{"id":138829,"date":"2014-09-03T19:09:50","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T19:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=138829"},"modified":"2014-09-03T19:10:25","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T19:10:25","slug":"american-delusion-distracted-diverted-insulated-grim-reality-police-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/american-delusion-distracted-diverted-insulated-grim-reality-police-state\/","title":{"rendered":"The American Delusion: Distracted, Diverted and Insulated from the Grim Reality of the Police State"},"content":{"rendered":"

John W.\u00a0Whitehead<\/em><\/p>\n

Caught up in the uproar over this year\u2019s latest hullabaloo\u2013militarized police in\u00a0Ferguson<\/a>,\u00a0tanks on Main Street<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ISIS<\/a>\u2013Americans (never very good when it comes to long-term memory, anyhow) have not only largely forgotten last year\u2019s hullabaloo over the\u00a0NSA and government surveillance<\/a>\u00a0but are generally foggy about everything that has happened in between.<\/p>\n

Then again, so much has happened in the year since\u00a0Edward Snowden<\/a>\u00a0first appeared on the national scene that it\u2019s understandable if the average American has a hard time keeping up with and remembering all of the \u201cevents,\u201d manufactured or otherwise, which occur like clockwork and keep us distracted, deluded, amused, and insulated from the reality of the American police state.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that many of these events are not critical or important. However, when we\u2019re being bombarded with wall-to-wall news coverage and news cycles that change every few days, it\u2019s difficult to stay focused on one thing\u2013namely, holding the government accountable to abiding by the rule of law\u2013and the powers-that-be understand this.<\/p>\n

In fact, Professor Jacques Ellul studied this phenomenon of overwhelming news, short memories and the use of propaganda to advance hidden agendas. \u201cOne thought drives away another; old facts are chased by new ones,\u201dwrote<\/a>\u00a0Ellul.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder these conditions there can be no thought. And, in fact, modern man does not think about current problems; he feels them. He reacts, but he does not understand them any more than he takes responsibility for them. He is even less capable of spotting any inconsistency between successive facts; man\u2019s capacity to forget is unlimited. This is one of the most important and useful points for the propagandists, who can always be sure that a particular propaganda theme, statement, or event will be forgotten within a few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consider if you will the regularly scheduled trivia and\/or distractions that have kept us tuned into the various breaking news headlines and entertainment spectacles and tuned out to the government\u2019s steady encroachments on our freedoms:<\/p>\n

In late August \/ early September, we were treated to\u00a0Justin Bieber\u2019s run-in with police<\/a>\u00a0after a bout of reckless driving, the FBI\u2019s investigation into the\u00a0leaking of celebrities\u2019 nude photos<\/a>,\u00a0Brad and Angelina\u2019s wedding<\/a>, James Foley\u2019s carefully staged\u00a0beheading<\/a>, Robin Williams\u2019 unfortunate\u00a0suicide<\/a>, the riots in Ferguson over the\u00a0police shooting<\/a>\u00a0of an unarmed black man, growing threats from\u00a0ISIS<\/a>, and the ALS\u00a0ice bucket challenge<\/a>\u00a0sensation.<\/p>\n

That was preceded by reports of\u00a0immigrant children<\/a>\u00a0flooding over the border, Israel and Hamas\u2019 on-again, off-againfighting<\/a>, Germany\u2019s\u00a0victory<\/a>\u00a0in the World Cup, Ebola\u00a0breakouts<\/a>\u00a0in West Africa, the Malaysian Airlines passenger jet\u00a0crash<\/a>in Ukraine, the exchange by the U.S. of five Taliban prisoners for Sgt.\u00a0Bowe Bergdahl<\/a>, the growing\u00a0legalization of same-sex marriage<\/a>\u00a0by the states, and the\u00a0kidnapping<\/a>\u00a0of 280 Nigerian girls for use as sex slaves.<\/p>\n

Before that, there was the\u00a0shooting<\/a>\u00a0rampage by an Iraq war veteran at the Fort Hood Army base, the uproar over LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling\u2019s\u00a0racist<\/a>\u00a0remarks, the\u00a0Veterans Administration\u2019s failure<\/a>\u00a0to provide timely care to vets, Russia and the U.S. in a tug of war over control of\u00a0Crimea<\/a>, the\u00a0disappearance<\/a>\u00a0of a Malaysia Airlines flight\u2013this one en route to China, the\u00a02014 Winter Olympics<\/a>\u00a0hosted by Russia, the Seattle Seahawks\u2019 first ever\u00a0win<\/a>\u00a0at the Super Bowl, Gov. Chris Christie\u2019s role in the\u00a0George Washington Bridge lane closings scandal<\/a>, and the outpouring of tributes over the death of\u00a0Nelson Mandela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John W.\u00a0Whitehead Caught up in the uproar over this year\u2019s latest hullabaloo\u2013militarized police in\u00a0Ferguson,\u00a0tanks on Main Street\u00a0and\u00a0ISIS\u2013Americans (never very good when it comes to long-term memory, anyhow) have not only largely forgotten last year\u2019s hullabaloo over the\u00a0NSA and government surveillance\u00a0but are generally foggy about everything that has happened in between. Then again, so much has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,1616],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-138829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}