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“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained… infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
– George Santayana; from The Life of Reason (1905-1906)
“and Night fell on a different world…”
– George W Bush, Joint Chiefs of Staff Speech, Sept. 20, 2001. (see references below)
Throughout history attempts have been made by some of the most powerful and concerned statesmen to warn the people of imminent threats. And the record shows us that we did not listen in too many of these cases. The first quote above should be explained in this context. Our cultural obsession with novelty has created a situation in which such warnings are too often ignored. This forgetting allows for the erosion of rights which were only ‘won’ over decades and centuries of toil and bloodshed. In more recent memory, President Eisenhower and President Kennedy both attempted to warn the voting public of challenges to democracy in the form of a terrible ‘machine’ – the same sort of machine that was described in the 1939 Frank Capra film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
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The history of the United States is full of other such warnings from great men. Consider also Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. These men understood the vulnerability of the voting public to the predations of political will by powerful entities. Some were successful and others not. Many of these warnings involved threats to democracy due to influence by central banking, the consolidation of power in the hands of too few people, corruption of the government in all branches and the like. The spread of first NATO then agencies like the IMF and World Bank however have made the theatre in which vigilance must be sought more complex. We are perhaps not well enough educated to appreciate that behind the actors are also producers and playwrights. Our media news channels present a face that is consistent with television dramas, for the purpose of easy digestion. Establishment pundits defer in too many cases to the belief that the ‘simpler’ story, however implausible is likely to be the one that is true… a useful idea in some cases but not when one understands how the theatre actually operates.
THE HIDDEN HAND
The phrase "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" – first appearing in Frank Baum’s 1900 book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was actually one of the first occurrences of such warnings and was undoubtedly inspired by William Jennings Bryan’s infamous "Cross of Gold" speech. Baum’s book however, was generally considered such a warning, however obscure it may seem now (this is precisely the sort of phenomenon we are talking about!). The meme of the ‘Hidden Hand’ as such, was employed continually when talking of American politics, up through Eisenhower and Kenenedy Administrations. Dwight D. Eisenhower seemed to feel that this threat was grave enough to devote the whole of his final departure speech to the American public as a warning.
Here is a brief excerpt:
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We can only imagine the dangerous position Eisenhower felt himself to be in, given that he waite until the day of his departure from office to give the speech. Similar warnings have been given throughout the history of the Republic: most prominently among these were probably those given by Jefferson, Jackson, Franklin (among others) about the predations of Central Banking and the move toward private control of currency (See sidebar titled ‘Warnings about the Threat of Central Banking’ below).
Another colourful instance of the hidden hand metaphor being invoked is through Vladimir Lenin:
"“The state does not function as we desired. The car does not obey. A man is at the wheel and he seems to lead it, but the car does not drive in the desired direction. It moves as another force wishes.†– as quoted in A Fate Worse than Debt (1988) Susan George.
Only a handful of years after Eisenhower’s admonitions we find Kennedy echoing the message:
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Kennedy indicates a ‘hidden hand’ with global reach across financial, military, legislative (governmental) and public relations sectors (newpaper and media control). His attack on the Federal Reserve, America’s own central bank was an attack on a global cartel which threatened to undermine the prosperity of the nation. Kennedy (or whoever coached him) clearly understood this.
Escaping the grasp of central banking and it’s effects was (indirectly) the primary aim of the American Revolution and therefore also a foundation of the very concept of American Culture. One of the means through which Benjamin Franklin was able to make the colonies functional – and the act that actually triggered the invasion of Britain – was the issuance of a uniquely Colonial currency. Lincoln did the same some hundred-odd years later. Two of the great attacks on central banking were answered with peril for the complainants! (Lincoln and Kennedy).
It was Woodrow Wilson during who, during his tenure of Office in 1913, oversaw the passage by Congress of the Federal Reserve Act, undoing Lincoln’s repatriation of monetary policy and paving the way for anew round of financial skullduggery. After the failure of the ‘Hidden Hand’ to find success with Lincoln, it was realized that Presidents needed to be groomed for their appointments (as was Wilson).
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Any scholar of American history will also be aware of similar threats against many others. The most significant of the Central Bank’s detractors was probably Andrew Jackson, whose sole second term platform goal was to ‘kill’ the Second Bank of the United States. The bank threatened to cause a depression as a direct result of Jackson’s threat and indeed started to – except for the fact of Nicholas Biddle having publicly bragged about the power he was thus able to wield over the people and Jackson himself. While central bank leverage in the form of the Federal Reserve remains a larger threat than ever to the freedom of the Government of the United States and her people, the arms of the Hydra have grown in number and length. Since the formation of the ‘Fed’, media and public relations control has become far broader and deeper, control of the Congress and Senate have become all but a branded instrument by the corporate world. The sprint toward Globalization and the expansion of the central banking system through the IMF ‘by any means necessary’ (mostly involving ‘dirty economics’ and extortionist practices) have made this not only an American problem, but a global one. |
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AND HERE WE ARE IN 2013.
To put things into perspective: The Federal Reserve’s charter is due to renew in December of this year. The systems of control and safeguard put into place by the Military Industrial Complex have reached profound levels of complexity. It is utterly impossible to enter a responsible position of political office in North America without first having pledged fealty to the machine that makes it run. We are a very very long way from a society that is capable of producing a film like ‘Mr Smith Goes to Washington’!
Lobbies have all but replaced the citizens as the enablers of legislative action. As mentioned in a sidebar above, nearly all bills today are in fact drawn up by these ‘corporate citizens’ rather than senators or congressmen. And now corporations have even ‘earned’ the right of Personhood. Lobbies are the instrument through which the political will of the Military Industrial Complex gets injected into the legislative branch. While having orders of magnitude more power than entire electoral ridings, it is the interests of lobbies which are catered to. We assume we do not have to convince the readers of the threats upon liberty posed by modern corporate entities, if one follows current events.
Shall we dismiss these important precedents as mere ramblings of irrational men? What were they trying to tell us? Clearly these communiqués to the public weren’t simply flippant comments. While the world political theatre is indeed a very different place since ‘back then’ – at least to public perception – it shouldn’t be much of a stretch to understand how these same ‘players’ still pull strings today. Indeed – it should be painfully obvious to anyone following world events in North America and overseas with the country-by-country conquest of the middle east.
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SIDEBAR: WHAT’S A PATSY? The term Patsy came into it’s own political meaning through the actions and speech of Lee Harvey Oswald, famous for having been accused for the assassination of John F Kennedy. patsy |ˈpatsÄ“| In political and intelligence parlance ‘patsy’ also means someone used as a pawn, ‘duped’ for the purposes of political advantage. Another recent example of a Patsy might be the infamous ‘underwear bomber’ – in this case he was actually affiliated or an employee of, an intelligence agency (CIA) – but the accusation and his role were no less those of a patsy. Please refer also to the article on the subject (The Guardian): Underwear Bomber was Working for CIA |
SO WHO GOT HIJACKED BY 9/11?
Since 9/11 we have seen a radical change of landscape, both in terms of domestic and foreign policy. The formation of the Orwellian ‘Department of Homeland Security’ and the implementation of associated policies has gutted Bill of Rights, suspended the Constitution, and has sent ordinary Americans into a world defined by fear and mistrust of one’s neighbors. The bout of corporate deregulation and repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, occurring in tandem with 9/11, created a class of corporate ‘untouchables’ that have turned back the clock from a perspective of civil rights by more than 200 years. Levels of personal debt due to manipulation of debt and equity markets by banking fraud have risen to the point where the prospect of giving one’s own children the advantages that we had looks a lot more like fantasy than we could have imagined even a decade ago. Deregulation in the media has created a situation where it is impossible to tell from the evening news what is true and what isn’t. Being lied to has never been easier.
SUMMARY
"Give me control of the issuance of a nation’s money, and I care not who makes her laws" – Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Through the control of currency (both supply and flow), control and power are asserted absolutely. The lending of money is a very real form of asserting political control over all nations and has been practiced for at least two centuries. The influence of a relatively small group of families over entire nations and it’s citizenry extends from financial sectors through legislative and media control. This is the ‘hidden hand’.
WHAT YOU DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE – IS WHAT WILL CONTINUE.
REFERENCES:
George W Bush, the "and Night Fell on a Different World" speech
People Who Opposed the Federal Reserve
The Guardian: Underwear Bomber was Working for CIA
List of Members
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John F. Kennedy