From: gardner@convex.com (Steve Gardner)
Subject: Re: legalization in Britian
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 16:43:27 GMT
Organization: Engineering, CONVEX Computer Corp., Richardson, Tx., USA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In article <petersen-291292011746@elvex33.acns.nwu.edu> petersen@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Jim Petersen) writes:
>'The vast majority of Americans' is a highly manipulatible group.
>A government campaign to teach Americans than drugs are good would
>quickly result in 'the vast majority of Americans' believing with
>all their hearts that drugs are good.
	It takes more than government.  All the elites have to be agreed on
	something before it becomes "truth" to be inculcated into the minds
	of the TV watching droids that make up the "vast majority of 
	Americans".  That means the captains of industry, academia, the
	press, and government have to agree before anything becomes 
	unquestioned truth.  This is a very interesting time because I
	believe that the consensus among the elites on the WOSD is 
	beginning to erode, much as it did on the issue of the Vietnam
	war.  We are beginning to see stories critical of the WOSD appear.
	Five years ago the "one holy truth" on drugs was almost never
	challenged.  I rather suspect it has a lot to do with the fact
	that an heir to a large fortune in the L.A. area got blown
	away by narcs on a fishing expedition.  That hit rather close to
	home for many of the moneyed folks that really run this country.
	I think alot of them said "there but for the grace of god go I"
	and began to reconsider the WOSD.  After all if the narcs were
	going to be killing decent folks like them instead of only poor
	folks in rotting ghettos than perhaps things had gotten out of 
	hand. ;-)

	Before anyone flames me  as a conspiracy theorist, let me
	point out that I don't believe that the "elite consensus" theory
	of our history has anything to do with conspiracy per se.  It is just 
	that a rather small group of people have all the influence in our
	society.  When they are in agreement, all the levers of power
	are pushed in the same direction--that includes the press and 
	popular entertainment.  Government and the opinion of the 
	TV robots that make up the majority soon see the one holy truth
	and begin to toe the line.  The interesting thing is that the
	elites have no secret cabal with government.  Its just that,
	for the elite, democracy works.  This is not an uncommon situation
	in the world.  In situations like South Africa it is easier to see
	because all the elites are one color and all the non-elites another
	color.  In our society it isn't necessarily written on ones 
	epidermis which class you belong to but your influence on the
	levers of democracy definitely varies according to who you are.

	By the way, there is no hope of curing this problem and restoring
	democracy (if it ever really existed in America) until the TV robots
	are capable of reading and educating themselves and learning to 
	think critically.  Heretofore they have been fat and happy enough
	to see no need for change.  Now that the country is in a shambles
	we have a slim hope of makeing people see how the nation works.
	Sadly, many people will just reject the current set of people who
	think for them and just pick up another set (e.g. Pat Robertson).
	That is how, nice civilized places like Germany in the 30s became
	slaughterhouses.  I hope America's fate is different but I don't see
	how it can be with so many people willing to have other people
	think for them.  The search for scapegoats instead of problems to
	solve *rationally* is alive and well in America.  Just look at how
	people let ersatz ministers and modern day pharisees like Pat 
	Robertson tell them how to think and worse yet vote.  Its scary how 
	many people believe that if we "just get tough on crime", "discourage 
	drug use",re-institute Christian prayers in the schools, persecute 
	homosexuals, and "become a nation under god" that everything will 
	get rosy again.  
Newsgroups: alt.drugs