They Live, We Sleep: A Dictatorship Disguised as
a Democracy
John W Whitehead
| August 13, 2015 5
Comments
Ruled by an oligarchy
disguised as a democracy on our way towards fascism
“You
see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for one this
fall. You think they’re people just like you. You're wrong. Dead wrong.”—They Live
There’s the world we
see (or are made to see) and then there’s the one we sense (and occasionally
catch a glimpse of), the latter of which is a far cry from the
propaganda-driven reality manufactured by the government and its corporate
sponsors, including the media.
Indeed, what most Americans perceive as
life in America—privileged, progressive and free—is a far cry from reality,
where economic inequality is growing, real agendas and real power are buried
beneath layers of Orwellian doublespeak and corporate obfuscation, and
“freedom,” such that it is, is meted out in small, legalistic doses by militarized
police armed to the teeth.
All is not as it seems.
This is the premise of John
Carpenter’s film They Live (1988), in which two migrant workers discover
that the world’s population is actually being controlled and exploited by
aliens working in partnership with an oligarchic elite. All the while, the
populace—blissfully unaware of the real agenda at work in their lives—has been
lulled into complacency, indoctrinated into compliance, bombarded with media
distractions, and hypnotized by subliminal messages beamed out of television
and various electronic devices, billboards and the like.
It is only when homeless drifter John
Nada (played to the hilt by the late Roddy
Piper) discovers a pair of doctored sunglasses—Hoffman lenses—that Nada
sees what lies beneath the elite’s fabricated reality: control and bondage.
When viewed through the lens of truth,
the elite, who appear human until stripped of their disguises, are shown to be
monsters who have enslaved the citizenry in order to prey on them. Likewise,
billboards blare out hidden, authoritative messages: a bikini-clad woman in one
ad is actually ordering viewers to “MARRY AND REPRODUCE.” Magazine racks scream
“CONSUME” and “OBEY.” A wad of dollar bills in a vendor’s hand proclaims, “THIS
IS YOUR GOD.”
When viewed through Nada’s Hoffman
lenses, some of the other hidden messages being drummed into the people’s
subconscious include: NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT, CONFORM, SUBMIT, STAY ASLEEP,
BUY, WATCH TV, NO IMAGINATION, and DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY.
This indoctrination campaign engineered
by the elite in They Live is painfully familiar to anyone who has studied the
decline of American culture. A citizenry that does not think for themselves,
obeys without question, is submissive, does not challenge authority, does not
think outside the box, and is content to sit back and be entertained is a
citizenry that can be easily controlled.
In this way, the subtle message of They
Live provides an apt analogy of our own distorted vision of life in the
American police state, what philosopher Slavoj Žižek refers to as dictatorship
in democracy, “the invisible order which sustains your apparent freedom.”
We’re being fed a series of carefully
contrived fictions that bear no resemblance to reality. The powers-that-be want
us to feel threatened by forces beyond our control (terrorists, shooters,
bombers).
They want us afraid and dependent on the government and its militarized armies
for our safety and well-being. They want us distrustful of each other, divided
by our prejudices, and at each other’s throats. Most of all, they want us to
continue to march in lockstep with their dictates.
Tune out the government’s attempts to
distract, divert and befuddle us and tune into what’s really going on in this
country, and you’ll run headlong into an unmistakable, unpalatable truth: the
moneyed elite who rule us view us as expendable resources to be used, abused
and discarded.
In fact, a 2014 study conducted by
Princeton and Northwestern University concluded that the
U.S. government does not represent the majority of American citizens.
Instead, the study found that the government is ruled by the rich and powerful,
or the so-called “economic elite.” Moreover, the researchers concluded that
policies enacted by this governmental elite nearly always favor special
interests and lobbying groups.
In other words, we are being ruled
by an oligarchy disguised as a democracy, and arguably on our way towards
fascism—a form of government where private corporate interests rule, money
calls the shots, and the people are seen as mere subjects to be controlled.
Consider this: it is estimated that the
2016 presidential election could cost as much as $5 billion, more than
double what was spent getting Obama re-elected in 2012.
Not only do you have to be rich—or
beholden to the rich—to get elected these days, but getting
elected is also a surefire way to get rich. As CBS News reports, “Once in
office, members of Congress enjoy access to connections and information they
can use to increase their wealth, in ways that are unparalleled in the private
sector. And once politicians leave office, their connections allow them to
profit even further.”
In denouncing this blatant corruption
of America’s political system, former president Jimmy Carter blasted the
process of getting elected—to the White House, governor’s mansion, Congress or
state legislatures—as “unlimited
political bribery… a subversion of our political system as a payoff to
major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favors for
themselves after the election is over.”
Rest assured that when and if fascism
finally takes hold in America, the basic forms of government will remain. As I
point out in my book Battlefield
America: The War on the American People, fascism will appear to be
friendly. The legislators will be in session. There will be elections, and the
news media will continue to cover the entertainment and political trivia.
Consent of the governed, however, will no longer apply. Actual control will
have finally passed to the oligarchic elite controlling the government behind
the scenes.
By creating the illusion that it
preserves democratic traditions, fascism creeps slowly until it consumes the
political system. And in times of “crisis,” expediency is upheld as the central
principle—that is, in order to keep us safe and secure, the government must
militarize the police, strip us of basic constitutional rights, criminalize
virtually every form of behavior, and build enough private prisons to house all
of us nonviolent criminals.
Clearly, we are now ruled by an
oligarchic elite of governmental and corporate interests. We have moved into
“corporatism” (favored
by Benito Mussolini), which is a halfway point on the road to full-blown
fascism.
Vast sectors of the economy, government
and politics are managed by private business concerns, otherwise referred to as
“privatization” by various government politicians. Just study modern government
policies. “Every industry is regulated. Every profession is classified and
organized,” writes economic analyst Jeffrey
Tucker. “Every good or service is taxed. Endless debt accumulation is
preserved. Immense doesn’t begin to describe the bureaucracy. Military
preparedness never stops, and war with some evil foreign foe, remains a daily
prospect.”
In other words, the government in
America today does whatever it wants.
Corporatism is where the few moneyed
interests—not elected by the citizenry—rule over the many. In this way, it is
not a democracy or a republican form of government, which is what the American
government was established to be. It is a top-down form of government and one
which has a terrifying history typified by the developments that occurred in
totalitarian regimes of the past: police states where everyone is watched and
spied on, rounded up for minor infractions by government agents, placed under
police control, and placed in detention (a.k.a. concentration) camps.
For the final hammer of fascism to
fall, it will require the most crucial ingredient: the majority of the people
will have to agree that it’s not only expedient but necessary. But why would a
people agree to such an oppressive regime? The answer is the same in every age:
fear.
Fear is the method most often used by
politicians to increase the power of government. And, as most social
commentators recognize, an atmosphere of fear permeates modern America: fear of
terrorism, fear of the police, fear of our neighbors and so on.
The propaganda of fear has been used
quite effectively by those who want to gain control, and it is working on the
American populace.
Despite the fact that we are 17,600
times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack;
11,000 times more likely to die from an airplane accident than from a terrorist
plot involving an airplane; 1,048 times more likely to die from a car accident
than a terrorist attack, and 8 times
more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist, we have
handed over control of our lives to government officials who treat us as a
means to an end—the source of money and power.
We have allowed ourselves to become
fearful, controlled, pacified zombies.
In this regard, we’re not so different
from the oppressed citizens in They Live. Most everyone keeps their heads down
these days while staring zombie-like into an electronic screen, even when
they’re crossing the street. Families sit in restaurants with their heads down,
separated by their screen devices and unaware of what’s going on around them.
Young people especially seem dominated by the devices they hold in their hands,
oblivious to the fact that they can simply push a button, turn the thing off
and walk away.
Indeed, there is no larger group
activity than that connected with those who watch screens—that is, television,
lap tops, personal computers, cell phones and so on. In fact, a Nielsen study
reports that American screen viewing is at an all-time high. For example, the
average American watches approximately 151 hours of television per month.
The question, of course, is what effect
does such screen consumption have on one’s mind?
Psychologically it is similar
to drug addiction. Researchers found that “almost immediately after turning
on the TV, subjects reported feeling
more relaxed, and because this occurs so quickly and the tension returns so
rapidly after the TV is turned off, people are conditioned to associate TV
viewing with a lack of tension.” Research also shows that regardless of the
programming, viewers’ brain waves slow down, thus transforming them into a more
passive, nonresistant state.
Historically, television has been used
by those in authority to quiet discontent and pacify disruptive people. “Faced
with severe overcrowding and limited budgets for rehabilitation and counseling,
more and more prison officials are using TV to
keep inmates quiet,” according to Newsweek.
Given that the majority of what
Americans watch on television is provided through channels controlled by six
mega corporations, what we watch is now controlled by a corporate elite and, if
that elite needs to foster a particular viewpoint or pacify its viewers, it can
do so on a large scale.
If we’re watching, we’re not doing.
The powers-that-be understand this. As
television journalist Edward R. Murrow warned in a 1958 speech:
We
are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a
built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media
reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that
television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate
us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those
who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.
This brings me back to They Live, in
which the real zombies are not the aliens calling the shots but the populace
who are content to remain controlled.
When all is said and done, the world of
They Live is not so different from our own. As one of the characters points
out, “The poor and the underclass are growing. Racial justice and human rights
are nonexistent. They have created a repressive society and we are their
unwitting accomplices. Their intention to rule rests with the annihilation of
consciousness. We have been lulled into a trance. They have made us indifferent
to ourselves, to others. We are focused only on our own gain.”
We, too, are focused only on our own
pleasures, prejudices and gains. Our poor and underclasses are also growing.
Racial injustice is growing. Human rights is nearly nonexistent. We too have
been lulled into a trance, indifferent to others.
Oblivious to what lies ahead, we’ve
been manipulated into believing that if we continue to consume, obey, and have
faith, things will work out. But that’s never been true of emerging regimes.
And by the time we feel the hammer coming down upon us, it will be too late.
# # # #
John W. Whitehead is an attorney and
author who has written, debated and practiced widely in the area of
constitutional law and human rights. He is the president and spokesperson of the Rutherford Institute. Mr. Whitehead
is the author of numerous books on a variety of legal and social issues,
including A Government of Wolves: The Emerging
American Police State. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Arkansas and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of
Arkansas School of Law, and served as an officer in the United States Army from
1969 to 1971.
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