Why America is about Control/Conformity, not Truth/Freedom

[Winston]

Behold, this is my greatest essay yet! Hope you all like it.


The Big Lie: Why America is all about Control and Conformity, not Truth or Freedom

http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page31b.htm

[gsjackson]

Since you write in the tradition of Alexis de Tocqueville, Winston, at some point you should read Democracy in America, which is still, 175 years later, the most insightful book ever written about the U.S. Also worthwhile is Tocqueville in America by Pierson, which is a compilation of Tocq's letters home to France while he traveled around the U.S.

Tocqueville anticipated a lot of your points, and specifically noted the irony that there is less real freedom of speech here than in other countries because majority opinion functions as such a strict censor. Many, many other points relevant to the social pathologies discussed on this website. All the social critics writing in the 1950s-1970s, talking about a "culture of narcissism," a culture of conformity, and such, understood themselves to be explicating Tocqueville's views.

[momopi]

1) You live to work, are a workaholic, and tie your identity to your job, organization and culture. "You are what you do" in other words. And you have no identity outside of that. You are a happy slave who is glad to give your life to the economy in corporate servitude. This gives you purpose and contentment. It is what you strive and live for. After all, everyone is striving for that, so you'd better too!

2) You consume endless junk with your hard earned money, junk that you don't need which advertisers sell you, in order to fill the emptiness within you, and enjoy your life, while helping out your economy at the same time. So, you seek your pleasure in consumerism, both for your benefit and in your patriotic duty to help the US economy. Consumption is your key to happiness, not a healthy sense of self, spirituality or social connection.

No one, other than yourself, chooses your own lifestyle.



http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/




http://www.backwoodshome.com/




http://internationalliving.com/

[FreeYourMind]

The U.S. has become a totalitarian country, but it's still difficult for aware and semi-aware people to agree on just what kind of tyranny it is. The U.S. power structure is called a lot of different things -- fascist, corporatist, communist, socialist, etc. It's really a combination of more than one agenda, Cultural Marxist socially but also a globe-straddling imperial empire servile to giant multinational corporations and to Zionism and dedicated to forcing Cultural Marxism and mindless, deracinated consumerism on the rest of the world. Many people I have met from Eastern Europe who moved to the U.S. recognize the similarities to communism, the kind of system of control and paranoia they thought they were getting away from.

The media and advanced technology have turned the U.S. into a giant laboratory of various forms of control, manipulation and exploitation. Soulless, conformist, fearful consumer units with no historical memory is the template for Americans crafted over the past 40 years, and from there for people everywhere as the same afflictions are obvious in Canada and Britain and are gaining strength in much of Western Europe and other countries. It's so sad to see what America has become, and as has been noted here and on other sites the vast majority of Americans don't have a clue what's going on. Most of them could appear in a sequel to the movie Idiocracy without having to do any acting.

[Winston]

Since you write in the tradition of Alexis de Tocqueville, Winston, at some point you should read Democracy in America, which is still, 175 years later, the most insightful book ever written about the U.S. Also worthwhile is Tocqueville in America by Pierson, which is a compilation of Tocq's letters home to France while he traveled around the U.S.

Tocqueville anticipated a lot of your points, and specifically noted the irony that there is less real freedom of speech here than in other countries because majority opinion functions as such a strict censor. Many, many other points relevant to the social pathologies discussed on this website. All the social critics writing in the 1950s-1970s, talking about a "culture of narcissism," a culture of conformity, and such, understood themselves to be explicating Tocqueville's views.

Are you talking about these essays here?

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/toc_indx.html

If so, I don't see how they are like mine. They seem different. He even seems to imply that he believes that there is democracy in America, when technically there never was democracy, not even from the beginning. The word "democracy" does not appear in the Declaration of Independence even. America was set up as a Republic. The Founding Fathers did not even believe in it.

See my other essay about that here:
http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page31a.htm

So what is Tocqueville talking about?

[Winston]

I just added some new paragraphs to this essay, comparing conformity in America to the "Borg Collective":

America is one of the most mind controlled countries on the planet. Hypocritically, Americans chant with religious fervor about how they have freedom and democracy, while at the same time ACT like the "Borg Collective" from Star Trek that tries to assimilate everyone, both domestic and abroad. It's the ultimate lie and as they say "Actions speak louder than words". So we will look at the "actions" of control and conformity in America as opposed to the false rhetoric that the automaton populace chant as their religion.

We all need to WAKE UP and realize that we are living in the "Borg Collective", not in the "land of the free", and stop chanting and raving about how free and democractic we are like mindless automatons. Only when the spell over your mind is broken, will you be truly free. And that begins with your mind. The rest will flow from there. Once you are attuned to the truth, more truth will come as your consciousness seeks it out.

[momopi]

Just because you don't like baseball, doesn't mean everyone else who enjoys playing baseball "should" think baseball sucks. But if you're in a baseball stadium full of baseball fans, and you hate the sport, then the solution is to follow the green exit sign.

[gsjackson]

Since you write in the tradition of Alexis de Tocqueville, Winston, at some point you should read Democracy in America, which is still, 175 years later, the most insightful book ever written about the U.S. Also worthwhile is Tocqueville in America by Pierson, which is a compilation of Tocq's letters home to France while he traveled around the U.S.

Tocqueville anticipated a lot of your points, and specifically noted the irony that there is less real freedom of speech here than in other countries because majority opinion functions as such a strict censor. Many, many other points relevant to the social pathologies discussed on this website. All the social critics writing in the 1950s-1970s, talking about a "culture of narcissism," a culture of conformity, and such, understood themselves to be explicating Tocqueville's views.

Are you talking about these essays here?

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/toc_indx.html

If so, I don't see how they are like mine. They seem different. He even seems to imply that he believes that there is democracy in America, when technically there never was democracy, not even from the beginning. The word "democracy" does not appear in the Declaration of Independence even. America was set up as a Republic. The Founding Fathers did not even believe in it.

See my other essay about that here:
http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page31a.htm

So what is Tocqueville talking about?

Most of the essays relevant to your themes are in volume 2, section 2. In addition to conformity, suppression of thought and free speech, he talks about how American individualism could well turn into an odious "egoism," once Americans lose the capacity to determine "self interest rightly understood" (meaning the ability to see one's own self interest bound together with the interests of others). His thoughts on the American political system don't hold up so well, as the U.S. has since turned into a completely corrupt oligarchy, with public policy sold to the highest bidder at every level of government.

Like a lot of people, you are much too fond of the distinction between democracy and republicanism. They are not alternative forms of government, republicanism is a type of democracy -- which means government by the people (as opposed to a monarchy, oligarchy, etc.) -- in which the people govern through their elected representatives.

[Nate]

Winston-

Sure there is a lot of that...and you can see it all around you if you choose- just stand by the rear end of the horse and see what you get, and what you get is what you see.

However, the uniformity you describe is not nearly as monolithic as you portray. You paint the whole USA as seen through the lense of your own bitter experiences. It is hardly so simple and your essay is very simplistic.

You have way too much time on your hands and perhaps need to go back to see your Girlfriend for a few nights...beyond the wise-ass remark...it might be true.

Your own life abroad has hardly been a bed of roses it seems. What satisfying and lasting relationship can you point to? And what else is to be proved, that a few bucks can buy just about ANYBODY a somewhat good looking hooker anywhere in the planet? Beyond the local whorehouse, what place for you has proved to be happier abroad? If there is such a place for you, why don't you go there and build a life for yourself there?

Your actual experience abroad seems to fall far short of what you generally portray, and far short of what a few posters on the forum who actually live abroad experience, myself included.

Just about anyone I know with a decent life overseas is far too busy living and enjoying life to have time to crank out a production of anti-American screeds whatever their merit.

Whatever you are posing as "Happier Abroad", what comes through is bitter discontent.
I think you have a lot of issues challenging you, and stand as living proof that just moving your
location will not fix them.

nate

[miss_conduct]

A+ post. All Americans are about is "keeping up with the Joneses"....

Look around you...cookie cutter houses that looked stamped out of a rubber stamp....

Look all over Europe or the Soviet Union: towering, majestic cathedrals, magnificent buildings, historic landmarks....

Look at America: Wal Mart, McDonalds, check cashing places, shopping malls.

Europe and the rest of the world: Pagodas, onion dome cathedrals, castles, breathtaking scenery.

I have spoken. Hope everyone is having a great day!

[Winston]

Nate,
Don't project your bitterness onto me. You are attacking the messenger rather than the message, and changing the topic. Shame on you.

I'll be the judge of whether I'm happy or not, not you.

You are overstepping in your accusations.

My photo collage speaks for itself.

I could be pleasure seeking and self seeking, like you, but I'm not like that. I'm an awakener. That's my life path, awakening people to truth.

If I was selfish and only cared for my own happiness, I wouldn't have even created this site. I'd be living in anonymity like most expats. It's my PASSION of sharing truth that has created this site and inspired others.

You miss that big picture in your negative condescending remarks.

If you think my essay has errors, then point them out, logically. Of course nothing I say is absolute, but they are true in large degrees.

Anyway, you are just ranting about nothing and contributing nothing in that post of yours. It is YOU who is wasting time writing that, not me. Enlightening minds and freeing them is not wasting time. It is a soul purpose that you don't see.

PS - FYI Nate, I do not sit around and think up these essays consciously. They come to me during sleep. Upon awakening, I already know what my next essay will be about and the main points it will cover. You could say that something is inspiring me through my right brain, which receives and pieces together the message at night while I'm asleep. In other words, I'm almost on automatic pilot when I do this.

[Winston]

A+ post. All Americans are about is "keeping up with the Joneses"....

Look around you...cookie cutter houses that looked stamped out of a rubber stamp....

Look all over Europe or the Soviet Union: towering, majestic cathedrals, magnificent buildings, historic landmarks....

Look at America: Wal Mart, McDonalds, check cashing places, shopping malls.

Europe and the rest of the world: Pagodas, onion dome cathedrals, castles, breathtaking scenery.

I have spoken. Hope everyone is having a great day!

Very well put miss conduct. I love the architecture of European countries as well. I show the comparison you talk about on this page. Have you seen it?

http://www.happierabroad.com/ebook/Page3.htm

[momopi]

However, the uniformity you describe is not nearly as monolithic as you portray. You paint the whole USA as seen through the lense of your own bitter experiences. It is hardly so simple and your essay is very simplistic.
<snip>
Whatever you are posing as "Happier Abroad", what comes through is bitter discontent.
I think you have a lot of issues challenging you, and stand as living proof that just moving your
location will not fix them.

He is entitled to his bitter opinions, just as a popular college jock laying American hotties at school every weekend is entitled to his happy ones.

America is a great country to many, many people, because a Foxconn employee in China has little chance of being anything other than a low-wage assembly line worker, versus a hard-working immigrant to the US can build a middle-class lifestyle. Those who are already from middle-class (or better) backgrounds can take it for granted and be entitled to sit around on a full stomach dreaming of all kinds of inequalities.

Coming from a blue-collar family background, I know exactly what America is. It's a country that welcomed my poor family, gave us citizenship, gave me free education to high school, asked for no more than paying the same taxes as everyone else, and provided all the opportunities for us to work hard, become home owners, get a college degree, open our own business, and enjoy a moderately well off lifestyle without poverty and hunger.

For every 1 million Americans that wants to ditch the country, there's 10 million more in Mexico, China, Philippines, etc. who'd be happy to come here. America has no shortage of willing immigrants who'd be happy to chant "God Bless American and no place else!" So if you're not happy here, by all means, vote with your feet! There's plenty more people in the world who'd be happy to move to America! Heck, even if you like America, ya'll should at least travel and see the world anyway. I tell all my cousins to do study abroad. Opportunities exist around the globe. If someone wants to be bitter, let them be. The world is your oyster, eat it with cocktail sauce.






Got these? Use 'em!

[Think Different]

"Most of them could appear in a sequel to the movie Idiocracy without having to do any acting."

One of the best movies in the last 10 years! So many social commentaries on so many levels, if only people were paying attention. Unfortunately, the people who may have watched it were the same ones who liked the "Jackass" movies, and probably saw no deeper than the first level. It's exactly those people that Idiocracy was targeting.

[Think Different]

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/


Reminds me of the little "dachas" in Eastern Europe. Awesome idea, and way to make a statement! Kudos to this kid!