Reply #56: How It Got To Be This Way

[mermaid]

Human civilization has always needed a scapegoat. Particularly, those in power have always needed a scapegoat...one which they can label as "outcasts" and "undesireable."
first, it shifts attention away from their own wrongdoings...secondly, it focusses the anger of people against the chosen target, rather than against the target that anger SHOULD be focussed against. This is how terrorists are recruited, by the way.

While our foreign policy sucks, and is at least partly to blame for much of the poverty and suffering in the Middle East and around the world...their own corrupt leaders take and hoard resources intended for the people, and blame the United States for their sufferings. Thus, they focus the anger of the people against "the Great Satan (U.S.)" and NOT against them. This serves a dual purpose...it keeps the dictators in power, and limits scrutiny by the people of the wrongdoings of the tyrants who are at least also partly responsible for the sufferings of those people...and it focusses the people's anger against political targets of the tyrant's choosing.

Meanwhile, the suffering people, with no hope of a better life...have nothing left to lose by volunteering to be suicide bombers...and in fact, are often willing to do it, because they know their families will be financially rewarded for thier actions...and they, themselves, are promised a place in Heaven, and deliverance from the suffering, squalid, miserable existence they have to endure...imposed partly by the corporate, greedy, self-interest of American foreign policy...and the wrongdoings of corrupt dictators. for these people, becoming a terrorist recruit is the only option open to them to deliver themselves, and their families, from the suffering, and the squalid conditions they endure on a daily basis...and, of course, the message that their suffering is ENTIRELY America's fault is drilled nto their heads from an early age...and, as you well know, lies repeated often enough become the truth. This is called "demagogue" and an objective look at the current Bush Administration is a quick lesson in "demagogue."

It is not an atrophy of our humanity. It is the masses being manipulated by the elite ruling classes. It is the masses believing the lies, the demagogue. False information, false results. And of course, taking a feared, disliked, and distrusted group of "undesireable" people is a good way to unite people behind you, against targets of your own choosing...and shift attention away from things you do not want scrutinized.

This is why, by the way, Michael Moore is being so lambasted by the right wingnuts. He is inviting scrutiny of things the right wingnuts do not want scrutinized.

Also, human civilization has always needed some "outsider" to whom they can say..."you are not one of us!" "You do not belong!" This is because so few people possess the ability to look within and find validation for themselves...they must instead look to the outside and say, "well at least I am better than THEM..." Else, how do they know that they themselves belong...if they cannot tell someone else that they DON'T belong?

Humankind has always needed a scapegoat...and a bogey man, on which they can blame all of their society's ills...because, as long as they have it, they never have to examine THEMSELVES as a possible source of society's ills. The 1960's (and centuries prior, I might add) saw African-Americans as the bogey men...the undesireables...the source of all society's ills...the erosion of the "Ozzy and Harriet" fiction that most believed society was...or should be.

In our modern era, homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals...along with multicultualists, athiests, liberals, tree-huggers, etc. are the scapegoats and bogey men of choice. You can probably also make a case for smokers and overweight people, as well as illegal drug users being lumped in as the new scapegoats, the undesireables.

The anger, the fear...this is being manipulated by the elite...the masses are being led by the nose, to serve the interests of the elite. They are being lied to constatntly...they are being demagogued about what the source of all society's ills are...and their anger is being focussed, and directed, by the elite...against enemies of the choosing of the ruling elite, the American aristocrats, the corporate moguls, the people who have the power in this country.

Most people have given up individual control over their lives...they do not want the responsibility. They would rather be led...and told what to think...they are content, like a horse, to stick their heads into the stanchions, and munch contentedly until they die. They are like sheep...they wish to be led. It is too much work, and too much responsibility to think for themselves...they would rather be TOLD what to think, and what to believe. So they are duped into serving the interests of the ruling elite, in direct conflict to their own self-interest...though they do not know they are acting against their own self-interest, because of the demagoguery that the elite class uses, to assure these people that, in the long run, they are acting in their own self-interest...and by throwing those who cooperate and do not make waves...the occasional bone.

This is just simply the way things work in human society, by my own observations of it. The answer, then, is...is didn't GET this way...it has ALWAYS BEEN this way! The scapegoats and bogey men have changed over the years, depending on time and place in history...but there has always been that scapegoat and bogey man. Now, of course, in the United States...swarthy skinned Middle Easterners are the latest scapegoat and bogey man...they are directing our fear there (by means of the terror color code) and thus shifting attention away from the evil that they do. I mean, why even have a blue or green on the terror code? It isn't like we're ever going to be any lower than "yellow." Sure, let's go ahead and make it blue or green, and advertise to the terrorists..."HEY, GUYS, OUR GUARD IS WAY DOWN, SO WHY NOT COME IN AND NAIL US RIGHT NOW, WHILE WE ARE ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH AND COMPLACENT??" We're not going to do that.
So obviously, the terror code becomes a handy tool by which to ratchet up the fear factor...and to direct attention away from places the ruling elite do not want attention focussed.

In 1930's Germany, the scapegoats and bogey men were the Jews, right? The Gypsies, right? today, in the Middle East...it is "The Great Satan...the United States" that is the scapegoat and bogey man. So, as you can see...throughout history, depending on time, place, current events...the scapegoats and bogey men have changed...but they have always been there! And it seems now that Homosexuals, Bisexuals, and transgender people are the latest fashionable bogey man and scapegoat.

The ruling elite are very careful to "dehumanize" the scapegoat, the bogey man...so that people feel no guilt or remorse in acting against the chosen target...they feel no responsibility for their actions, nor the pain and suffering they cause that chosen target...because their victims have already been "dehumanized." that is to say, the ruling elite has convinced many people that these chosen targets are somehow sub-human, sub-standard...the cause of all that ills society, etc. etc. etc.

And the only way we can change the situation is to put a human face on the scapegoat, the bogey man. We need to reclaim our stolen humanity. We need to put a human face on the suffering, the injustice, the indignities that we endure. And we need to hope people pay attention long enough to get the message and begin to think. And this, by the way, is what Michael Moore is trying to accomplish with Fahrenheit 9/11. To put a HUMAN FACE on the tragedy, the suffering, the injustice...and to direct attention toward the REAL CAUSE of that tragedy, suffering and injustice. and it's why the ruling elite hate Michael Moore.

It is also why they seek to discredit the messenger, in this case, Moore. Because they cannot discredit the things Moore brings to light in his movie (because they are true) they seek instead to discredit Moore...to paint him as a wild-eyed fanatic, a liar, etc...because then no one will believe his message.

Tnhese are the tried and true tactics of the ruling elite. This has existed in human society for as long as civilization has existed.

So the short answer is...We did not GET TO BE THIS WAY...this is the way WE ALWAYS HAVE BEEN!!!