “imperial mobilization” under such conditions is <strong>to</strong> engineer<br />
consent – just as one might engineer technology, or engineer the voyage <strong>to</strong> the moon. It takes<br />
a great deal of expertise, and very deep pockets. This social technology is examined in the<br />
Preamble of my 2008 report Weapons of Mass Deception, where it is explained how consent,<br />
as well as dissent, both must <strong>to</strong> be manufactured in order <strong>to</strong> be effective, employing different<br />
categories of deceptions tailored <strong>to</strong> the different audiences and their mental acumen.<br />
This variance of having a differing audience, also necessitates making the manufacturing<br />
process, and its products, different at every level. From simple big lies for the vast majority, <strong>to</strong><br />
complex layered ones which mix verifiable empirical truths, half-truths, and outright lies<br />
characterized by clever omissions, layer by layer, so that the remaining few, as well as<br />
institutions and organizations with group-think, can also find something believable <strong>to</strong> suit their<br />
own individual propensities. Myths and mantras are cleverly fabricated and presented <strong>to</strong> each<br />
audience according <strong>to</strong> their own limited world views and selfish priorities which are often<br />
shared with their respective political, social, cultural, and religious groups. <strong>The</strong>se engineered<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Poor</strong>-<strong>Man's</strong> <strong>Guide</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Modernity</strong> 264 / 334 Zahir Ebrahim