The Emperor Has No Clothes A Practical Guide for Environmental and Social Transformation by John Hagen Read Free Book Online Page A

was bound in a manner similar to that
used for official documents and sent to the 800 people on his list.
Excerpts from this document later appeared in speeches presented at
the UN, a State Department White paper, and other official
documents. Clements was also a friend and business partner of
Nicaraguan President Somoza. In 1954 UFCO's efforts bore fruit, the
democratic Arbenz government fell as a result of US engendered
attacks [12] from Honduras, and was replaced with a dictator.
    12. UFCO provided training and staging areas
on it property for the “liberation army” as well as $64,000 in
cash. The aftermath of their activities were decades of military
dictatorships that maintained their position through a continuous
rain of terror with an estimated 150,000 - 200,000 persons
killed.
     
    Upon examination of the examples already
given we can characterize several traits that are common to a greed
based system. The individuals controlling these large enterprises
embody a vision that is restricted to activities primarily focused
on maximum gain and ignore the wider impacts of their actions. In
order to accomplish this goal every means is used: co-opting of
public resources, externalizing costs, manipulation of the
political/regulatory system, exploitation of its working force, and
the direct or indirect use of force. One of the primary tools used
to produce a climate suitable for gaining these ends is to produce
PR that is often disingenuous. In his 1928 book “Propaganda” Mr.
Bernays described the goals of these PR campaigns as “The conscious
and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions
of the masses is an important element in a democratic society.
Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an
invisible government which is the true ruling power of our
country.....it is the intelligent minorities which need to make use
of propaganda continuously and systematically”.
    If we consider the current status of how the
powerful vested interests are utilizing the techniques of PR to
shape a favorable climate for gleaning profits and power, their
presence has become much more pervasive and effective because of
the ubiquity of electronic communication, and advances in the
psychological and neuropsychological sciences.
    Lets consider the current status of the
Military Industrial Complex and the PR themes that are being used
to support it. As I argued earlier the size and capabilities of the
U.S. military are far beyond what is needed to act as a deterrent
of an invasion of the United States by a foreign power. If we
consider the content of the current PR effort it has shifted from
creating fears of communism to creating fears of terrorism. Much of
the justification for the colossal defense expenditures is to have
adequate means to fight terrorism. If the nature of terrorist
activities are scrutinized, it is comprised of small numbers of
people in scattered locations. These are not large scale military
formations maintained by nation states for defense and/or conquest.
The terrorist activities have several political objectives: the
first purpose of their activities are to modify the national
policies of their targets. The second is to garner support of
sympathetic governments and their populations, basically it is an
aggressive and destructive form of PR. If we recall the stated
objectives for the recent invasion of Afghanistan by the United
States, the invasion was justified by the US government’s demand
that the Afghan government produce the terrorist Osama Bin Laden
for arrest by US authorities which didn’t occur. After the invasion
and conquest of Afghanistan took place it turned out that Mr. Bin
Laden decided to leave and wasn’t waiting there to be captured or
killed. If we consider terrorist group characteristics, I would
argue that combating terrorism is really more of a police style of
activity rather than one requiring large scale military forces.
Having another $13.5