Exactly zero percent of the world’s worst criminals are in prison. Imperialists. War profiteers. Ecocide profiteers. The very worst of thieves are financial elites. The system isn’t designed to protect us from society’s worst, it’s designed to protect society’s worst from us.

I don’t write much about the specific individuals who drive the oligarchic empire because individuals are not the problem, the system is. Right-wing conspiracy analysts prefer to focus on specific corrupt elites because they like to think if you just got rid of them, capitalism would work fine. And it just wouldn’t. If you rounded up and executed all the sociopathic ruling elites today but left our current systems intact they’d just be replaced tomorrow. A competition-based model where war, corruption, oppression and exploitation remain profitable guarantees this.

A lot of right-wing conspiracy analysis today ultimately boils down to “These bastards are ruining the capitalism!” But capitalism is already ruined, and ruinous. As long as it’s profitable to destroy each other and our ecosystem, the ruin will continue. That’s the real problem. Making it about individuals feeds into the false impression that the individuals are the problem, and absolves us of our collective responsibility to move out of our competition-based model to one in which we collaborate with each other and our ecosystem to create a healthy world.

As long as we have systems in which it’s advantageous to be sociopathic enough to do whatever it takes to get ahead, we will find ourselves ruled by sociopaths. The names and faces on those sociopaths are ultimately irrelevant. They’re a symptom of the underlying disease.

It’s the mass media’s job to normalize war and abnormalize peace. It’s our job to do the exact opposite.

People who say cops are fine to kill people for disobeying orders are saying they believe in a death penalty without trial.

“The black man deserved to be killed because he disobeyed the authority figure” is nineteenth century slaver talk.

Sure I guess spending your nation’s wealth and resources on an endlessly expanding worldwide military campaign while impoverishing your citizenry at home and keeping them in line with an increasingly violent and militarized police force is one way you can choose to do things.

The fall of the US empire wouldn’t necessarily be a concern if its government hadn’t espoused the neoconservative doctrine that US unipolar hegemony must be preserved and prolonged at all cost. That last bit is what’s frightening.

I’ve been tripping on the frenzied propaganda campaign against China a lot lately because it’s so effective. People are swallowing it en masse, which means that when things get ugly (and they will get ugly), people will be easily manipulated into playing along with that ugliness.

I write about narrative control all the time because that’s ultimately what it’s all about. If you don’t believe that human life is dominated by mental narrative on all levels, sit down, close your eyes, and try to still your mind for a few minutes. Try as hard as you can. And watch what happens.

Easy right? You can stop your thoughts and rest in stillness for as long as you like. Right?

Of course not. Most people’s lives are dominated by a relentless deluge of thought stories from the moment they wake up in the morning to the moment they go to sleep at night. We say we think our thoughts, but in reality they’re more like something that happens to us whether we like it or not. Our entire experience of life is shaped by story. By narrative.

Because humans are so pervasively dominated by mental narrative, whoever can manipulate the narratives about a given subject can manipulate humans at mass scale. That’s why so much energy goes into propaganda: narrative control is the real crux of power.

This is how you can spot someone who prioritizes manipulation in their lives: they pour a tremendous amount of energy into influencing the thoughts people think about them and the stories they tell each other about them rather than making real changes to themselves and the world. This applies to people you know personally, all the way up to politicians and plutocrats.

Narrative rules the earth. If we can free our minds we can free the world.

Your life touches so many others in more ways than you know. The more conscious you become, the more consciousness you bring to others through all those connections. You can become a light for the world by enlightening yourself. Awaken your mind. Heal your wounds. Shine bright.

____________________

New book: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix.

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36 responses to “It’s The Media’s Job To Normalize War: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix”

  1. Caitlin says: “individuals are not the problem, the system is. I disagree: For more than 70 years, scientists have known that undesirable genes are the root cause of society’s problems. Good systems, constitutions, honest economic principles, laws, and regulations etc. partly restrain but do not eliminate evil. Super-wealthy psychopaths own the big banks which instigate and sponsor wars, revolutions and violent strategies which enrich these psychopaths. But Yeshua, whose name means Liberator in Hebrew, explained how we can precipitate the downfall of their evil empire. He instructed His followers to withdrawn financial support and cooperation in their crimes against humanity. After the evil empire implodes, the ensuing wars, revolutions, pandemics and famine will eliminate all but a small group of survivors with only good quality genes who will repopulated the earth. But no one does that that because it is too challenging. Even critical journalists, dissidents, protesters and looter continue to enjoy the benefits of remaining part of the establishment and remain complicit in perpetrating their system. Yeshua explained everything in detail but for 1700 years the Catholic Church twisted and corrupted His lectures and brilliant revolutionary strategies through translation errors and/or massive censoring of relevant ancient records. The Catholic Church is the mother of abominations, collaborating with governments in fraud, mind control, aggression and oppression. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf

    1. I guess that you are promoting the idea of GIdeon destroying the Midianites by causing them to kill one another in their evil confusion. That is a good idea, but many good people, including those who were deceived, will die with the evil ones, and there is no guarantee that all the truly evil ones will be killed. There are many faults in that idea, while it does sound good to be able to have all the wicked greedy people kill one another.

  2. I agree with Caitlin too. Her model of cooperation instead of competition should be adopted in our education system especially, where older children help educate the younger and homework is done communally. That would help us to think cooperatively, with no test anxiety and, I think, better learning in general. Is there such an education system?

    Her “note”:
    Sure I guess spending *your* nation’s wealth and resources on an endlessly expanding worldwide military campaign while impoverishing *your* citizenry at home and keeping them in line with an increasingly violent and militarized police force is one way *you* can choose to do things.

    illustrates a problem in the way “we” think of “us”. Just who is the “you” I emphasized in her note? It surely isn’t you or me or anybody reading this blog. We should find ways of thinking cooperatively and not deferring to the self-appointed masters. Maybe blogs like this are at least one part of learning to think cooperatively, if we are nice to each other…

  3. Quote, “I’ve been tripping on the frenzied propaganda campaign against China a lot lately because it’s so effective. People are swallowing it en masse” Unquote.
    I don’t understand why people are swallowing this crap. We’ve been there before and swallowed it in the same manner before, and learned nothing from that lesson.
    May I remind all followers that the lead up to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam debacle was EXACTLY THE SAME TRIPE ? Allegedly the Yellow Hords were going to invade Australia, to prevent that happening, it was better to fight them over there, than on our shores. The Australian people’s bought that LIE, lock, stop and barrel. Never mind the FACT that the Vietnamese Navy existed of a half dozen local gun boats, and a pathetic military that couldn’t even defend it’self, let alone invade another country. But hey, lets not allow the FACTS to spoil a good narrative that everyone is once again falling for. The stupidity of humans, never ceases to astound me.

    1. Surely our government wouldn’t lie to us about something so important?

      Doesn’t make much sense, I know. But does it come into it?

  4. This essay is a bit scattershot, but I must reject the (frequent) implicit conflation of BIG-C (e.g. Wall St. or City of London) capitalism with the small-c capitalism as exemplified by a hardware store or a bicycle shop. One is a monster, the other is not – and is how life has proceeded since the concept of “business” evolved.

    The part that should bother us – in almost all of this essay (and others) – is the idea that some supra-organization (think NWO/WEF/WB/IMF/BIS …), some deus-ex-machina – can fix it — though the author here does finally segue to a conclusion that it must be done by individual changes of consciousness.

    1. It’s a distinction without a difference as pertains to my commentary. I’m talking about ANY model in which mass-scale human behavior is driven by competition and profit-seeking. Any such model will guarantee the perpetuation of the problems I seek to address here. As long as it remains profitable to destroy our ecosystem and step on our fellow humans, word-threatening devastation will continue. There are no iterations of capitalism in which this will not happen.
      https://www.rt.com/op-ed/511040-caitlin-johnstone-modern-capitalism/

      1. “As long as it remains profitable to destroy our ecosystem and step on our fellow humans, word-threatening devastation will continue. There are no iterations of capitalism in which this will not happen.”
        Likewise there are no iterations of government that won’t do exactly the same thing. The very foundation of all government is death. A select group claiming authority to kill you if you don’t abide its “laws”. The saintly and the sane do not seek such position. How would one structure a government that did not threaten death for non-compliance? A government that encouraged cooperation and mutual support without threatening to kill you if you step out of line? If we unanimously embraced such as a species, we would have no use for any government. Since we do not, any government is going to be psychopathic in nature. Death is their coin.

        1. Concur with this analysis: where force will be used (in any context) to assure utopia (the floggings will stop when moral improves …) … and without serious savagery we will continue to have Mozarts & Salieris. This is why socialism always seems like an obvious algebra of envy.

  5. What the mainstream media does (like religions have done for centuries), is normalize FEAR.
    The fear of death.
    The fear of God.
    The fear of people who don’t look like us.
    The fear of ‘terrorists/enemies’
    The fear of not having enough material goods.
    The fear of poverty.
    The fear of disease/sickness.
    The fear of loneliness and/or social isolation.
    The fear of different political systems.
    The fear of not knowing the latest news/gossip.
    Have I missed any?
    Feeding fear IS control and control feeds wealth.

  6. War was normal in ancient times and “might was right!” However, Moses taught his people certain principles of war: They must conquer and eliminate a nation of hostile people who attacked them while they were homeless and vulnerable and also conquer and eliminate another sexually perverted nation whose mothers routinely killed their firstborn children in fires as sacrifices to Molech their god. Moses instructed his people to make peace with other neighboring nations who were willing to remain at peace and willing to pay taxes to his nation’s administrators in exchange for keeping their own rights and peace treaties as cooperating nations. Many centuries later, a more powerful nation conquered, enslaved and scattered the nation established by Moses. Then a great Liberator, Yeshua, came to prominence among surviving members of the conquered nation and inspired and led an active but non-violent rebellion against their oppressive conquerors. That rebellion was designed to undermine the monetary system and subvert the economic power of the oppressors. Yeshua warned his follower that their oppressors would secretly arrest, torture and execute them and that is what happened. The rebellion continued underground for nearly 2 centuries until the oppressors used spies, infiltrators, torture, cunning and bribery, to convince Yeshua’s followers to come out of hiding and receive pardon in exchange for an end to persecution, torture and execution. Most rebels accept the deal but a small minority continued their underground rebellion and were subsequently hunted down and exterminated. But the message and spirit of this great Liberator, Yeshua, lives on and is still alive and extremely relevant today. Most people today are financial slaves and live under oppressive indoctrination by their political and religious leaders. They just don’t know this. Read more of this here: http://www.wisdompage.com/2013%20Articles/Molyneaux%20essay.pdf

    1. Thank you for the essay, it looks like it has some good reading references to access to learn from. Regarding Jesus- he never existed. If he had been real, and a revolutionary, he would not have proposed paying taxes and tithes to rabbis and leaders he called serpents, hypocrites, blind guides, and white-washed tombs eaten by worms (Matthew 23). IF he had really existed, he was a failure- as a revolutionary, he was killed, and not at all successful. IF he was a teacher, his teachings were not the best- he told to turn the other cheek- evil bullies don’t see that as a positive attribute, they see it as weakness and continue to bully. IN Romans 13 and 1Peter 2, the bible says that the governors are placed by god, to honor and obey them. Is there one good governor? It says in 6 places in the NEw Testament for slaves to obey their masters no matter how wicked they are. THe New Testament is a tool of control for Rome, it teaches to be submissive and slavelike. The opposite your superficial understanding perceives. In addition, the Hebrews were instructed by god (moses said) to destroy whole nations, several, including women, children, even animals, not because of sin, but to inhabit their lands. ⦁ Exodus 17:14 ⦁ Numbers 31:1-3

      ⦁ Deuteronomy 7:1-2 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, (2) and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them

      1. Michael, Looks like your version of the “no history” of Yeshua and His Ambassadors is based in inadequate research, and the bias of post-modernists who publish fallacies to promote their agenda.

        1. Actually, I posted some of this from my book THE UNTOLD NATURE OF CHRISTIANITY. It is the result of 10,000 hours of study of the bible, in addition, more study of history and the faith. I had been a devout Christian for ten years, teaching bible. On the other hand, you seem to have no clue as to the real teachings of Jesus, and are just saying what you think the bible says without reading one word. Be a real revolutionary and read. Real revolutionaries have smarts, and that is why they hate the authorities. H L Mencken said: “the most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself.. Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.

          1. Christianity is a neo-pagan religion invented by Roman Catholic bishops, cleverly presented in the terminology of the ancient scriptures to deceive and indoctrinate. I am NOT a Christian but a follower of the world’s Great Liberator who taught a strategy of collective, non-violent subversion of tyranny.

        2. Who is that nonviolent revolutionary? JEsus never existed, and like you said, the bible was created by Romans (there were no bishops when it was fabricated by Josephus, the author of the new testament) to impose a slave and submissive mentality. Do not be deceived, There will be no successful nonviolent revolution. Jesus was portrayed as being killed by Rome, and the revolution he supposedly led was never successful. HE supposedly said: render unto Caesar what is Caesars, and to god (rabbis) what is god’s.” =Pay taxes, obey authority, and give tithes to lying phonies. NO evil power relinquishes that power willingly. That power must be grabbed from them forcefully, there is no other way. The idea that it can be done peacefully is an avenue to defeat. Look at Doctor REVEREND king, he was killed, and now while blacks can sit in the front of the bus, and arent lynched, they are killed by cops, and are put away in prison with forced labor. Thanks to King.

  7. Another exact example of Reverse Propaganda Techniques:
    Biden’s Russia Policy Ludicrous, Unbelievable, Contradictory & Unprecedented https://www.rt.com/russia/521101-biden-putin-policy-rethink/
    Just take the following and insert US where the US inserted Russia:
    Thus the US intelligence community’s latest Annual Threat Assessment devotes an entire chapter to “Russian provocative actions”. This declares that, “Moscow will employ an array of tools – especially influence campaigns, intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation, military aid and combined exercises, mercenary operations, and arms sales – to advance its interests or undermine the interests of the United States and its allies.”
    —- Thus the [Russian] intelligence community’s latest Annual Threat Assessment devotes an entire chapter to “[US’] provocative actions”. This declares that, “[the US] will employ an array of tools – especially influence campaigns, intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation, military aid and combined exercises, mercenary operations, and arms sales – to advance its interests or undermine the interests of [Russia] and its allies.”
    Which Assessment is reflective of Reality?
    It is one of the oldest Propaganda Techniques: Accuse them of exactly what we are doing to them.
    And, it is so straightforward that if MSM wasn’t in total tandem/stenography they would laugh such a paragraph into a garbage can.

    1. Forgive the Project Veritas video, but it reveals 99% of media:

  8. My government is insane!!!
    ~
    Mr. Blinken should realize that all the deaths of the children that so concern him could be avoided if he and those pulling his strings would adopt a more modest agenda and stay at home.
    ~
    We have enough problems in the United States, but then again, the hubris which has created a pointless foreign policy would likely be channeled to drive still more of the destructive impulses that are turning the country into a collective of hostile enclaves.
    ~
    This fine article can be read here:
    Shock and Awe Is a State of Mind: Millions of Deaths Have Not Made Americans Safer by Philip Giraldi!
    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2021/04/15/shock-awe-state-mind-millions-deaths-have-not-made-americans-safer/

  9. However the crux behind it all is that the narrative comes from the ego and that the ego is the expression of the survival instinct. The more insecure people feel, the more they want to amass “securities” in every sense of the word. They think riches will protect them and then the whole shebang metastizes and they’re willing to kill everybody to save their asses. The real enemy of mankind is fear. That’s what’s at the root of all evil: the threat – real or imagined – to the survival instinct.

  10. There is such a thing as too much concentration of wealth.

    1. In fact I might almost go so far as to say that the prime role of government is to manage the ability to concentrate wealth. You kinda want a bit, but not too much.

      1. Like, weird things that the UK government gets up to. (1) Monarchy: the monarch has absolute power because someone has to, but since the Restoration they agree to give it all away in a ceremony every year. (2) Public ownership: the government runs monopolies (or used to) but they’re kinda run not for profit so that’s OK…

  11. Sorry (not really) but I disagree. While greed and selfishness and worshiping evil entities are the major cause of inequality and evil today, you need to look at the source. Capitalism did not grow out of nowhere. Evil rich people who create empires and murder and kill for money and power existed long before capitalism. Egypt had slaves and high technology, and rulers. The Roman Empire conquered and subjugated whole nations, and then created Christianity to misguide people into an obedient submissive mentality of confused followers. The Vatican currently rules alongside the globalists, and does so in guile, secrecy, deception, subversion, diversion, imperialism, and militarism (through its main tool the US). ITis the character of evil and the values and the mindsets and worldviews imposed on us by the evil ones in charge. Go deeper Caitlin

    1. Capitalism may not have been the original source of greed, selfishness and evil, but it is the controlling power today. It IS how the powerful elites insulate themselves at every step, by choking off opportunity for all but those of whom they approve, by destroying the environment, by spending fortunes to maintain a depressed minority when it would actually be far less costly to share the world among everyone. The can’t even begin to realize how much power and acclaim they would get, if their efforts were designed to improve and maintain the welfare of everyone, everywhere.
      The problem is that we well-wishers and activists are large in number but, at the same time, a minute portion of society. There are others that would join us. However, a largely capitalist world forces them to first tend to themselves and their own, so that they are often left with little time and no choice but to be part of the problem or to see their suffering go from on the margins to everything that their lives are about.

    2. THe problem is gods, the concept, the practice, the obedience to them, the values they promote, the desire to rule over others, to be worshiped, to be above, to be a chosen people, a royal priesthood, to be privileged, to be gods. Religion and being a ruler is the destruction of ethics and natural righteousness and goodness.
      ON the other hand, brotherhood and equality, community-mindedness, sharing and concern for each other should be what is promoted. Not godliness. Not obedience to those “in charge” -but in working together for a common goal, mutual benefit.

    3. Paul Douglas Rackemann Avatar
      Paul Douglas Rackemann

      I think you need to “go deeper” by being very clear about what your terms mean. You can call what we have now capitalism, but it is a corrupt form of capitalism. It is corrupt because the money system is unsound. The money system is unsound because it was corrupted at the beginning of World War One in order to allow the belligerents to spend a lot of money quickly, and never put back on a sound basis. I realise that this is not a romantic approach and that it is far easier to say that the whole system is wrong, but the fact is that a sound money system is the only way to “keep score,” as Nelson Bunker Hunt said. There are only two possible systems of production and distribution, the market system and the command system (where the government decides what is to be produced and who gets what), and the market system is infinitely more productive.
      I know the Vatican is there, but it is only one centre of pseudo-intellectual power. The Western education system, which thinks it is scientific, is a far more powerful religious institution today. It certifies people for jobs, so everyone has to suck up to it.
      I liked Caitlin’s first few paragraphs, as I often do. But I think she starts to go wrong when she gets around to suggesting that we should co-operate and not compete. I don’t have time to do into it any further right now.

      1. I dont recall seeing your name here before, but if you are a regular, you are certainly sarcastic and playing the part of the totally deceived and/or totally complicit and evil lover of hierarchy, lover of riches and ruling over others and being a “manager” (house negro in Malcolm’s terms),and appear to have bought the bullshit of the media and schooling system. YOu appear (unless you are being sarcastic)to not having read ANGRY LOUD AND CLEAR TRUTH, which proves that the government is ruled by globalists and the Vatican, in deceit, using subversion and guile, and has indoctrinated and programmed people to think like you appear to have been.

        1. Paul Douglas Rackemann Avatar
          Paul Douglas Rackemann

          Friend, I’ve been here for a little while. I am too old to be much interested in personal abuse. I was once, in the 1970s, part of a Catholic anti-Communist student group, so I know a little about how the Vatican operates. Is the “Angry Loud and Clear Truth” the name of an essay or something? If I have been indoctrinated and programmed, someone has done a good job, because I don’t know about it. I wish there were some way of having these discussions apart from this shrinking medium.

          1. It is a book that you can buy on Amazon kindle for $3, or email me to have it attached to a return email. Yes, you have been programmed, and the book shows how, who, why, etc… I am sorry for the “insult” I really thought you were being sarcastic.
            truthforce57@gmail.com
            http://truthforceinternational.org

  12. Americans wonder “What about us?” as billions of dollars each month are spent on our empire overseas.

  13. This time you got it wrong, Caitlin. It’s not that “if you just got rid of them, capitalism would work fine”, or that “capitalism is already ruined”.

    Capitalism is working perfectly. You are supposed to be exhausted and frightened and busy, because fear of homelessness and starvation makes obedient workers. Corrupt elites merely outcompeted the rest who would be equally corrosive if the tables turned.

    PS: I agree with you, just trying to make a point here.

  14. “Narrative rules the earth. If we can free our minds we can free the world.”

    Do garment workers in developing countries spend their days producing crap because they’ve swallowed the narratives and propaganda about fast fashion and retail therapy bringing happiness and fulfillment? I think not. Many of them know they’re producing crap, for people who have too much crap already, risking their health to do so*, and damaging their environment while they’re at it. But what’s the alternative? Remain in, or return to, their villages, where any medical crisis can plunge them and their family into dire poverty, if it hasn’t already. In what way will freeing minds help?

    *https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/h_56752683.jpg
    Caption: Millions make a living from the garment industry but civil society advocates worry workers are at risk from the disease because there is little monitoring of physical distancing including during the journey to work [& fatal crashes are also frequent]

  15. GREAT one, Caitlin! Yes! “The very worst of thieves are financial elites.” Those who control the creation of money in the world today. My socialist friends who eschew understanding the money system say, “Capitalism is the private ownership of the means of production.” How stupid do you have to be to ignore the fact that money buys the means of production and everything else? Anyway, yes, the narrative steers us away from understanding the money system with MMT and other bullshit theory. Thank you for staying on the money dominated and created narrative.

    1. Carolyn L Zaremba Avatar
      Carolyn L Zaremba

      You need to read Marx since you apparently have NO understanding of Marxism whatsoever. At. All. Karl Marx spent his entire life studying political economy and how it works and who produces wealth and who steals it. His discoveries put socialism on a scientific basis and what he discovered continues to hold true up to this very minute.

      1. …i believe you’ll find marx was a ‘gold bug’ and a monetary ignoramus…i believe mr. switzer is a very knowledgeable monetary realist…

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