Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 5:45 PM
Subject: Prof. A. Harber, Min. C. Chabane & Mr. J. Manyi: Req. Response from SANEF to Media Mafia Bias Evidence
TO: Prof. Anton Harber, Media Critic (sic)
TO: Minister Collins Chabane
TO: Mr. Jimmy Manyi, c/o Black Management Forum
TO: Mr. Mondli Makhanya, SANEF
Req. SA Media Critics (sic) provide Mr. Collins Chabane an official response in Meeting with Mr. Manyi, to Radical Honesty SA Evidence of SANEF Media Mafia Bias and Censorship Behaviour.
CC: SANEF, Mr. Manyi, Min. Collins Chabane
Dear Prof. Harber,
I was most surprised to read your statement to Mr. Manyi, the CEO of GCSI to “Stop being a media critic, because that is no way to build working relationships with journalists.”
Working Relationships with Psychological Infant Journalists and Editors:
It is my understanding that any individual who considers themselves psychologically mature; is aware of the importance of constructive criticism to a professional working relationship. Any relationship founded on the parties being capable of sharing and hearing each other’s constructive criticism, and seriously enquiring into its evidentiary arguments; is a working relationship that can only grow stronger and stronger, as each party is provided the opportunity to receive information about its blindspots, and to fix those blindspots.
Active Listening and Constructive Criticism: Blogger’s Professional Response
I write a blog: Why We Are White Refugees.
In early 2010 I was contacted by another blogger, who shared with me some photos of farm murders, he said had been provided to him by a policeman friend of his. He asked that we publish the photos. I published the photos and also sent them to numerous politicians etc; including to Mr. Malema at the ANC. A few days later, I got an anonymous tip that one of the photos was fake. I investigated and found out that the tip was correct, and in fact four of the thirteen alleged farm murder photos were not South African crime scene photos, but foreign. I published a retraction and wrote an individual letter of apology to every single person and politician to whom I had sent the original photos.
Nobody had to go to an Ombudsman to file a complaint against me. All it required was for them to inform me of the error, and evidence where I could prove I had erred. Once it was clear to me I had made an error; I considered it my honour and duty and responsibility to publish a retraction and apology. I did not require someone to force me to do the right thing. I do not publish erroneous facts. If I am informed any alleged fact I have published is false, I consider it my duty as an honourable human being to correct such error.
I wrote letters of apology and retraction, and published these letters of apology and retraction to:
- SA Students Congress, Mandela Rhodes Foundation, ANC Youth League; RE: Reitz 4 & Black Culture...;
- Irish Embassy, Jefferson Family & Independent Newspapers; RE: Boycott 2010 World Cup;
- Austrian Embassy, Burgstaller & Symcox Families; RE: Boycott 2010 World Cup;
- PC Canada vs. IRB & Huntley: How many SA Black on White Crimes are Racially Motivated?;
- Cape Bar & Intn'l Bar Assoc: Pro Bono Comm's: RE: Freedom of Speech Political and Cultural Rights, or Secession?; Constitutional, & Intn'l Law Issues.
Excerpts from PDF letter.
Respectfully,
Lara Johnstone
Radical Honesty SA
Encl. Excerpts from Founding Affidavit of Lara Johnstone, Member of Radical Honesty culture; in Application for Direct Access for a Writ of Habeus Mentem (CCT 06-11).
Radical Honesty SA to Media Critic (sic): Prof. Anton Harber
Req. SA Media Critics (sic) provide Mr. Collins Chabane an official response in Meeting with Mr. Manyi, to Radical Honesty SA Evidence of SANEF Media Mafia Bias and Censorship Behaviour.
Cc: SANEF, Mr. Manyi, Min. Collins Chabane
23 June 2011
Dear Prof. Harber,
I was most surprised to read your statement to Mr. Manyi, the CEO of GCSI to “Stop being a media critic, because that is no way to build working relationships with journalists.”
Working Relationships with Psychological Infant Journalists and Editors:
It is my understanding that any individual who considers themselves psychologically mature; is aware of the importance of constructive criticism to a professional working relationship. Any relationship founded on the parties being capable of sharing and hearing each other’s constructive criticism, and seriously enquiring into its evidentiary arguments; is a working relationship that can only grow stronger and stronger, as each party is provided the opportunity to receive information about its blindspots, and to fix those blindspots.
Active Listening and Constructive Criticism: Foundation of Strong Relationships:
When I was a waitress, the people I loved to serve, were the customers that all the other waiters did not want to serve: ‘they complain too much’. I highly valued difficult customers, because difficult customers are crystal clear about what they want and don’t want. They are not vague and ambiguous. They are detailed and specific. It is a pleasure to serve such people, because if you are able to give them exactly what they want; they appreciate it. Many of the restaurant’s difficult customers were so pleased with service that enthusiastically actively listened to them, gave them what they wanted, if possible; or told them honestly it could not be done. The restaurants difficult customers would then ask to be served by me. Then the other waiters would get upset. Why were these ‘difficult customers’ whom they hate so much, asking to be served by me? Why were they so happy with my service? They were happy with my service because:
- I actively listened to the little specific details of their demands as a customer. If I could provide for their order; I happily did it exactly as they requested it. If I could not provide for their order, I informed them so upfront, including with reasons why it could not be done. They could then request a different order. I did not make an agreement with them to give them something I knew I could not give them. I refused to take any order (make an agreement) to provide any food or drink, which I could not give them. Note: When Agreements are clear, detailed and precise, they are easier to fulfil.
- Whenever they had a complaint, I highly appreciated it, if they would share their complaint with me, in detail. How, where, when had my service been less than excellent, and how could they suggest I improve it. If I found their suggestions valid, I implemented such suggestions. If I found their suggestions not valid, I explained my reasons, and asked them for further suggestions, until we reached clarity about resolving their problem. Note: They knew I was actively listening to their criticism, and not just bullshitting them that I would implement it; but when I did intend to implement it; I told them, and if I could not, I told them I could not.
Active Listening and Constructive Criticism: Blogger’s Professional Response
I write a blog: Why We Are White Refugees.
In early 2010 I was contacted by another blogger, who shared with me some photos of farm murders, he said had been provided to him by a policeman friend of his. He asked that we publish the photos. I published the photos and also sent them to numerous politicians etc; including to Mr. Malema at the ANC. A few days later, I got an anonymous tip that one of the photos was fake. I investigated and found out that the tip was correct, and in fact four of the thirteen alleged farm murder photos were not South African crime scene photos, but foreign. I published a retraction and wrote an individual letter of apology to every single person and politician to whom I had sent the original photos.
Nobody had to go to an Ombudsman to file a complaint against me. All it required was for them to inform me of the error, and evidence where I could prove I had erred. Once it was clear to me I had made an error; I considered it my honour and duty and responsibility to publish a retraction and apology. I did not require someone to force me to do the right thing. I do not publish erroneous facts. If I am informed any alleged fact I have published is false, I consider it my duty as an honourable human being to correct such error.
I wrote letters of apology and retraction, and published these letters of apology and retraction to:
- SA Students Congress, Mandela Rhodes Foundation, ANC Youth League; RE: Reitz 4 & Black Culture...;
- Irish Embassy, Jefferson Family & Independent Newspapers; RE: Boycott 2010 World Cup;
- Austrian Embassy, Burgstaller & Symcox Families; RE: Boycott 2010 World Cup;
- PC Canada vs. IRB & Huntley: How many SA Black on White Crimes are Racially Motivated?;
- Cape Bar & Intn'l Bar Assoc: Pro Bono Comm's: RE: Freedom of Speech Political and Cultural Rights, or Secession?; Constitutional, & Intn'l Law Issues.
SANEF Editors and Journalists: Allergic to Constructive Criticism; Demand Sycophancy:
The restaurant industry, as you may know, is self-regulated by means of anonymous inspectors; who visit restaurants to assess the food and service. I consider myself a social scientist, I do the same thing. I use myself as a social scientist guineapig; or as a journalist would say: I go undercover.
I got involved in the SA Justice system by intention, to find out as a ‘defendant’ customer, how justice is meted out in South Africa. I provided a brief perspective to Judge Riddle in my application to proceed as an Amicus Curiae in the Shrien Dewani matter, where I described my Sun Tzu & Scipio Bushido Dischordian Activist Philosophy (PDF).
I have done the same thing with the media. I noticed in my social science experiment with the Justice system, what I considered highly biased behaviour by the SA media. I decided to do a greater in-depth investigation.
I needed to provide them with information, which was clearly newsworthy, but with a perspective which I suspected they may be biased against, and to see whether they would act professionally and publish it.
Just like a food inspector might arrive at a restaurant and be grumpy and demand something that may irritate the waiter, like to change the music or something that could set the stage for ‘I am a difficult customer’. How would the media respond? A professional waiter would not let this bother them at all; and would not take it personally. Would journalists and editors be as professional? Would they publish information, clearly in the public’s interest; or would they censor it? If they censored it, would this be a result of the editors personal and deliberate conscious intention to do so. I had to be sure that they personally knew about the information, and that they had consciously made a choice to refuse to publish it, based on either their bias towards the information; and/or their bias towards myself.
SANEF Editors and Journalists: Biased & Prejudiced Media Mafia Cartel:
Below is a very brief list of (A) complaints to Editors and the Press Ombudsman about errors and lies published by various SANEF publications; which all the publications REFUSED TO IVNESTIGATE, Press Ombudsman refused to impartially enquire into; and the Concourt – petrified of SANEF launching an attack on them – refused to enquire into; (B) documentation sent to SANEF editors, on issues that were clearly in the public interest; which the journalists and editors deliberately, consciously refused to publish:
- 09-06-05: Request to SAPA: Errors in News Article of 19 July 2007 (PDF)
- 10-03-21: Report: 140 SA Elite’s Deliberate Indifference to Rule of Law and Persecution of White Refugees, includes comments from 40 SA Media Editors (PDF)
- 09-06-11: Complaint to Press Ombudsman: SAPA 19 July Article (PDF)
- 09-06-24: Ombudsman Thloloe Ruling: SAPA Complaint (PDF)
- Censored: Radical Honesty SA TRC Fraud allegations filed with SA Constitutional Court (CCT 23-10), supported by expert witness affidavit and statements from Dr. Brad Blanton, world leader in sincere forgiveness:
- Application to Chief Justice to proceed as In Forma Pauperis Amicus Curiae, by Lara Johnstone, Member of the Radical Honesty culture and religion (PDF)
- 03 May 2010: Concourt Directions dated 03 May 2010: “Ms. Lara Johnstone, Member of Radical Honesty Culture and Religion, is admitted as an Amicus Curiae.” (PDF)
- 18 July 2010: Heads of Argument: Radical Honesty SA Amicus Curiae in Support of a Population Policy Common Sense Interpretation of the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act (PDF)
- Written Statement by Consent of Brad Blanton, Ph.D, to testify as expert witness to: Practicing Radical Honesty and Futilitarianism; i.e. Radical Honesty about Anger and Forgiveness; and Paradigms and Contexts: The Revolution of Consciousness (PDF); and Affidavit of Brad Blanton, Ph.D, evidencing the legal, psychological, and socio-political ‘citizens privilege’, Nuremberg Principles skills and competencies of Individual Responsibility, required for acts of civil disobedience to perceived illegitimate authority; and their application to the common law ‘reasonableness test’; in terms of Criminal Procedure Act 51, of 1977: § 213: Proof of Written Statement by Consent; & § 171 & 172: Evidence on Commission (PDF)].
- Written Statement of Consent by T. Michael Maher, Ph.D, to testify as expert witness for How and Why Journalists Avoid the Population-Environment Connection and Media Framing and Salience of the Population Issue (PDF) and Study: How and Why Journalists Avoid the Population-Environment Connection (PDF)
- Complaint to Green Scorpions & SAPS against 22 SANEF editors (CAS 823-08-2010): Criminal Charges: Bribery Conspiracy to Censor Ecolaw TRC fraud evidence before Concourt from Public’s Right to Know, to (a) enable TRC elite to retain TRC-PR benefits & (b) obstruct administration of Ecolaw Concourt justice. It included a verbatim transcript of an interview with SANEF Chair: Mr. Mondli Makhanya (PDF)
Excerpts from Interview with Mr. Makhanya at 09:00 hrs on 27 July 2010:
I informed him I had sent my questions to his secretary the previous day [#190]. He stated he had not yet seen his email, so was unaware of the questions. I asked whether it was true that SANEF oppose the Protection of Information Bill. He said ‘Yes’.
I stated that SANEF editors and journalists were aware of the Radical Honesty SA Amicus before the Constitutional Court, which alleges TRC fraud and media corruption, and was supported by the expert witness statements of Dr. Brad Blanton, on Radical Honesty, Being Specific about Anger and Forgiveness, and Dr. Michael Maher on How and Why Journalists Avoid the Environment Population Connection, but that this information was currently being censored by SA journalists and editors.
He responded with “Take a step back. I am not sure where we are going with this. What did you send to SANEF?”
I informed him I had sent SANEF a copy of the First Amicus filed with the Constitutional Court.
He responded that he did not know who I was and where I was phoning from.
I said I am Lara Johnstone, I am the person who authored the Radical Honesty Amicus and I am attempting to ascertain why the media are censoring the information therein from the SA public.
Makhanya: ‘if you don’t mind I would like to terminate this conversation. I think this is an ambush and I don’t like it. I have not seen the questions’.
Johnstone: I sent you the questions the previous day, to his secretary.
Makhanya: ‘Well I have not seen them, and I have a job to do, and I am not here to answer Lara’s questions whenever she wants.’
Johnstone: ‘Mr. Makhanya, these are questions about media corruption that have been filed in the Constitutional Court, in a matter that SANEF are an Amicus Curiae party to. The media corruption allegations were provided to SANEF’s attorneys on 19 July 2010.’
Makhanya: ‘Well I don’t know anything about these media corruption allegations. I would like to terminate this interview because I don’t know what you are talking about and this feels like an ambush.’
Johnstone: ‘Mr. Makhanya, I am not sure how you could feel this is an ambush, when as a matter of integrity, I provided your secretary with the questions and the allegations of media corruption, to provide to you, in an email yesterday morning, almost 24 hours ago. How exactly is that an ambush?’
Makhanya: ‘Well I have not seen the questions, I just walked into the office. So can you go point by point since I am not aware of the questions.’
Johnstone: ‘No problem. I filed an Amicus Curiae as a member of the Radical Honesty culture and religion in the Constitutional Court matter of The Citizen v. Robert McBride. The Amicus alleges TRC fraud and media corruption and censorship. It is supported by two expert witnesses, Dr. Brad Blanton an expert on honesty, transparency and sincere forgiveness, who is a bestselling author, clinical psychologist and Honesty in Politics candidate for Congress in Virginia in 2004 and 2006. The other expert witness is Dr. Michael Maher, the author of the study How and Why Journalists Avoid the Environment-Population Connection. Since SANEF were informed of these allegations, not one SANEF publication has chosen to inform the people of South Africa of these matters. It is my interpretation that SANEF editors are censoring this information from the SA public. My questions are related to attempting to understand how SANEF justifies this censorship in regards to SANEF’s alleged commitment to ethics, ethical discourse, freedom of expression, a culture of real debate of the highest standard, and alleged values of integrity, accountability and the public interest. How is censoring allegations of media corruption from the SA public, in the public’s interest?’
Makhanya: ‘Well this is the first I have heard of it, I can’t comment on something I don’t know anything about. It feels like I am being ambushed.’
Johnstone: ‘Are you suggesting that it is my fault that your secretary did not forward you the questions I honourably and ethically sent you 24 hours ago?’
Makhanya: ‘No, just that I have no seen the question.’
Johnstone: ‘How would you suggest that I provide you with the questions prior to an interview, if your secretary does not forward them to you?’
Makhanya: ‘I would prefer to end this interview right now, because I don’t know about the allegations you are referring to.’
Secretary: ‘I did not send him the questions, because if I send him the questions for him to respond by email it could take months. It was best for you to speak to him and to provide him with the information over the phone, so he can respond to the questions as you put them to him.’
Johnstone to Secretary: ‘I don’t know how the mainstream media operate, but I have a certain standard of honourable transparency ethics. If I am going to interview someone about a particular issue, and the issue is complex or negative, then I attempt to make sure they have the details of the issue I have questions about, prior to my interview.’- Censored: Boer Volkstaat Theses Petition & Briefing Paper submitted to EU and NATO, endorsed by over 76 International and South African websites, with a total membership of over 60,000 members:
- Dutch Ambassador Acknowledges Receipt of Boere-Volkstaat Secession for African White Refugees Petition to Netherlands Gov.
- 'Boere-Volkstaat for African White Refugees' Petition delivered to French Gov., c/o & via: Ambassador Jacques Lapouge, Pretoria; German Gov.; c/o German Amb. Dieter W. Haller; UK Gov.; c/o UK High Commissioner: Dr Nicola Brewer ; Swiss Gov.; c/o Swiss Ambassador: H E Mr R Bärfuss ; NATO Military Committee: Chiefs of Staff; c/o SHAPE & NATO Sec. General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
- Censored: Swiss President Requests Printed Hardcopy of (TRC Fraud) Boer Volkstaat Theses Petition; Swiss Committee of Legal Affairs Acknowledge Receipt of Printed Hard Copy of Petition.
- On Friday 28 January 2011, Radical Honesty SA filed an Application for Direct Access for a Writ of Certiorari/Review and Habeus Mentem (Right to your Own Mind) with the Constitutional Court. The Respondents being 88 SA National Editors Forum media organisations and editors, including the SA Press Ombudsman, and Press Appeals Panel. [Notice of Motion (PDF); Founding Affidavit (PDF); Condonation: Representation (PDF); Order: Dismissed (PDF)].
Among others, the Application detailed the misery, poverty and resource war ecological footprint consequences of corrupt corporate personhood by comparing it to results that can occur under a Media whose principles are founded on Ecological Footprint of Transparent Scientific Journalism. The former encourages social trap behaviour, and denial of responsibility and consciousness of such behaviour that results in overpopulation colliding with scarce resources resource wars; the latter encourages responsibility, transparency and honesty to confront the root causes of poverty, misery and resource wars, so as to avoid them and live and breed ecologically sustainably.
Social trap is a term used by psychologists to describe a situation in which a group of people act to obtain short-term individual gains, which in the long run leads to a loss for the group as a whole. Examples of social traps include overfishing, the near-extinction of the American bison, energy "brownout" and "blackout" power outages during periods of extreme temperatures, the overgrazing of cattle on the Sahelian Desert, and the destruction of the rainforest by logging interests and agriculture. The term social trap was first introduced to the scientific community by John Platt's 1973 paper in American Psychologist building upon the concept of the "tragedy of the commons" in Garrett Hardin's pivotal article in Science (Hardin, G. (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons, Science, 162, 1243-1248), Platt and others in the seminar applied behavioral psychology concepts to actions of people operating in social traps. By applying the findings of basic research on "schedules of operant reinforcement". Platt recognized that individuals operating for short-term positive gain ("reinforcement") had a tendency to over-exploit a resource, which led to a long-term overall loss to society.- The Concourt application was reported on by SAPA; with not very subtle insinuations that Johnstone was insane. No psychological evidence or expert whatsoever was provided for the journalist’s insinuation. Johnstone was not asked for comment. On 15 April 2011 Jeni O’Grady of SA Press Association (SAPA) wrote another report on the Constitutional Courts dismissal of the Radical Honesty application, again published by various publications. Both articles totally excluded any mention about the allegations and evidence of media corruption, or any detail about the TRC fraud allegations and evidence. None of the applications who published their biased smear articles provided their readers with a copy of the original Radical Honesty Application filed to the Court for their readers to determine whether the news publication’s report was an accurate or biased depiction of the legal documents filed with the Constitutional Court.
- The direct application to the SA Constitutional Court was dismissed within less than 8 hours by the entire bench of the Constitutional Court as being ‘not in the interests of justice’. It argued on behalf of a Scientific Journalism Campaign; establishing a Scientific Journalism Media Publication rating system, which could be monitored by anonymous Media Inspectors, similar to Restaurant and Hotel Inspectors.
To issue an advisory ruling, with expert witness input from Wikileaks and/or OpenLeaks ‘scientific journalism’ experts, in support of a clear classification system of ‘media corporations’; similar to Hotel Star Ratings and Smoking Label warnings. For example: (a) Three Star Media Corporations practice unbiased and politically incorrect scientific journalism; (b) Two Star media corporations practice left or right ideological propaganda when it contradicts scientific journalism truths, and withhold from their readers access to the original documents they are reporting their bias upon; (c) One Star gutter yellow smear propaganda journalism, which has no interest whatsoever in scientific truthful reporting, only profiting from spreading gossip and malice. All media corporations are required to publish their ‘scientific journalism’ hierarchical star status, in a designated space on their front page, clarifying their Star Status, and what that start status means regarding the scientific journalism or not quality of factual information being sold to the reader.- CENSORED: On 19 April 2011 Radical Honesty filed an application to proceed as an Amicus Curiae in the ‘Kill Boers’ Hate Speech Equality Court case of Afriforum v. Malema (PDF). The Amicus application requests the court to “admit the attached Heads of Argument as the Radical Honesty Culture and Religion’s Official For the Court Record Objective Reasonable Perspective in this matter: Heads of Argument of Lara Johnstone, Radical Honesty Culture; ‘Boer/Settler’ descendant of Dutch, French Huguenot and British ‘Settlers’: Hermanus Bosman, Andreus Lutgerus Kolver; Jacques de Villiers and James Augustus Johnstone; In Support of ‘Political Necessity French Riddle of the Kaffir Lily Pond’ Application of the Radical Honesty Population Policy Common Sense Interpretation of ANC’s ‘TRC Social Contract Fraud’; Recommendation to Constitutional Court to Resolve ‘Kill Boer/Settler Hate Speech’ Descartian v. Ubuntu Conformist Cultural Friction by Implementing: (A) 23 April 1994 Accord on Afrikaner Self-Determination to provide Boers with a ‘Kaffir’ Free Speech Volkstaat; and/or (B) Jus Sanguinis Repatriation of ‘Settlers’ to European Progenitor Nations.”
- [Afriforum v. Malema]: Judge Colin Lamont confirms Receipt of Radical Honesty SA Amicus: Boer Volkstaat, via VVK; or Jus Sanguinis Repatriation
- [Afriforum v. Malema]: Press Ombudsman: SANEF censoring Black Liberation Theology TRC ‘violence on the rotting corpses of settlers’ RH argument
- The Radical Honesty SA Complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC) filed against 88 SA Media Publications and Editors; the New York Times, Daily Telegraph and Algemene Dagblad, for their censorship of TRC FRAUD documentation provided to them, also remains censored. The complaint requests the ICC Prosecutor to:
Initiate an investigation into the allegations that the respondents are to be held criminally culpable for their endorsement and concealment of TRC FRAUD, the consequences of which are genocide and crimes against humanity against white South Africans, and ethno-cultural legal and political persecution of Afrikaner/Boer and Radical Honesty cultures.
Complainants allege the Defendants cover up and censorship of the ANC and Anti-Apartheid Movements (i) Frantz Fanon/Black Consciousness (‘liberation by violence on the rotting corpse of the settlers’) (ii) Black Liberation Theology (‘violent elimination of ‘whiteness’); and (iii) Houari Boumediene/Black Power Breeding War (“The wombs of our women will give us victory”) inspired TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION FRAUD (“TRC FRAUD”) perpetrated against citizens of South Africa, and predominantly against white Afrikaner/Boer/Settlers; is committed in the context of endorsing the ANC’s institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by Africans over other racial groups, particularly Boer/Afrikaners and committed with the intention of maintaining the ANC regime.- 11-06-16: Letter to Ivo Vegter, Daily Maverick: Mr. Brkic, CC: I. Vegter; RE: Vegter's Endorsement of Persecution and Media Corruption (PDF)
- 11-06-22: Letter to Max du Preez: Max du Preez; CC: Athol Trollip; RE: Max du Preez's advice to Trollip to insult 'racist and political retarded' afrikaners. (PDF)
Respectfully,
Lara Johnstone
Radical Honesty SA
Encl. Excerpts from Founding Affidavit of Lara Johnstone, Member of Radical Honesty culture; in Application for Direct Access for a Writ of Habeus Mentem (CCT 06-11).
ISSUE: ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT OF CORRUPT CORPORATE PERSONHOOD
The Corporation, by Mark Achbar [01/23] |
[1] The documentary, The Corporation, based on The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power shows the development of the contemporary business corporation, from a legal entity that originated as a government-chartered institution meant to effect specific public functions, to the rise of the modern commercial institution entitled to most of the legal rights of a person. One theme is its assessment as a "personality", as a result of an 1886 case in the United States Supreme Court in which a statement by Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite led to corporations as "persons" having the same rights as human beings, based on the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The film's assessment is effected via the diagnostic criteria in the DSM-IV; Robert Hare, a University of British Columbia psychology professor and a consultant to the FBI, compares the profile of the contemporary profitable business corporation to that of a clinically-diagnosed psychopath.
[2] A critic of corporate personhood, Thom Hartmann argues in Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights, subsequent editions: Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became "People" - And How You Can Fight Back that there was an intentional misinterpretation of the Supreme Court case on behalf of Corporate Personhood inserted into the Court record by reporter J.C. Bancroft Davis. The Secret of Life: Corporate Personhood provides a brief description of Hartmann’s argument: Bancroft Davis had previously served as president of Newburgh and New York Railway Co. According to Hartmann in the May 10, 1886: Santa Clara County vs. the Southern Pacific Railroad Company - Supreme Court Case: The entire case was not even decided by the Supreme Court Justices, what happened was that the headnotes, which are not legally binding and which were written by a clerk of the court (not a Justice) said that the case had decided the issue of corporate personhood in the favor of the railroad company, even though it had not. This decision however, influenced future court cases for many years to come. Once it had been embedded in the US court system, there was no turning back. So what was the case about, that ended up being decided by headnotes from a clerk of the court? One, aspect of the concentration of wealth that worried Jefferson and most American legislatures in those decades was that with enough wealth, a corporation can keep trying in the courts for centuries (literally centuries, because they don't die), no matter how much it costs until they get what they want. And ultimately that's what happened... In the decade leading up to this May Day in 1886, the railroads had lost every Supreme Court case that they had brought seeking 14th amendment rights. To this day there has been no Supreme Court ruling that could explain why a corporation -- with its ability to continue operating forever -- a legal agreement that can't be put in jail and doesn't need fresh water to drink or clean air to breathe -- should be granted the same constitutional rights American founders explicitly fought for, died for, and granted to the very mortal human beings who are citizens of the United States [and the world] to protect them against the perils of imprisonment and suppression they had experienced under a desperate king. See also documentary: Thom Hartman vs. Corporate Personhood.
[3] In Green Candidates call for end of Corporate Personhood, Greenchange report that over 110 Green Party Candidates have endorsed “stripping [corporations] of artificial ‘personhood’ and constitutional protections,” along with “revoking the charters of corporations that routinely violate safety, health, environmental protection or other laws.” Among others, Democratic Congressional Representative Dennis Kucinich, former Candidate’s for U.S President Ralph Nader and Mike Gravel, the non-partisan group Reclaim Democracy have all called for the abolishment of corporate personhood, due to corporate personhoods toxic effects on republican democracy.
[4] In When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten critiques current methods of economic development led by the Bretton Woods institutions and asserts his desire to rebalance the power of multinational corporations with concern for environment sustainability. Korten criticises consumerism, market deregulation, free trade, privatization and what he sees as the global consolidation of corporate power. Above all he rejects any focus on money as the purpose of economic life. His prescriptions include excluding corporations from political participation, increased state and global control of international corporations and finance, rendering financial speculation unprofitable and creating local economies that rely on local resources, rather than international trade.
The Century of the Self; by Adam Curtis (03:54:56) |
[5] In his award winning 2002 documentary for the BBC, The Century of the Self, Adam Curtis describes how Sigmund Freud's family, exerted a surprising amount of influence on the way corporations and governments throughout the 20th century have used Freuds theories to psychologically engineer and manipulate citizens into the false illusionary belief that the power is finally in their hands, that they live in a ‘democracy’; that they are in charge, while their sense of identity has been subconsciously manipulated from that of citizen to consumer, fueling the massive growth of the mass-consumer society, and the corporatist Orwellian dictatorship.
Michael Tsarion - The Hidden Persuaders Subversive Use Of Sacred Symbolism In The Media [01/03] |
[6] In Michael Tsarion’s documentaries, The Age of Manipulation, and Architects of Control Program: he deals extensively with the evidentiary information on the role of media, advertising and public relations as a psychic dictatorship to manipulate the masses by psychological warfare brainwashing techniques to destroy citizens identity’s as patriotic rational citizens, and mould their identities into psychologically insecure, dumbed-down, consumerist mind-enslaved automatonic zombies. One of Tsarion’s conclusions being that the Soviet Union was a massive experiment in social control; and how many of the methods for social control perfected under the Soviet Union are used by the West in more subtle ways. Psywar – The real battlefield is your mind, also provides background information on this phenomena.
Yuri Bezmenov: Soviet Subversion of the Free World Press (01:21:28) |
[7] Yuri Alexandrovich Bezmenov (also known as Tomas David Schuman; 1939 – 1997) was a journalist for RIA Novosti and a former KGB informant from the Soviet Union who defected to Canada. After being assigned to a station in India, Bezmenov eventually grew to love the people and culture of India, while, at the same time, he began to resent the KGB-sanctioned oppression of intellectuals who dissented from Moscow's policies. He is best known for his interview with Edward G. Griffin: Deception was my Job: Soviet Subversion of the Free World Press, wherein he explained the psychological warfare methods used by the KGB to secretly subvert the democratic system of the United States.
[8] In The CIA and the Media, Carl Bernstein, from the Washington Post, writes about how “Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up”.
[9] In The Persuaders Douglass Rushkoff of PBS explore’s what’s going on in today’s marketers and advertising businesses; how the Public Relations industry has been given the responsibility to maintain the entire system of meaning, through which consumers get their sense of consumer identity and understanding of their role as a consumer in the world of consumerism identity. What are the new and surprising methods the PR industry is using to decipher who citizens are and what they want and how to manipulate them. How the study of cults was adapted to marketing brands, to manipulate a brand’s consumers into blind consumer obedience, in the same way cults manipulate their cult followers, and what the future holds.
[10] In Douglass Rushkoff’s book Life, Inc: How the World became a Corporation and How to Take It Back Rushkoff takes a look at physical currency and the history of corporatism. Beginning with an overview of how money has been gradually centralized throughout time, and pondering the reasons and consequences of such a fact, he goes on to demonstrate how our society has become defined by and controlled by corporate culture. Douglas Rushkoff’s philosophy views everything except for intention as media, he frequently explores the themes of how to make media interactive, how to help people (especially children) effectively analyze and question the media they consume, as well as how to cultivate intention and agency.
[11] Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky , is an analysis of the news media as business. The title derived from “the manufacture of consent” by essayist–editor Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) in his book Public Opinion (1922).
[12] Others include: The State of the Media, a C-Span Town Hall Media and Democracy Congress Panel discussion, Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds: The Failure of Corporate Criminal Liability, by William S. Laufer; Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy, by Ted Nace; Capitalism's Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free-Market System, by Raymond W Baker, The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy, by Marjorie Kelly and William Greider, Manufacturing Consent in Democratic South Africa: Application of the Propaganda model, by Scott Lovaas; Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission - Jeffrey Tobin, Colbert Report on Corporate Personhood; Letter to Justice Kennedy about Corporate Personhood, Andrew Weinstein, Tikkun:Isn’t it abundantly clear to you that by ruling that corporations are citizens that you are violating both the spirit and the letter of our founding document, the Constitution of these United States? Not only is this a gross violation of original intent, it seems to me, it beggars common sense and rates as rank stupidity.
Corporate personhood is the Big Foot of legal theory -- there have been many sightings but no one has been able to bring forth any reliable evidence. By elevating corporations to persons with the rights of citizens you have cheapened citizenship and debased the Supreme Court and our system of laws.
In fact, not only did many of the Founders have a deep mistrust of corporations, they also promoted a social charter for these non-human, non-citizen legal shells, with the corporate license liable to revocation if the corporation were found to be detrimental to society and did not enhance the public welfare. I also imagine that you would vehemently oppose any form of social charters for corporations.
[..] The Founders knew that the democratic government and society they hoped would endure are bound together by bonds deeper than commerce, values more fundamental than markets. The American Dream that has evolved from “the pursuit of happiness,” is not the relentless aggregation of wealth, property and power of the corporation in the hands of the few but is ever expanding opportunity for the many to express their full human potential. This is “the greater union,” the American promise.
[13] In Flat Earth News: An Award-Winning Reporter Exposes Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media, Nick Davies writes that “journalism without checking is like a body without an immune system”. He “uncovers an industry awash in corruption and bias”, where “commercial forces are the main obstacle to truth-telling journalism”. In Our media have become mass producers of distortion: An industry whose task should be to filter out falsehood has become a conduit for propaganda and second hand news, he writes:I commissioned research from specialists at Cardiff University, who surveyed more than 2,000 UK news stories from the four quality dailies (Times, Telegraph, Guardian, Independent) and the Daily Mail. They found two striking things. First, when they tried to trace the origins of their "facts", they discovered that only 12% of the stories were wholly composed of material researched by reporters. With 8% of the stories, they just couldn't be sure. The remaining 80%, they found, were wholly, mainly or partially constructed from second-hand material, provided by news agencies and by the public relations industry. Second, when they looked for evidence that these "facts" had been thoroughly checked, they found this was happening in only 12% of the stories.
The implication of those two findings is truly alarming. Where once journalists were active gatherers of news, now they have generally become mere passive processors of unchecked, second-hand material, much of it contrived by PR to serve some political or commercial interest. Not journalists, but churnalists. An industry whose primary task is to filter out falsehood has become so vulnerable to manipulation that it is now involved in the mass production of falsehood, distortion and propaganda.
ISSUE: ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT OF TRANSPARENT SCIENTIFIC JOURNALISM:“Once a culture becomes advertising friendly, it ceases to be a culture at all” (Persuaders)
“Advertising and Propaganda are antithetical to real journalism. In a democracy people have to have access to unbiased factual information to make rational reasonable decisions” -- Russia Today: Mark Crispin Miller, Professor of Media Ecology, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York Univ., author: Mad Scientists: The Secret History of Modern Propaganda
[14] In Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths, The Australian, December 08, 2010, Mr. Julian Assange writes: “WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?”
[15] In Andy Greenberg's Forbes Interview of Assange, Greenberg asks Assange: What do you think WikiLeaks mean for business? How do businesses need to adjust to a world where WikiLeaks exists? Mr. Assange proceeds to describe how Wikileaks restricts corrupt corporations or governments from abusing a commons, what psychologists refer to as the social trap , such as for example: overfishing. In this case the exploitation of the ‘corporate trust and responsibility citizenship commons’, the erosion of which leads to anarchy and a total breakdown of the rule of law:WikiLeaks means it’s easier to run a good business and harder to run a bad business, and all CEOs should be encouraged by this. I think about the case in China where milk powder companies started cutting the protein in milk powder with plastics. That happened at a number of separate manufacturers.
Let’s say you want to run a good company. It’s nice to have an ethical workplace. Your employees are much less likely to screw you over if they’re not screwing other people over.
Then one company starts cutting their milk powder with melamine, and becomes more profitable. You can follow suit, or slowly go bankrupt and the one that’s cutting its milk powder will take you over. That’s the worst of all possible outcomes.
The other possibility is that the first one to cut its milk powder is exposed. Then you don’t have to cut your milk powder. There’s a threat of regulation that produces self-regulation.
It just means that it’s easier for honest CEOs to run an honest business, if the dishonest businesses are more effected negatively by leaks than honest businesses. That’s the whole idea. In the struggle between open and honest companies and dishonest and closed companies, we’re creating a tremendous reputational tax on the unethical companies.
No one wants to have their own things leaked. It pains us when we have internal leaks. But across any given industry, it is both good for the whole industry to have those leaks and it’s especially good for the good players.
[16] In Stalking the Wild Taboo, by Garrett Hardin : Part 4: Competition: (20) Competition, a Tabooed Idea in Sociology; (21) The Cybernetics of Competition; (22) Population, Biology and the Law; (23) Population Skeletons in the Environmental Closet; (24) The Survival of Nations and Civilisations, he deals with the concept of Competition, a process that is inescapable in societies living in a finite resource world. He proves that the end result of perfect laissez-faire, competition’s end result reduces all competitors until there is only one left. The monopolist will try to manipulate the machinery of society in such a way as to extend his powers everywhere, without limit. The same applies to labour monopolies. Under these conditions it is important to seek the boundary conditions within which the rule of laissez-faire can produce stability. An Act that may be harmless when the system is healthy and strong may be quite destructive when the system is stressed near its limits. To promote the goal of stability, a law must take cognizance not only of the act but also of the state of the system at the time the act is performed. Ben Bagdikian described the systemic process of corporate media cannibalism in Media Monopoly . In that legal context, corporations who do not promote the goal of ecological stability, but who abuse the planet, should be denied any legal standing, and the law should take cognisance of the actions of corporations who promote the destruction of ecologically stable systems, including the state of the ecological system at the time of such corporate actions.
[17] Derrick Jensen is the author of The EndGame, wherein he alleges that western industrialized culture is the most destructive ecological footprint culture to ever exist, that it refuses to change; that it has effectively declared war on the planet and all other living species on behalf of profits: This Means War. Cultures that live in ecological harmony with the earth, live in relationship to the natural environment; Corporate and/or industrial cultures consider the earth to be objects and resources to be exploited or used purely for profit.
Jared Diamond: Why & How Societies Choose to Fail; or Succeed [01/01] |
[18] In Jared Diamonds Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, he “employs the comparative method to understand societal collapses to which environmental problems contribute.” He lists 12 environmental problems facing mankind today. The first eight have historically contributed to the collapse of past societies: (1) Deforestation and habitat destruction; (2) Soil problems (erosion, salinization, and soil fertility losses); (3) Water management problems (4) Overhunting; (5) Overfishing; (6) Effects of introduced species on native species; (7) Overpopulation; (8) Increased per-capita impact of people. The root problem in all but one of Diamond's factors leading to collapse is overpopulation relative to the practicable (as opposed to the ideal theoretical) carrying capacity of the environment. The one factor not related to overpopulation is the harmful effect of accidentally or intentionally introducing nonnative species to a region. Diamond uses a "framework" when considering the collapse of a society, consisting of five "sets of factors" that may affect what happens to a society: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of trading partners, and the society's own denial responses and refusal to confront its ecological overshoot problems, before it is too late.
Denial about & Cover-up of Ecological Overshoot Encouraging Instability & Anarchy: To promote the goal of stability, a law must take cognizance not only of the act but also of the state of the system at the time the act is performed.
[19] If the State of the System is ‘Brink of Ecological Overshoot into Anarchy and Collapse’; and the media’s ‘act’ is (a) censorship of root cause problem solving, while (b) encouraging the factors (population growth, resource consumption) towards Anarchy and Collapse; then the conclusion is that the Media’s Actions are deliberate and intentional on behalf of Anarchy and Instability.
[20] Where is Society in the Act of Understanding Exponential Population Growth colliding with Exponentially Declining Resources? What is the role of the Media in Society’s Ignorance? What is the role of the media in deliberately keeping Society Ignorant, by means of Environment Population Connection censorship? Where is Ecological Societal System, in terms of Exponential Population Growth colliding with Exponentially Declining Resources? Is the Media Aggravating Instability by encouraging Population Growth and Increased Resource Consumption? Is the Media Encouraging Stability in favour of Population Stabilisation & Reduced Resource Exploitation?
Understanding Exponential Growth: Confronting Society’s Denial or Ignorance of its Ecological Overshoot problems: State of the System:
[21] As detailed in Is Humanity Suicidal? By Edward O. Wilson, in New York Times Magazine, on May 30 1993, “Earth is finite in many resources that determine the quality of life – including arable soil, nutrients, fresh water and space for natural ecosystems. Doubling of consumption at constant time intervals can bring disaster with shocking suddenness. Even when a non-renewable resource has been only half used, it is still only one interval away from the end. Ecologists like to make this point with the French riddle of the lily pond. At first there is only one lily pad in the pond, but the next day there are two, and thereafter each of its descendants doubles. The pond completely fills with lily pads in 30 days. When is the pond exactly half full? Answer: on the 29th day.”
In Revisiting The Limits to Growth: Could The Club of Rome Have Been Correct, After All?, by Matthew R. Simmons: “In the book's chapter defining the deceptive powers of exponential growth and the apparent suddenness with which it approaches a fixed limit, the authors describe the French Riddle of the Lily Pond. In this riddle, the lily pond has a potentially virulent lily that apparently will double in size each day. If the lily grows unchecked it will cover the entire pond in 30 days, choking off all other forms of life in the water by the time it covers the entire pond. If a skeptic waited until 50% of the pond was covered before taking any remedial action to save the pond, when would he act? The answer: on the 29th day of the month! But by then, would be too late. The world can debate when corrective action needs to begin, if exponential growth suddenly shows all the classic signs of pending overshoot. But everyone should agree that waiting until the proverbial 29th day is a classic and unrepentable blunder of the first order.”
World Population Balance: Understanding Exponential Growth: “When most people talk about "growth" in our country, they consider it a completely positive and necessary thing, essential for maintaining the vitality and health of our economy and society. Our society's most revered economic indicators are all based on this fundamental idea: that continuing growth is vital for the health and preservation of our economy and country. In fact, growth is pretty much the only thing they measure! However, natural scientists (such as biologists, chemists, and physicists) know that this assumption must be false. In order for growth to continue forever, we would need an infinite amount of space, energy, and other resources to keep the growth going... and those resources are not infinite. So what happens to steady growth in a limited space? To help explain, we're going to use a simple example of bacteria growing in a bottle.” It asks the questions: “If you were one of the bacteria, when do you suppose you'd start to worry about overcrowding? Would that leave you enough time to do anything about it?”
Ecological Overshoot and the Importance of Waking Up to the Reality of Understanding Exponential Growth are dealt with in detail in Dr. Al Bartlett’s celebrated one-hour Lecture: Arithmetic, Population and Energy: Sustainability 101 and Dr. Chris Martinson’s Crash Course : Chapter 3 focuses on Exponential Growth.
Ostrich Thinking Consequences: Anarchy and Resource Wars
22. What shall be the Consequences of Refusing to Confront and Plan for Mitigating Ecological Overshoot?: Anarchy and Resource Wars:
23. Military Predictors: According to Major Ralph Peters, The Culture of Future Conflict, US Army War College, Parameters, Winter 1995-96, pp. 18-27.“Resource scarcity will be a direct cause of confrontation, conflict, and war. The struggle to maintain access to critical resources will spark local and regional conflicts that will evolve into the most frequent conventional wars of the next century. Today, the notion of resource wars leads the Westerner to think immediately of oil, but water will be the fundamental need of some states, anti-states, and peoples. We envision a need to preserve rainforests, but expanding populations will increasingly create regional shortages of food--especially when nature turns fickle. We are entering the century of "not enough," and we will bleed for things we previously could buy. [.. ] Gross overpopulation will destroy fragile possibilities for progress in much of the non-Western world, and much of this problem is the West's fault. Our well intentioned introduction of relatively crude concepts of sanitation and disease control, combined with our determination to respond generously to local famines, has allowed populations to explode. [..] Basic resources will prove inadequate for populations exploding beyond natural limits, and we may discover truths about ourselves that we do not wish to know. In the end, the greatest challenge may be to our moral order.”
Nightline (2000): CIA & Pentagon: Overpopulation 1/2 Nightline (2000): CIA & Pentagon: Resource Wars 2/2 |
[24] According to the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon Officials in Nightline, 2000 documentary with Ted Koppel; politicians refusal to confront reality, and the lack of political will, to act on exponential population growth colliding with declining resources, are the root causes of current resource wars over oil; which shall soon be manifested as resource wars over water, soil, arable land, etc.
[25] As detailed in Matt Savinar’s: Life After the Oil Crash:Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists , physicists , bankers , and investors in the world. These are rational, professional, conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."
Oil will not just "run out" because all oil production follows a bell curve. This is true whether we're talking about an individual field, a country, or on the planet as a whole.
Oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve, increasingly scarce and expensive on the down slope. The peak of the curve coincides with the point at which the endowment of oil has been 50 percent depleted. Once the peak is passed, oil production begins to go down while cost begins to go up.
In practical and considerably oversimplified terms, this means that if 2005 was the year of global Peak Oil , worldwide oil production in the year 2030 will be the same as it was in 1980. However, the world’s population in 2030 will be both much larger (approximately twice) and much more industrialized (oil-dependent) than it was in 1980. Consequently, worldwide demand for oil will outpace worldwide production of oil by a significant margin. As a result, the price will skyrocket, oil dependant economies will crumble, and resource wars will explode .
[26] Mr. Savinar’s site addresses Peak Oil’s consequences on food production, medicine, the illusions of alternative energy sources, most of which are totally reliant on cheap oil, etc. In regards to Peak Oil’s consequences on the financial system the following is stated:The relationship between the supply of oil and natural gas and the workings of the global financial system is arguably the key issue to dealing with Peak Oil as robost and smoothly function global capital markets must exist in order to power an orderly (or semi-orderly) transition process. In fact this relationship is far more important than alternative sources of energy, energy conservation, or the development of new energy technologies, all of which are discussed in detail on page two of this site . In short, the global financial system is entirely dependent on a constantly increasing supply of oil and natural gas .
To illustrate, if home and business loans are issued with interest rates in the 7% range, the assumption underlying the loans is that the monetary supply will increase (on average) by 7% per year. But if that 7% yearly increase in the monetary supply is not matched by a 7% yearly increase in the amount of economic activity (goods and services), the result is hyper-inflation. The key is this: in order for there to be an increase in the amount of economic activity taking place, there must be an increase in the amount of net-energy (i.e. the net-number of BTUs) available to fuel those activities. As no alternative source or combination of sources comes even remotely close to the energy density of oil (125,000 BTUs per gallon, the equivalent of 150-500 hours of human labor), a decline or even plateau in the supply of oil carries such overwhelming consequences for the financial system. Dr. Colin Campbell presents an understandable model of this complete relationship as follows:It is becoming evident that the financial community begins to accept the reality of Peak Oil. They accept that banks created capital during this epoch by lending more than they had on deposit, being confident that tomorrow’s expansion, fuelled by cheap oil-based energy, was adequate collateral for today’s debt. The decline of oil, the principal driver of economic growth, undermines the validity of that collateral which in turn erodes the valuation of most entities quoted on Stock Exchanges.
Commentator Robert Wise explains the connection between energy and money as follows:It's not physics, but it's true: money equals energy. Real, liquid wealth represents usable energy. It can be exchanged for fuel, for work, or for something built by the work of humans or fuel-powered machines. Real cost reflects the energy cost of doing something; real value reflects the energy expended to build something.
Nearly all the work done in the world economy, all the manufacturing, construction, and transportation, is done with energy derived from fuel. The actual work done by human muscle power is miniscule by comparison. And, the lion's share of that fuel comes from oil and natural gas, the primary sources of the world's wealth.
Author Dmitry Orlov offers the following explanation of how the debt-based financial currency used in a modern economy is actually dependent on an increasing supply of energy. Emphasis added:Although it is often thought that a [modern] economy produces value, as an empirical matter it can be observed that what it produces is debt. One borrows money in order to provide and to receive goods and services. Loans are extended based on the expectation that, in the future, demand for these services will be even higher, driving further economic growth. However, this economy is not a closed system: the delivery of these goods and services is linked to external energy flows. Greater flows of energy, in the form of increased oil and natural gas imports, increased coal production and so forth are failing to occur, for a variety of geological and geopolitical reasons. There is every reason to expect that the ability to deliver goods and services will suffer as a result of energy shortages, collapsing the debt pyramid.
In October 2005, the normally conservative London Times acknowledged that the world's wealth may soon evaporate as we enter a technological and economic "Dark Age." In an article entitled "Waiting for the Lights to Go Out" Times columnist Bryan Appleyard reported:Oil is running out; the climate is changing at a potentially catastrophic rate; wars over scarce resources are brewing; finally, most shocking of all, we don't seem to be having enough ideas about how to fix any of these things.
Almost daily, new evidence is emerging that progress can no longer be taken for granted, that a new Dark Age is lying in wait for ourselves and our children . . . growth may be coming to an end. Since our entire financial order from interest rates, pension funds, insurance, to stock markets is predicated on growth, the social and economic consequences may be cataclysmic.
[27] The socio-political and economic consequences of Peak Oil will be severe, as detailed in [German] Military Study Warns of Potentially Drastic Oil Crisis, by Stefan Schultz, Der Spiegel , 01 September 2010:
A study by a German military think tank has analyzed how "peak oil" might change the global economy. The internal draft document -- leaked on the Internet -- shows for the first time how carefully the German government has considered a potential energy crisis.
The term "peak oil" is used by energy experts to refer to a point in time when global oil reserves pass their zenith and production gradually begins to decline. This would result in a permanent supply crisis -- and fear of it can trigger turbulence in commodity markets and on stock exchanges.
The issue is so politically explosive that it's remarkable when an institution like the Bundeswehr, the German military, uses the term "peak oil" at all. But a military study currently circulating on the German blogosphere goes even further.
The study is a product of the Future Analysis department of the Bundeswehr Transformation Center, a think tank tasked with fixing a direction for the German military. The team of authors, led by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Will, uses sometimes-dramatic language to depict the consequences of an irreversible depletion of raw materials. It warns of shifts in the global balance of power, of the formation of new relationships based on interdependency, of a decline in importance of the western industrial nations, of the "total collapse of the markets" and of serious political and economic crises.
[28] In US Military warns oil output may dip causing massive shortages by 2015, Terry MacAlister warns that the military report states that the “shortfall could reach 10 m barrels a day, and that the cost of crude oil is predicted to top $100 per barrel, which would have significant economic and political impacts.
[29] In the third military Peak Oil report of 2010 Fueling the Future Force: Preparing the Department of Defense for a Post-Petroleum Environment was published on 27 September by the Washington, DC “national security and defence” think tank, Center for a New American Security (CNAS). It warns that the US Department of Defense’s “massive energy needs” are met by petroleum – and “given projected supply and demand, we cannot assume that oil will remain affordable or that supplies will be available to the United States reliably three decades hence.” To remain as an effective fighting force, the entire US military must transition from oil over the coming 30 years. Of the three, the German one is the most blunt, as detailed in German Military Report: Peak Oil Could Lead to Collapse of Democracy:
Peak oil has happened or will happen some time around this year, and its consequences could threaten the continued survival of democratic governments, says a secret Germany military report that was leaked online.
According to Der Spiegel, the report from a think-tank inside the German military warns that shrinking global oil supplies will threaten the world's economic foundations and possibly lead to mass-scale upheaval within the next 15 to 30 years.
International trade would suffer as the cost of transporting goods across oceans would soar, resulting in "shortages in the supply of vital goods," the report states, as translated by Der Spiegel.
The result would be the collapse of the industrial supply chain. "In the medium term the global economic system and every market-oriented national economy would collapse," the report states.
[30] On 18 July 2006, PeakOil_RSA filed a 136 page Peak Oil Briefing Paper to the South African Government, Media and Civic Society organisations, c/o and via the then Minister of Intelligence: Mr. Ronnie Kasrils, which asked: “Is Gross Mismanagement of the nation’s energy policy and impeachable offense?” The political secession and economic relocalisation suggestions for mitigating a Post Peak Oil world, included: (i) Limit Population, (ii) Develop Alternative Energies; (iii) Reinvent the Way Money Works, i.e. implement local currencies; (iv) Save Energy; (v) Foster local communities, (vi) Get Out of Debt and (vii) Educate and Raise Awareness. The Briefing Paper was ignored by SA political, media and corporate elite.
[31] According to Joint Operating Environment – 2010, issued by United States Joint Forces Command, issued on 18 February 2010:
“The implications for future conflict are ominous, if energy supplies cannot keep up with demand and should states see the need to militarily secure dwindling energy resources. (p.26)…. By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 MBD”
ISSUE: ‘DELIBERATE INDIFFERENCE’ TO MEDIA CORRUPTION:
[32] The issue of Deliberate Indifference by journalists and media editors to their own media corruption (intellectual dishonesty, hypocrisy and deception and fraud) is found by all Respondents to varying degrees in this chronology. While the Nazi Party, ‘evil Apartheid’ and corruption on steroids ANC have individuals who are willing to risk their careers to expose ANC corruption, the only professional journalist who publicly spoken out about media corruption in South Africa is David Bullard (The Hollow Men of Journalism , and A mosquito buzzing in the dark * ).
[33] Mr. Bullard describes how Mondli Makhanya (Second Respondent) submitted forged documents into the court record during court proceedings; and how all SA media editors informed hereof refused to publish this information. If those allegations were made against General Beki Cele or Helen Zille, the same media editors would be acting like starving vultures; but when it is one of their own, in fact the Chairman of SANEF, they cover it up; and remain silent. When it comes to media corruption, SA media’s editors, professors and Ombudsman don’t think the public have a right to know; that SA’s self-righteous editors are as corrupt, if not more corrupt than the politicians and civil servants they publicly flagellate and condemn for their own financial profit.
[34] Except for David Bullard, it appears that there are no journalists or editors with the Milgramesque skills and capabilities to either (a) resist the temptation from participating in the dominant media corruption paradigm, and (b) cross the yellow journalism line of silence to expose their fellow colleague’s corruption. The media editor and media elite respondents herein cited, are as ideologically obedient to their code of silence about fellow media editors corruption, as Adolf Eichmann was to Nazism; they lack the capabilities to cross the yellow line and expose their own.
[35] According to John Pilger: “It is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agendas of the message and myths that surround it.”
[36] In a Guardian article: Why Are Wars not being Reported Honestly; John Pilger describes journalists and editors confirming their role as censorship agents, along similar lines of reasoning as detailed in Dr. T. Michael Maher’s report: How and Why Journalists Avoid the Population – Environment Connection, Pilger writes:
"I am perfectly open to the accusation that we were hoodwinked," said Jeremy Paxman, talking about Iraq's non-existent weapons of mass destruction to a group of students last year. "Clearly we were." As a highly paid professional broadcaster, he omitted to say why he was hoodwinked.
Dan Rather, who was the CBS news anchor for 24 years, was less reticent. "There was a fear in every newsroom in America," he told me, "a fear of losing your job... the fear of being stuck with some label, unpatriotic or otherwise." Rather says war has made "stenographers out of us" and that had journalists questioned the deceptions that led to the Iraq war, instead of amplifying them, the invasion would not have happened. This is a view now shared by a number of senior journalists I interviewed in the US.
"Does that make journalists accomplices?" I asked him.
"Yes... unwitting perhaps, but yes."
What is the value of journalists speaking like this? The answer is provided by the great reporter James Cameron, whose brave and revealing filmed report, made with Malcolm Aird, of the bombing of civilians in North Vietnam was banned by the BBC. "If we who are meant to find out what the bastards are up to, if we don't report what we find, if we don't speak up," he told me, "who's going to stop the whole bloody business happening again?"
[37] John Pilgers The War You Don’t See Pilger traces the motivations for such censorship back to the father of public relations: Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud.
[38] In Bernays’s 1928 book Propaganda, he described the conspiracy of manipulating the public with ‘public relations news’ to behave as psychologically insecure, dumbed-down, automatonic zombie consumers, instead of educating them to be rational self-sufficient ecologically responsible citizens, as follows:
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society.”
Media Conspiracy to Manipulate the Habits & Opinions of in favour of Consumerist Society, for Profit:
[39] In How and Why Journalists Avoid Population-Environment Connection, Dr. T. Michael Maher writes:
As we have seen, both land development economists and environmental experts acknowledge population growth as a key source of environmental change. But journalists frame environmental causality differently.
Why? Communication theory offers several possibilities. First is the hegemony-theory interpretation: reports omit any implication that population growth might produce negative effects, in order to purvey the ideology of elites who make money from population growth. As Molotch and Lester (1974) put it, media content can be viewed as reflecting "the practices of those having the power to determine the experience of others" (p. 120). Since real estate, construction and banking interests directly support the media through advertising purchases, this interpretation seems plausible. A number of media critics (e.g., Gandy, 1982; Altschull, 1984; Bennett, 1988) have suggested that media messages reflect the values of powerful political and commercial interests. Burd (1972), Kaniss (1991) and others have pointed out that newspapers have traditionally promoted population growth in their cities through civic boosterism. Molotch (1976) even suggested that cities can best be understood as entities competing for population growth, with the city newspaper as chief cheerleader.
Certainly most reporters would be incensed at the suggestion that they shade their reporting to placate commercial interests. But Breed’s classic study of social control in the newsroom (1955) showed that news managers’ values are transmissible to journalists through a variety of pressures: salaries, story assignments, layout treatment, editing, and a variety of other strategies that effectively shape news stories in ways acceptable to management.
[40] In Nicholas Partridge’s documentary ANC: VIP’s of Violence: Rev. John Gogotya describes the media’s role in glorifying political violence:“The moderate blacks were not selling the papers. We were presenting a non-violent strategy, that did not say ‘Burn, baby Burn’. A strategy that said people must come together and sit down around a negotiating table. And this is not sensational stuff; it does not sell the papers.” – Rev. John Gogotya, ANC: VIP’s of Violence
[41] The Radical Honesty SA Amicus before the Constitutional Court, in The Citizen v. McBride – totally censored by all the SA media -- makes this point very clearly in paragraph 7:Equity will not allow a statute to be used as a cloak for fraud: Mainstream Access-to-Discourse-Gatekeeper Editors censorship of nonviolent political grievances and problem solving activism facilitate a pressure cooker socio-political reality for their ‘If it Bleads, it Leads’ corporate propaganda profits, in knowledge application of:‘As long as there is some possibility of getting results by political means, the chances that any political group or individual will turn violent are truly radically small, or maybe vanishingly small’ (NYT);
‘The exposure in the media is what gets people’s attention. People follow what is happening in the news, not what is happening in the courts’ (PWC-PDF);
‘[Editors] abuse of media power, by means of strategies whereby they abuse public discourse/free speech resources; by providing certain parties with preferential and special access to such public discourse, and severely restricting or denying others any access to such public discourse; (PDF)
Mainstream media avoid addressing or enquiring into root causes of problems as reported in How and Why Journalists Avoid Population – Environment connection ; and censor non-violent root-cause problem solving activism.
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