Overcoming People's Psychological Resistance to 9/11 Truth _____ 9/10 Important understanding of the human factor in the spread of uncomfortable verities
All truth goes through three stages, first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Everyone—well everyone who's examined the evidence with at least a 30% open mind—has his own story of what led him to conclude that the US government was complicit and culpable in the crimes committed on 9/11/2001.
In due course I succumbed with most Americans to the government-media (GM) propaganda of the official conspiracy theory. That theory is now in shambles, as demonstrated by a cursory review of the 9/11 Truth literature and video work available on the Web and elsewhere. My recent review of David Ray Griffin's book Debunking 9/11 Debunking lays out some of the central arguments and evidence for the alternative theory, which given time will certainly win the day on the logical merits of the case.
According to a Zogby poll in September 2007, 51% want Congress to probe Bush and Cheney's role in the 9/11 attacks, while nearly 7 out of 10 fault the 9/11 Commission for not investigating the anomalous disintegration of World Trade Center Building 7 (which was not struck by an airplane). Clearly the forces of truth and justice are beginning to win the minds of the American people, but the urgency is still high for us to make the understanding nearly universal... so we can move on and build a peaceful, benevolent, libertarian tomorrow.
Toward that end, Mr. Ken Jenkins—a well known documentary maker, lecturer, photographer, and long-time leader in the 9/11 Truth Movement—has put together a presentation to remind us of the human factor in the spread of ideas, and in particular the major obstacles we face in getting out the good word about 9/11. Lack of evidence, we find is not the limiting factor. Fundamentally, people do not want to believe the obvious truth.
First, let's understand what the evidence tells us 9/11
was: a psychological operation (psy op), which is a term used by secret services like the CIA for a class of operations intended to manipulate the
emotions of populations; it is a form of mind control. The specific intention of 9/11 was to terrorize the American people into supporting a so-called war on terror, to replace the cold war and provide a blank check
for the American state to attack anyone, anywhere it wishes—the Neoconservative dream come true.
As we watched the events of 9/11 unfold, most of us were traumatized by the unrelenting sequence of dramatic spectacle of destruction. Many of us were horrified into feeling "will my loved ones and I be next?" The buildings had to fall as they did, pulverized into rubble, because if they had stood, the subliminal message would have been we're invulnerable. We had be made to feel vulnerable, thus to yield our liberties and lives to a powerful government/military who alone would be able to protect us.
Why the need for a psy op? Because the people don't want war.
"Naturally, the common people don't want war. That is understood, neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." — Herman Goering, Nazi Reichmarshall and
Lutwaffe Chief at the Nuremberg Trials
Jenkins then presents a statement supposedly made by Julius Caesar, that according to Snopes is apocryphal (of questionable authenticity). But it's one of those statements that expresses a universal characteristic of political power, especially in regard to the war/patriotism tension, so I'm using it:
"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so."
— el maximus liderus anonymous
So what we're dealing with here in the minds and hearts of many Americans, not to mention other peoples of the planet, is fear plain and simple. The only antidote to fear is reason, but in order to work its cure and reach minds we need to be caring of hearts. So what are these obstacles to reason, to understanding? Mr. Jenkins lays them out with gentle consideration as follows:
Many people simply don't WANT to believe in 9/11 truth... or stolen elections truth, or weapons of mass destruction truth, etc. Want implies desires, preferences, drives, needs, motivations. As Maslow and other have shown, security and safety figure very highly in our hierarchy of wants and needs.
Actual quote: "Even if what you say about 9/11 is true, I won't believe it." To accept that our own government, which is supposed to protect us, will kill us, greatly reduces our sense of security. It's scary, even terrifying. People don't want to go there, they don't want to think about it or hear about it.
For this obstacle it is most productive to respond with sympathy and understanding. Go through your own experience of fear and sadness that you had to fight through. Point out they were already afraid of terrorists; that threat is replaced, not added to, by the implications of 9/11 truth.
By questioning the official story of 9/11, we are questioning the foundations of many of our fellow citizens' belief systems regarding our government and our country—especially its foreign policies.
Such questioning of these foundations is far more profound than say questioning a war. It's a major paradigm shift. To question the official 9/11 myth is fundamentally revolutionary. As such, it risks a period of chaos, which many find scary.
Stress that questioning the official story is deeply patriotic. Establish things they do believe: e.g. 70-80% believe that the official story of the Kennedy assassination is a lie. As a specialist on the Kennedy assassination, Jenkins was swayed to 9/11 truth by multiple similarities between the CIA's plot against Kennedy and 9/11. He mentions light chaos and dark chaos; there are advantages to having the truth come out slowly to avoid dark chaos. Important to commit to long term work in 9/11 truth.
Epidemic apathy and complacency—encouraged by systems of media, education, government, health care, etc. Average US citizen does not believe "the price of freedom is eternal vigilance," to paraphrase Jefferson. I.e. part of the resistance to 9/11 truth is people might have to do something about it; better not to take action.
This is part of the growing up process, to realize that if our ruling class can kill 3000 of our countrymen, one's survival as a free human being may depend on facing such reality actively. Grow up, get involved.
Media WMD (weapons of mass deception)—Huge obstacle to understanding the truth of 9/11 and many other crimes. Book Into the Buzzsaw, about 18 award-winning journalists who were prevented by corporate ownership form reporting major, incredibly revealing news. Some even fired or laid off. Includes Greg Palast, Gary Webb, many others who have won numerous awards including several Emmys and a Pulitzer.
Jenkins talks about the coverage of Gulf War 1; he realized we were in deep trouble because war was reduced to a video game, with no reports of the carnage we saw in Vietnam... which is credited with ending that war.
"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media."
—Former CIA director, William Colby
In the early days of the Cold War, late 40s, CIA began a secret project called Operation Mockingbird with the intent of buying influence behind the scenes at major media outlets
and putting reporters on the CIA payroll, which has proven to be a stunning ongoing success. The CIA effort was headed by Frank Wisner, Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, and Phillip Graham (publisher of the Washington Post).
A study showed TV generates misperceptions of facts and Fox is the worst among equals. The three misperceptions were 1) 9/11 was connected to Iraq, 2) Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and 3) the people of the world supported the invasion of Iraq.
Possible solution, Project Censored educate the role of independent journalism in a democratic society and to tell the news that didn't make the news and why. Project Censored is a media research group of the Sonoma State University which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, underreported, or self-censored by the country's major national news media.
Also important learning how to frame issues, something pseudo conservatives have done via think tanks, spending billions of dollars. E.g. "War on Terror."
Stigma of conspiracies—conspiracy is a plan or agreement by two or more parties to commit an illegal or subversive action. Primary alternatives to conspiracy theory are incompetence theory and coincidence theory. It's just as crazy to believe nothing is a conspiracy as to think everything is.
Recent conspiracies: California energy crisis, the Enron/Arthur Anderson/Worldcom, etc., stolen 2000, 2002, 2004 elections, 9/11 (the official story is a conspiracy theory). As we know other lies created by conspiracies of power have served as pretexts for war or oppression of peoples:
— Pearl Harbor (what pushed Jenkins over the edge)
— Operation Northwoods
— Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin
— The Reichstag Fire
— Sinking of the Lusitania
— Battleship Maine explosion
— False story of stabbing incubator babies (for Gulf War 1)
— Long list of state-sponsored terrorism
And now we know about the Iraq war lies, which helps to overcome the stigma of conspiracy about the Bushoviks.
The Big Lie and the Colossal Evil—we tend to be psychologically traumatized and disarmed by catastrophes, whether created by political leaders or real attacks. When the former, the scale of the event and/or the deceit of the event are so wholesale the people cannot believe anyone would do such a thing.
"The masses indulge in petty falsehoods every day but it would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths... the bigger the lie, therefore, the likelier it is to be believed."—Adolph Hitler
"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists."
—J. Edgar Hoover
Antidote: tough to find. You have to encourage people to trust their own rational judgment. This was Ken Jenkins area of resistance, he couldn't believe someone would do something so horrific. Then he read about the Pearl Harbor setup from Robert Stinnett (Day of Deceit) and others, which helped him believe yes, if it's a big duck it's still a duck.
9/11 truth is a confrontation to the self image of many Americans, of their country, and of themselves as (flag waving) Americans. The self image Americans have been sold is that we're the good guys, the white hats, the bringers of democracy and freedom.
Antidote: Iraq war lies, torture, secrecy in government, rendition, outing of agents, depleted uranium, shabby treatment of soldiers, covering up of massacres, weapons in space, the debt and the sinking dollar, the Katrina response, and many other incidents are breaking down self-image at least as far as the federal government is concerned.
As if We Were Grownups—we consistently elect candidates who tell us what children would want to hear: that everything is okay, that little is expected of them, that they can go out and shop and play and watch sports or reality TV, and that they'll be taken care of and protected. They're expected to be seen and not heard, to pay their taxes, to take their flu shots, and to not question authority.
Americans are encouraged to be children emotionally, means government is parental, whether strict father or smothering mother.
Antidote: Grow up.
Most everyone we introduce to 9/11 now has believed official story for years—to accept the truth they have to admit they were duped, deceived, and manipulated all that time. That brings up questions of gullibility, naïvete, lack of perceptiveness, obliviousness, etc. Most of us have resistance to admitting such blindness/weakness.
Antidote: Most of us did not get 9/11 right away, so we can lead with a confession of our own.
Emotional investment and ego investment—we are often emotionally invested in our worldview as well as in specific beliefs. We get rewards, payoffs for believing certain things, and have to give that payoff up to change the belief. There is also the ego investment that we get ego strokes, we're better than others, by holding a belief.
Antidote: one of the toughest psychological problems to overcome is the attachment to ego, a general approach of being concerned and staying in the now is desirable.
Unconscious emotional beliefs—both liberals and conservatives, a characteristic of partisan thought, exploited by campaign consultants and advertisers. Political thinking is often predominantly emotional, not interested in the facts. 9/11 is very emotional.
Antidote: take time and be deliberate, try to put yourself in the person's shoes, keep cool, recognize your own hot buttons. Take the long view.
The rabbit-hole resistance—e.g. the Matrix. To believe 9/11 truth, the rabbit hole gets deep, e.g. our media is corrupt and complicit, there is a powerful secret shadow government, most of our leaders are far more corrupt and malicious than we want to believe. Others: Kennedy, RFK, MLK, stolen elections, Wellstone, UFOs and abductions, moon landing, chem trails, Oklahoma City bombing, 7/7, Y2K, vaccines, AIDS, mind control, IRS/Federal Reserve, NWO, etc. A lot other stuff down there and it's hard to tell what's what, easier to stay out of the rabbit hole.
Antidote: Up the rabbit hole—abiotic oil, zero point energy generators, other nontraditional energy devices, What the Bleep Do We Now?, mind-body connection, neopeptides, quantum physics, probabilities, thoughts affect our reality, reincarnation, ESP, indigo children, UFOs, the Singularity, etc. The idea that some positive things lie at the other end of the tunnel.
Working on changing the world without also doing the inner work
of changing and healing ourselves and our personal relationships is far less efficient and effective. Urgency vs. Panic as motivation. Driven by many things, as there are many crises happening all at once right now. We need to encourage and be aware of the latter.
Traits of Panic:
exhausted, tense
worry, frantic
stressful, insecure
ominously close deadlines
nervous, anxious
catastrophic thinking
worst case scenarios
apprehensive, foreboding
must, need, have to..
martyrhood
pessimistic, dread
terrified
Traits of Urgency:
energizing, exciting
concern
secure
enough time
fun, interesting, exciting
calm, serene, peaceful
playful
want to, would like to, would prefer
optimistic
happy
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"We won't get fooled again." The Who
According to Ken Jenkins, 9/11 is part of a much bigger evolutionary spiritual awakening happening and accelerating throughout humanity:
"In part, we are
currently doing some collective shadow work, exposing the darkness to light. Besides moving toward greater truth, we are challenged to move toward more love and more healing, more forgiveness and more wisdom. We are enough and we will succeed."
I agree with him, and I've already spoken to this a bit. This general awakening—up the rabbit hole—I expect to make my theme in the column next Monday. Live free and flourish!
