I woke up this mornin
Took a look in the mirror
Saw somethin starin back at me
I was frozen with fear
Put a hand to my face
When what to my surprise
Five claws scratchin mandibles
And a pair a compound eyes
And I said ah christ
Gotta seek some advice

Went and asked my ol lady
Oh how can this be
She said man you got some nerve right here
To come cryin to me so why don’t you just
Put on your coat and hat right now
And crawl yourself out the door
These gears ain’t gonna grease themselves
And you don’t wanna be poor
So get off the floor

Oh what can I do

You sleep with the rest of the vermin
Vermin

Before you had changed
You knew every boss was a bastard
Bastard

Have you given up
Or did you not know that cockroaches fly
So fuck it

Doombrass

The Gregor Samsa Blues (Pandemo Version)

You see US empire lackeys gushing all the time about how extraordinarily efficient and cost-effective the proxy war in Ukraine is for furthering US interests against Russia, which is funny because they spend the rest of the time talking about how this invasion was "unprovoked" and rending their garments about how horrible it is. The official imperial position is somehow simultaneously (A) "We hate this war and never wanted it," and (B) "This war benefits us tremendously."

Reading by Tim Foley.

The Claim That The Ukraine War Advances US Interests Discredits The Claim That It's "Unprovoked"

The science of modern propaganda arguably got its start over a century ago during World War I when a young Edward Bernays was recruited to help sell the conflict to a reluctant American populace, after which he took what he'd learned on that front and folded it into a lifetime of work on the study of mass-scale psychological manipulation.

That was when propaganda as we know it today came into being, with the scientific method applied to the task of refining techniques for manipulating large-scale human behavior using modern media distribution. Those methods have been in research and development this entire time, and have advanced at least as much as our other instruments of warfare have advanced since World War I.

But that wasn't the beginning of mass-scale psychological manipulation by the powerful. That has been going on since the dawn of civilization.

Reading by Tim Foley.

We've Been Dominated By Narrative Control Since The Dawn Of Civilization

The western alliance has established a policy of continually escalating every time Russia doesn't react forcefully to a previous western escalation, which necessarily means Russia is being actively incentivized to react forcefully to those escalations.

Reading by Tim Foley.

The West Is Incentivizing Russia To Hit Back

Being labeled a Russian propagandist all day every day for criticizing US foreign policy is really weird, but one advantage it comes with is a useful perspective on what people have really been talking about all these years when they warn of the dangers of "Russian propaganda".

Reading by Tim Foley.

They're Not Worried About "Russian Influence", They're Worried About Dissent

Imagine Chinese warships sailing around near California and Hawaii, in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, under the same aggressive "freedom of navigation" exercises that US warships routinely perform in waters near China to the anger of Beijing. Imagine People’s Liberation Army military bases in Central and South America, like the network of military bases the US has set up around China and continues to build up to this very day.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Imagine If China Did To The US What The US Is Doing To China

Humans, interestingly, fall somewhere between tiny-brained hive insects and the larger-brained mammals and birds in terms of self-preservation impulses involving violence, despite having the most advanced brains in the animal kingdom. We have the same instinctive aversions to putting ourselves at risk as those other animals, but that instinct can be overridden by putting a bunch of stories in our heads about how the enemy must be destroyed for this or that reason. A few false narratives about God and glory had humans marching off to fight and die in the Crusades like a bunch of mindless insects.

This is because the capacity for abstract thought that our recently evolved brains have given us can be exploited by clever humans with a predisposition toward manipulation. Because we're often finding our way around in the world by thoughts and language rather than instinct, we can be manipulated into acting far more foolishly than a pigeon or a squirrel or a tiger ever would.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Narrative Is Used To Override Healthy Human Self-Interest

Australian media are awash with reporting on the war-with-China propaganda series by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that I've been writing about for the last few days. Which is really quite extraordinary, because it's not an actual news story.

Reading by Tim Foley.

They Work So Hard To Manufacture Our Consent Because They Absolutely Require It

Watching Keating tear strips off all those war pornographers was so satisfying because it showed Australians the appropriate emotional posture to have toward these disgusting freaks. That's the bare minimum level of contempt they should always be treated with. Australians who don't want a war with China are still unclear about how to respond to this deluge of mass media war propaganda our country is being smashed with, and Keating showed exactly how to respond; he provided a solid model for us all.

Reading by Caitlin Johnstone.

It's Good To Be Mean To War Propagandists

Deciding to enter the military is only morally justifiable if your country's military is used in a moral and just way. There's a weird, power-serving taboo against saying this which is born of the idea that it's more important to protect the feelings of "our troops" than to discourage people from enlisting in the most murderous war machine on earth, but it's true.

Reading by Tim Foley.

It's Immoral To Serve In An Immoral Military

Six years in an embassy
In London town, in a 'land of free'
There's a man denied his right freedom

He published crimes of the wicked few
Now pays the price of being true
Everything is twisted, truth is treason

Now he's broken and beaten
Is this what you call freedom?

National security
Excuse for authority
To suppress, our liberation

Don't we need transparency
To have a real democracy?
Come and join, our demonstration

When did truth become treason?
Is this what you call freedom?

Now another year's over
But they still haven't won
Need to shout from the rooftops
Come on everyone
Julian is a symbol
Of what is to come
Join the real resistance
We can overcome
If we are as one

We will never be beaten
We will fight for our freedom

Freedom #FreeAssange

Readings of all Caitlin Johnstone's articles, usually by her co-writer Tim Foley.

Narrative Is Used To Override Healthy Human Self-Interest

Caitlin Johnstone

Related tracks