Monday, October 22, 2012

3 Loose Shingles to Blow the Roof off Global Corporate Oligarchy

Organic food, file sharing, and alternative media dealing fatal blows to global corporate oligarchy. 
by Tony Cartalucci 

October 23, 2012 - Sun Tzu, author of the ancient and enduring strategy treatise, "The Art of War," once said:
Military tactics are like unto water; for water in its natural course runs away from high places and hastens downward. So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak. Water shapes its course according to the nature of the ground over which it flows; the soldier works out his victory in relation to the foe whom he is facing.  
Wind, similarly, finds its way into the weakest points of a roof, and no matter how strong, should it find these points, is capable of taking the entire roof off with a good gust. Imagine increasing global awareness of the disparity and injustice purveyed by global corporate oligarchy as a storm, and imagine the roof of this oligarchy's house covered in workers trying to tack down these weakest points. Where are they? Where do they fear the wind blowing hardest?

1. Organic Food: The American Revolution began not to fight for independence from England, but to preserve socioeconomic and political independence already achieved by the colonies, an independence the British attempted to reassert themselves over with new regulations and taxes. For all intents and purposes, the American colonies had developed "full set economies" and were no longer dependent on distant imperial administrators.

In a similar manner, today, technology is enabling local communities the ability to become independent from the corporate monopolized production of food, and as more people join the organic food movement, the more mature and independent local networks become. To reassert its control over these increasingly independent local markets, just like the Imperial British, the corporate oligarchy is attempting to impose rules, regulations, and taxes to stifle this movement. An indication of just how insecure the oligarchy is about the organic food movement, is the inordinate amount of time, money, and effort it puts into trying to discredit and dissuade the population from participating in it.


Image: Conflict of interest? Strange that Stanford University is partnered with agricultural giant Cargill and just so happens to come out with a study that suggests organic food is no better than its big-agri competition. According to Stanford University, Cargill has donated at least 5 million dollars  for the creation of a Center on Food Security and the Environment (FSE). Cargill's website has a page describing its partnership with Stanford which can be found here. Cargill and many others also are listed as donors by Standford University in their 2011 Annual Report (page 38, .pdf).
....

Mega-corporate global genetically modifying poisoner of food, Cargill, was recently exposed as being behind a so-called "Standford study" purporting the negligence of benefits offered by organic foods. The Standford study was touted by the corporate-media in a concerted campaign to double up the "roof" as the winds of change continue to blow.

The discredited Standford study was followed up by a more recent paper put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), covered in MSNBC's article "Organic food no better than conventional for kids, pediatricians say." The same flawed, unconvincing argument made by Cargill-funded Standford researchers was repeated verbatim by AAP, this time, the lie specifically targeting children. Ironically enough, a search for the AAP article revealed another interesting headline from MSNBC titled, "Pesticides in food linked to ADHD in kids."

So despite the attempted hype, it seems organic food, grown locally and free of pesticides and the toxic affects of genetic manipulation (GMO), contains obvious benefits many more honest scientists are recognizing in greater numbers than Cargill, Monsanto, and the fraudulent Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation can counteract with paid-for "studies" and PR campaigns.

Image: The American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a paragon of all that is wrong in the world today, wants you to eat your GMO, somewhat even more disturbing than finding simply Monsanto or Cargill driving pro-GMO propaganda. Neo-eugencists like Jon Entine have a platform to peddle their ideology and support for corporate-monopolized biotechnology because of the backing of influential think-tanks like AEI.
....

More disturbing than perhaps manipulated studies put out by Cargill & Co. through increasingly discredited institutionalized "academia," are modern day eugenicist outfits like the "Genetic Literacy Project" (GLP) run by corporate-financier American Enterprise Institute (AEI) think-tank "fellow," Jon Entine. Entine is a proponent of racial superiority, and uses his background in genetics, as the Anglo-Americans and Nazis similarly used "science," to prove their 20th century eugenicist theories. While racist crackpots like Entine are a dime a dozen, what sets him apart is the substantial funding and backing he receives from the Fortune 500 corporate oligarchy through his AEI ties. 

His GLP site, in addition to repacking Anglo-American-Nazi eugenics, selling "race determines intelligence," Entine is busy bolstering the corporate-monopolized biotechnology industry in articles like, "Malpractice on Dr. Oz: Pop health expert hosts anti-GM food rant; Scientists push back." Of course by "scientists," Entine means Monsanto, Cargill, Bayer, "scientists," who are on par with the intellectual dishonesty of Standford researchers who published their findings regarding organic food without transparently disclosing their ties to Cargill.

GLP represents a team of workers out in the stormy winds of change, desperately trying to tack down the weakest points in the roof of global corporate oligarchy. Just like the American colonies developing their economy beyond dependence on Imperial Britain, global populations are recognizing the benefits and necessity of developing independently of monopolizing big-agriculture. 

To blow the roof off, start with something as simple as visiting and supporting your local farmers' market, planting even just your own fresh herbs on a window sill, boycotting Fortune 500 junk food, and spreading a general awareness of the obvious connection between natural food and human health.

2. File Sharing: Downloading songs, movies, and books for free is deemed "illegal." Then again, so was circumventing the British tea tax. A tyranny that thinks it can hide behind the color of law will simply make living free, and the human progress that engenders independence and self-sufficiency an illegal, criminal act. Dumping tea into the harbor was a revolutionary act, signaling to the Imperial British that the self-serving bindings of their "law" were similarly being dumped with it.

Image: The intellectual property racket does to global human information, what GMO proponents do to the global food supply, poison it, dominate it, monopolize, and monetize it, stifiling our collective well being and progress. Boycott and seek to replace the memberships of all these organizations with local, open source, alternatives. 
....

In reality, if you have bought a CD and then decide to give it to a friend, or sell it second hand, it is well within your right to do so. You have not committed a crime in the realm of common sense, and for now, even in legal terms you have done nothing wrong. Technology simply allows you to give that CD away to millions of people - through file sharing. No physical property is being stolen from the corporations that have sold you that CD, therefore it is not, and never will be theft.

File sharing, and computers in general have given rise to the term "disruptive technology," or technology that disrupts established paradigms. The concept of disruptive technology is not new though. The horseless carriage was a disruptive technology that put traditional carriage makers out of business. Cheaper means of printing have threatened publishers and authors who remain stuck in traditional and very antiquated business models. Imagine the leaps and bounds human progress would never have made if obsolete business models were able to impose their will on humanity through the color of law, and prevent competition from infringing upon their self-proclaimed rights, conveniently contrived and manipulated to meet and defeat any and all new innovations.

File sharing is not stealing. It never was and never will be. No matter how many laws the antiquated media monopolies pass, no matter how many official-sounding agencies and guilds they construct, there is nothing wrong, no theft occurring when people share. The Founding Fathers dumped tea into the harbor. Modern day revolutionaries share files.

If the risk of file sharing seems too great, there are other things you can do that are just as helpful. This includes simply innovating and supporting new ways of creating, sharing, and profiting from all forms of media, competing with, and ultimately replacing traditional corporate media business models. Already, with the Internet, small independent movies, music, and art of all kinds have flourished and have proven there is creativity and profit beyond the boundaries of legally protected "intellectual property." Open source is a concept that is gaining momentum and disrupting legal paradigms just as technology is disrupting economic paradigms.

By supporting open source alternative media, in the realm of software, music, movies, and now even hardware, you are doing the next best thing to file sharing - a modern equivalent of flaunting the laws of a tired imperial captor.

3. Alternative Media: A death of a thousand cuts. That is what the corporate media is suffering. For every viewer disgusted with biased, dishonest, clearly corporate-financier motivated propaganda that decides to turn off the TV and begin a blog, website, radio show, or local movement, a tiny, but permanent cut is made. A single blog may seem insignificant - especially if it only reposts news an individual finds more honest and congruent with reality than what is seen on network TV. But collectively, this has had a huge impact.

10 years ago lies that would go unquestioned have now sparked immediate and widespread backlash. The example above, regarding the Cargill-funded Standford study, received immediate skepticism, scrutiny and eventually condemnation.


Image: The cover of Cass Sunstein's "Conspiracy Theories" paper, which details strategies for overcoming opposing views that contradict establishment talking points. Amongst these strategies includes hiring people to actively infiltrate segments of society that hold alternative views and introduce "informational diversity" to lure them back into mainstream paradigms. Classic examples of cognitive infiltration can be seen behind the "left" Kony 2012 scam, and "right" Glenn Beck, and WorldNetDaily projects. 
....


Just like with organic food and disruptive technology, measures have been formulated to deal with a burgeoning alternative media. Cass Sunstein's "Conspiracy Theories" paper describes potential means of infiltrating and co-opting paradigms that have drifted away from the mainstream. And while with cognitive infiltrators and faux-alternative outfits created by the corporate oligarchy to manage this backlash do occasionally make inroads - they usually don't for long. The real alternative media eventually finds them, exposes them, and neutralizes their toxic effects.

Making a blog is free, maintaining it with weekly updates can be done easily in the amount of time most people waste watching CNN, Fox News, or BBC. The amount of money people waste on newspapers and magazines emanating from the corporate oligarchy's propaganda machine could just as easily be directed toward donation buttons and online stores found on your favorite alternative media site. It is a small step we can each individually make, that collectively allows us to make great strides forward in reasserting the will of the people over the miniscule membership and self-serving destructive interests of global corporate-financier oligarchy.