By Tibor S. Friedman

Americans surround themselves with symbols that represent who they think they are or want to be. Symbols and slogans conveniently defer introspection and curiosity.

True patriotism and love of country requires we go beyond putting Support Your Troops magnets or flags on our cars. The Great American experiment in democracy is in crisis and immediate jeopardy. The most secretive administration ever has installed a repressive security apparatus paving the way for dictatorship and martial law awaiting an 'event' to trigger the trap set for us. Unless we become active participants and educate ourselves about the crisis that is rapidly enveloping us the Great Experiment will end.

Americans aren't stupid but uninformed of what is really happening in their country and the world because of the dumbed down content and propaganda they consume in the mainstream media (MSM) and the public educational system. Recent studies have declared that high school graduates are unable to write a coherent sentence; schools teach information and expect students to retain and regurgitate data, not connect them. This is by design; the elite do not want too many critical thinkers in a diminished economy.

Information is the currency of the realm. The Internet today offers our best hope for our education and research, at least until the Elite figure out how to replace it with the restricted and establishment controlled Internet 2 currently being developed.

Information is managed and edited in the MSM and propaganda is an acceptable tool long used in media and education. Spin is the method of the day used to confuse and deflect. The Infotainment Industry?MSM and Hollywood combined?share financial, operational and propaganda interests. A recent example is the TV docudrama Oil Storm on Fox TV on June 5 that served the goals of putting fear into Americans about losing their oil lifeline and their American way of life and to gather support for the 21st Century Oil Wars by calling them the War on Terror, which is phony and being used by the psychopaths to divide us and reduce our numbers. The Bush administration is supported by Fox (aka GOP TV) owner Rupert Murdoch. Similarly, other media events usually have some ulterior motive to influence the public in some way.

For us to fully appreciate our current crisis we have to review our media history.

Walter Lippmann, the prominent journalist in the 1920s, said that the public must be put in its place. He believed, as did Woodrow Wilson and the Elite, that the responsible men (Elite) should manage the 'common interests' and 'live free of the trampling and the roar of a bewildered herd,' the ignorant and meddlesome outsiders. The only function the 'herd' has was to trample periodically in support of one or another element of the leadership class in an election.

As the 'herd' in the last century became more enlightened ever more sophisticated mechanisms for controlling information and perceptions have developed. The manufacture of consent, a term created by Edward Bernays, the father of the Public Relations industry, author of Propaganda and coincidentally Sigmund Freud's nephew, has become an art form and required of journalists.

Bernays says: "Those who manipulate the organized habits and opinions of the masses constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. . . . we are dominated by a relatively small number of persons. . . as civilization has become more complex. . . . the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented. . . . I must lead the people. Am I not their servant?

"The invisible government tends to be concentrated in the hands of the few because of the expense of manipulating the social machinery which controls the opinions and habits of the masses. It is not generally realized to what extent the words and actions of our most influential public men are dictated by shrewd persons operating behind the scenes."

Expanding on this understanding about the MSM and the Public Relations industry (the propaganda machine) we can include gatekeepers, or sources considered to be on the left (so-called liberals), who are charged with making sure that dissent and alternative views do not stray too far off the reservation of Elite acceptance.

Excluded topics include the 9/11 Truth Movement, the New World Order, the City Of London financial center, chemtrails, the Federal Reserve, Inc., etc. It is safe to assume that your letters to the editor are monitored and pre-selected prior to printing. I suspect that some letters and articles in The New York Times (as elsewhere) are fictitious, manufactured and planted, like the Judith Miller articles on WMDs (with con man Chalabi as her source) in the NYT prior to the current Iraq War that encouraged the congressional vote to go to war. MSM always supports and benefits from war. CNN's Aaron Brown declared that now that we are at war we have to get behind the government and the troops disregarding CNN's obvious cheerleading efforts to build support before the war.

My purpose of this article is to address the obvious fantasies about our democracy and the so-called free press (MSM) and their failure to provide Americans with real information for making educated decisions; we are considered the least informed population in the world. The MSM and most gatekeepers are believed to be infiltrated with CIA personnel and work explicitly for the Elites in power, in corporations, government and banking and serve to protect their interests in the US and abroad. My ultimate purpose is to compel Americans to wake up and begin to explore what is going on and to become engaged in their lives and their children's futures.

It is not my intent here to go into all the aspects that constitute the over arching plan (conspiracy, some would say) to create a One (New) World (Order) Government?a generational and incremental implementation process that, now in its final stages, presently threatens the world with the 21st Century Oil Wars and the destruction of what little sovereignty is left in America and elsewhere (observe this process in the EU).

Neo-liberalism / Globalism (imperialism disguised as democracy and free trade) are names used to describe the acquisition and consolidation of ever greater wealth, natural resources, total political power and control over others and are the motivational forces which drive the decisions by the international Elite. They control the transnational corporations, the 200-plus think tanks (the Council On Foreign Relations being foremost in the US) which exist to facilitate their goals, the foundations (Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller, etc), the World Bank, IMF, WTO, the Federal Reserve (a private corporation never audited and with no congressional oversight); this influence is pervasive and can only be truly appreciated as one researches the various issues.

Themes and Trends

The recent Online Journal report on Bilderberg 2005 confirms the intent and complicity of our leaders and the transnational corporations and banking interests they serve to create a One World Government using the UN, or similar institution, and to further diminish America economically and to ultimately abdicate US sovereignty and the Constitution to a Regional and subsequent World Power while enriching themselves and accumulating power in the process.

The Congress, MSM (including CPB, NPR and PBS), all academic and other Institutions, with rare and generally marginalized, individuals as exceptions, are in general alignment with this 'conspiracy.' This diverse involvement is reflected in the roster of the 4,000 or so members of the Council on Foreign Relations, a group described as, superficially an innocent forum for academics, businessman, politicians, contains within its shell, perhaps unknown to many of its members, the power elite that unilaterally determines US foreign policy. The major objective of this submerged - and obvious subversive?foreign policy is the acquisition of markets and economic power (profits) for a small group of giant multi-nationals under the virtual control of a few banking investment houses and controlling families.

The Royal Institute of International Affairs, in London (the center of power for the New World Order elite), founded its American wing, the CFR, funded by the Rockefellers, in 1921. The RIIA's patron is the Queen of England.

CNN has recently been using CFR 'spokespeople' to get Americans to accept them as 'mainstream' and also uses other conservative think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings and CATO Institutes to disseminate their views designed to shape American perceptions and beliefs.

Think tanks provide the two supposedly oppositional political parties with intellectual material and propaganda. Issues are used as smokescreens and for public distraction and confusion while greater and more relevant issues are ignored or downplayed. What we witness in MSM is the allowed official version of reality?much of it staged theatre. It is apparent as one examines (CFR, TC, Bilderberg member) Bill Clinton's record (presiding over NAFTA, media consolidation, FDA approval of GMO going into the world's food supply via Monsanto, laid the foundations for the USA PATRIOT Act, passed welfare 'reform' etc.) and associations that he is as much (if not more so) a Globalist / New World Order operative as George Bush is. Both parties serve the same masters as one can see from the Bilderberg attendance list.

John Edwards auditioned at the annual Bilderberg meeting in 2004; apparently the elite chose to stay the course with George Bush. One cannot become president of the US without the Elites' explicit approval. The election is a formality and exercise for the benefit of creating the illusion of an ongoing democracy. The 'free speech zone' areas created by both parties in 2004 were their version of democracy. The MSM (already) is focusing on the battle for the White House 2008, creating mythologies of opposing individuals and distracting the public with a hope for change that never comes?as both parties work towards the creation of a New World Order with the United States as a much reduced power, economically and militarily. Remember that politicians are the fronts for (or part of) the Elites and as such share in their fortunes and power. One need only look at the Bush dynasty and their involvement in and creation of their fortunes and power by the Military / Industrial / Intelligence Complex. War is profitable.

Henry Kissinger (perennial Bilderberg, Trilateral, CFR member) received knighthood from the Queen of England in 1995 for his lifelong devoted service to the Crown; after years of trying to retake the American colonies the City of London decided to infiltrate through the CFR and other ways to reclaim their perceived influence over their new addition to the Empire; and so it appears it has. Their conspiracy has become our fact.

Conspiracy theories are a convenient 'slide' term used by MSM and others to short circuit further inquiry into a matter. The greatest conspiracy is the one created by this concept that keeps people from being inquisitive and concerned about the health and direction of their country. As noted, only a small group of Elites know the full scope of their agenda while those outside are given information on a need to know basis and as loyalty and subservience is developed move closer to the center of affluence and control. A corporation is a perfect example of this where one can succeed and move up the hierarchy as long as one fulfills the needs of the corporation but if one challenges the system, then you could be ejected and possibly blacklisted from entry into other corporations. In this way, people buy into the system and by being invested in it are reluctant to jeopardize their position and wealth. Hierarchy assures compliance, promotions or corrective actions if needed. America is a transnational corporation (an Enron) disguised as a government; a form described as totalitarian corporatism.

What can you do?

As Catherine Austin Fitts and others suggest, voting, writing to your representatives or editors has limited, if any effect, but continue letting them know what you think. The system is generally rigged with gatekeepers to marginalize any dissent or resistance.

The only practical options open are to divert our financial and personal support for the tapeworm (the system) by withdrawing our attention from TV (shut it off) and its mind control and our money out of large multinational banks and corporations that depend on our money to survive, and putting it into local banks and businesses; cut up all your credit cards. Support local efforts to develop sustainable economies and environmental initiatives; get to know your neighbors and share what you know.

Ultimately, the tapeworm will have only itself to devour.

Stop supporting the so-called two-party system that is really two groups belonging to the same business party that share the One World Government agenda. The continuity of bipartisan corruption clearly shows that, with rare exceptions like Reps Cynthia McKinney and Ron Paul, their allegiance is to the international elite and not to the American people.