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"Doublespeak and the
By Richard Moore
The New World
Order (you know what the NWO is - the corporate-sponsored
"free-trade" globalization steamroller) exploits language in
precisely the way Orwell predicted. Words are used to mislead and conceal
- not clarify - and are twisted to designate the opposite of their true
meanings. Concepts are tagged as being either "good guys" or
"bad guys" by dressing them up in "white hat" words (like
"reform" or "free") or "black hat" words (like
"bureaucracy" or "politics").
This
use of language is a form of propaganda - and this vocabulary
propaganda is much more subtle and effective than content propaganda.
Content propaganda misinforms about
issues, but vocabulary propaganda interferes with the ability to think or
talk about issues in a way that can lead to understanding or enable effective
political organizing.
As Orwell predicted, this kind of
propaganda makes language volatile. In his scenario, one might read in the
morning paper about an action against an enemy, with no mention that the same
folks were faithful allies as recently as yesterday's edition. In actuality,
the shifts in today's doublespeak are more subtle and evolutionary. As you
watch new language being created, you can map out the NWO agenda: the white-hat
items are to be promoted, the black-hat items to be suppressed.
A classic example was the Oliver North
hearings. Words like "good soldier", "patriotic",
"freedom fighter", and "legality" - not to mention
"constitutional balance of powers" - took quite a beating. By labeling state-armed mercenary terrorists (ie., the
Contras) as "freedom fighters", the whole linguistic ground of the
hearings was warped beyond hope. Those who should have been indicting the
pathetic little desk colonel and impeaching his boss were instead prefacing
their remarks with kowtows toward the "freedom fighters" (if there
was time remaining after the prayer service). There was no ability to discuss
the affair from a meaningful moral or constitutional perspective, and the
hearings dissolved into circus rhetoric/coverup, as
was intended by the NWO language masters.
If we want to discuss the world situation
with any kind of useful understanding, we need to explicitly decode the NWO doublespeak, and learn how to translate it
into straight language. This is not an easy task, because the doublespeak
process has, over time, warped political language to the point where it is
nearly useless. Words like "socialism" or "tariffs", being
so heavily tarred with the black brush, can't be used meaningfully without an
explanatory preface. Even the word "government" is tricky to use -
the echoes of "bureaucrat", "inefficient", and
"corrupt" reverberate unconsciously.
Meanwhile, words like "market"
and "competitive" have been promoted with the white brush to
Unquestioned Axioms of The Universe. Easier would it be to hold back the tides
with a horse and lance, than to resist "market forces", or so it
would seem.
Following is my attempt to associate
accurate meanings with some of the NWO's most topical
phrases. Perhaps these definitions will ring true to you, and help you better
understand what the NWO is about. With the doublespeak unraveled,
the media becomes a source of accurate information after all - NWO statements,
though coded, are actually fairly descriptive of the sinister NWO agenda.
"COMPETITIVENESS": the attractiveness of a venue to multinational investors,
particularly: laxity of regulation and taxation; the degree to which a
developed country regresses to Third-World status.
The phrase "
Genuine competitiveness, as demonstrated
by
"CONSERVATISM": a policy of radically restructuring politics and economics in
order to produce investment opportunities and undermine democracy; contrast
with actual conservatism: a policy of preserving existing institutions in the
interest social and economic stability.
Ronald Reagan was the clearest exemplar
of this particular line of doublespeak. His rhetoric emphasized "returning
to traditional values" while he was in fact dismantling long-evolved
institutions and pursuing policies of unprecedented and untried social and
economic transformation.
Genuine conservatism acts as a societal
gyroscope, resisting nearly every kind of change, regardless of its direction.
Conservatism's catch prase might be "If it ain't broke, don't fix
it." A very important point to notice is that the assault by the NWO on
existing democratic institutions has reversed the field in the game of Radical
vs. Conservative: for most of the twentieth century, it has been the
democracy-minded progressives who sought radical change,
and the capitalist right wing who were the conservatives. But since Reagan
& Thatcher, the right-wing has taken the initiative for radical change (in
the wrong directions), and it is now the progressives who have a vital interest
in maintaining the political status quo (ie., constitutional democracy and national sovereignty).
In this case, doublespeak succeeds in
separating the progressives from their natural constituency. Progressive
activists should be reaching out to the silent majority - arousing
stick-in-the-mud conservatives to join the cause against reckless NWO-induced
changes. By pre-empting the term "conservatism", the right-wing
radicals have tricked most of the conservative-tending masses into following
the wrong parade.
Progressives must reclaim their natural
ground. To have any hope of assembling a significant constituency, they must
find a way to break through the doublespeak jargon and help the general
population to see that its interests are not being served by the new
"conservatism", and that reckless changes are its true agenda.
We see a bizarre distortion of this
desirable conservative reaction in the Militia mentality in
Language
is a field of battle, the media is the artillery, and vocabulary is the
ammunition. The NWO has
taken the field by storm, and is proceeding with coordinated attacks on several
fronts, using all the latest hi-tech vocabulary ammunition. They've laid a bed
of land mines that cripple us when we try to stand on them:
"liberalism", "conservatism", "prosperity", "democracy".
Progressives must wake up to the attack,
and somehow find a way to fight back. The achilles
heal of the NWO lies in its runaway successes: its high-handed treatment of
nearly everyone has created an awesome potential counter-reaction - if people can be made to see who the real
perpetrators are, those who are engineering the decline of democratic
civilization. Even its doublespeak successes can be turned against it, if
people can learn to read the NWO agenda by learning to decode the propaganda it
dishes out. The NWO crowd actually
reveals all in their propaganda, so arrogantly confident are they that their
doublespeak enigma device won't be seen through by the people.
"DEMOCRACY": a government with a competitive party electoral system, in which
multinationals are able to exert effective influence; Note: unrelated to
whether the government represents the people or supports their welfare.
If multinational interests are served,
then no amount of popular unrest, nor vote rigging -
not even civil war - will serve as credible evidence that a
"democracy" is a sham. If corporate interests aren't served, no
amount of civil accord, prosperity, and popular support qualifies the
government as "democratic".
Doublespeak audacity reached an
outrageous climax when CCN broadcast live coverage of Yeltsin shelling his own
Assembly, and billed it as a victory for "democracy"! (Did they
realize they were televising an exact repeat of Lenin's shelling of an earlier
Constituent Assembly? Would that have altered their assessment?) What Yeltsin's
bloody power grab was a victory for was the
corporate-sponsored dismantlement of the Russian economy, a program the
Western-backed Yeltsin has played his part in flawlessly. With a subtle
doublespeak twist within a twist, the media refers to Yeltsin as a
"liberal element" - in fact he is a "neo- liberal" element,
which translates as "NWO stooge".
Genuine
democracy must be judged by its responsiveness to the informed desires of the
people, its success in promoting their welfare, and their satisfaction with its
performance. The
mechanisms used to attain a functional democracy can have many forms. The media
says only competitive political parties can deliver democracy, but don't
believe it.
The record is clear that multi-party
elections are no guarantee whatever of democratic process. Not only can parties
be limited to those representing elite minority (or foreign) interests, but the
autonomous authority of the military (typically subsidized by major NWO powers)
often overshadows governmental policy.
To understand what democracy is really
about, we need to re-examine our most cherished assumptions. Is the
The
The elections themselves are circuses
where certain topics are selected as being "the issues" and the crowd
is entertained with an orchestrated wrestling match where Hulk Republican and
Pretty Boy Democrat dance around the limited ring of issues. When the match is
over, the establishment gets back to its un-discussed agendas. Because there
are no substantive issues raised during the campaign, the rhetoric fades into
memory. There's no platform, and no distinct "change of government",
as there used to be in
Such elections are more like a shuffling
of board members in a corporation - the faces change,
the policies continue to be set as before - outside any democratic process.
Pink Floyd asked "Can you tell a
green field from a cold steel rail?". I ask you:
Can you tell a self-governing people from a stone parliament building?
"DEVELOPMENT": the restructuring of an economy to facilitate extraction of
wealth by multinationals; transforming an economy so as to become more
dependent on trade with multinationals; the theft of national assets by
multinationals.
"Development" is usually
pursued where the potential profit is greatest. This means that the investment
is as little as possible and the exportation of eventual revenues is as great
as possible. The result is a net drain on the "developing" economy.
Fair play, you might say, if the "developing" country is able to take
advantage of the situation to bootstrap its way into general economic
prosperity (
But these collateral benefits are not the
purpose of "development", and the consequences are usually otherwise.
In other cases, a country might be left
with an infrastructure to support export operations, such as a selectively
deployed highway system, which may not be appropriate for the general
development needs of the country, and which increases its dependence on oil
imports.
In many cases, "development"
involves the granting of mineral rights, land leases, tax discounts, or
exemptions from regulations, as enticements to attract corporate
"investment". In rare cases, such grants are valued appropriately,
but all too frequently a cash-strapped Third-World country is compelled to give
away long-term rights to valuable national assets while getting very little in
return, usually some low-paying jobs and under-valued royalties. Whether the
asset be copper, oil, or agricultural land, the multinational investor extracts
billions in profits while the host country gets a relatively minor pittance of
the actual value of the arm-twist stolen asset.
"FREE TRADE": the systematic destabilization of national and regional economic
arrangements, by means of treaties such as GATT and NAFTA, in order to take
economic decision making as far as possible from any democratic process, and
centralize global economic control into the hands of the corporate elite.
"Free trade", it would seem
from the corporate media's propaganda, is universally accepted by all reputable
economists as the One True Path to prosperity and progress. Such a belief,
which does not in fact enjoy a consensus among economists, is historical
nonsense. The Great Economies, such as those of the
An economy (see also: "Reform")
is an ecosystem. A strong economy is one that has diversity and synergy. When
"free trade" is imposed on an underdeveloped economy, it develops in
a distorted way, and is over- dependent on external market fluctuations. Such
weakness increases the bargaining leverage of the multinationals, which is the
obvious objective of "free trade" in the first place.
"Free trade", which is part of
the "globalization" agenda, brings a shift economic sovereignty from
nation states, where there is hope of democratic participation, to
corporate-approved international commissions, where only the corporate voice
holds sway.
"GLOBALIZATION": the undermining of the nation state as a focus of economic
organization; the reduction to commodity status of worldwide raw-goods
suppliers; the monopolization of distribution channels by transnational
trading companies; the reduction of health & quality standards to least-common-
denominator levels; the most honest self-characterization of the NWO agenda.
Capturing more broadly the scope of the
"free trade" campaign, "globalization" expresses the intent
to homogenize the world economy - to make national borders transparent to the
transfer of capital and goods, and enable a higher-order of centralized global
management. The claim is frequently made that this will lead to a leveling of prosperity levels on a global basis, but with
some exceptions, the evidence is all to the contrary. What we see instead, and
as we should expect from how "development" is structured and
"free trade" is implemented, is that "globalization" leads
to a greater prosperity disparity between the "developed" and
"developing" nations, as measured by the disposable income and living
standards of the general populations. The greatest real prosperity gains have
been achieved by those countries which created domestic synergy in their
economies through selective protectionism (eg.,
The availability of low-cost worldwide
transport and the multinational scope of corporate operations - together with
deregulation of trade barriers - leads to a situation
where every producer is competing with every other producer throughout the
world. Distributors can thus shop for the best deal globally, and continue to
sell at whatever price they can get in their markets. As the distribution
channels are increasingly concentrated into fewer hands (mega-store chains,
conglomerate food importers, etc.), a classic cartel/robber-baron scenario is
developing, and will become more pronounced as globalization progresses.
The "robber-baron" scenario
looks like this: On one side you have separated, unorganized producers, all
competing with one another to supply the distributors. On the other side, you
have the consumers of the world, also separated and unorganized, buying what
they can afford from what is offered in their local outlets. In the middle you
have the distributors, who like robber barons of old, have (increasingly) monopoly
control over the the flow of goods from producer to
market. Not only can producer prices be driven down in one-sided bargaining,
but producers can be selectively driven out of business, and in general the
distributors have the power to dictate whether and how the producers do
business.
The classic example of a robber baron
regime was
As for non-price consumer concerns -
environmental protection, content labelling, pesticide levels, other health
issues - we can expect to see a rapid reversal of the "green" gains
which have occurred since the sixties. Initially we see some localized
improvements in standards, as the EU, for example, levels its regulatory
playing field. But the long-term decision-making role for these policies is being
shifted to corporate-dominated entities (WTO, GATT,
"Globalization", among the
terms in the NWO phrase book, comes closest to being an honest use of language.
The NWO does indeed, as "globalization" suggests, want to systematize
commerce on a global scale, to homogenize the world in who-knows-how-many
aspects - to bring forth a new world order. The deception comes in the
implication that "globalization" will bring increased prosperity,
that "free markets" will get goods to those who need them, and that
the abundance of the earth will become available to humanity on a more
equitable basis. As the song goes, "It ain't necessarily so".
"PRIVATIZATION": (1) the theft of citizen assets by corporate interests, achieved
through discounted sell-offs of intentionally under-valued public properties;
(2) the creation of new investment opportunities by means of dismantling
successfully operating public services.
Media discussion of privatization is
generally limited to the narrow issues of consumer benefits and operating
efficiency. Even on these grounds, the arguments presented are usually far from
convincing. They are frequently simply a recitation of the axioms "public
is inefficient", "private is efficient" - often in the face of
overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Privatization is not just a change of managers, it is a change of ownership. It removes equity
from citizens, and removes or minimizes public control over asset development
and pricing. In many cases following privatization, employment is reduced as an
immediate step in reducing costs and enhancing the profit picture - without the
social costs of the unemployment being considered in the overall accounting for
the transaction.
The aim of a privatized operation shifts
from providing a public service, to making a profit. Short-term profit
pressures may reduce investment in long-term maintenance and upgrades, since
their payback period may be beyond the horizon of the investor's plans for
cashing out.
Despite inflated claims to the contrary,
consumer benefits tend to be minimal - any reduction in rates would be a direct
loss from the bottom line, and token reduction are usually enough for PR purposes
and to satisfy regulatory constraints. The obvious fact that the operator needs
to take out a profit is seldom mentioned when the benefits of privatization are
proclaimed, as if efficiency benefits (if any) would accrue fully to the
consumer.
In their personal finances, citizens
appreciate the value of asset ownership. Owning a car or home offers
significant cost savings over the lifetime of the investments, and greatly
benefits the citizen in the face of inflation and fluctuating rental rates.
With privatization, citizens are transformed from owners to renters, and suffer
a long-term equity loss that may be many times greater than the discounted sale
price of the asset. A privatized rail system may offer cheaper rates the first
few years, but in the long run it will charge whatever the traffic will bear -
in tomorrow's inflated economy.
"REFORM": the modification or replacement of an existing economic or
political system, so as to create new corporate investment opportunities - it
is not required that the new system perform effectively, only that it deliver
corporate profits.
A system is in need of "reform"
whenever corporate investors think of a new angle to make new profits. Obvious
failures of the "reform" process, such as unemployment and poverty,
are never the fault of "reform", but of incomplete implementation.
Belief in "reform" is like religious faith: no amount of
counter-evidence can phase the True Believer.
"Reform" is like clear-cutting.
A forest is an ecosystem, with wildlife, streams, underbrush, etc. Careful
forestry can harvest timber without destroying the ecosystem - but
clear-cutting destroys all at once. An existing political/economic arrangement
is also an eco-system: it is the subtle fabric that weaves the society together
and enables its functioning. "Reform" - as
we see in the Soviet breakup/selloff/ripoff - can
destroy the existing framework all at once, and replace it with one that
doesn't fit, that would take years or decades to take root and begin producing,
and will be owned by someone else at the end of the day.
Genuine reform would take into account
the existing conditions, and if a change is needed, would make incremental
changes over time, evolving a working system toward sounder functioning. Most
significant, it would reflect local customs and preferences - it would not seek
to impose a cookie-cutter standard paradigm upon all cultures and traditions.
"THIRD-WORLD ASSISTANCE": (1) the subsidization of non- competitive
First-World industries by means of channeling
earmarked funds through Third-World hands; (2) carrot-money to entice
"development" in preferred NWO directions; (3) hush- money to fund
domestic suppression in host countries.
In order to encourage acquiescence by the
taxpayers who foot the bill for it, "assistance" or "aid"
almost always comes wrapped in the rhetoric of humanitarianism. Recently in
Heaven knows the
In fact, the bulk of
"assistance" has been channeled directly to
military and "security" forces, in the form of weapons, training, and
cash. In some cases this results in lucrative contracts for
Viewed from the broadest perspective, the
definition of "Third-World assistance" is "the NWO version of
imperialism". It succeeds - in too many cases - in accomplishing the
following imperialist objectives:
Like all highly-leveraged NWO
enterprises, this is all accomplished with minimal occupation forces, no
colonial administrations, and no public understanding of what's going on - and
the bill is being paid by those who benefit the least. If the NWO strategists
weren't so sinister, you'd have to respect them.
Richard Moore
is currently in temporary retirement in Ireland, pursuing writing projects. He
has published several political essays via various "cyber channels",
on cyber rights, the rise of fascism, and democracy. His Internet address is: rkmoore@iol.ie