I received word from my publisher today that my next book "A Beginner's Guide to False Flags" is getting very close to going to the printer. In the meantime I would like to share the Foreword of the book written by Dr. Matthew Johnson. I would also like to give a very big Thank You to Dr. Johnson for graciously taking the time out of his busy schedule to write it.
Acts of terror are meant to benefit the cause for which it was accomplished. This is a simple axiom. Political action of all types is designed to gain sympathy for a cause. Killing children, the defenseless or just random people guarantees that the population at large will hate the cause in whose name the act was done.
For example, the attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 makes no sense. Killing children ensured that whoever did it would be hated forever. But even if some lunatic believed an action would help is cause, he would at least take credit for it. What would be the point of a violent act if no one took credit? No one took credit for Oklahoma City, making this the one and only act of terror where no one stepped forward and told the world they were responsible.
The sort of bomb used to destroy the building did not have the capacity to inflict such damage. Debris was actually blown out of the building rather than inward. If there was a ammonium nitrate bomb used, the air would have been totally unbreathable for some time after the blast. This was not the case, making the act all the more suspicious.
The Spotlight, where this writer worked as a reporter, received a strange postcard from Oklahoma City, postmarked two days before the attack. It was received the day after. It was addressed in handwritten script clearly not Timothy McVeigh's. The postcard depicted a dust storm over Oklahoma City which is entitled “Black Sunday,” an old movie about terrorism. It said a “storm” is rapidly heading to Oklahoma City. In addition, the envelope also contained an old article about the FBI's murder of IRS critic Gordon Kahl.
These were immediately turned over to the FBI. Hearing about this, the editor of the Village Voice contacted the FBI to see what had come of this. They claimed they “lost” the card. Had they not turned the card over, The Spotlight would have been raided for “obstruction of justice.”
The government's case and story was absurd. Most false flag acts make little sense. Almost each and every piece of evidence unearthed contradicted it. Bomb survivor Jane Graham reported that several suspicious figures were “planting something” at the base of the building two days before. Many survivors state that there was a huge explosion inside the building immediately after the truck bomb went off. Further, seismographic data proves there were two explosions.
ABC reported that a phone call to the FBI stated “the Murrah building has been bombed.” This is unremarkable in itself. It becomes remarkable only when you realize that it occurred 24 minutes before it happened.
An important report was sent to the US Senate from USAF General Benton K. Partin, USAF (Ret.) and dated July 30, 1995.
The maximum possible yield from 4800 pounds of ammonium nitrate would be obtained if it were in a compressed sphere and detonated from the center. That would produce a 4.4 foot diameter sphere of detonation products at about 500,000 pounds per square inch. By the time the blast wave hits the closest column, the pressure would have fallen off to about 375 pounds per square inch. That would be far below the 3500 pound compressive yield strength of the concrete. Any column or beam failure from the truck bomb would therefore have been from blast wave structural loading and not from any wave of deformation in the concrete.
He concluded, “The Murrah Federal Building was not destroyed by one sole truck bomb. The major factor in its destruction appears to have been detonation of explosives carefully placed at four critical junctures on supporting columns within the building.” Therefore, there is no question McVeigh did not kill all these people. It would not be in his interest to do so.
Two years after the bombing, on March 22, 1997, CNN stated:
The Justice Department inspector general’s office has determined that the FBI crime laboratory working on the Oklahoma City bombing case made ‘scientifically unsound’ conclusions that were “biased in favor of the prosecution,” The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. . . [FBI] supervisors approved lab reports that they ‘cannot support’ and [these same] FBI lab officials may have erred about the size of the blast, the amount of explosives involved and the type of explosives used in the bombing. . . The harshest criticism was of David Williams, a supervisory agent in the [FBI] explosives unit. Those flaws reportedly include the basis of his determination that the main charge of the explosion was ammonium nitrate. The inspector general called such a determination “inappropriate.” FBI officials found a receipt for ammonium nitrate at defendant [Terry] Nichols’ home and, because of that discovery, Williams slanted his conclusion to match the evidence.
These are mainstream admissions that the entire media narrative of the bombing was a total lie. In yet another example of what Michael Hoffman calls “the revelation of the method,” nothing was done and no interest was taken.
Ammonium Nitrate is the official media weapon used at the site. Researchers quickly pointed out that this was impossible, but were angrily shouted down. The truth is that the USAF Manual (9-1910) states that the level of purity needed to use this as a weapon – mixed with fuel oil – made it almost impossible that the official story was true. The receipt for the chemicals showed it was not the type that could ever be used in explosives, since it was not concentrated. It is not very explosive otherwise. In other words, the media story was a total fake.
So why false flags? A false flag is an act of terror designed to turn public opinion against the group or cause for which it was accomplished. Project Megiddo was the FBI drive to destroy the “far right” in American politics. The absurd OKC bombing story was the impetus for it. The Project was a report sent to every police chief in the USA from the FBI instructing them to keep “religious extremists” under close watch. Since this definition had no real meaning, it was a blanket condemnation of anyone making war on the New World Order.
The document states:
The Project Megiddo intelligence initiative has identified very few indications of specific threats to domestic security. Given the present nature of domestic extremism, this is to be expected. However, this is a function of the limitations of the group-oriented model of counterterrorism analysis and should not be taken necessarily as reflective of a minor or trivial domestic threat.
The paper is very poorly researched and showed only a passive familiarity with the views of these groups. It cites the erroneous analysis of the OKC bombing mentioned above and uses it as a foil for the entire project. They mention the “Black Israelites,” a “black supremacist” group only for token purposes. They have four or five members.
It claims that the computer “bug” that was worrisome in 1999 would be the trigger for rightist violence in 2000. Yet, no right wing group even made such a connection, nor does it have any religious significance. It was in the news and was thought to possibly have catastrophic results, so it was used.
The Megiddo paper claims that “Christian Identity” is the unifying ideology of the far right. The authors laughably claim that this includes “William Pierce” and the “Church of the Creator,” proving a total lack of familiarity with either. It claims that the rule of the “UN” over the world is the core of the “New World Order” theory. It is clear that no real effort was made to understand the ideologies presented here.
False flags are accomplished from a position of weakness. The ruling class is aware that its hold on power is illegitimate and, as the USSR's collapse showed in 1990-1991, can be destroyed rapidly. Good governments have no need of false flags. They are powerful methods of social control that comes in all forms, shapes and sizes.
Clint Lacy is a man whose work I've read for many years. He's a specialist in American history, especially the American South and the Confederate States. As Editor of the Barnes Review in the early part of the 2000s, Clint was already one of our more important writers on these topics. We began a fruitful cooperation interrupted only by my legendary ability to procrastinate.
The present book has only a handful of competitors. It terms itself “A Beginners Guide,” meaning this is a way to teach neophytes a critically important understanding effectively banned from public analysis. False flags is an important way illegitimate governments maintain power.
Neophytes don't have it easy. They're slowly coming out of the hive-mind, but so come to realize several things: a) their newfound discoveries earn them few friends; b) they're almost all alone and c) they are quickly branded as mentally ill and from then on and looked upon with suspicion. Its not an easy life.
A scholar seeking to teach others must be an expert. He must have the knowledge of the (usually monstrous) literature in a field, have written extensively on it, and have the humility to reserve judgment until a large amount of data can be brought to bear and conceptualized on a specific question. Few of these men exist today.
The masses normally don't operate in this way and don't even understand what this means in practice. Expertise is a subject that takes years is the result of both suffering and obsession. The alternative is the pseudo-intellectual, the person seeking the reputation of being a “scholar” without doing the decades of work that go into actually becoming one.
When one of these phonies is attempting to teach a novice, this writer's reactions are usually visceral and vehement. A man who sounds authoritative while actually knowing little is a dangerous criminal. He can poison minds rapidly. Today, there are many thousands of these people.
Worse, there are precious few that can expose them. The act of exposure itself is dangerous, difficult and can occasionally lead to violent reactions. It all seems to end the same way. As society is disintegrates and the truth no longer is even an objective, it is much easier for these miscreants to sound brilliant without really knowing much. Power matters today, not ideas. Truth can be bought with money. Or rather, the passions and drives of the population can be suitably diverted by it.
Plato's Gorgias is dedicated to this life. Socrates is confronting a “speech maker,” a Sophist. Today we might term him a “propagandist” or “PR man.” He's really the journalist of the era or even the academic. They served in the law courts for hire and had the ability to make any argument seem plausible. It wasn't actual knowledge, but the skillful use of words and images to grant the impression of knowledge.
Plato says:
I want to begin by asking whether [the PR man] is as ignorant of the just and unjust, base and honorable, good and evil, as he is of medicine and the other arts; I mean to say,does he really know anything of what is good and evil, base or honorable, just or unjust in them; or has he only a way with the ignorant of persuading them that he not knowing is to be esteemed to know more about these things than someone else who knows?
Of course they are ignorant. They just have learned how to manipulate others into believing otherwise. The point of the dialogue is to expose what these PR men really are. They don't know anything. All they know is how to make themselves sound like authorities and then hire themselves out to the highest bidder. They're frauds, but since they've become wealthy, they're in a position to dominate those who really, truly know. This, in Plato's mind, is what a democracy really is.
Revisionist historians have one thing in mind: to actually function as historians. “Revisionist history” is almost a redundancy. Its the very purpose of studying history. The opposite is the “court historian,” the “sophist” or the “university professor” who, having a great gig, will do anything to maintain it. He then becomes a company man and therefore, has to manipulate others into believing he's not.
Real history is being done outside of the academy, just like in Plato's day. Truth has long been a fear for the ruling class and maintaining their power through images is their primary form of communication. Our purpose is to rip open this veil that power, personal opinion and self-interest place over events and personalities. Appearances are almost always deceiving. In fact, that's part of why there are “appearances” at all. They are mere images. This is Plato's entire purpose. The truth is a matter of intellect. An opinion is a matter of desire.
Why false flags? These are an important means of keeping a restless citizenry under control. Jack the Ripper terrorized London at a time of great labor unrest as the oligarchy maintained sweatshop conditions in the filthy factories of the era. The terror that becomes internalized by these events misdirects the anger of the citizen far too busy to study facts for too long. Working 10 hours a day, having a family and myriad other responsibilities leaves little room for study. This is not an amateurs game. Keeping men off balance, keeping them dependent and in a state of fear soon leads to lethargy.
It's admirable that Clint writes a book with the beginner in mind. He takes a well known event, describes briefly the Establishment view, then pokes holes in it. The “Establishment” is precisely this set of powerful interests that either create these false flags or throw veils over them. Dealing with beginners is very important since Americans have a well known hatred for history.
The book does not pretend to be an exhaustive, academic treatment of these momentous events. It's not even close. Rather, it sows doubt in the mind; doubt that what the reader has been told about the world is largely mythical. The term “myth” is very important since it's a narrative that lays the groundwork for how a society functions. Its how a society has come to perceive itself.
The scientific establishment, for example, uses the image of the dedicated, objective researcher striving for truth as its own myth. Of course, its nothing of the kind. Yet, no institution can function for long without a myth and plenty of money to promote it. As it stands today, the only real purpose of the historian is to slowly and methodically corrode the pillars of the preset World Order. False history is one of the most important aspects of its foundation. This is why revisionism is banned in much of Europe.
This World Order can be defended by no one. No ethical theory can support the wealth of the world being controlled by a handful of liberal elites. It functions in part because no one has the historical sense to see any alternatives to the present Regime. Corroding the foundations of this system is, in part, to provide the outline of the alternatives.
After almost 30 years of non-stop professional, full time work in history, this writer has reached many conclusions. None are more significant than this one: The entire worldview of the average educated American is a fantasy. This worldview is nourished by the proverbial lack of historical sense Americans have come to be identified with worldwide.
Hearing idiotic phrases like “It doesn't matter anymore, that's all in the past” is a manifestation of their inability to see themselves as historical beings. Every cell in our body is a historically conditioned entity. For most Americans, history is a waste of time because it is so poorly taught. The memorization of dates and the regurgitation of dogma is its essence today.
History is dangerous, it is a weapon. Today in Europe, denying the “Holocaust” of Jews – and only Jews – carries a prison sentence. Thousands have been fired due to ideological views and activities, present company included. Elites fear history because it can be used to expose them. It can be used to expose the fraud of their lifestyles, their sense of self and their personal rationalizations of their behavior.
More than anything else, history is one field treated as dogmatic, not critical, in American universities. It's so easy to be ignorant. No one expects anything from you and you can't be held responsible for what derives from it. The lure of ignorance is the siren song of capitalism. No one will hate you. You make no enemies.
Aboulia is one of my favorite words. It comes from the Greek and it means a “lack of will.” However, it means more than this. It's more than just lethargy. It means a lack of will that comes from a sense of helplessness, that nothing matters. It infects societies in decline. It can begin when a society is too wealthy. Oligarchy measures all things in dollars and cents. When these dollars are monopolized by a handful, the mass no longer see a purpose in life.
Oligarchy has no use for critical thought and seeks only personal gain. Aboulia is a sign of a dying organism. There's nothing to fight for. Most of all, it infects those, as they seek to learn about a historical topic, facing a dizzying array of views on a subject. It's very easy to then say that truth is impossible to discover.
Another conclusion this writer has faced is that truth is not difficult to find. It's the product of pain, constant focus, study and, importantly, the refusal to allow one's own self interest or biases to keep facts and arguments out of reach. It is a constant struggle for all decent historians and is one that can never be won completely.
The moment one's prejudices and personal interest are kept at bay, the truth becomes fairly simple to understand. When the images that distort cognition are swept away, truth is almost obvious. Therefore, the ruling class has an interest in creating this image world that Plato likened to a cave. Men are chained inside a cave and a fire is burning behind them. The ruling class – or its functionaries – casts shadows on the wall.
Soon, the masses come to think this is all that exists. Sciences develop and these shadows are analyzed in great detail. On occasion, someone escapes and heads outside. There, the Sun blinds him. Seeing it for the first time is agonizing. The escapee is not happy in discovering this, since he now has the obligation to go back into the cave. His life will not be pleasant from that time on. He will be called delusional, subversive and crazy as he speaks about this outside world he's just seen.
Self interest is the great killer of truth. Self interest is what causes the shadows to be cast on the wall. The ruling class requires this sort of ignorance. A depraved society is one that follows its passion, not its reason. Its drive for gain soon distorts all reality around it. Over time, this desire is projected onto the world. They're no longer seeing reality as everything is just a function of their desire. This projection is the foundation of modern, western society.
Men are supposed to live only for self interest, with the theory being that it will, eventually, all work out for the public good. The “marketplace of ideas” will eventually show the truth. This is the mind of the “libertarian,” the man who seeks to offend no one in his political views and so says that all things are permissible. The might say that “harm” is the limit to this, but he's safe in his understanding that, since no one knows what this means, his empty slogans will be taken as historical brilliance. At the very least, he'll get along with everyone.
The only time things change is when the cave itself begins to come apart. When the cave is no longer structurally sound, men will scurry to find alternatives. A handful will rush out and be blinded by the sun. Most will run in circles and eventually be crushed as the ceiling caves in, but most will not move at all. They'll just be smashed.
Christ used the parable of the seed sown on rocky ground to make the same point. The truth incarnate realized, like Socrates and the prophets before him, that only a handful really want to get out of the cave. The cave is Comfortable. Most don't have the capacity to leave. Most are terrified of leaving and, in fact, would much rather be crushed than risk seeing the Sun for the first time.
Mr. Lacy is exposing a ruling class that is not creating these false flags out of strength, but weakness. A false flag is not a hoax, like the Pulse shootings in Orlando or the Dylann Roof killings. Most of the stories surrounding all of these make little sense and come apart at the slightest application of reason. A false flag is a real event that has been created or hijacked by the ruling class for its own purpose.
So long as the regime can deliver the basic goods, the mass will stay obediently in the cave. But the present level of debt and downward pressure on the dollar is such that even this basic prerequisite is becoming a struggle. Debt service is the largest item in the US federal budget. Private sector debt sits at about $17 trillion, about as much as the federal debt. No recovery is possible under these conditions. There's no rational way to extend credit to anyone but the most established institutions under such pressure. To have a mass killing to blame on “the Russians” would be a perfect way to justify a war and thus, the revivification of the economy. FDR did it with Pearl Harbor.
Today, Americans own nothing. Most homes are under a mortgage, meaning the bank owns the house. Most household debt is far above the assets of the family. Bankruptcies are in the millions per year and Republicans are frantically trying to tighten the requirements. The big banks are doing the same thing today they did before the crash of 2007, only now, its off the books.
But will the taxpayers meekly hand over billions to them once they fail again? Are the billions even there? Most pensions were handed over to the banks in 2007-2008 and millions of senior citizens flooded the job market at the same time millions of illegals pour into the US. The system needs false flags more than ever.
Today, the ruling class think only in the short term. Without confidence in their own Regime's future, they have no incentive to invest but rather, seek to strip assets rather than create anew. False flags are a means to keep public outrage at bay while they sop up the wealth crated by others. Its the hallmark of our age.
Matthew Raphael Johnson
Johnstown, PA, 2018
 |
| Dr. Matthew Johnson |
Foreword
Acts of terror are meant to benefit the cause for which it was accomplished. This is a simple axiom. Political action of all types is designed to gain sympathy for a cause. Killing children, the defenseless or just random people guarantees that the population at large will hate the cause in whose name the act was done.
For example, the attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 makes no sense. Killing children ensured that whoever did it would be hated forever. But even if some lunatic believed an action would help is cause, he would at least take credit for it. What would be the point of a violent act if no one took credit? No one took credit for Oklahoma City, making this the one and only act of terror where no one stepped forward and told the world they were responsible.
The sort of bomb used to destroy the building did not have the capacity to inflict such damage. Debris was actually blown out of the building rather than inward. If there was a ammonium nitrate bomb used, the air would have been totally unbreathable for some time after the blast. This was not the case, making the act all the more suspicious.
The Spotlight, where this writer worked as a reporter, received a strange postcard from Oklahoma City, postmarked two days before the attack. It was received the day after. It was addressed in handwritten script clearly not Timothy McVeigh's. The postcard depicted a dust storm over Oklahoma City which is entitled “Black Sunday,” an old movie about terrorism. It said a “storm” is rapidly heading to Oklahoma City. In addition, the envelope also contained an old article about the FBI's murder of IRS critic Gordon Kahl.
These were immediately turned over to the FBI. Hearing about this, the editor of the Village Voice contacted the FBI to see what had come of this. They claimed they “lost” the card. Had they not turned the card over, The Spotlight would have been raided for “obstruction of justice.”
The government's case and story was absurd. Most false flag acts make little sense. Almost each and every piece of evidence unearthed contradicted it. Bomb survivor Jane Graham reported that several suspicious figures were “planting something” at the base of the building two days before. Many survivors state that there was a huge explosion inside the building immediately after the truck bomb went off. Further, seismographic data proves there were two explosions.
ABC reported that a phone call to the FBI stated “the Murrah building has been bombed.” This is unremarkable in itself. It becomes remarkable only when you realize that it occurred 24 minutes before it happened.
An important report was sent to the US Senate from USAF General Benton K. Partin, USAF (Ret.) and dated July 30, 1995.
The maximum possible yield from 4800 pounds of ammonium nitrate would be obtained if it were in a compressed sphere and detonated from the center. That would produce a 4.4 foot diameter sphere of detonation products at about 500,000 pounds per square inch. By the time the blast wave hits the closest column, the pressure would have fallen off to about 375 pounds per square inch. That would be far below the 3500 pound compressive yield strength of the concrete. Any column or beam failure from the truck bomb would therefore have been from blast wave structural loading and not from any wave of deformation in the concrete.
He concluded, “The Murrah Federal Building was not destroyed by one sole truck bomb. The major factor in its destruction appears to have been detonation of explosives carefully placed at four critical junctures on supporting columns within the building.” Therefore, there is no question McVeigh did not kill all these people. It would not be in his interest to do so.
Two years after the bombing, on March 22, 1997, CNN stated:
The Justice Department inspector general’s office has determined that the FBI crime laboratory working on the Oklahoma City bombing case made ‘scientifically unsound’ conclusions that were “biased in favor of the prosecution,” The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. . . [FBI] supervisors approved lab reports that they ‘cannot support’ and [these same] FBI lab officials may have erred about the size of the blast, the amount of explosives involved and the type of explosives used in the bombing. . . The harshest criticism was of David Williams, a supervisory agent in the [FBI] explosives unit. Those flaws reportedly include the basis of his determination that the main charge of the explosion was ammonium nitrate. The inspector general called such a determination “inappropriate.” FBI officials found a receipt for ammonium nitrate at defendant [Terry] Nichols’ home and, because of that discovery, Williams slanted his conclusion to match the evidence.
These are mainstream admissions that the entire media narrative of the bombing was a total lie. In yet another example of what Michael Hoffman calls “the revelation of the method,” nothing was done and no interest was taken.
Ammonium Nitrate is the official media weapon used at the site. Researchers quickly pointed out that this was impossible, but were angrily shouted down. The truth is that the USAF Manual (9-1910) states that the level of purity needed to use this as a weapon – mixed with fuel oil – made it almost impossible that the official story was true. The receipt for the chemicals showed it was not the type that could ever be used in explosives, since it was not concentrated. It is not very explosive otherwise. In other words, the media story was a total fake.
So why false flags? A false flag is an act of terror designed to turn public opinion against the group or cause for which it was accomplished. Project Megiddo was the FBI drive to destroy the “far right” in American politics. The absurd OKC bombing story was the impetus for it. The Project was a report sent to every police chief in the USA from the FBI instructing them to keep “religious extremists” under close watch. Since this definition had no real meaning, it was a blanket condemnation of anyone making war on the New World Order.
The document states:
The Project Megiddo intelligence initiative has identified very few indications of specific threats to domestic security. Given the present nature of domestic extremism, this is to be expected. However, this is a function of the limitations of the group-oriented model of counterterrorism analysis and should not be taken necessarily as reflective of a minor or trivial domestic threat.
The paper is very poorly researched and showed only a passive familiarity with the views of these groups. It cites the erroneous analysis of the OKC bombing mentioned above and uses it as a foil for the entire project. They mention the “Black Israelites,” a “black supremacist” group only for token purposes. They have four or five members.
It claims that the computer “bug” that was worrisome in 1999 would be the trigger for rightist violence in 2000. Yet, no right wing group even made such a connection, nor does it have any religious significance. It was in the news and was thought to possibly have catastrophic results, so it was used.
The Megiddo paper claims that “Christian Identity” is the unifying ideology of the far right. The authors laughably claim that this includes “William Pierce” and the “Church of the Creator,” proving a total lack of familiarity with either. It claims that the rule of the “UN” over the world is the core of the “New World Order” theory. It is clear that no real effort was made to understand the ideologies presented here.
False flags are accomplished from a position of weakness. The ruling class is aware that its hold on power is illegitimate and, as the USSR's collapse showed in 1990-1991, can be destroyed rapidly. Good governments have no need of false flags. They are powerful methods of social control that comes in all forms, shapes and sizes.
Clint Lacy is a man whose work I've read for many years. He's a specialist in American history, especially the American South and the Confederate States. As Editor of the Barnes Review in the early part of the 2000s, Clint was already one of our more important writers on these topics. We began a fruitful cooperation interrupted only by my legendary ability to procrastinate.
The present book has only a handful of competitors. It terms itself “A Beginners Guide,” meaning this is a way to teach neophytes a critically important understanding effectively banned from public analysis. False flags is an important way illegitimate governments maintain power.
Neophytes don't have it easy. They're slowly coming out of the hive-mind, but so come to realize several things: a) their newfound discoveries earn them few friends; b) they're almost all alone and c) they are quickly branded as mentally ill and from then on and looked upon with suspicion. Its not an easy life.
A scholar seeking to teach others must be an expert. He must have the knowledge of the (usually monstrous) literature in a field, have written extensively on it, and have the humility to reserve judgment until a large amount of data can be brought to bear and conceptualized on a specific question. Few of these men exist today.
The masses normally don't operate in this way and don't even understand what this means in practice. Expertise is a subject that takes years is the result of both suffering and obsession. The alternative is the pseudo-intellectual, the person seeking the reputation of being a “scholar” without doing the decades of work that go into actually becoming one.
When one of these phonies is attempting to teach a novice, this writer's reactions are usually visceral and vehement. A man who sounds authoritative while actually knowing little is a dangerous criminal. He can poison minds rapidly. Today, there are many thousands of these people.
Worse, there are precious few that can expose them. The act of exposure itself is dangerous, difficult and can occasionally lead to violent reactions. It all seems to end the same way. As society is disintegrates and the truth no longer is even an objective, it is much easier for these miscreants to sound brilliant without really knowing much. Power matters today, not ideas. Truth can be bought with money. Or rather, the passions and drives of the population can be suitably diverted by it.
Plato's Gorgias is dedicated to this life. Socrates is confronting a “speech maker,” a Sophist. Today we might term him a “propagandist” or “PR man.” He's really the journalist of the era or even the academic. They served in the law courts for hire and had the ability to make any argument seem plausible. It wasn't actual knowledge, but the skillful use of words and images to grant the impression of knowledge.
Plato says:
I want to begin by asking whether [the PR man] is as ignorant of the just and unjust, base and honorable, good and evil, as he is of medicine and the other arts; I mean to say,does he really know anything of what is good and evil, base or honorable, just or unjust in them; or has he only a way with the ignorant of persuading them that he not knowing is to be esteemed to know more about these things than someone else who knows?
Of course they are ignorant. They just have learned how to manipulate others into believing otherwise. The point of the dialogue is to expose what these PR men really are. They don't know anything. All they know is how to make themselves sound like authorities and then hire themselves out to the highest bidder. They're frauds, but since they've become wealthy, they're in a position to dominate those who really, truly know. This, in Plato's mind, is what a democracy really is.
Revisionist historians have one thing in mind: to actually function as historians. “Revisionist history” is almost a redundancy. Its the very purpose of studying history. The opposite is the “court historian,” the “sophist” or the “university professor” who, having a great gig, will do anything to maintain it. He then becomes a company man and therefore, has to manipulate others into believing he's not.
Real history is being done outside of the academy, just like in Plato's day. Truth has long been a fear for the ruling class and maintaining their power through images is their primary form of communication. Our purpose is to rip open this veil that power, personal opinion and self-interest place over events and personalities. Appearances are almost always deceiving. In fact, that's part of why there are “appearances” at all. They are mere images. This is Plato's entire purpose. The truth is a matter of intellect. An opinion is a matter of desire.
Why false flags? These are an important means of keeping a restless citizenry under control. Jack the Ripper terrorized London at a time of great labor unrest as the oligarchy maintained sweatshop conditions in the filthy factories of the era. The terror that becomes internalized by these events misdirects the anger of the citizen far too busy to study facts for too long. Working 10 hours a day, having a family and myriad other responsibilities leaves little room for study. This is not an amateurs game. Keeping men off balance, keeping them dependent and in a state of fear soon leads to lethargy.
It's admirable that Clint writes a book with the beginner in mind. He takes a well known event, describes briefly the Establishment view, then pokes holes in it. The “Establishment” is precisely this set of powerful interests that either create these false flags or throw veils over them. Dealing with beginners is very important since Americans have a well known hatred for history.
The book does not pretend to be an exhaustive, academic treatment of these momentous events. It's not even close. Rather, it sows doubt in the mind; doubt that what the reader has been told about the world is largely mythical. The term “myth” is very important since it's a narrative that lays the groundwork for how a society functions. Its how a society has come to perceive itself.
The scientific establishment, for example, uses the image of the dedicated, objective researcher striving for truth as its own myth. Of course, its nothing of the kind. Yet, no institution can function for long without a myth and plenty of money to promote it. As it stands today, the only real purpose of the historian is to slowly and methodically corrode the pillars of the preset World Order. False history is one of the most important aspects of its foundation. This is why revisionism is banned in much of Europe.
This World Order can be defended by no one. No ethical theory can support the wealth of the world being controlled by a handful of liberal elites. It functions in part because no one has the historical sense to see any alternatives to the present Regime. Corroding the foundations of this system is, in part, to provide the outline of the alternatives.
After almost 30 years of non-stop professional, full time work in history, this writer has reached many conclusions. None are more significant than this one: The entire worldview of the average educated American is a fantasy. This worldview is nourished by the proverbial lack of historical sense Americans have come to be identified with worldwide.
Hearing idiotic phrases like “It doesn't matter anymore, that's all in the past” is a manifestation of their inability to see themselves as historical beings. Every cell in our body is a historically conditioned entity. For most Americans, history is a waste of time because it is so poorly taught. The memorization of dates and the regurgitation of dogma is its essence today.
History is dangerous, it is a weapon. Today in Europe, denying the “Holocaust” of Jews – and only Jews – carries a prison sentence. Thousands have been fired due to ideological views and activities, present company included. Elites fear history because it can be used to expose them. It can be used to expose the fraud of their lifestyles, their sense of self and their personal rationalizations of their behavior.
More than anything else, history is one field treated as dogmatic, not critical, in American universities. It's so easy to be ignorant. No one expects anything from you and you can't be held responsible for what derives from it. The lure of ignorance is the siren song of capitalism. No one will hate you. You make no enemies.
Aboulia is one of my favorite words. It comes from the Greek and it means a “lack of will.” However, it means more than this. It's more than just lethargy. It means a lack of will that comes from a sense of helplessness, that nothing matters. It infects societies in decline. It can begin when a society is too wealthy. Oligarchy measures all things in dollars and cents. When these dollars are monopolized by a handful, the mass no longer see a purpose in life.
Oligarchy has no use for critical thought and seeks only personal gain. Aboulia is a sign of a dying organism. There's nothing to fight for. Most of all, it infects those, as they seek to learn about a historical topic, facing a dizzying array of views on a subject. It's very easy to then say that truth is impossible to discover.
Another conclusion this writer has faced is that truth is not difficult to find. It's the product of pain, constant focus, study and, importantly, the refusal to allow one's own self interest or biases to keep facts and arguments out of reach. It is a constant struggle for all decent historians and is one that can never be won completely.
The moment one's prejudices and personal interest are kept at bay, the truth becomes fairly simple to understand. When the images that distort cognition are swept away, truth is almost obvious. Therefore, the ruling class has an interest in creating this image world that Plato likened to a cave. Men are chained inside a cave and a fire is burning behind them. The ruling class – or its functionaries – casts shadows on the wall.
Soon, the masses come to think this is all that exists. Sciences develop and these shadows are analyzed in great detail. On occasion, someone escapes and heads outside. There, the Sun blinds him. Seeing it for the first time is agonizing. The escapee is not happy in discovering this, since he now has the obligation to go back into the cave. His life will not be pleasant from that time on. He will be called delusional, subversive and crazy as he speaks about this outside world he's just seen.
Self interest is the great killer of truth. Self interest is what causes the shadows to be cast on the wall. The ruling class requires this sort of ignorance. A depraved society is one that follows its passion, not its reason. Its drive for gain soon distorts all reality around it. Over time, this desire is projected onto the world. They're no longer seeing reality as everything is just a function of their desire. This projection is the foundation of modern, western society.
Men are supposed to live only for self interest, with the theory being that it will, eventually, all work out for the public good. The “marketplace of ideas” will eventually show the truth. This is the mind of the “libertarian,” the man who seeks to offend no one in his political views and so says that all things are permissible. The might say that “harm” is the limit to this, but he's safe in his understanding that, since no one knows what this means, his empty slogans will be taken as historical brilliance. At the very least, he'll get along with everyone.
The only time things change is when the cave itself begins to come apart. When the cave is no longer structurally sound, men will scurry to find alternatives. A handful will rush out and be blinded by the sun. Most will run in circles and eventually be crushed as the ceiling caves in, but most will not move at all. They'll just be smashed.
Christ used the parable of the seed sown on rocky ground to make the same point. The truth incarnate realized, like Socrates and the prophets before him, that only a handful really want to get out of the cave. The cave is Comfortable. Most don't have the capacity to leave. Most are terrified of leaving and, in fact, would much rather be crushed than risk seeing the Sun for the first time.
Mr. Lacy is exposing a ruling class that is not creating these false flags out of strength, but weakness. A false flag is not a hoax, like the Pulse shootings in Orlando or the Dylann Roof killings. Most of the stories surrounding all of these make little sense and come apart at the slightest application of reason. A false flag is a real event that has been created or hijacked by the ruling class for its own purpose.
So long as the regime can deliver the basic goods, the mass will stay obediently in the cave. But the present level of debt and downward pressure on the dollar is such that even this basic prerequisite is becoming a struggle. Debt service is the largest item in the US federal budget. Private sector debt sits at about $17 trillion, about as much as the federal debt. No recovery is possible under these conditions. There's no rational way to extend credit to anyone but the most established institutions under such pressure. To have a mass killing to blame on “the Russians” would be a perfect way to justify a war and thus, the revivification of the economy. FDR did it with Pearl Harbor.
Today, Americans own nothing. Most homes are under a mortgage, meaning the bank owns the house. Most household debt is far above the assets of the family. Bankruptcies are in the millions per year and Republicans are frantically trying to tighten the requirements. The big banks are doing the same thing today they did before the crash of 2007, only now, its off the books.
But will the taxpayers meekly hand over billions to them once they fail again? Are the billions even there? Most pensions were handed over to the banks in 2007-2008 and millions of senior citizens flooded the job market at the same time millions of illegals pour into the US. The system needs false flags more than ever.
Today, the ruling class think only in the short term. Without confidence in their own Regime's future, they have no incentive to invest but rather, seek to strip assets rather than create anew. False flags are a means to keep public outrage at bay while they sop up the wealth crated by others. Its the hallmark of our age.
Matthew Raphael Johnson
Johnstown, PA, 2018
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