posted January 02, 2008 03:34 AM              

Today I'd like to take you all inside my private library which contains dusty tomes of stupidity and lore which I've been collecting for as long as I've been able to.

Today's selection is an amazing little piece of Americana called:

National Security Management:
Global Psychological Conflict

(published by the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.)

Although there's no ISBN, here is the information available to me, if you should happen to want to pick up a copy.

1. Published by The Industrial College of the Armed Forces Washington D.C. 1961

2. Edited by Ralph Sanders and Fred R. Brown

3. This copy was printed, according to a small inscription at the end of the index, in 1967 under U.S. Printing Office designation 1967 - O - 271 - 427

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The volume itself is a very interesting glimpse into the thinking behind cold war propaganda and agitation methods used by both sides during the 60s.

Of course, the U.S. is painted in the rosiest of lights, but..to be honest, the treatment of the Soviet history was less brutal, and more evenhanded than I'd expected. A tribute to whoever wrote it I suppose. Particularly considering the times.

One thing about this volume was EXTREMELY interesting to me, however..which is why I bought it.

There was a list of propaganda points on pg 58 that seemed to parallel a fake(?) document that has been circulating around the internet for quite some time under the title "The Communist Manifesto."

This list wasn't written by Lenin or Stalin as far as I can tell, but was composed by the editors of Global Psychological Conflict and reads like this:

"SPECIFIC GOALS OF THE COMMUNIST EFFORT"

1. The creation of a psychologically strong, obedient, disciplined, steadfast, and iron-willed leadership core which thinks and behaves in a certain way, in that way only, and in that way for a long time regardless of obstacles.

2. The creation of a larger of oriented propagandists who spread Communist notions and are instrumental in creating and maintaining a suitable frame of reference imposed upon non-Communists.

3. The creation in both groups of a burning sense of hatred.

4. Docility, discipline, and controllability of subject populations which must be commanded by the unopposed will of the party leadership.

5. The creation, in the ruling, upper, and intellectual classes of Non-Communist societies, of frustration, confusion, pessimism, guilt, fear, defeatism, hopelessness, and neurosis, of lack of will, in essence the psychological destruction of anti-Communist leadership.

6. The splitting of a society into many competing and mutually hostile groups and the sapping of the spirit of loyalty, community, mutual helpfulness, positive expectation, and willingness to take risks and to act.

7. The creation and stimulation of an all-pervading sense of fear and anxiety, whether it be fastened onto the dangers of nuclear war, or physical terror, or professional, social, and human ruin.

8. The capture of the time dimension in the sense that an expectation of cataclysm and no progress under capitalism is established and paired with affirmed expectation that the future belongs to communism

9. The promise of relief from all troubles by means of an infallible as well as inevitable solution.

10. The semantic domination of intellectual, emotional, and socio-political life as well as the semantic control of all political argument.

11. The weakening and destruction of national conscience in the Free World and the inculcation of bad conscience about firm opposition to communism and the ideals usurped and distorted by it.
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What's really funny, is that with few exceptions, our society is using these same techniques on its own people..today.

Are we Communists now? Or does that simply highlight what great techniques those are for maintaining control of large populations?

Maybe all governing bodies take similar steps in order to "maintain the peace."

I'll share more about this book with you. Like I said it's a very interesting piece.

Until then..happy reading!

posted January 02, 2008 07:31 PM            

A side effect of socialism is that it teaches you to share the prize or reward that you got with the rest of the herd.

Communism has a danger of producing dullards.

Any republic nation has the danger of mismanagement of funds by corrupt group of people/government agency . Whether such a republic nation follows capitalism , socialism or communism.

All three are perfect models but situational.

America still has companies with greedy CEO's. I have said this often "I do not see many CEOs with good conscience". Come on own a house, buy a porche and get the heck on lean salary. Why does he need to hoard so much wealth?

Look at Bill Gates he is planning on leaving a fraction of his wealth to his children. Although that fraction works out to be still exorbitant , nevertheless a way to go

posted January 03, 2008 01:34 AM              

Rather I was pointing out that BOTH systems, use the same tactics to keep power..regardless of how they say they feel about the other guy doing it.

This may be true throughout human governments. It's worth looking into. If a formula has been developed for controlling the masses. What group that is in power, might not be tempted to put it into practice?

posted January 09, 2008 10:06 AM              

(Seems that they did, as is evidenced by the above excerpt from Global Psychological Conflict and its similarity to our current society's way of dealing with it's problems, which is to divide us into labeled factions and get us bickering with one another. Divide and Conquer baby. Groooovy.)