By John W. Whitehead
President, The Rutherford Institute
“As I look at America today, I am not afraid to say that I am afraid.” – Bertram Gross, Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America
Ominous developments in America have been a long time coming, in part precipitated by “we the people” – a citizenry that has been asleep at the wheel for too long. And while there have been wake-up calls, we have failed to heed the warnings.
Just consider the state of our nation:
We’re encased in what some are calling an electronic concentration camp. The government continues to amass data files on more and more Americans. Everywhere we go, we are watched: at the banks, at the grocery store, at the mall, crossing the street. This loss of privacy is symptomatic of the growing surveillance being carried out on average Americans. Such surveillance gradually poisons the soul of a nation, transforming us from one in which we’re presumed innocent until proven guilty to one in which everyone is a suspect and presumed guilty. Thus, the question that must be asked is: can freedom in the United States flourish in an age when the physical movements, individual purchases, conversations and meetings of every citizen are under constant surveillance by private companies and government agencies?
We are metamorphosing into a police state. Governmental tentacles now invade virtually every facet of our lives, with agents of the government listening in on our telephone calls and reading our emails. Technology, which has developed at a rapid pace, offers those in power more invasive, awesome tools than ever before. Fusion centers – data collecting agencies spread throughout the country, aided by the National Security Agency – constantly monitor our communications, everything from our internet activity and web searches to text messages, phone calls and emails. This data is then fed to government agencies, which are now interconnected – the CIA to the FBI, the FBI to local police – a relationship which will make a transition to martial law that much easier. We may very well be one terrorist attack away from seeing armed forces on our streets – and the American people may not put up much resistance. According to a recent study, a greater percentage of Americans are now willing to sacrifice their civil liberties in order to feel safer in the wake of the failed crotch bomber’s attack on Christmas Day.
We are plagued by a faltering economy and a monstrous financial deficit that threatens to bankrupt us. Our national debt is more than $12 trillion (which translates to more than $110,000 per taxpayer), and is expected to nearly double to $20 trillion by 2015. The unemployment rate is over 10% and growing, with more than 15 million Americans out of work and many more forced to subsist on low-paying or part-time jobs. The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes soared by nearly 15% in the first half of last year alone. The number of children living in poverty is on the rise (18% in 2007). As history illustrates, authoritarian regimes assume more and more power in troubled financial times.
Our representatives in the White House and Congress bear little resemblance to those they have been elected to represent. Many of our politicians live like kings. Chauffeured around in limousines, flying in private jets and eating gourmet meals, all paid for by the American taxpayer, they are far removed from those they represent. What’s more, they continue to spend money we don’t have on pork-laden stimulus packages while running up a huge deficit and leaving the American taxpayers to foot the bill. And while our representatives may engage in a show of partisan bickering, the Washington elite – that is, the President and Congress – moves forward with whatever it wants, paying little heed to the will of the people.
We are embroiled in global wars against enemies that seem to attack from nowhere. Our armed forces are pushed to their limit, spread around the globe and under constant fire. The amount of money spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is nearing $1 trillion and is estimated to total somewhere in the vicinity of $3 trillion before it’s all over. That does not take into account the ravaged countries that we occupy, the thousands of innocent civilians killed (including women and children), or the thousands of American soldiers who have been killed or irreparably injured or who are committing suicide at an alarming rate. Nor does it take into account the families of the 1.8 million Americans who have served or are currently serving tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
America’s place in the world is also undergoing a drastic shift, with China slated to emerge as the top economy over the next decade. Given the extent to which we are financially beholden to China, their influence over how our government carries out its affairs, as well as how it deals with its citizens, cannot be discounted. As of July 2009, China owned $800.5 billion of our debt – that’s 45% of our total (foreign) debt – making them the largest foreign holder of U.S. foreign debt. Little wonder, then, that the Obama administration has kowtowed to China, hesitant to overtly challenge them on critical issues such as human rights. The most recent example of this can be seen in the Obama administration’s initial reluctance to confront the Chinese government over its reported cyberattacks on Google and other American technology companies.
As national borders dissolve in the face of spreading globalization, the likelihood increases that our Constitution, which is the supreme law of America, will be subverted in favor of international laws. What that means is that our Constitution will come increasingly under attack.
The corporate media, increasingly acting as a mouthpiece for governmental propaganda, no longer serves a primary function as watchdogs, guarding against encroachments of our rights. Instead, much of the mainstream media has given itself over to mindless, celebrity-driven news, which bodes ill for our country. It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about tabloid news, entertainment news or legitimate news shows, there’s very little difference between them anymore. Unfortunately, most Americans have bought into the notion that whatever the media happens to report is important and relevant. In the process, Americans have largely lost the ability to ask questions and think analytically. Indeed, most citizens have little, if any, knowledge about their rights or how their government even works. For example, a national poll found that less than one percent of adults could name the five freedoms protected in the First Amendment.
Finally, I have never seen a country more spiritually beaten down than the United States. We have lost our moral compass. A growing number of our young people now see no meaning or purpose in life. And we no longer have a sense of right and wrong or a way to hold the government accountable. We have forgotten that the essential premise of the American governmental scheme, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence, is that if the government will not be accountable to the people, then it must certainly be accountable to the “Creator.”
But what if the government is not accountable to the people or the Creator?
As Thomas Jefferson writes in the Declaration, it is then the right of “the People to alter or abolish it” and form a new government.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder
and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at
johnw@rutherford.org. Information about the Institute is available
at www.rutherford.org.
Dear Mr.Wood,
Amen as usual. Re: Police State in America
I live in New York City and once a week I take the subway to Grand Central Station. Right there in the subway are armed police with metal helmuts and rifles!
What is so horrific about this is the complacency of Americans. There they are, dressed in business clothes doing their jobs the best they can, surviving the best they can and at this point, not even noticing this. They seem to be numb and zombie like.
Last week, I walked into my local station at East 59th Street and all of a sudden, there were the police in riot gear and added to this were German shepard dogs. Now I can see grand Central Station, but East 59th Street? If terrorists were to attack, they would have nothing but Bloomingdales department store to blow up.
This is not the America I grew up with. It’s getting more bizzare as we speak.
I have no desire to even listen to Obama tonight. I’ve already got the picture of America today, a one party system masaquerading as a two party system with the privately owned Federal Reserve Bank behind the curtain running the show. If not for you and Mr.Sutton,I would have gone to my grave as a dumbed down American.
God Bless you for all your work on our behalf.
Patricia
Having seen Obama’s State of the Union Speech .….. I am Worried too.
He has Allowed Himself to become the Puppet of the Wall Street & (Private) FEDeral Reserve System. I felt Sorry for Obama last night as I watched the Republican Left Side of the Assembly show Obama so much Disrespect. You could See the Hatred of the Big Business Segment,(The Republicans) on that left side of that Assembly. You could actually See the Hatred Brewing. Who’s was and Is Behind this Hatred ?
Both of the Democrats and the Republicans have been under the Control of the Wall Street Organizations of the CFR and the TC for Generations.
What Wall Street wants Wall Street Gets. Wall Street has in the Last 18 Months nearly Destroyed the United States of America and when We The People Demand Accountability that Wall Street Business Section absolutely HATE it that they are Under the Scrutiny of the Entire Country.
The Disrespect and Brewing Hatred at last nights State of the Union was so thick you could cut it with a Knife. I too am Scared as the Super Powerful Wall Streeters Control the FBI,the CIA and the NSA as it is the Rockefeller CFR and TC that are the Recruiting Pool from which these Government Spy Agencies recruits from. This means that the Banking Sector on Wall Street (Totally Control) this Country
and if these Wall Streeters get too upset they are Secret Killers of Freedom and anyone who wants to Truly Clean Up Government.
Wall Street is so Powerful that they can arrange for the Assassination of a sitting President and make it look like a Racial thing or just a Nut Case situation. Just days before JFK was killed .…. JFK had his horns Locked with Wall Street over the possible Elimination or Reining in of The (Private)Federal Reserve Banking System.
It is Also Wall Street that Hires Army’s of Lobbyist’s to Buy Off and Control the Hill and the White House. This MUST STOP NOW !!!!!!!
The American People need to Come Out Into the Light and End Affiliation with BOTH of the Democrat and Republican Party’s and Replace them with New CLEAN Political Party’s. I know of only ONE Political Party out there that can Turn the USA Around.
The CONSTITUTION PARTY of The United States of America.
Seek Out, Support, Join and Vote for the Constitution Party of The United States of America. Now that is a Revolution worth fighting for and it is the ONLY Way for the Citizens of the USA to WIN and Take Back this Country !
http://www.constitutionparty.com/
http://breakingfreeinamerica.blogspot.com/
I have been afraid since Obama, perhaps a closet Islamist, and more certainly a non-citizen, became a viable candidate for president. The implication of our youth being mesmerized by a sure “progressive”, a 40s code word for communist, was a frightening prelude in of itself.
Everything that we now know of this charlatan was known, by those who cared to look, before he was elected.
BTW, he is not a puppet of Wall Street. He is a puppet of those who control Wall Street. When Obama was 20 something, he went to Pakistan on an Indonesian passport.
Richard
1. There is Those who Control Wall Street.
2.Wall Street itself (INVESTMENT BANKS).
3.The Organizer Tools of the CFR & TC Globalist on behalf of Both of the Above.
4.The News Media Filter Tools.
5.The Enforcement Tools of the FBI, NSA, CIA.
6.The Lobbyist Pimps.
7.The Congressional Political Prostitutes.
It has taken Wall Street and it’s Shadow Government nearly 100 years to Achieve the Creation of the Above Structure to Control the United States of America but NOW the Pieces of this Apparatus are all in Place.
The Only thing left for Wall Street and it’s Shadow Government to do is to Create or Exploit one or more Crisis to TRICK the the Dumb Sheeple American Public to Embrace the Apparatus of The New World Order and it’s One World Global Government and One World Economics.
The Stage is SET. The Only Question is .….. Can we wake up (We The People) to STOP all of these New World Order Creeps.
It is in the Hands of God to either Wake Up the American Sheeple or let us go into Judgment which the Silent Majority, (We The People) Deserve.
Any way you look at it it is going to be a Super Rough Political, Vocational and Economic Ride.
Wall Street will CREATE and Ride the Disaster to Disaster to Disaster Wave after Wave of Crisis Ride to keep the the Democrat and Republican Party’s (In Control) and under the Domination of Wall Street.
We all now live in a Surveillance Society and may well be entering into the Beginnings of a Police State. Hitler would have loved all of this.
Without meaning any disrespect to the author of this piece or the editor, I am getting tired of this sort of thing. On the one hand, educating people about the underlying corruption is always helpful. On the other, for those who have ‘seen the darkness’ for many years, what is also needed, and sorely lacking, are more offerings describing what, if anything, can be done to ameliorate the situation, which is shared in most developed countries (if not all) and which is also a fairly typical one by the norms of world history.
Such norms are, simply put: as a society becomes established over time, the class structure which evolves pretty much always reflects the following: the general population on the one hand and a leadership class on the other which, once established, tends to tighten its grip on current power/influence derived from milking the profit-cream of that society’s general productivity by acting to prevent rivals to its power/influence from overthrowing them.
At this point, the societal momentum tends to stall or reverse, and whether the resultant development leads to anarchy or totalitarianism, the end result is always the same: negative momentum leading to dysfunction/mayhem/murder/famine etc. at which point the whole cycle starts all over again.
In days of yore this dynamic was recognised, even though it occurred on far smaller scales population-wise, and the institution of monarchy was developed as a means to
a) consolidate power in the hands of a small locus, ideally and individual who
b) could thus more easily be overthrown if outrageously corrupt but if not
c) could more easily effect checks and balances in order to harmonise the exploitative tendencies of the leadership class (who provide great uplift as well as corruption to any society because they tend to be the most intelligent, ambitious etc.) with the everyday human needs/productivity of the general (lower) classes.
So: we are in a nascent totalitarian phase. Nothing new in that. It’s not looking good. Nothing new in that. The storylines about ‘freedom’ etc. we have imbibed growing up are being revealed as fallacious. Sad but true. Nothing new in that.
So what to do?
This comment is a call for all the well-informed, intelligent ‘educators’ who have invested much time (and courage) in revealing the cesspit of corruption through which we daily drive to work and live to articulating various examples historically and hypothetically which we could learn from in terms of beginning to craft a way through and out of this mess into something better.
Ashley H
Spoken like a True Blue Blood and Above the Heads of the Common Man or Woman who just want a Better World without all the BS Smoke up the A$$ Vocabulary Haughtiness.
Your Vocabulary is Impressive but Ridiculous. But you already knew that of else you would not have written is such a fashion.
There are many who rule, but there is one ring to rule them all. It is worn by a Rothschild who carries a red shield.
Richard: re the Rothschilds. Until I can read a definitive account of how the original Mayer became so influential so quickly I tend to believe that he and his ilk are more like the Executive Secretary class of more deep-rooted networks. They are the public/outer level of the secret networks in other words. Their functions are essentially managerial rather than those of true leaders. At least that’s how it seems to me looking at the whole thing from the outside.
Larry: apologies for ridiculous and haughty vocabulary. Mood du jour I guess.
Yes Ashley Dear.
Forgive my Attitude Today. I will work harder on that.
Ashley, for there to be a superior authority over the Rothschilds, the only reasonable alternative that occurs to me is that is a remnant of the Templars, or perhaps the Scottish Rite beyond the 33rd degree. For these possibilities to seek out a Jewish family to serve as an intermediary seems unlikely.
BTW, one source that I remember indicated that there are may be as many Masonic degrees as there are in a circle (360).
Well, obviously I don’t know an am speculating shamelessly. But just looking at the style/manner. If there are well-organised power networks, it does seem that there is a deceptive thread running through the whole approach, one that uses secrets within secrets as ways to buffer and manage power/influence flow. Assuming such secrecy flow is indeed a key element in the operating dynamic, then it is more than likely that the inner secret groups have not been revealed, that they only operate via front groups.
I read somewhere a while back that the head of the Krupps family, for example, a few decades ago, was worth several trillions (?), whatever the amount at that time more than most developed countries. Did they lose it all during the war? I doubt it. Where is it all, what is it doing? How many other old family ‘empires’ (and that is a relatively new one) are out there under the radar and how are they using them in the global power/influence matrix? Certainly one rarely — if ever — hears about what they are doing.
Ashley, the Krupps did not lose it all. There is a book that will answer whatever questions you may have. It’s “The Rise of the Forth Reich” by Jim Marrs which is carried by Amazon. The National Socialist Workers Party is alive and well, not only in South America, but around the world, in places like the CIA for instance.