Critical thinking question of the day: according to many conspiracy theorists, America has been turning into a worsening police state. They also might argue that it happens so gradually that the average person might not notice. Now if that logic holds true and they are correct, and most roads (potential futures) are leaning toward a police state; at what point would the average person actually recognize it for what it is?
How about a twist? How would the “police state” issue be viewed by a conspirator? (unwitting or not):
Ever wonder what it would be like to be the White House Press Secretary? In an age where it seems half of us have easy access to video cameras, capturing a news story can be as simple as reaching for the phone in your pocket. However, these unexpected videos don’t always portray the establishment in a positive light. Unwelcome stories can be an issue for those that want to control reality , but if a story still continues to receive enough attention, the media will eventually be forced to cover it. The following video is a good example of one of these “unwelcome” and unexpected news bits:
Now imagine that this particular story keeps getting bigger, and the video continues to go viral. Despite the establishment’s best efforts to ignore, censor, and downplay it; the public still demands an explanation, necessitating an immediate formal statement. Assume you are the official press secretary, and it is your responsibility to address the media about the following video:
What would you say to the press? Does everything in that video look completely normal to you? Did that look like a rational and justifiable response to the “problem?” Is that how we handle issues in America now? Or is the footage more indicative of a rising American police state? Is this something we should be worried or concerned about? Or is this something we should just get used to?
Back to the challenge: You are the secretary, and the press wants an answer now. The only rule is that your explanation has to be rational, sincere, and believable…
Good luck!
By the way, the sweet, liberty-loving authority figure in the video is none other than Lieutenant Jennifer Griffin of the Delaware Police Department. If only our forefathers were alive to see this video of her, they would be so proud! Way to threaten those dissidents and teach them a lesson Jen! Who cares about the Constitution and Bill of Rights these days anymore anyway? Obey and respect Jen’s authority!
Since I know people tend to have limited time and short attention spans (including myself), I try not to share long videos unless I consider them “mandatory viewing.” To warn you up front; this is one of those times, but before you get scared off, it’s only twelve minutes long. Now you really don’t have to watch this video, and I’m not going to go over the top to try and persuade you to watch this video like I have at times in the past. In fact, in a potentially extreme (although plausible) situation, watching this video could conceivably cause more harm than good to you and the world depending on how you interpret reality.
What I’m about to show you is reminiscent of the infamous red pill/blue pill scene from “The Matrix.” (For those of you who still haven’t actually watched this movie; the scene deals with a choice of either hearing and knowing the uncomfortable truth about reality, or forgetting you ever found it in the first place. Can you handle the truth? Or would you rather live peacefully unaware of it? After all, with knowledge comes responsibility, and with ignorance comes bliss? The point is, the truth isn’t always for everyone. Another danger with the truth is a familiar quote; “curiosity killed the cat.” Therefore this is also a warning; hearing certain information can have consequences as well as responsibility. Let me be clear, there are no worries if you choose not to take the “red pill” in this challenge. Don’t apologize for it, just stop reading this story. Turn on your television, play a video game, grab yourself an alcoholic laced beverage, and believe whatever you want to. The irony of hearing “truth” is that you might honestly be better off not knowing anyway. Have a wonderful day, and I guess history will decide whether you made the right choice. Good luck! Peace and love…
For those that want to take the red pill and continue:
Now it’s not like I’ve literally cross-checked every piece of information from this film, but it certainly makes a slick argument by pointing out many painful truths we’ve all been hearing about in regards to schools and psychology. Not only does it show the severe flaws that have been developing in our modern day American education system, it shows the horrifying reality its effects are having on our children. However, the question is; are you ready to handle the responsibility of knowing and possibly having to do something about it?
For those who can handle the “truth,” and for those that thought they could (remember, I gave you warning, so I absolve myself from any damages caused by your curiosity), here is my brief interpretation of the video: I believe the information to be either factual or sincerely factual, and yes, truth really is stranger than fiction. Another reason why I really like this video is is because “getting the word out” about esoteric information like this can be very difficult. Since getting people to read a book about it is usually an unfortunately challenging task, short videos like this can be priceless as I hope everyone at least has twelve minutes to spare.
Spoiler alert: I have further analysis of the film below for after the video has been watched, including uncomfortable motives and reasoning:
So what are the “uncomfortable” motives and reasoning?
Is it possible that you are being dumbed down for good reason? Are you and your children being poisoned for your own good? Yes, depending on how you view it! In fact I can think of three reasons why: Control, overpopulation, and panic prevention.
Control is obvious; if the people are dumb, domesticated, dependent, drugged, and ignorant; they can be much more easily controlled by the ruling class. Not real ground breaking information by any means. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but let’s be honest; not everyone starts out with the same opportunities, and the rich and powerful tend to want to stay rich and powerful no matter how absurd the society around them becomes. As a general rule, the ruling class has better access to education, information, jobs, connections etc, and it is not a coincidence. It should be pretty obvious by now that the “insiders” play by a different set of rules. But if that’s not a believable enough motive for you, then how about…
Population control is a far more sinister conspiracy theory however, and has an unfortunate amount of evidence*. This is also a tricky issue for me to deal with as well, because I really don’t have an answer for the overpopulation question (at least at this time), as I honestly don’t know what the “ideal” human population should be. Ted Turner thinks 95% of the people should be wiped out, Prince Phillip has stated that he would like to come back to earth as a deadly virus, and the Georgia Guidestones suggest 500 million as the “ideal” human population. Most people probably don’t give too much thought to overpopulation, but apparently many elites are obsessed with it. Although frightening, eugenics is a real issue, and unfortunately, many lower class people seem to be looked down upon as “useless eaters.” Now I realize America has been turned into an Idiocracy, but is drastically and covertly thinning the herd the best solution?
I guess this brings me to the third uncomfortable reason: to prevent panic. Hypothetical question: what if the elites are not wicked eugenicists playing god with their underlings, but are instead trying to keep said underlings dumbed down for benevolent reasons? What if there is an “end of the world” type cataclysm on its way, and the establishment thought keeping the population in blissful ignorance was a better idea than telling them “the truth” and causing a mass panic? Think about it: if an asteroid was about to hit the earth, would you want to be informed of the painful truth, and live in constant fear and panic while being powerless to survive the future? Or would you rather be dumbed down, drugged up, and mindlessly watching afternoon television when the end of the world occurs?
I highly doubt the establishment is that thoughtful, but you never know, perhaps what the world needs is a good cleansing after all…
*For further evidence of deliberate depopulation efforts and an explanation of eugenics, I highly recommend watching the following video starting at 1:29:05…
When it comes to mechanical things and construction, I have a confession: I’m a completely useless idiot. I’m fascinated by people that are really good at working on cars and/or working on their own home projects and repairs because I honestly have no clue.
However, since I’m a guy, and I’m “supposed to know” how to do stuff like that, I have to force myself through projects (installing blinds, home theater etc) every once in a while; not to save time or money, but to literally protect my ego. Even if takes excruciating hours of trial and error, and I still only get most of the screws in the right way, I still need those occasional moments of satisfaction when I accomplished a project by myself because I’m “supposed” to.
Anyway, one of these “challenges to my masculinity” just surfaced as my mountain bike has been squealing to a point where I was going to have to force myself to take action and fix it. Since any idea of bringing it to the bike shop was completely out of the question (because I would instantly forfeit any right to refer to myself as a man in front of anyone in the store…ever again), I went out and bought myself a bottle of oil.
I was thrilled when I found the oil, as it actually had a very reassuring picture of a bike on the back of the bottle! However when I went to actually use it on my bike, I realized that it may have a picture of a bike, but it doesn’t actually show you where to put the oil, or in what amount. Is this considered common sense knowledge? But in true spirit of my personal challenge, I never asked anyone how to do it, and I didn’t even look it up online. Like the village idiot from a beer commercial, I just started randomly squirting oil on the parts I thought that “made the most sense.”
After feeling very accomplished and proudly riding down the street, the moment of truth arrived as I had to finally pump the brakes only to find out:
1: they have apparently been covered in so much oil that they’ve lost their ability to function.
2: the squealing is so much louder now, that after my first brake, I instantly had to turn around and pedal back home out of shame.
Near miraculously though, down the final stretch back home, I noticed my neighbor’s garage was open. I only see him once every few weeks or so, and so it was by sheer coincidence he had just gotten home. At first I was too embarrassed to ride by (because of the sound of my brakes), but after a brief circle, I remembered that he was one of those “handy guys” that could probably help me out.
Since I couldn’t bear the thought of hours of trial and error, internet research, or the devastation of having to load my bike into my car, take it to the shop, and endure deafening silent ridicule as the guys at the shop would probably use me as a punch line for months. “Hey, remember that guy who tried to fix his squeaky brakes by just randomly squirting oil everywhere and ended up making it worse?”
So after contemplating which option was the least horrible, it suddenly became a no-brainer, and I quickly pedaled home and flagged down my neighbor about four seconds before he was about to close his garage.
Anyway, not only is my neighbor a very nice guy, but he really is one of those “handy” guys. And as it turns out, there are actually designated spaces on the bike that you are supposed to squirt oil into while simultaneously spinning the wheels for its even distribution. Duh.
So what are the lessons learned?
1. Although I didn’t really pass my last “masculinity” challenge, I didn’t technically fail either. And when you think about it, I probably had the best possible outcome because…
2. Sometimes it’s awkward and you have to force yourself, but you should always take advantage of the opportunities to interact with your neighbors. If I would have missed that brief thirty-second window that had become available to me, it could have cost me hours, if not days of time, frustration, and embarrassment. I hope I can return the favor one day, but…
3. If you’re ever in an emergency situation with your car (for example), and you can only make one phone call, you could call me…if you need me to write a story about it. If you actually need help fixing or starting your car, I’d honestly be about as uselful as the guy in this video…
Not only does this prove that the guitar is the world’s most awesome instrument; this clip also definitively proves that you should never challenge the Karate Kid to a guitar duel…
Eccentric Perspective 