Fooling the fools

Dominion and Deception:

Niccolo Machiavelli, the political philosopher who served the Italian government in the 16th century, wrote that the true purpose of political power is to maintain and extend itself. It has nothing at all to do with the welfare of the people, nor with principles of right and wrong.

Machiavelli taught that it was useful to promote morals, ethics and religious convictions among the people for the purpose of maintaining control and productivity. The ruler himself, while advised to maintain a guise of morality and religiosity, was sanctioned in the covert use of dishonesty, cruelty, murder, or any other means necessary to perpetuate power.

Like Machiavelli, the German Jewish political philosopher Leo Strauss also taught that the elite, who transcend moral absolutes, should exploit religious faith in order to autocratically control the masses. (The eccentric opinions of this obscure German academic would not be expected to hold much sway, except that Leo Strauss happens to be the mentor of influential neoconservatives including William Kristol...and Paul Wolfowitz....)

...Religion is necessary for the people, [Strauss] advised, but the rulers themselves - not bound by the same moral laws they preach and impose on others - should maintain only an outward form of religion, a convincing facade.

Does this sound like the same attitude as evidenced by pious statements of the pResident combined with another of his statements, which I've quoted before? "I am the commander, see?... I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."

Some years ago I challenged a man's spurious behavior by saying, "You can only fool the fools." And his reply was, "Yes, but there are a lot of them."

George WTF Bush apparently has a similar approach.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." -- George W. Bush, joking at a Gridiron Club dinner, Washington, D.C., March 2001

Bush...says he "felt the call" before his inauguration as Texas governor in 1999, as he listened to Methodist pastor Mark Craig preach on Moses' reluctance to lead. It spoke conviction directly to Bush's heart for abrogation of responsibility. Assembling leading pastors at the governor's mansion for a laying-on of hands, he announced the news: "I've heard the call, I believe God wants me to run for president."

...[N]efarious elitists - all too often naively scorned as paper tigers by sensible folk who dismiss conspiracy theories - may have a smile as sweet as sugar and spice, but they also have a nasty snarl and a fearsome bite. The deception that promotes their bid for dominion is the claim that American military dominance over the world is best for everyone, and that this policy - disguised as "democracy" - is endorsed, even directed by God.

...The elite made its first move from the shadows of power to the spotlight when a draft of the Defense Policy Guidance (DPG) on U.S. grand strategy was leaked to the New York Times in 1992. This literal Pax Americana - American Peace - was framed along the same lines as the Pax Romana, and foretold a world in which global U.S. military intervention would become permanent.

Surprised commentators described the policy document as stunning in the clarity and ambition of the new U.S. military vision. The proposed strategy called for U.S. military pre-eminence over Eurasia by preventing the rise of any potentially hostile power. It also established a new policy of pre-emptive action against any state suspected of developing weapons of mass destruction.

...Written more than a decade ago by former Pentagon analysts Paul Wolfowitz, now Deputy Security of Defense, and I. Lewis Libby, now Vice President Cheney's chief-of-staff, this prospective defense strategy has today become the backbone of America's aggressive foreign policy...

...The whispers of Machiavelli that echoed in the halls of the Holy Roman Empire six centuries ago still resonate today: "There is one prince of the present time, whom it is not well to name, who never preaches anything else but peace and good faith, and to both he is most hostile..."

The little prince, his daddy, and his cohort have been at it for a while. Many Americans have been lulled and leashed. Fooled.

Impeach.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.