Weaponizing a Generation

We live in a world thick with propaganda.  It is nearly impossible to sift the truth from the lies.  When I was a child, I was taught about a country who lived this way.  That country was Germany.  They started two world wars and were heavily sanctioned.

After the second world war, America invested heavily into its infrastructure and its people.  It built that idyllic era so many fondly recall, the 1950s.  From the outside looking in, it appeared that everyone was living prosperously and happy.

However, behind closed doors, abuse and infidelity were rampant.  Physicians prescribed dangerous drugs that produced psychosis in the people who took them.  Medical advances had not yet been made.

When you live every day with the technological advances that we’ve come to expect as basic necessities, it is difficult to imagine the world of the 50s.  As we look back, it is easy to overlook the troubling aspects and focus in on the fact that life was affordable on one income.

If the country could rebuild itself into a super power in a few decades, then what happened?  Why didn’t its people continue to prosper?  How did this country’s people become so self-centered and greedy?

As a member of the following generation, I can understand how easy it is to blame the Boomers.  They took every institution we had in America and trashed it.  They protested for our rights, they fought back against systems of repression.  They also destroyed morality in the name of free love.

The Boomer generation did both bad and good.  I do not have to recount all that they did.  It is everywhere.  Though they would like to be remembered for the causes they fought for, you must remember, it was only a portion of Boomers that put themselves on the line.  They weren’t all hippies.

They were perfectly set up in life.  What went wrong?  Why did they vote against themselves and their children?  Why did they destroy our government with bribery?  Why do they hoard their wealth and laugh as the younger generations struggle to exist in a world that is so unbalanced, it is more common to struggle than it is to prosper?

There is a nefarious reason to all of it.  You won’t find it in any history books.  You won’t find an article on the internet.  It is perhaps in a box in the back of an old schools media storage room.  That dusty reel of film.  That large projector that used to proudly sit upon a rolling cart.

How do I know?  I know, because I saw it, I lived it, I watched it happen.  It was a program called Education Through Science.  This program was designed to control the thought patterns of the children who watched them.

I remember well, the teacher would roll that projector in the room and queue up the black and white film real.  The films were old by the time they  got to my generation, Generation X.

I was on the tail of this generation, watching these films in the mid 80s.  I remember the government voice.  If you know, you know exactly what he sounds like.

He told us all about the marvelous things our government was doing.  He told us what was safe.  He told us who was our ally and who was our enemy.  He told us how to think, how to fashion our thoughts, what was okay to say out loud and what we should never speak about with another soul.

Reader, born before 1980, do you remember?  Can you recall those reels?  Do you remember his voice?

If you don’t remember, it is because you weren’t supposed to.  They used hypnosis in the beginning sequence to put you into the correct frame of mind.  Do you remember the countdown from 3?

Why do I remember?  If you read my bio or even the initial article I posted, you will know that I was submitted to horrific childhood sexual abuse - I was molested, drugged, raped, coerced, sold to the highest bidder, sold to the lowest bidder to pay a bill, passed from sadistic family member to sadistic family friend - all from the time I was a tiny child.

My mind was so battered, it couldn’t hold onto anything at that time.  I drifted from black out to black out in my early years.  For my young mind, a reel of film such as this was innocuous at best.  I watched these films, incredulous, as they said things that were directly in conflict with what logic told me was true.  But no one seemed to remember after we watched them.  We had lunch and recess and by the time all of that was over, who could remember a stupid government movie?

Who would do such a thing?  Who could do such a thing on a scale like that?  Do you really need to ask that question?  Perhaps that global “elite” we’ve all heard mentioned so many times?

Greed was woven into the very fabric of our earliest education.  We were encouraged to be independent, to rise about the rest, to stand out, to make our mark.  But how does that make any sense at the spiritual level?  How does that make sense when you consider the lessons that religion teaches?

Duality.  We were bred to be able to uphold opposing beliefs at the same time.  That is why atrocity propaganda is so effective amongst the older generations.

Now that we know about this, can perhaps begin to recall this part of our history, what can we do about it?  How do we overcome programming that is written into our minds?

We listen to our moral compass.  For some people, that may be buried very deep within them.  However, if you pay attention to your feelings, you will begin to decipher the difference between what is right and what you were taught to accept.

For example, you may have been in a situation where you know what you or those you were with were doing was wrong, but you were in a group mentality and that clandestine excitement was palpable in the air.  You know what that feels like.  It feels grungy and it feels dirty, but there is a thrill in being “naughty” or breaking the rules.

Do you know what I’m talking about?  Have you felt that? What did you do?  Are you afraid to tell another soul?  Or did you walk away?  Did you turn away?  Did you speak up?  This is your moral compass.

It is what feels warm and special in the wholesome moments, where you are in the spirit of doing good.  Recently, my colleague, spoke of a moment like this.  Our organization was volunteering at an event nearly an hour from our place of business.

The event was meant to prepare packages for less fortunate people in the rural areas of our state.  Because of its distance from the city, it had been poorly RSVPd to.  The volunteer organization put out a last minute plea for help.

In a state of awe, my colleague recounted a beautiful story of a community coming together.  In the end, more people showed up than they’d requested.  People of all different backgrounds worked side by side, talking and laughing and enjoying their work.  The time passed quickly and my colleague drove away in a bubble of happiness that lasted into the next day.

Do you know that feeling?  Have you felt that?  Have you ever done something really exceptionally good and then felt that wonderful feeling that being kind produces?  Hold onto this!  Do more of this!

These are the extremes.  You know what is right and what is wrong.  Perhaps you have learned to ignore your inner voice.  Make friends with it again.  It is never too late to change.  In fact, in this world, we need to change.

We cannot continue to vilify one another.  We cannot continue to step up to greatness upon the backs of those we deem less worthy.  We must look deep within ourselves.  We must really listen when we go to our religious institutions or pray or meditate - however you answer your spiritual soul’s call.  Absorb the good, throw out the bad.  These are the first steps to changing the world.

Don’t become discouraged.  You may not see results immediately.  Your patience will be tested.  Keep going.  You may fail in your efforts one day.  Learn from this.  Keep going.  It is not too late.  Remember, no one is an expert overnight, especially when it comes to healing.

Let us not be defined by the mistakes of our past.  Let us not be defined by the molds society forced us to fit into.  We are not meant to live this way.  That stress you feel, that anxiety, it is a product of your environment.

They may have used us to accomplish their evil deeds.  They may have conned us into believing our neighbors were the enemies.  Remember that you cannot lump everyone into one basket.  We are all so uniquely different, yet the same at the very core of who and what we are.

It is not too late to turn away from evil.  It is not too late to make amends.  It is not too late to say you’re sorry, to ask for forgiveness.  This is how we change the world.  Shall we begin today?  I’m ready.  Are you?