{"id":219773,"date":"2022-09-19T12:00:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T11:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=219773"},"modified":"2022-09-20T03:15:09","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T02:15:09","slug":"imposed-insanity-royalty-propaganda-and-the-coming-catastrophe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/09\/imposed-insanity-royalty-propaganda-and-the-coming-catastrophe\/","title":{"rendered":"Imposed Insanity \u2013 Royalty, Propaganda and the Coming Catastrophe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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14 Sep 2022 – <\/em>If every single high-profile journalist, politician and priest is currently expressing heartfelt devotion to Britain\u2019s deceased, 96-year-old monarch, it is not because she \u2018served\u2019 her country diligently in doing her \u2018duty\u2019 for 70 years. The powerful interests that determine Britain\u2019s political and media agenda are not sentimentalists; they do not impose \u2018managed democracy\u2019 as a kind of game. Propaganda blitzes are always pragmatic.<\/p>\n

It could hardly be more obvious that earlier propaganda campaigns defining the Iraq war, the Libya war, the Syria war, Jeremy Corbyn, and now NATO\u2019s proxy war in Ukraine, were shaped to serve those same interests.<\/p>\n

It is no accident that damning claims \u2013 many of them simply fabricated \u2013 relentlessly target enemies of state from the front pages of every newspaper, from every TV and touch screen. And it is no accident that corporate editors and journalists are united now in expressing deep affection for the late Queen. When everyone clearly feels obliged to say the same thing, it means they are deferring to a key requirement of elite control.<\/p>\n

This latest blitz should be no surprise, because wherever there is royalty, there is militarism, organised religion, bipartisan political agreement, patriotism and, of course, concentrated wealth. After all, as Peter Oborne reminded<\/a> his readers, the Queen was \u2018head of state; head of the Anglican Church; head of the judiciary; head of the armed forces, head of the Commonwealth; and ultimate fount of honour in the British state\u2019.<\/p>\n

All of these roles rest on a series of interlinked, mutually supportive deceptions. The monarchy roots autocratic rule in esoteric \u2018tradition\u2019 which, lost in the mists of time, presents elite control as \u2018the natural order of things\u2019. Organised religion extends the same illusion to a cosmic King sanctifying His earthly representatives who thus rule by \u2018divine right\u2019. Military power, swathed in the same esoterica, protects this system in the name, not just of the monarch, but of God. Who would dare challenge the will, not just of the King, but of God Himself?<\/p>\n

As Harold Pinter liked to say<\/a>, these deceptions are almost \u2018witty\u2019 in their audacity.<\/p>\n

The new king said<\/a> of his mother:<\/p>\n

\u2018She set an example of selfless duty which, with God\u2019s help and your counsels, I am resolved faithfully to follow.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ideal, endlessly repeated, is not to discover Truth, Happiness and Freedom for ourselves as creative, free-thinking individuals. Rather, it is to reject our personal needs and interests \u2013 rejected as \u2018narrow\u2019 and \u2018selfish\u2019 \u2013 to focus on \u2018service\u2019, on performing a \u2018duty\u2019 pre-defined for us by the mumbo-jumbo of patriotic \u2018tradition\u2019. Tolstoy captured his moment and ours exactly:<\/p>\n

\u2018All these people do what they are doing unconsciously, because they must, all their life being founded upon deceit, and because they know not how to do anything else\u2026 Moreover, being all linked together, they approve and justify one another\u2019s acts \u2013 emperors and kings those of the soldiers, functionaries, and clergymen; and soldiers, functionaries and clergymen the acts of emperors and kings, while the populace, and especially the town populace, seeing nothing comprehensible in what is done by all these men, unwittingly ascribe to them a special, almost a supernatural, significance.\u2019 (Leo Tolstoy, \u2018Writings On Civil Disobedience and Non-Violence,\u2019 New Society, 1987, p.109)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thus, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u2018Her Majesty showed us that when we build our lives on God\u2019s faithfulness, we are on the solid ground of eternity that cannot be shaken.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is indeed nothing comprehensible here. Alas, human folly is such that many of us find these comments all the more impressive for that reason \u2013 we are surely in the presence of truth so profound that it escapes our feeble understanding.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Moment History Stops\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is ironic indeed that a classic feature of the Western propaganda system involves depicting citizens of Official Enemies as having succumbed to a Cult of Personality. We, in the West, are encouraged to scoff at those poor lost souls who glorify leaders with hagiographic portraits and statues; and militarised patriotic festivals and grand commemorative events.<\/p>\n

These countries are identified as belonging<\/em> to their respective heads of state. It\u2019s \u2018Putin\u2019s Russia\u2019, \u2018Xi Jinping\u2019s China\u2019, \u2018Kim Jong-un\u2019s North Korea\u2019, \u2018Gaddafi\u2019s Libya\u2019, \u2018Saddam\u2019s Iraq\u2019.<\/p>\n

The death of Queen Elizabeth II on 8 September was a salient reminder that \u2018our\u2019 propaganda system is a vital cog in the British social machine that upholds elite privilege and domination over the majority of the population.<\/p>\n

BBC News runs continuous livestreams on its channels, its website is draped in black, featuring \u2018news\u2019 stories with titles such as:<\/p>\n