Gezien het feit dat overtuigde Atlantici als Henk Hofland, Hubert Smeets en Geert Mak hoog opgeven van de ‘Amerikaanse Democratie,’ is het onthullend te merken hoe kritisch intellectuelen in de VS tegenover de autoritaire en in meerdere opzichten totalitaire ontwikkelingen in hun land kunnen aankijken. Laat ik dit keer als willekeurig voorbeeld de jurist John W. Whitehead nemen, ‘President of The Rutherford Institute,’ wiens meest recente boek Battlefield America: The War on the American People in 2015 verscheen. Enige achtergrondinformatie om een indruk te krijgen wie hij is:
John W. Whitehead is an attorney and author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of constitutional law and human rights. Whitehead's concern for the persecuted and oppressed led him, in 1982, to establish The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties and human rights organization whose international headquarters are located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Deeply committed to protecting the constitutional freedoms of every American and the integral human rights of all people, The Rutherford Institute has emerged as a prominent leader in the national dialogue on civil liberties and human rights and a formidable champion of the Constitution. Whitehead serves as the Institute's president and spokesperson.
Widely recognized as one of the nation's most vocal and involved civil liberties attorneys, Whitehead's approach to civil liberties issues has earned him numerous accolades and accomplishments, including the Hungarian Medal of Freedom and the 2010 Milner S. Ball Lifetime Achievement Award for ‘[his] decades of difficult and important work, as well as [his] impeccable integrity in defending civil liberties for all.’
As nationally syndicated columnist Nat Hentoff observed about Whitehead: ‘John Whitehead is not only one of the nation's most consistent and persistent civil libertarians. He is also a remarkably perceptive illustrator of our popular culture, its insights and dangers. I often believe that John Whitehead is channeling the principles of James Madison, who would be very proud of him.’
Born in 1946 in Tennessee, John W. Whitehead earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas in 1969 and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1974. He served as an officer in the United States Army from 1969 to 1971. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Met andere woorden: Whitehead is geen radikalinski, maar een geschoolde burger die waarde hecht aan het bestaan van een civil society, de ‘samenleving waarin mondige burgers vooral zelf (zonder tussenkomst van politieke partijen) voor hun belangen en idealen opkomen, al of niet door zich te organiseren.’ Over de binnenlandse situatie in ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave,’ zoals de VS wordt getypeerd in het refrein van ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’ het Amerikaanse volkslied, schrijft John Whitehead:
FACT: For the first time in history, Congress is dominated by a majority of millionaires who are, on average, fourteen times wealthier than the average American.
FACT: ‘Today, 17,000 local police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision, rappelling gear and armored vehicles,’ reports Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. ‘Some have tanks.’
FACT: Thanks to an overabundance of 4,500-plus federal crimes and 400,000-plus rules and regulations, it is estimated that the average American actually commits three felonies a day without knowing it. In fact, according to law professor John Baker, ‘There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime.’
FACT: The number of violent crimes in the country is down substantially, the lowest rate in forty years, while the number of Americans being jailed for nonviolent crimes such as driving with a suspended license is skyrocketing.
FACT: Despite the fact that we have 46 million Americans living at or below the poverty line, 16 million children living in households without adequate access to food, and at least 900,000 veterans relying on food stamps, enormous sums continue to be doled out for presidential vacations ($16 million for trips to Africa and Hawaii), overtime fraud at the Department of Homeland Security (nearly $9 million in improper overtime claims, and that's just in six of the DHS' many offices), and Hollywood movie productions ($10 million was spent by the Army National Guard on Superman movie tie-ins aimed at increasing awareness about the National Guard).
FACT: Since 2001 Americans have spent $10.5 million every hour for numerous foreign military occupations, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. There's also the $2.2 million spent every hour on maintaining the United States' nuclear stockpile, and the $35,000 spent every hour to produce and maintain our collection of Tomahawk missiles. And then there's the money the government exports to other countries to support their arsenals, at the cost of $1.61 million every hour for the American taxpayers.
FACT: At least 400 to 500 innocent people are killed by police officers every year. Indeed, Americans are now eight times more likely to die in a police confrontation than they are to be killed by a terrorist. Americans are 110 times more likely to die of foodborne illness than in a terrorist attack.
FACT: Police officers are more likely to be struck by lightning than be made financially liable for their wrongdoing.
FACT: On an average day in America, over 100 Americans have their homes raided by SWAT teams.
FACT: Comprising an $82 billion industry, at least 30,000 drones are expected to occupy U.S. airspace by 2020.
FACT: Devices are now being developed that would allow police to stop a car remotely, ostensibly to end police chases.
FACT: If knowledge is power, it's no wonder Americans are in hot water. According to a study by the National Constitution Center, 41 percent of Americans ‘are not aware that there are three branches of government, and 62 percent couldn't name them; 33 percent couldn't even name one.’
FACT: Only six out of every one hundred Americans know that they actually have a constitutional right to hold the government accountable for wrongdoing, as guaranteed by the right to petition clause of the First Amendment.
FACT: According to a Gallup poll, Americans place greater faith in the military and the police than in any of the three branches of government. However, when asked to name the greatest problem facing the nation, Americans of all political stripes ranked the government as the number one concern. In fact, almost eight out of ten Americans believe that government corruption is widespread.
In The Huffington Post voegt John Whitehead hieraan toe:
Perhaps the most troubling fact of all is this: we have handed over control of our government and our lives to faceless bureaucrats who view us as little more than cattle to be bred, branded, butchered and sold for profit.
If there is to be any hope of restoring our freedoms and reclaiming control over our government, it will rest not with the politicians but with the people themselves. When all is said and done, each American will have to decide for themselves whether they prefer dangerous freedom to peaceful slavery.
Op de website van de Rutherford Organization wees Whitehead erop dat:
The American people remain eager to be persuaded that a new president in the White House can solve the problems that plague us. Yet no matter who wins this next presidential election, you can rest assured that the new boss will be the same as the old boss, and we—the permanent underclass in America—will continue to be forced to march in lockstep with the police state in all matters, public and private.
Indeed, as I point out in my new book ‘Battlefield America: The War on the American People,’ it really doesn’t matter what you call them — the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex — so long as you understand that no matter which party occupies the White House in 2017, the unelected bureaucracy that actually calls the shots will continue to do so.
Consider the following a much-needed reality check, an antidote if you will, against an overdose of overhyped campaign announcements, lofty electoral promises and meaningless patriotic sentiments that land us right back in the same prison cell.
FACT: For the first time in history, Congress is dominated by a majority of millionaires who are, on average, fourteen times wealthier than the average American. According to a scientific study by Princeton researchers, the United States of America is not the democracy that it purports to be, but rather an oligarchy, in which ‘economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy.’
FACT: ‘Today, 17,000 local police forces are equipped with such military equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, machine guns, grenade launchers, battering rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body armor, night vision, rappelling gear and armored vehicles,’ reports Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. ‘Some have tanks.’
FACT: Despite the fact that women only make up 8 percent of the prison population, they are more likely to be strip searched, though not more likely to carry contraband.
FACT: It is estimated that 2.7 million children in the United States have at least one parent in prison, whether it be a local jail or a state or federal penitentiary, due to a wide range of factors ranging from over-criminalization and surprise raids at family homes to roadside traffic stops.
FACT: The FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) facial recognition system, which is set to hold data on millions of Americans, will include a variety of biometric data, including palm prints, iris scans, and face recognition data. The FBI hopes to have 52 million images by 2015. NGI will be capable of uploading 55,000 images a day, and conducting tens of thousands of photo searches a day.
FACT: Everything we do will eventually be connected to the Internet. By 2030 it is estimated there will be 100 trillion sensor devices connecting human electronic devices (cell phones, laptops, etc.) to the Internet. Much, if not all, of our electronic devices will be connected to Google, which openly works with government intelligence agencies.
FACT: In 2015 mega-food corporations will begin rolling out high-tech shelving outfitted with cameras in order to track the shopping behavior of customers, as well as information like the age and sex of shoppers.
FACT: The United States is one of the highest TV viewing nations. According to a Nielsen report, the average American over the age of two ‘spends more than thirty-four hours a week watching live television… plus another three to six hours watching taped programs.’
In Battlefield America merkt Whitehead op dat:
Almost 13,000 agencies in all fifty states and four U.S. territories participate in a military ‘recycling' program, and the share of equip and weaponry gifted each year continues to the description that best fits modern America is fascist. While this description might strike some people as extreme or even kooky, anyone who considers the historical definition of a fascist regime sees that fascist may be the most accurate label to define the current American system.
Under a fascist system, property is nominally held in private hands and the economy is officially 'free.' All appearances to the contrary, however, the economy in a fascist system is carefully controlled by government through a labyrinth of taxes and regulations. This government control is usually exercised for the benefit of an economic elite that works to perpetuate the power of the existing political class.
Other characteristics of fascist systems include a militaristic foreign policy and a police state that abuses our civil liberties. Only the willfully ignorant could deny that America's foreign policy is militaristic, and we have already seen the myriad ways in which modern government abuses our civil liberties.
A fascist system also singles out critics of the regime for harassment. From stopping scholars who are critical of America from entering the country to harassing journalists whose works displease the current administration to siccing (aansporen. svh) the IRS on organizations critical of the current administration's policies, government harassment of their political critics has become increasing common.
Just like acknowledging the nature of the problem is the first step in an individual's recovery from alcoholism, acknowledging the fascist nature of modern America is a necessary step toward restoring American liberty.
Maar de werkelijkheid zoals kritische Amerikaanse intellectuelen die ervaren, wordt door de polderpers en haar opiniemakers domweg genegeerd en daarmee ontkend. Dit autisme is alleen verklaarbaar vanuit het feit dat de mainstream-media een ideologische kijk op de realiteit hebben. In de zwart-wit voorstelling van de wereld is geen ruimte voor nuancering. Voor de Hoflanden, de Smeetsen en de Makkianen blijft de VS de ‘vredestichtende ordebewaker en politieagent’ van de wereld die de ‘Verlichting heeft uitgevoerd, als real life experiment,’ gekenmerkt door ‘het vitale karakter van de Amerikaanse democratie.’ En als ‘het Westen zich [zal] moeten aanpassen,’ dan 'nog altijd bij voorkeur onder Amerikaanse leiding, als het een Democraat is.' Immers, voor de polderpers blijft ‘de Verenigde Staten [nog steeds] het anker van het hele Atlantische deel van de wereld in de ruimste zin van het woord,’ hoeveel grootschalig geweld de VS ook mag veroorzaken en hoe groot de kloof tussen arm en rijk wereldwijd zal worden. Vanuit die houding is het tevens verklaarbaar dat de Nederlandse opiniemaker van de commerciële media met het grootste gemak een zogenaamde ‘studiereis’ aanvaardt van de Atlantische Commissie, in 1953 in het leven geroepen om propaganda te bedrijven voor de NAVO en het Atlantisch verbond, of bijklust bij deze door de Nederlandse staat gesubsidieerde organisatie.
Voor de ideologisch gedreven journalist geldt boven alles dat de werkelijkheid ondergeschikt blijft aan de virtualiteit van de ‘Amerikaanse Droom.’ Deze corrupte houding heeft de mainstream-opiniemaker geen windeieren opgeleverd, Mak is er zelfs miljonair mee geworden, terwijl Hofland op zijn 88ste nog steeds zijn inkomen eraan ontleent, en Hubert Smeets op zijn zestigste enige bekendheid heeft verworven dankzij zijn anti-Poetin hetze, waardoor deze NRC-journalist nog enige jaren in de polder kan blijven bijklussen. Hun onverzadigbare manifestatie-drift kent geen moraliteit, mensenrechten spelen daarbij geen rol, democratie is een te verwaarlozen futiliteit. Wat voor hen telt is zolang mogelijk ten koste van alles en iedereen wereldberoemd te blijven in de polder. In feite zijn zij niet meer dan pathetische, witte mannen gevormd door een christelijke cultuur, waarin het blanke superioriteitsdenken al sinds de ontdekking van de ‘Nieuwe Wereld’ centraal staat. De Nederlandse ‘politiek-literaire elite,’ zoals Hofland dit zo parmantig noemt, wordt getypeerd door een gebrek aan wijsheid, het vermogen om praktisch en moreel juist te oordelen en te handelen. Bovendien lijdt zij aan een gebrek aan kennis en ervaring. Zowel Mak, Smeets als Hofland hebben zelden of nooit de grenzen van hun christelijke wereld overschreden, het grootste deel van de wereld kennen zij niet uit eigen ervaring. Daarnaast is haar enige referentiekader de eigen provinciale peergroup. Het is daarom ook niet vreemd dat deze journalisten naadloos passen in het neoliberale propaganda-systeem. Ze weten niet beter. Hun belangrijkste houvast is hun ideologische kijk op de wereld. Zonder die kijk zouden ze totaal verloren zijn, en zouden zij zich bewust worden van de eigen leegte. De ideologie is hun identiteit. Vandaar dat zij zonder morele bezwaren de terreur van de NAVO, onder aanvoering van de VS, kunnen accepteren.
Deze mentaliteit verklaart tevens waarom tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog maar liefst 75 procent van de joodse Nederlanders kon worden opgepakt dankzij de inzet van verraders, en van de ambtenaren van het bevolkingsregister, de politie, de Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Vervolgens konden de slachtoffers probleemloos naar de vernietigingskampen worden gedeporteerd. Dit cijfer is procentueel twee maal zo hoog als dat in België en drie maal zo hoog als in Frankrijk. De mentaliteit die deze kolossale misdaad mogelijk maakte, leefde na 1945 meestal ondergronds voort, en is de reden waarom Geert Mak verontwaardigt reageerde toen ik hem opmerkzaam maakte op het feit dat zijn vader, de evangelisatie-predikant Catrinus Mak, een antisemiet was toen hij in 1936 in de krant schreef dat de Neurenberger Rassenwetten van de nazi’s die joodse Duitsers collectief uit het publieke leven stootten, ‘op staatsterrein tolerabel’ waren. Even opmerkelijk was dat de lezers van zijn best verkochte boek De eeuw van mijn vader (1999), die ik hiernaar vroeg, er geen punt van hadden gemaakt, sterker nog: Catrinus' antisemitisme was hen niet eens opgevallen. Collaboratie met de ‘powers that be’ is als het ware genetisch vast gelegd in de Nederlandse volksaard. Zo kon het fascisme, net als nu, sluipenderwijs terrein winnen, de geestelijke bodem was er rijp voor. Net als nu. Zeker wanneer de intelligentsia het publiek elke dag weer met oorlogspropaganda bestookt. In zijn 241 pagina’s tellende studie Imperial Delusions. American Militarism And Endless War (2005) vat de Amerikaanse hoogleraar dr. Carl Boggs de huidige situatie als volgt samen:
Deze mentaliteit verklaart tevens waarom tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog maar liefst 75 procent van de joodse Nederlanders kon worden opgepakt dankzij de inzet van verraders, en van de ambtenaren van het bevolkingsregister, de politie, de Nederlandse Spoorwegen. Vervolgens konden de slachtoffers probleemloos naar de vernietigingskampen worden gedeporteerd. Dit cijfer is procentueel twee maal zo hoog als dat in België en drie maal zo hoog als in Frankrijk. De mentaliteit die deze kolossale misdaad mogelijk maakte, leefde na 1945 meestal ondergronds voort, en is de reden waarom Geert Mak verontwaardigt reageerde toen ik hem opmerkzaam maakte op het feit dat zijn vader, de evangelisatie-predikant Catrinus Mak, een antisemiet was toen hij in 1936 in de krant schreef dat de Neurenberger Rassenwetten van de nazi’s die joodse Duitsers collectief uit het publieke leven stootten, ‘op staatsterrein tolerabel’ waren. Even opmerkelijk was dat de lezers van zijn best verkochte boek De eeuw van mijn vader (1999), die ik hiernaar vroeg, er geen punt van hadden gemaakt, sterker nog: Catrinus' antisemitisme was hen niet eens opgevallen. Collaboratie met de ‘powers that be’ is als het ware genetisch vast gelegd in de Nederlandse volksaard. Zo kon het fascisme, net als nu, sluipenderwijs terrein winnen, de geestelijke bodem was er rijp voor. Net als nu. Zeker wanneer de intelligentsia het publiek elke dag weer met oorlogspropaganda bestookt. In zijn 241 pagina’s tellende studie Imperial Delusions. American Militarism And Endless War (2005) vat de Amerikaanse hoogleraar dr. Carl Boggs de huidige situatie als volgt samen:
The Pentagon system constitutes a massive global network with more than a thousand military facilities spread across forty states and seventy nations around the world, from Latin America to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and scattered islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Its sophisticated arms and intelligence web of power extends to the seas, land, air, and space. This virtual empire depends on the production and distribution apparatus of several thousand industrial firms and subsidiaries. It has intimate connections with such powerful institutions as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), National Security Agency (NSA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and United States Information Agency (USIA). It exerts a pervasive ideological influence on the mass media, universities, popular culture, churches, and cyberspace, allowing it to become an integral part of the economic, political, and cultural life of tie nation. The Pentagon structure itself, located in Washington, DC, lies at the hub of all this activity, the symbol of American imperial power since 1947, with 25,000 workers, 30 acres of offices and meeting rooms, and 17.5 miles of hallways. The Pentagon is a major center of communications, transportation, social life, and political activity. It is the site of the National Military Command Center, which processes enormous amounts of data collected from around the globe. It occupies the center of a network employing 1.6 million armed-services personnel, 800,000 reserves, and two million workers in the industrial sector. In providing far-flung support systems for troops, logistical operations, and employees, the Pentagon manages a multitude of information sites, entertainment centers, hospitals, schools, family apartments, officers' and enlisted clubs, churches, restaurants, sports facilities, and transportation systems.
By fiscal year 2003 Pentagon spending had reached $390 billion, though funding for all U.S. military operations was expected to be in the range of $500 billion, in excess of peak cold war years and nearly three times what all potential U.S. adversaries spent combined (Russian and China together spending less than $100 billion). The United States and its allies spent roughly 73 percent of total global military allocations in 2003. Pentagon outlays are conservatively expected to reach $500 billion for 2008 and close to $550 billion for 2010, according to the Pentagons own estimates — a figure that would account for easily half the world's total. These amounts do not include money for intelligence agencies (nearly $70 billion in 2003), for homeland security (another $38 billion), or for the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq (untold billions) — numbers that could easily skyrocket beyond expected levels with just one more devastating terrorist attack. Such resource allocations, without parallel in history, are becoming the mark of something akin to a full-fledged garrison state.
Inmiddels, dertien jaar later, is er geen verandering in dit proces opgetreden, in 2015 slokte het Amerikaans militair-industrieel complex 54 procent van het federale budget op, dat het Congres kan toewijzen. Desondanks of juist daarom steunen de Makkianen, Hoflanden en Smeetsen het Atlantisch expansionisme onder aanvoering van de Amerikaanse ‘garnizoensstaat’ en beweren ze dat — in de woorden van H.J.A. Hofland — 'Het dus noodzaak [is] voor het Westen om grenzen aan de Russische expansie te stellen.’ De corrupeerdheid onder polder-propagandisten nadert een hoogtepunt. Later meer.
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