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DATELINE: 5 October, 2005

Transmitted by JOHN D. GOLDHAMMER, USA

canaries of the coal mine

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Seattle, WA, USA - A mouth that prays, a hand that kills. - Arabian proverb

Psychological projection of a group shadow tends to make the enemy appear to be far more dangerous and "evil" than actual reality. The U.S. is "the Great Satan," and they (terrorists) are going to "destroy civilization." For example, consider our declaration of a "War" on Terror that has created a shadow-inflation enormously elevating the status and celebrity of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda to that of a nation state or even a world power when in actuality we are dealing with scattered cells of cult victims who have been brainwashed by militant, fundamentalist Islamic cult leaders into believing that mass murder is the way into Paradise.

Terrorists are what they are, no less, no more: extremely dangerous, criminal psychopaths manufactured by a set of powerful, destructive group dynamics.

One of the best ways to observe a group's dark side is to look at what is particularly upsetting to our group-what "we" (or they) are accusing someone else or some other group of doing. Take the political storm over Newsweek's report about the Koran being flushed down the toilet at Gitmo. The Bush cadre was suddenly VERY "upset" that Newsweek printed an allegedly inaccurate story as a result of supposedly faulty information from one of their "trusted sources" -- a story that "serio usly damaged" our image in the Arab world.

Of course it follows that Islamic fundamentalists' reaction to our disrespect for the Koran also exposes their group shadow, a dark side crawling with their own savage disrespect for human life as in killing innocent people and their violent intolerance for different beliefs and views.

Now we can see more of the George W. Bush group's dark underbelly, fundamentalist politics' long heavy bag. The Bush administration-we were told-went to war in Iraq because of allegedly "faulty intelligence" from trusted sources. Eight months before the invasion of Iraq the Downing Street Memo (" ... But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."), ¹⁹ provided even more proof that the U.S. and Britain "fixed" intelligence in order to support the Bush administration's war plans.

The REAL damage to America's image, the REAL destruction of innocent lives began when George W. Bush and a handful of hired mercenaries unnecessarily invaded an already impoverished Arab nation that had nothing whatsoever to do with the September 11th tragedy.

Fundamentalist politicians consistently blame and accuse other individuals and other groups, projecting their own disowned darkness: they are part of the "Axis of Evil," they are mass murderers; they are undemocratic; those people don't value life, they "hate freedom," it's a "Liberal conspiracy." Saint Augustine's directive comes to mind: "All diseases of Christians are to be ascribed to demons" -- a perfect characterization of fundamentalism's group-think that insures infantile irresponsibility while spreading mass paranoia.

Faced with probing questions about the Patriot Act, John Ashcroft (a devout member of a Pentacostal sect) told a senate panel, "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends."²⁰

Mark Twain would have seen right through all this shadow-speak, language intended to "demonize" and kill any serious criticism. Twain once wrote:

"Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutation of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception."²¹

When someone shines a spotlight into a group's dark side it arouses, almost without fail, righteous indignation along with virulent, "kill-the-messenger" attacks. That is also why it is so utterly frustrating to have any meaningful, rational discussion or collaboration with such people; you can never quite reach the real person.

Instead you are stonewalled; you keep getting programmed, predictable, group-speak responses and jargon designed to abort any real scrutiny of the group's always secretive dark side.

Exposing torture and gross violations of the Geneva Convention means we are guilty of "not supporting our troops."

In his famous book On Liberty, John Stuart Mill maintained that silencing an opinion is a "particular evil." If the opinion is right, we are "robbed of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth"; and if it's wrong, we are deprived of a deeper understanding of the truth in "its collision with error."

"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders," said Hermann Goring, at his trial in Nuremberg. He added: "This 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 every country."

George W. Bush brings up Bin Laden and 9/11 over and over: "The only way our enemies can succeed is if we forget the lessons of September 11." ²² Constant repetition of certain ideas is a common method of indoctrination used in destructive cults.

"It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion," declared Josef Goebbles, the Nazi propaganda minister, who knew that tyrannical governments require brainwashed followers. And here's George W's not quite so articulate fundamentalist equivalent: "See, in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda," quipped our self-titled "War President" in a 24 May 2005 speech.

So the Bush administration "fixes" intelligence reports, "fixes" scientific data on climate change and greenhouse gases, "fixes" reality on the ground in Iraq for the unthinking, uncritical, patriotic, loyal citizens.

These so-called "fixes" are really "lies" -- the Bush group's program to "supervise the formation of public opinion," as Goebbles stated. Indeed, the purpose of all propaganda is to program individuals to act according to group beliefs and aims.

Turn these hypnotic phrases around and we can again see into our own shadow: two fundamentalist cults locked in another lethal embrace, an "adversarial symbiosis," a system that guarantees that neither side will have to face their own shadow, reminiscent of the "cold war" -- Russia and the United States -- the latter having created nuclear weapons technology while the former copies it and both proceed to manufacture and infect the planet with over 60,000 nuclear weapons -- enough destructive power to end all life on the planet many times over.

Never mind the fact that the United States actually dropped two atomic bombs on civilian populations in Japan during the Second World War. Bush precisely articulated his own treacherous dark side when he announced, "The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."²³

Presidential scholar, Michael Genovese suggests that 9/11 helped to create a mass illusion: "The public needed to believe that [Bush] had grown," so "we chose to see him ... as bigger, better and different than he was."²⁴ You could say that we temporarily projected a "savior" image onto the president; psychologists call this the "halo effect," the same sort of illusion that can make quite ordinary people suddenly appear to be superhuman, until the truth rattles our projections and reality returns.

The most insidious face of the ever-darkening shadow of evangelical, fundamentalist politics and its bright, shining slogan, "compassionate conservatism," is the in-humane, COMPASSIONLESS disregard for the suffering of others.

Of course war is not compassionate for either side. So-called "compassionate" conservatives ignore preventable human tragedies like the ongoing genocide in Darfur, mass starvation in Nigeria, or the recent genocide in Rowanda, which was ignored by the entire world but for a few U. N. peacekeeping remnants. George W's "Compassion" for the corporate world is a big part of fundamentalism's economic shadow. "Compassionate" conservatives care more about the welfare of corporate America than for human suffering. Hypocritical, shadow-laden "compassion" is not new. Hitler and Stalin were two of the most vigorous "pro-lifers" of all time, as were numerous other tyrants. They (Hitler and Stalin) also criminalized previously legal abortions immediately upon taking power.²⁵

Looking closely at the whitewashed rhetoric of the fundamentalist shadow, we hear more black magic-oft-repeated mantras like, "family values," the "right to life," and a "culture of life." But what about a trickle of compassion for the estimated 29,000 children under five who die on our planet each day from preventable neglect, starvation, disease, and abuse -- a horrific "slaughter of innocents."²⁶ What about their "right to life?" Hey, it's OK -- we have a "no child left behind" policy -- just a global, bloody sea of dead, ignored children in small coffins.

John D. Goldhammer

What we really have under the Bush puppet theocracy is a horrific example of the fundamentalist shadow that has created a heartless culture governed by what is really a "pro-birth," anti-life doctrine -- a consistent erosion of basic human and civil rights -- all utterly un-American!

In Iraq (at this writing), over 1,900 American soldiers have been killed and another 13, 000 wounded, many horribly crippled and disfigured for life. Incredibly brave young men and women -- yet in reality victims of a fundamentalist/political cult's deadly shadow.

The independent public database, www.iraqbodycount.net, reports over 24,000 innocent civilian deaths in Iraq resulting directly from military action by the United States and its allies -- definitely not good for our "image." But this barely-seen slaughter by a "compassionate," hide-the-coffins Republican cult must be kept in the shadows because, as our President recently explained: "Those people (Iraqi insurgents) kill innocent civilians ... women and children."

Then we have the shadow travesty of religious fundamentalists' attempts to stop stem cell research. George W. Bush, replying to questions about proposed stem cell legislation, said " ... the use of federal money, taxpayers' money, to promote science which destroys life in order to save life -- I'm against that."²⁷

Here's the shadow: No life-saving stem cell research but immense, treasury draining, scientific research into anti-missile systems, nuclear bunker-busting weapons and a whole new arsenal of mini-nuclear weapons -- sounds a lot like "using science which destroys life in order to save life!" I hear that lion roaring!

Over time, dictators and other cult leaders tend to become increasingly paranoid, unpredictable, and treacherously impulsive. Throw nuclear weapons into this toxic mix of fundamentalism, politics and explosive shadow dynamics and we have a planet in serious jeopardy at best -- a doomsday scenario at worst.

Robert J. Lifton, the author of Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, explains that fundamentalism exists "always on the edge of violence because it ever mobilizes for an absolute confrontation with a designated evil, thereby justifying any actions taken to eliminate that evil."²⁸

So what can you and I do about this group shadow dilemma? We can expose the fundamentalist, group-based lies that are redefining and reshaping both political parties. We can insist that our government and its leaders focus on solutions instead of forcing everyone to swallow dogma saturated with one religious group's "truth," one group's concept of "moral values." And we can demand that zealots and ideologues keep their self-righteous claws off our democracy. Real solutions that promote free and open societies will never come from fundamentalist groups dragging their long heavy bags of intolerance and "tyranny over the minds of men."

Shadow work begins with brutally honest self-examination, the courage to admit one's errors and mistakes, and the moral integrity to change policies, ideas, and opinions that have proven to be fallacious or harmful to others.

Corrupt leaders and governments have always feared independent, critical-thinking, informed, skeptical, free, educated citizens. It's time we withdrew our overly "educated," thinking, informed psyches from Bush's war -- his great crusade "to end tyranny in the world," that paranoid, militant, fundamentalist misadventure that sees anyone who is not conforming to their world view as the enemy.

It's time for civilized, compassionate, courageous people everywhere to refuse to participate in sanctifying a morally bankrupt administration with patriotic doublespeak. James Madison warned, "If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

Looking honestly at our own dark side as individuals, as members of groups, and as a nation does something quite remarkable; it gives us a healthy dose of humility and empathy for others. It also exposes the ghastly consequences of power abused, of corruption and secrecy in high places.

In his book, Faces of the Enemy, Sam Keen explains the "first rule" for understanding our own shadow: "Listen to what the enemy says about you ... Borrow the eyes of the alien, see yourself from afar. ... Look with suspicion on the rhetoric of your nation."²⁹

We need leaders who are skilled at encouraging constructive, even harsh criticism and healthy skepticism, which Jefferson believed was essential for responsible citizenship. We need leaders who understand the value of different ideas and opinions, who understand that it is often the opposite point of view that enriches our perspective and inspires a creative solution that transcends warfare between opposite positions.

The shadow enables us to deny responsibility for our actions; evil is always "out there."

But at some point, so-called moderate, non-violent Christians and Moslems must take responsibility for the militant consequences of their belief systems. Like the German peoples' denial of Nazi death camps or the world's ongoing blindness toward genocide, every peace-loving Christian and every peace-loving Moslem who remains silent, has the blood of innocents on his or her hands, as does each and every politician who has cowardly fallen to their knees before the brutal gods of religious fundamentalism, fanaticism and war.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a soldier and then as the thirty-fourth President of the United States, knew the savage, inhumane consequences of warfare. "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."³⁰

We need to change our national priorities from a culture of existence in the shadowy wastelands of war and increasing military expenditures to a culture of creating what scientist and philosopher, Buckminster Fuller called "livingry," a culture of compassion that actually values and protects all life, a culture that respects learning, supports scientific research, invention, free inquiry, and acknowledges our common humanity.

I would like to see the United States return to being an inspiring role model, to helping others improve their quality of life -- a nation known for real compassion and benevolence instead of an arrogant, threatening, military-industrial leviathan that inspires increasing revulsion, contempt, and fear from the world community. But people make a nation and real change begins with each individual. As for religious groups, the Dalai Lama has a straightforward strategy: "This is my simple religion," he says. "There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness."

Looking at our world and religious extremists on both sides, I'm hopeful that all the killing and savaging of life will finally wake people up to the awesome destructive power of groups and belief systems that have become more important than human life, simple compassion, and love for one another. But realistically, unless we change, I also see a very dangerous world, a dark side that poets describe best: "And we are here as on a darkling plain ... Where ignorant armies clash by night."³¹