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There we go. We got it, Bob! Hi! Sorry, we're running a little bit late.
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Excuse me a second.
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Hey Bob, think fast! [Glass breaking] [Shouting]
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Sorry, man!
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Welcome to 'Culture in Decline'. My name is Peter Joseph.
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This show is designed for those that want to be a little bit more skeptical
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about society, because perhaps, you're like me.
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As you stumble around this experiment we call global society,
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you can't help but feel an increasing sense of unease,
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perhaps even frustration, with respect to how we, the human family,
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have chosen to organize ourselves on this little planet.
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The late astronomer and well-known advocate of scientific thought, Carl Sagan,
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in his famed PBS series 'Cosmos', once invited the question:
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"If we were visited by a superior species from another part of the galaxy,
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and we were forced to explain to them our stewardship of our planet,
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not to mention the state of human affairs today,
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would we be proud of what we described?"
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How would we frame our explanation of how almost half of the world,
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over 3 billion people, are either barely surviving in abject poverty and sickness,
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or are simply dying off unnecessarily
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at a rate of about one person every couple of seconds,
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all occurring in the wake of an advanced technological reality,
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where we could easily feed, clothe and house every family on Earth
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in a respectable standard of living?
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How would we frame the global warfare:
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230 million killed by their fellow man in the past 100 years alone
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based on what, meaningless territoriality, resources,
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dogmatic, obsolete ideologies?
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Again, this all occurring in the shadows of a looming scientific recognition,
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that we are indeed simply one family sharing one household,
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bound by the exact same laws of nature,
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and hence the same unifying operational ideology.
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How about our economic system, the bedrock of what defines our society,
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not to mention our dominant motivations?
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How would we explain the reality that, rather than organizing ourselves efficiently
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as a single system to properly manage this household we share,
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we childishly divide and compete and exploit each other
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through an archaic, completely environmentally decoupled game.
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A game, by the way, which not only appears to perpetuate
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a vast spectrum of social atrocities,
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but now seems to be further destabilizing society,
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decreasing our public health.
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Sorry to say, as an individual,
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I really don't care what you believe, nor do I particularly respect it.
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Why? Because I don't really respect what I believe either.
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There is no evidence to show that any of the traditional values,
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establishments, social structures or common practices
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we have today, will be relevant tomorrow.
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The only thing that appears to stand the test of time is this very notion of change,
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the ever-evolving understanding of ourselves and the world we inhabit.
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Perhaps, some might think that that's actually the definition of human intelligence.
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What do you think about that? Less about what we know,
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more about how vulnerable we are.
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So, when you look out your window, ask yourself.
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Do you see intelligence or do you see dogma?
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Do you see a culture listening and working to realign itself
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with the ever-emerging natural orders as they unfold,
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or do you see desperately stubborn efforts by many,
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particularly those in positions of power,
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trying to keep everything the same to the detriment
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of the entire human experiment?
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You know, like you,
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I might be only one member of this family that is now 7 billion strong;
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and like most families, sometimes it's hard for us to agree,
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but sometimes, things get so bad we need serious intervention.
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The following series is that intervention
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in the hope to salvage what is clearly, a culture in decline.
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It's an election year in the United States
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and some may say it's an election year for the whole world.
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Still the dominant empire, the United States' political system
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has spent roughly 25 billion dollars in the past decade alone.
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An amount of money, if averaged and distributed annually,
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could house and feed every homeless person in America,
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effectively ending the epidemic.
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Perhaps, like me, by the end of this program,
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you'll find that money will be better well-spent.
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Be that as it may, the 2012 presidential election
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is gearing up to be one of the most expensive,
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and ostensibly important elections of all time,
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given the ongoing debt crisis, the unemployment crisis,
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and the vast destabilization we see across society.
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However, I'm not particularly interested in the left or the right,
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or am I interested in any candidate's political merit.
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What I'm interested in, is the entire idea of global democracy
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in the tradition as it exists, and how it is blindly accepted
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by the vast majority of people on this planet, as being the only option
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to satisfy their interests and create good well-being,
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and hence societal management in its optimum state.
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That's what interests me.
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(P. Joseph) So, rather than debate about who should be the next president,
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why don't we step back and consider some broader issues?
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Such as, I don't know,
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maybe, why we even have a President to begin with?
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What is this, medieval feudalism?
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I thought the days of kings, dictators, and giving one person enormous power
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was coming to an end. Or, more generally,
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doesn't it seem a little absurd to claim a participatory democracy,
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when the public itself actually has zero say,
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when it comes to the actual decisions made by those elected?
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It's bad enough that those voted in have literally no legal responsibility
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to do anything they might have claimed on the campaign trail,
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but if you examine history, you will find the historical fact
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that the public good has always been secondary to other interests,
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mainly, financial and business interests.
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Of course, this is common knowledge now, right?
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Why did the US government, completely against all known public interest,
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allow the private banking system,
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a system which actually creates nothing,
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to be bailed out to the tune of 13 trillion dollars?
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You have a 14-million-dollar ocean front home in Florida.
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You have a summer vacation home in Sun Valley, Idaho.
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You and your wife have an art collection filled with million-dollar paintings.
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(PJ) While the public was left out to dry with overflowing private debt,
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job losses and a stagnating economy.
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If we're going to persist with this silly little game we've concocted
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called the growth economy, where the movement of money defines everything,
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it might be a good idea to do the math regarding what might actually help
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this economic system operate at some passable level.
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Therefore, if you raise taxes on the so-called rich,
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you're really raising taxes on the job creators,
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and if the goal is private sector growth,
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you have to recognize that the best way to create that growth
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is to leave capital in the treasuries of the job creators.
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(PJ) If that money spent on the bank bailout was spent on
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relieving private household debt instead,
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while letting Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan
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and all of the other technically meaningless, non-producing financial institutions
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experience the failure and bankruptcy they deserved,
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simultaneously nationalizing the entire US banking system as a whole,
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the US economy might have had a chance. Why?
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Because banks don't actually contribute anything. People with jobs do.
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[If] you want growth in this type of system, you need jobs.
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If you want jobs you need demand,
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and demand requires people having free money to spend.
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By helping the public debt burden,
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you would plant the true seeds of economic growth.
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As obvious as that may seem, many forget one thing:
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The bailout had nothing to do with helping the US economy,
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nor does it or will it work to help
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any hurting sovereign economy in the world.
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Why? Because we live in a plutocracy, not a democracy,
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and the only true power is actually behind the curtain, not in front.
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The financial and business powers not only own and control this country,
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they own and control the whole planet;
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and no, it's not a conspiracy. It's a value-system disorder.
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As long as a dollar sign is associated with every blade of grass,
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every plot of land, every fleeting thought or invention,
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not to mention judging the merit of individuals
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for their right to life through labor, we should expect nothing less.
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Since the inception of the state itself,
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coupled with the underlying power of money
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as the ultimate driver of human decisions, and hence persuasion,
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the true power has always been financial,
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and those little people you elect into office every couple of years,
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they have owners too, and don't you forget it.
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- Democracy: Is that something you believe in as it exists today in America?
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- When you say as in 'believe in', does it exist? Like forest fires, God,
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or the devil?
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- What is your opinion of the American democratic system as it exists? - It's broken.
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It's deeply, deeply broken. - Democracy, goes, of course, to Greece
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and it's the theory that the people own the government. Is it in practice
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happening, in 2012, in this country? Not close! It's a corporatocracy.
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(PJ) All of this considered, let's now think a little more accurately
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about this whole democracy deal.
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Since the tradition of our democracy has to do with representatives
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elected to apparently do our thinking for us,
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a critical question becomes: Where did these people come from?
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Why are they the ones on your TV and not others?
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Did you decide that these people are the best choices
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to compete for such critical leadership,
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or have you noticed that the most pronounced candidates
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especially the Presidential, sort of come out of nowhere;
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and through the media, are given credence merely by repetition of exposure?
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The term 'democracy' comes from the Greek 'demos' which means people,
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and 'krates' which means rule.
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The people of a given society express their opinions through votes,
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and policy is created by the majority's interest.
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It appears the process was formalized in ancient Greece
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and has been adapting ever since.
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However, it didn't take long for a bit of cynicism to emerge
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with respect to the process itself, given the fact that
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the entire basis of the idea assumes that the voting public
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actually is educated enough to know what they're doing.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt once acutely stated:
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Winston Churchill, on the other hand, was a little less forgiving, stating:
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The infamous Mark Twain jumped to the inevitable punch line, stating:
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I would like you to ask yourself: If we were in the ruling class,
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the 'investment ownership class', to paraphrase Thorstein Veblen,
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and we wanted to preserve our interests against any interference,
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what would we do?
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First, we need to take the broadest possible view we can.
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We need to make sure the voting public is as uninformed as possible,
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regarding relevant issues that might contradict our establishment's practices.
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Coupled with that, we also need to eliminate as much independent, logical,
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causal, scientific thought as possible.
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So, let us support an extremely underfunded, outdated,
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and deprived public educational system,
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a system focused on merely getting a person a job one day,
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not teach them how to critically and logically think.
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- The heart of democracy really is the basic assumption that the public is well-educated
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about critical thought. They know how to think about things and evaluate,
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and therefore they can make proper decisions, right? What is your opinion
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on American education and its effect on the democratic process?
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- I think that we have multiple problems in the education in America.
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One: I think we are dealing with the dumbing down of America.
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- Do you feel that this sort of poor educational system
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actually benefits the establishment? - Oh, absolutely!
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Absolutely! Keep them stupid, keep them easily entertained.
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If they're uninformed, they can't fight back!
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(PJ) However, to further reinforce this,
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we also need to push and reward
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belief systems that support passive obedience;
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belief systems and values that are stubborn, irrational,
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and promote closed thinking.
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Religion becomes super helpful in this circumstance.
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Is it possible that religion is being politicized
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and that candidates are using it as a tool?
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I believe that God created the Universe.
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And we're enjoined by Scripture and the Lord Jesus to oppose it with all our might.
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Let us not pray that God is on our side
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in war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side.
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May God bless the 7th Day Adventist Church.
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I think the God who loves us, the God who gave us life, who gave us our being...
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And so to every sailor, soldier, airman and marine
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who was involved in this mission, let me say, you are doing God's work.
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(PJ) If people are groomed to be obedient and follow blindly,
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they are ripe to extend that obedience to others who claim authority.
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Check.
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Next, it's critical we recognize
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a unique, sociological characteristic of the human condition.
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Something we will call 'herd psychology'.
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This is the tendency for us humans, when faced with mass appeal,
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to often behave in extremely thoughtless and malleable ways.
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In the words of Charles McKay, famed author of:
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However, this doesn't just apply to a soccer riot.
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Such mob persuasion can be generated through simply shared cultural events.
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Remember September 11th? Talk about mass insanity!
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This event created an immediate crowd madness with fear and revenge,
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and it didn't take long for the US government, and other governments, in fact,
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to harness that madness and funnel support
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for draconian legislation and illegal invasions.
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However, this herd psychological tendency is not only very useful
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for implanting and guiding perceived issues of importance,