We Need More War - BFEE Business Plan is now the modern American Economic Worldview.

[Savannahmann]

28. It seems to me that the path to the future is adapting that which we detest.

World War One. We found out in post war investigations that America had been the target of very carefully crafted propaganda. Some saw this happening, and denounced the Zimmerman Telegram as a tool of Perfidious Albion. Unfortunately, that was a poor choice to discredit as mere Propaganda, since a day later Zimmerman confirmed that he had sent the Telegram for a reason that defies explanation even today. No, I don't have any wish that the Kaiser's forces had won, but the denial of dishonorable acts had become old hat to the Germans by that time.

By World War II, we had our own propaganda effort in full swing. We denounced it after the First World War, and embraced it during the second. One generation, and we had forgotten everything that we had found distasteful.

During the Cold War we denounced the Soviets and the Warsaw Pact time and time again for spying on their own citizens. We as a people were outraged when we found the FBI and CIA were conducting operations called Black Bag Jobs and breaking into peoples homes and businesses to steal incriminating documents. Documents that incriminated the FBI and CIA, not the target. Fred Cook wrote a book called the FBI nobody knows, still a good read today if you can track down a copy.

Now, the courts endorse such behavior in the interest of National Security.

The nation was disgusted, eventually, by the actions of Senator McCarthy. We looked with shame at the era of Blacklists and secret enemies lists during the time of Nixon. People have a right to know what the Government is saying about them, and have a right to know why they are on those lists. We pointed to the Constitution and said that people have a right to face their accusers and hear the whole story. Now, we as a people endorse lists that make the black lists look like an invitation to a birthday party. No fly lists, terrorist watch lists, enemies lists by a dozen different names.

We used to be outraged when we learned that the police were searching without a warrant, and the Courts threw the evidence out of court. Now, we argue that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. And the majority of the people agree.

We lost the Cold War. The great fear was the KGB spying on us. Instead we encourage the NSA, CIA, FBI, and DHS to spy on us to keep us safe. We are using the same language the KGB used to justify their abuses, and a majority of our fellow citizens doesn't care. The KGB used to talk about Imperialist agents hidden among the population, traitors to the party, and the state. We talk about Terrorists hiding among the population, enemies determined to attack us.

Most of us are ignorant of the why things got this way, or how things used to be. The Espionage act for example, started during the First World War. Why? Because we were afraid of German agents was the propaganda fed to the population. The truth was Wilson and the administration were terrified that the public would learn the big secret. Wilson had violated the duties of a neutral and provided communication assets including the State Department Cable to the Germans. The Zimmerman Telegram which tried to get the Americans into a war with Mexico and Japan and offered up Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to the Mexicans in compensation was transmitted over the United States Government own telegraph line. It passed through our embassy in Germany, to the State Department in Washington DC!

If the Congress had learned of that, they would have impeached Wilson for treason for his complicity in providing Germany with the means to coordinate an attack on us.

The Espionage Act made sure that this secret was secret, and that nobody could know. Later the truth came out, but by then Wilson was dead.

This is the act that we use to prosecute people who tell the world of the misdeeds of our Government. Some say that it is being abused by this action. Truth is, that was exactly the purpose it was intended for. We haven't learned. We haven't learned anything. Every time we find ourselves facing some new dishonorable horror, we embrace it in the next generation, and add to it on the backs of the generation that follows.

There are more examples than I care to mention, or think about. Perhaps it's just the winter blues, but from here, I feel like the fight is lost, and nothing I do, or say, or think will effect the result.