Listen to a reading of this article: Have you ever noticed how those who shriek the loudest about tyranny in foreign countries are always the same people calling for the censorship and deplatforming of anyone who criticizes the western empire? It's a ubiquitous mind virus throughout western society. Anyone — and I do mean
"I'd never be allowed to criticize my rulers like that if I lived in a nation like Russia or China" - I don't know about China but regarding Russia this is bullshit and has always been. I can provide tons of links to the radio and TV shows not to mention websites. Of course one'd have to understand Russian.
Now, after the wave of banning and purging of Russian sites and media by the West (sites no longer accessible, radio and tv permissions yanked and booted from the air, youtubes and twittters purged, etc) a bunch of the ones financed by the West were labeled "foreign agents" after similar laws in the US. As a result a few of them disappeared from the radio, for example. But they still have their sites and youtubes.
As to the critique - there is and has been plenty and on so called "federal" channels no less.
Anyone want to be immediately branded a Putin-loving Russian troll? Easy-peasy. Just link to almost any of Caitlin's more interesting articles in any mainstream discussion forum and it will happen immediately.
I think one of the greatest losses I suffered was that of my mother Russian language, perpetually on the tip of my tongue, Ya neSnaya hrashowe.
Growing up abandoned in America was an experience of being hated, often for being Russian and being other things I am told that I am, but I am not , really , despite the epithets.
I want to love America , especially if we can give up needlerape fascism and Arrogant world domination, habits that smell badly.
I have Always loved Russia, there's a lot that should be more welcome instead of the sad attempt to destroy Russia in nUkraine, which started in part thru language ban.
Good luck to ban Russia,Russian, physics, and God. Only in America...
Despite clear guidelines prohibiting namecalling, any critique of the Empire in WaPo threads provokes tons of it. The fixation on Trump is deranged. Everything , and I mean everything is seen in the context of Trump, or elicits the cunning “how’s the weather in Moscow?” I can only imagine what it’s like in the American mini me wannabe.
Amen! Those who go "along with the crowd" are often the most brainwashed, fascistic followers of the status quo. Keep criticizing the powers that be, everyone!
On "Western Values," I hope this fits and is appropriate here:
*NOTE: On many YouTube links, Google has been redirecting people to some nonsense page about browsers. Copying a link exactly as it appears here, and pasting it to your address bar, then hitting ENTER (NOT enter and paste!), increases the odds of getting to the right place. Also, check what you pasted and if anything has been added, such as http, carefully delete that part.
THE UNITED STATES ENJOYS KILLING MOCKINGBIRDS
(…but likes to torture them first)
They do it all the time, but this short piece is about the World’s Most Amazing “Mockingbird”, Julian Assange. Having recently watched To Kill a Mockingbird for a second time in many years, it hit me hard that it’s long past time to tie this famous 1960 movie to the United States’ fear of truth, along with its eagerness to kill those who speak it.
Cliff Notes, available online, gives an intro to the movie and related items…
“To Kill a Mockingbird is primarily a novel about growing up under extraordinary circumstances in the 1930s in the Southern United States. The story covers a span of three years, during which the main characters undergo significant changes. Scout Finch lives with her brother Jem and their father Atticus in the fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama.”
Atticus is a lawyer raising his children on his own, with help from a daytime maid. He is played by Gregory Peck, in an award winning performance. At one point Atticus tells Scout and Jem that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Scout is surprised and wants to know why. Atticus replies, “Mockingbirds only do one thing, and that is to make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens or nest in corncribs. Mockingbirds are innocent creatures who do not hurt anyone and only make the world a better place.”
Mockingbirds are symbolic. They are known for their beautiful songs, with varied repetitions and artful imitations of other birds. Like so many species, these birds are in rapid decline, yet also considered one of the most intelligent species of bird. I fear the same is all too true for bona fide journalists, with Julian Assange heading the list by a wide margin.
Ironically, and by design, the CIA created “Operation Mockingbird” to infiltrate all major media stations and make sure they were “all on the same page, singing the same song.” They succeeded, to say the least, and continue to work relentlessly to infiltrate or censor any media that most humans ever see. Case in point…
With a reminder from Scout, characters like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson come to be seen in the movie as mockingbirds, targeted now for exposing truth no one wants to hear. Tom, a kind and gentle soul, is a hard worker, black, and wrongly accused of raping a white woman. Boo Radley, though out of sight through most of the movie, regularly gives gifts to the children, secretly, in the hollow of an old tree. He also helps them in important ways, as they finally come to realize.
Julian and his WikiLeaks team have exposed rich and powerful people and governments, mass murders, plotting and executing political coups, stealing resources, starting wars for corporations, and a list too long to write about here (see The CIA’s Greatest Hits, by Mark Zepezauer).
Much of Julian’s work in exposing truth shocked the world. The mainstream media freely used it to buttress their income, only to abandon him in the end. But it was his “Collateral Murder” video in particular that blew many minds, including my own.
The video shows a Reuters journalist, Namir Noor-Eldeen and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, whom the Apache operators enthusiastically shoot and murder in a public square in Iraq. What I can only describe as pathological dialogue, between the airborne operators and their supervisor, goes direct to the heart of darkness of the U.S. Empire. Collateral Murder Video, Iraq, 2007 youtube.com/watch?v=HfvFpT-iypw ~17 min. 46 sec. Even now, the last few seconds of the van being blasted away has been cut off, along with two children and several innocent adults.
As the world now knows, we were lied to about “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, and that the real mission of the U.S. was the plunder of the rich oil fields, with untold billions now being made by Americans and others, in a still unfolding tragedy. Do some homework on Blackrock Investing and take a serious look into those behind “9/11,” if you haven’t already. And watch this short video of reporter Chris Hedges, telling why he quit his job at the New York Times was going to fire him for telling truth about the Iraq War: youtube.com›watch?v=j0ETKNHLvEs
I can think of no more fitting summary of the U.S. military-industrial-congressional mindset, for a clear insight into your taxes at work, and the desperate need for “turning swords into ploughshares.” [AKA, to abstain from destructive activities, such as war and violence (symbolized as swords), in favor of peaceful, constructive activities (symbolized by ploughshares, a farming implement). The phrase comes from the Bible. - “We must turn swords into ploughshares so that our children can inherit a peaceful world.”]
If you make it through even half of the collateral murder video, and even if you don’t, I recommend watching or re-watching To Kill a Mockingbird. Black and white, technology of the day, excellent acting and plot, and a credible slice of the 1930s, with societal problems that are on steroids today.
And the all-too-perfect metaphor for what the U.S. and others are doing to Julian Assange for telling truth, and thus to chill and eliminate serious reporting from other journalists, making our First Amendment utterly null and void (the one Amendment that Thomas Jefferson and others have deemed more important than the Constitution itself), and now most likely sentencing Julian to death with 175 years in what is hailed as the worst of American prisons.
Here is a one-hour video, easily skimmed, for a look into the history and importance of this case. youtube.com/watch?v=oVCbuAlSX0Q From UnHerd
My personal conclusion, along with recent words from the President of Mexico who offered asylum to Assange, is that if we don’t free Julian, it will be time to send the Statue of Liberty back to France, rather than make a further mockery of what the United States claims to stand for…
It is only those who have something to lose that will demand censorship. They have some kind of psychological attachment to the lies and misinformation they demand not be questioned. Be it monetary, ego inflation, pure arrogance, control freak syndrome or something else, these people have severe mental disruptions bordering on insanity.
The degree of skill and sophistication in managing propaganda is approaching what programing a robot would be...unconscious, autonomous control. And this "new man" is quite certain about things (he has been told they are true!).
You will know what someone values by how they act. Gone are the days where I am only paying attention to what someone is saying. I am whole body listening: paying attention to how I feel about what they are saying and paying attention to how they are acting.
Another provocative piece from the down-under provocateur. I like how this just gets my mind racing.
The phenomena of hearing one thing as a child, and observing very different things while growing up...this is something most of us can claim for ourselves. It is also the essence of indoctrination.
When a message is repeatedly drummed into a child’s head, the message subsumes the child’s capacity to understand. The child is in a supra-emotional state of being where learning is all about figuring out who to trust, who is there for him...who loves him. This is reinforced by an instinctive reaching for the mother’s breast, the gentle rocking by a caring adult, the hugging when distressed by a diaper dump, the singing of concern from mommy or someone in charge. The child can’t articulate this, but the child is learning - in very black and white terms - that the caretakers matter, and nobody else does.
So as the child grows and acquires knowledge in a more detached state of mind, a less emotion-centric state of mind, the complexity of reality and life and people begin to push through. But this is still a fragile being who is akin to a book being written.
This is when truths are internalized, and this is where hate can be imposed. It is critical to understand that when a trusted adult tells a child what is “true,” it has nothing to do with validity or accuracy or correctness. This is the stage where religion is so successfully imprinted on the little individual. This is also where emotional damage is commonplace.
When all of the trusted adults, the parents and grandparents and older siblings and the people on the television, when all of them “know” this country is the best if all, that is one powerful message that is reinforced at every opportunity. And ditto when there is a similar consensus on who to fear and hate.
So loving parents understand the power they hold, and don’t exploit the child’s emotional fragility, and don’t fill the child’s head with the crap in their own heads, right? Well that is a goal that is only met by a minority of parents. Because all of us can spend our lives learning that much of what we have been given from caring people is what prevents us from seeing our world, correctly contextualizing our world, and changing our world.
It takes great courage to ignore your indoctrination in favor of what you see, what you hear, and what you know to be true.
A thorough assessment of our faults and hypocrisy. The focus on values and principles is spot on something RB is all about. Even in the context of centuries the country I love has always been hypocritical and corrupt. Moments of great progress with routine failure more the rule. Today is different the outright illegal and corrupt behavior of our most important institutions who have sold out to the highest bidder out in the open. My disappointment at our leaders inept and corrupt policies has been one of the biggest concerns in my life. As Thomas Sowell said recently “It doesn’t look good”. Are we just modern day Roman’s oblivious to the growing threat while we spend our time attending the games.
Anytime something as claimed as a 'value' by one religion, country, or system of government, it's obviously not a 'value'. Values are either universal or illusions. These are just smoking mirrors ;-)
The common reaction to a Westerner criticizing the West and defending China or Russia is, "so, why don't you live there?" That is supposed to pass for logic and "right" thinking. And to equate this attitude with the purported attitude of the foreign country you defend, or others universally condemned brings on bemusement and bewilderment. A subtle shaking of the head. So while we lose, and have done for some time now our basic rights as human beings to food and shelter security, to health care, education and jobs, these other "condemnable" countries are providing them. It comes down to semantics and use of language, to false propaganda-induced pride and fetishization of democracy, where flags and anthems, statutory holidays, statues and rituals are substituted for tangible and necessary goods and services. And it works - until it doesn't work anymore. King Charles and Western political leaders are counting on it working forever.
Thank you Caitlin for putting this in such a well made article! Always the truth from you! Every issue you show here line by line is the truth and anyone who can not see that is already to far gone because "You Can't Fix Stupid"! While our schooling has some differences, (as I was never once told anything about the Oligarchs while in school) our experience seems to be the same. I was brought up to be a "Good Christian" and to be a "Patriot" (which seems to mean be a good soldier and don't rock the boat now looking back). So after growing up with an older brother who questioned everything I learned to start filtering out the bullshit. And now here we are and the scary part of this whole nightmare is THERE ARE TOO FEW OF US! I love your work, I see the comments and I see the numbers of us visiting each time you post and I despair! Between you and Johnathan Cook I do not see even a glint of hope because the numbers just don't come close to reaching enough "Aware" people. I try to get the few people I know (because I maybe am still delusional!) to see the pure quality of truth in what you write but this doesn't seem to work either. At the end of the day I am back to believing "You Can't Fix Stupid" and we are all headed down the drain faster and faster.
The elite don't mistake the value in "western values" for something valuable in itself. They are mantras created to be chanted by the masses to overcome the cognitive dissonance of living with tendency of the rate of profit to fall which requires more and more abstractive behavior to overcome. Now that they have other opiates, they are publicly dispensing with the pretense. Away with the smoke from the thurible, Away with murmured confessors ignorant of their real crimes, Away with a congregation ready to do battle for the one true faith; machines are better followers. It is only old habit that keeps the chanting going while they have us lubricate the chute to the pits.
"I'd never be allowed to criticize my rulers like that if I lived in a nation like Russia or China" - I don't know about China but regarding Russia this is bullshit and has always been. I can provide tons of links to the radio and TV shows not to mention websites. Of course one'd have to understand Russian.
Now, after the wave of banning and purging of Russian sites and media by the West (sites no longer accessible, radio and tv permissions yanked and booted from the air, youtubes and twittters purged, etc) a bunch of the ones financed by the West were labeled "foreign agents" after similar laws in the US. As a result a few of them disappeared from the radio, for example. But they still have their sites and youtubes.
As to the critique - there is and has been plenty and on so called "federal" channels no less.
Anyone want to be immediately branded a Putin-loving Russian troll? Easy-peasy. Just link to almost any of Caitlin's more interesting articles in any mainstream discussion forum and it will happen immediately.
When asked what he thought of Western civilization, did not M.K. Gandhi reply that it would be a good idea?
Yes, the quote may be apocryphal.
I think one of the greatest losses I suffered was that of my mother Russian language, perpetually on the tip of my tongue, Ya neSnaya hrashowe.
Growing up abandoned in America was an experience of being hated, often for being Russian and being other things I am told that I am, but I am not , really , despite the epithets.
I want to love America , especially if we can give up needlerape fascism and Arrogant world domination, habits that smell badly.
I have Always loved Russia, there's a lot that should be more welcome instead of the sad attempt to destroy Russia in nUkraine, which started in part thru language ban.
Good luck to ban Russia,Russian, physics, and God. Only in America...
Despite clear guidelines prohibiting namecalling, any critique of the Empire in WaPo threads provokes tons of it. The fixation on Trump is deranged. Everything , and I mean everything is seen in the context of Trump, or elicits the cunning “how’s the weather in Moscow?” I can only imagine what it’s like in the American mini me wannabe.
Amen! Those who go "along with the crowd" are often the most brainwashed, fascistic followers of the status quo. Keep criticizing the powers that be, everyone!
On "Western Values," I hope this fits and is appropriate here:
*NOTE: On many YouTube links, Google has been redirecting people to some nonsense page about browsers. Copying a link exactly as it appears here, and pasting it to your address bar, then hitting ENTER (NOT enter and paste!), increases the odds of getting to the right place. Also, check what you pasted and if anything has been added, such as http, carefully delete that part.
THE UNITED STATES ENJOYS KILLING MOCKINGBIRDS
(…but likes to torture them first)
They do it all the time, but this short piece is about the World’s Most Amazing “Mockingbird”, Julian Assange. Having recently watched To Kill a Mockingbird for a second time in many years, it hit me hard that it’s long past time to tie this famous 1960 movie to the United States’ fear of truth, along with its eagerness to kill those who speak it.
Cliff Notes, available online, gives an intro to the movie and related items…
“To Kill a Mockingbird is primarily a novel about growing up under extraordinary circumstances in the 1930s in the Southern United States. The story covers a span of three years, during which the main characters undergo significant changes. Scout Finch lives with her brother Jem and their father Atticus in the fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama.”
Atticus is a lawyer raising his children on his own, with help from a daytime maid. He is played by Gregory Peck, in an award winning performance. At one point Atticus tells Scout and Jem that it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Scout is surprised and wants to know why. Atticus replies, “Mockingbirds only do one thing, and that is to make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens or nest in corncribs. Mockingbirds are innocent creatures who do not hurt anyone and only make the world a better place.”
Mockingbirds are symbolic. They are known for their beautiful songs, with varied repetitions and artful imitations of other birds. Like so many species, these birds are in rapid decline, yet also considered one of the most intelligent species of bird. I fear the same is all too true for bona fide journalists, with Julian Assange heading the list by a wide margin.
Ironically, and by design, the CIA created “Operation Mockingbird” to infiltrate all major media stations and make sure they were “all on the same page, singing the same song.” They succeeded, to say the least, and continue to work relentlessly to infiltrate or censor any media that most humans ever see. Case in point…
deadspin.com/how-americas-largest-local-tv-owner-turned-its-news-anc-1824233490
With a reminder from Scout, characters like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson come to be seen in the movie as mockingbirds, targeted now for exposing truth no one wants to hear. Tom, a kind and gentle soul, is a hard worker, black, and wrongly accused of raping a white woman. Boo Radley, though out of sight through most of the movie, regularly gives gifts to the children, secretly, in the hollow of an old tree. He also helps them in important ways, as they finally come to realize.
Julian and his WikiLeaks team have exposed rich and powerful people and governments, mass murders, plotting and executing political coups, stealing resources, starting wars for corporations, and a list too long to write about here (see The CIA’s Greatest Hits, by Mark Zepezauer).
Much of Julian’s work in exposing truth shocked the world. The mainstream media freely used it to buttress their income, only to abandon him in the end. But it was his “Collateral Murder” video in particular that blew many minds, including my own.
The video shows a Reuters journalist, Namir Noor-Eldeen and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, whom the Apache operators enthusiastically shoot and murder in a public square in Iraq. What I can only describe as pathological dialogue, between the airborne operators and their supervisor, goes direct to the heart of darkness of the U.S. Empire. Collateral Murder Video, Iraq, 2007 youtube.com/watch?v=HfvFpT-iypw ~17 min. 46 sec. Even now, the last few seconds of the van being blasted away has been cut off, along with two children and several innocent adults.
As the world now knows, we were lied to about “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, and that the real mission of the U.S. was the plunder of the rich oil fields, with untold billions now being made by Americans and others, in a still unfolding tragedy. Do some homework on Blackrock Investing and take a serious look into those behind “9/11,” if you haven’t already. And watch this short video of reporter Chris Hedges, telling why he quit his job at the New York Times was going to fire him for telling truth about the Iraq War: youtube.com›watch?v=j0ETKNHLvEs
I can think of no more fitting summary of the U.S. military-industrial-congressional mindset, for a clear insight into your taxes at work, and the desperate need for “turning swords into ploughshares.” [AKA, to abstain from destructive activities, such as war and violence (symbolized as swords), in favor of peaceful, constructive activities (symbolized by ploughshares, a farming implement). The phrase comes from the Bible. - “We must turn swords into ploughshares so that our children can inherit a peaceful world.”]
If you make it through even half of the collateral murder video, and even if you don’t, I recommend watching or re-watching To Kill a Mockingbird. Black and white, technology of the day, excellent acting and plot, and a credible slice of the 1930s, with societal problems that are on steroids today.
And the all-too-perfect metaphor for what the U.S. and others are doing to Julian Assange for telling truth, and thus to chill and eliminate serious reporting from other journalists, making our First Amendment utterly null and void (the one Amendment that Thomas Jefferson and others have deemed more important than the Constitution itself), and now most likely sentencing Julian to death with 175 years in what is hailed as the worst of American prisons.
Here is a one-hour video, easily skimmed, for a look into the history and importance of this case. youtube.com/watch?v=oVCbuAlSX0Q From UnHerd
My personal conclusion, along with recent words from the President of Mexico who offered asylum to Assange, is that if we don’t free Julian, it will be time to send the Statue of Liberty back to France, rather than make a further mockery of what the United States claims to stand for…
zerohedge.com/markets/mexican-president-intervenes-biden-renews-asylum-offer-julian-assange
Daniel Geery
P.S. Recommended: Eliminate our unhinged so-called “National Security State.”
truthcomestolight.com/the-only-national-security-necessary-is-the-elimination-of-the-national-security-state
It is only those who have something to lose that will demand censorship. They have some kind of psychological attachment to the lies and misinformation they demand not be questioned. Be it monetary, ego inflation, pure arrogance, control freak syndrome or something else, these people have severe mental disruptions bordering on insanity.
The degree of skill and sophistication in managing propaganda is approaching what programing a robot would be...unconscious, autonomous control. And this "new man" is quite certain about things (he has been told they are true!).
You will know what someone values by how they act. Gone are the days where I am only paying attention to what someone is saying. I am whole body listening: paying attention to how I feel about what they are saying and paying attention to how they are acting.
Another provocative piece from the down-under provocateur. I like how this just gets my mind racing.
The phenomena of hearing one thing as a child, and observing very different things while growing up...this is something most of us can claim for ourselves. It is also the essence of indoctrination.
When a message is repeatedly drummed into a child’s head, the message subsumes the child’s capacity to understand. The child is in a supra-emotional state of being where learning is all about figuring out who to trust, who is there for him...who loves him. This is reinforced by an instinctive reaching for the mother’s breast, the gentle rocking by a caring adult, the hugging when distressed by a diaper dump, the singing of concern from mommy or someone in charge. The child can’t articulate this, but the child is learning - in very black and white terms - that the caretakers matter, and nobody else does.
So as the child grows and acquires knowledge in a more detached state of mind, a less emotion-centric state of mind, the complexity of reality and life and people begin to push through. But this is still a fragile being who is akin to a book being written.
This is when truths are internalized, and this is where hate can be imposed. It is critical to understand that when a trusted adult tells a child what is “true,” it has nothing to do with validity or accuracy or correctness. This is the stage where religion is so successfully imprinted on the little individual. This is also where emotional damage is commonplace.
When all of the trusted adults, the parents and grandparents and older siblings and the people on the television, when all of them “know” this country is the best if all, that is one powerful message that is reinforced at every opportunity. And ditto when there is a similar consensus on who to fear and hate.
So loving parents understand the power they hold, and don’t exploit the child’s emotional fragility, and don’t fill the child’s head with the crap in their own heads, right? Well that is a goal that is only met by a minority of parents. Because all of us can spend our lives learning that much of what we have been given from caring people is what prevents us from seeing our world, correctly contextualizing our world, and changing our world.
It takes great courage to ignore your indoctrination in favor of what you see, what you hear, and what you know to be true.
Thanks, Caitlin for another loving nudge.
A thorough assessment of our faults and hypocrisy. The focus on values and principles is spot on something RB is all about. Even in the context of centuries the country I love has always been hypocritical and corrupt. Moments of great progress with routine failure more the rule. Today is different the outright illegal and corrupt behavior of our most important institutions who have sold out to the highest bidder out in the open. My disappointment at our leaders inept and corrupt policies has been one of the biggest concerns in my life. As Thomas Sowell said recently “It doesn’t look good”. Are we just modern day Roman’s oblivious to the growing threat while we spend our time attending the games.
Anytime something as claimed as a 'value' by one religion, country, or system of government, it's obviously not a 'value'. Values are either universal or illusions. These are just smoking mirrors ;-)
The common reaction to a Westerner criticizing the West and defending China or Russia is, "so, why don't you live there?" That is supposed to pass for logic and "right" thinking. And to equate this attitude with the purported attitude of the foreign country you defend, or others universally condemned brings on bemusement and bewilderment. A subtle shaking of the head. So while we lose, and have done for some time now our basic rights as human beings to food and shelter security, to health care, education and jobs, these other "condemnable" countries are providing them. It comes down to semantics and use of language, to false propaganda-induced pride and fetishization of democracy, where flags and anthems, statutory holidays, statues and rituals are substituted for tangible and necessary goods and services. And it works - until it doesn't work anymore. King Charles and Western political leaders are counting on it working forever.
Thank you Caitlin for putting this in such a well made article! Always the truth from you! Every issue you show here line by line is the truth and anyone who can not see that is already to far gone because "You Can't Fix Stupid"! While our schooling has some differences, (as I was never once told anything about the Oligarchs while in school) our experience seems to be the same. I was brought up to be a "Good Christian" and to be a "Patriot" (which seems to mean be a good soldier and don't rock the boat now looking back). So after growing up with an older brother who questioned everything I learned to start filtering out the bullshit. And now here we are and the scary part of this whole nightmare is THERE ARE TOO FEW OF US! I love your work, I see the comments and I see the numbers of us visiting each time you post and I despair! Between you and Johnathan Cook I do not see even a glint of hope because the numbers just don't come close to reaching enough "Aware" people. I try to get the few people I know (because I maybe am still delusional!) to see the pure quality of truth in what you write but this doesn't seem to work either. At the end of the day I am back to believing "You Can't Fix Stupid" and we are all headed down the drain faster and faster.
The elite don't mistake the value in "western values" for something valuable in itself. They are mantras created to be chanted by the masses to overcome the cognitive dissonance of living with tendency of the rate of profit to fall which requires more and more abstractive behavior to overcome. Now that they have other opiates, they are publicly dispensing with the pretense. Away with the smoke from the thurible, Away with murmured confessors ignorant of their real crimes, Away with a congregation ready to do battle for the one true faith; machines are better followers. It is only old habit that keeps the chanting going while they have us lubricate the chute to the pits.