It's not a big secret that the CIA got into the drug biz in the '70's. they got into the drug biz for a couple of reasons, maybe more but only one of them concerns me in terms of this essay. Of course they got into the drug biz for the cold hard death dealing cash. But they also got into the drug biz to hi-jack the course of the '60's and the message therein.
When you think of the CIA you probably think of the guys who work in that building across the river from Washington D.C. in the Virgina burbs. You probably think of faceless trenchcoats moving through romantic locations, slipping down alleys and sipping drinks with their opposite numbers- often of the opposite sex... bedable and wet and willing to clamp lamprey-like upon the body by Bond of America's intrepid heroes in the cold.
The reality is quite a bit different. Although you would imagine that these super fly break dancers wear red, white and blue underwear and dream of home and hearth they are really the SWAT teams for corporate intent. Government serves at the pleasure of corporations; at least they do in the West and just as surely in the developed East. Their job is to protect the Yankee dollar and the American Dream as it benefits the minority controlling interests of the American Dream. Concerns about spying and the loss of secrets are secondary. Certainly nobody cared very much about hundreds of Israeli art students wandering the halls of government a few years ago. Certainly the machinations of AIPAC were of no interest. It could be said that on continental turf these are the concerns of the FBI. However, the planning of these things is initiated abroad and in that respect; who cares? Certainly not them.
These days the job of the CIA is to fabricate information that will serve the interests of the corporations that dictate policy to the government.
But... back in the day; speaking of not operating on domestic soil- the CIA was given a job whose purpose was to hi-jack a culture, to polute a culture, to discredit a culture. So the CIA and their comparative numbers in the entertainment business/security end were obliged to flood the counterculture with speed and heroin to offset the LSD mind set that was seeing right through the bullshit and funhouse mirrors. Understanding that the most important and effective voices of the counter culture probably wouldn't take speed, they were also empowered to poison the acid and distribute it widely; anyone remember Altamont?
The music of the '60's got away from the guardians and it set a lot of people free, for a little while. God what a time the music business had reigning that in. For awhile it was clear that the artists were setting the tone and there was far too much joy and freedom just running around. Enter disco and coke. This wasn't an accident.
Boy bands and the Disney crew of Aquilera, Spears and Timberlake among others, along with Rap/Hip-Hop for the darker set was put together as a soundtrack for the coming of fascism intended through the Bush presidencies. It's fascism alright. When the corporations openly rule government policy (Cheney's energy meeting/Enron's assault on California and many other things)that is fascism. If you throw in the fact that Bush has YET to be elected you can pretty much presume the rest.
Constant war and apprehension also help with the control medium of maintaining the population within enforceable parameters. Ecstasy hit the scene. I had the original ecstasy that was being used by the California university system and I have had the ecstasy of today. It's not that complex a chemical and maintaining a standard shouldn't be a problem... but there is very little similarity between the ecstasy of old and the ecstasy of today.
Music molds the moods of the public. If you can give the public mindless bimbo's spouting drivel you can dumb down the populace. If you can control the composition of the drugs you've got a potentially strong grip on the consciousness. Most of the world is into the alcohol thing and that's good from the standpoint of the fascists. Alcohol produces guilt and guilt can be worked.
Along comes Fox Network which, rather than reporting the news, manufactures it. Then, my oh my, we see that all of the other networks are doing the same. But they do it a little different so it looks like they might be reporting but they ain't reporting shit, or should I say they ARE reporting shit. The FCC with the brown Pillsbury Doughboy helped to put control of the airwaves in the hands of a few criminals who all have dinner with each other. So, your news, your music and, of course, your drugs as well are all tailored to give an image of a world that benefits the interests of those who are providing you with the treacle and cotton candy for your distraction while death and disease and ruin are moving through the lands picking and choosing, raping and slaying at will... with the tacit permission of the victims. It's a sort of lottery thing. "Well, I've got as much chance of being struck by lightning as being offed by the cats that brought us the Oklahoma Bombings and the WTC smoke and mirrors game." they say to themselves and each other and they keep their heads down and don't wear controversial t-shirts.
Those few individuals who can still think for themselves knows full well who was behind these events and how they profitted from it. Many others know but don't want to know and then there's that really large group that is too stupid to know much of anything or is so self-involved it doesn't matter if it happened or didn't happen.
Well, I'm just riffing here, although everything I have said here is true and going on as my words are appearing and continuing for as long as it continues. I needed to put something up on this blog or look dumb for creating it. I have other things I can already look dumb about. Hopefully this makes you think and hopefully you can realize that the entire culture is geared toward controlling your attention and making you into a form of ambulatory Soylent Green.
Were it not that I know for a fact that there is another force at work that the corporations dismiss out of hand I would possibly be despairing of a positive outcome. But since I know that this other force is actually in control at all times it is just a matter of time before these object lessons wind up in the dictionary with their pictures next to bad words.
If you don't take the initiative to turn away from the broadcast you will be sucked in. If you don't swim upstream against the current you will be swept downstream into the shredder. And you'll be hearing about 'ho's and pimps and bitches' all along the way. It's like that old reincarnation song, "Whoops, I did it Again."
'Rap Sucks' is track no. 7 of 12 on Visible and The Critical List's 1992 album
'Not Politically Correct'
About this song (pops up)
9 comments:
Good, Visible and congratulations
t (tony-gg)
Haha reicarnation song, good one Les!
culture wars, culture whores...
:)
kikz*
Thank you, Les. I have always felt that the music culture has been artificially created to guide the people towards a way of thinking, a way of life. You have articulated my thoughts better than I. Cheers.
There was an article recently (in the New Yorker, for what that's worth) that suggested that CIA-backed 'patrons of the arts' were behind the 'marketing' of the works of Jackson Pollack, and other Abstract Expressionists. The theory being that officially sanctioning such art would show America to be sophisticated and tolerant, unlike those nasty commies.
Or something like that.
Everything's ripe for the marketplace, these days. The only hope is to play the system against itself. Think of Goya's portrait of the family of Carlos IV
ok Les. I know you meant "Rap" and not hiphop. Hiphop is an artform, a state of mind. Rap is a musical bastard child that came from HipHop. Hiphop is generally freethinking anti-establishment in its listening audience. Rap on the other hand is mysogynistic, hedonistic, and self destructive with violence and self hate. Rap is what you hear on the radio, see on tv. Hiphop listeners, at least the "TRUE" ones, have enough sense of self worth to recognize the mass propoganda and choose their music accordingly.
In my opinion, there are certain "TRUE" listeners to every genre of music. These are the people that the music speaks to, usually but not always, in a positive manner, but always has a resounding impact upon the induividual listener. These people make up 50% of the listening populace. Then you have the others, the sheep, the trendies, the people who listen to a certain type of music because its in vogue, or its has been "imprinted" enough times to them that they feel this. Ever not been able to get the stupid new song on the radio out of your head? "Imprinting" at work. These people are the ones who live by MTV and die by American Idol.
They accept whatever drivel you feed them, nevermind the innanity,
And ASK FOR MORE!
There are many hiphop groups out there with a message. But as you have alluded to before, this is not what is broadcast on the networks. They want you lapping up the thongs and shiny wheels. The sad thing is is most of the Rap culture is deluded by false approximations of success. Once yuo have your spinning rims and your wood grain sterring wheel, candy paint, and jewels, then you have arrived. They are motivating millions of young people, of all colors and walks of life, to spend hard earned (and no small amounts) of money on things that are worthless. And to top it off they have convinced them that they are trying to impress each other! When neither has the means to obtain/maintain these wild approximations of "success". It is a trap that unfotunately a majority of the populace has fallen for. Just look at the cars around you. Look at how people dress. They live that crap.....its all a lie. Hiphop began as a counterculture movement.....Rap is the Satan of Hiphop. Seriously. I could go on but I am probably boring the shit out most of you. If yuo want to find HipHop music , its like anything else, you have to look really hard to find it.
ok Les. I know you meant "Rap" and not hiphop. Hiphop is an artform, a state of mind. Rap is a musical bastard child that came from HipHop. Hiphop is generally freethinking anti-establishment in its listening audience. Rap on the other hand is mysogynistic, hedonistic, and self destructive with violence and self hate. Rap is what you hear on the radio, see on tv. Hiphop listeners, at least the "TRUE" ones, have enough sense of self worth to recognize the mass propoganda and choose their music accordingly.
In my opinion, there are certain "TRUE" listeners to every genre of music. These are the people that the music speaks to, usually but not always, in a positive manner, but always has a resounding impact upon the induividual listener. These people make up 50% of the listening populace. Then you have the others, the sheep, the trendies, the people who listen to a certain type of music because its in vogue, or its has been "imprinted" enough times to them that they feel this. Ever not been able to get the stupid new song on the radio out of your head? "Imprinting" at work. These people are the ones who live by MTV and die by American Idol.
They accept whatever drivel you feed them, nevermind the innanity,
And ASK FOR MORE!
There are many hiphop groups out there with a message. But as you have alluded to before, this is not what is broadcast on the networks. They want you lapping up the thongs and shiny wheels. The sad thing is is most of the Rap culture is deluded by false approximations of success. Once yuo have your spinning rims and your wood grain sterring wheel, candy paint, and jewels, then you have arrived. They are motivating millions of young people, of all colors and walks of life, to spend hard earned (and no small amounts) of money on things that are worthless. And to top it off they have convinced them that they are trying to impress each other! When neither has the means to obtain/maintain these wild approximations of "success". It is a trap that unfotunately a majority of the populace has fallen for. Just look at the cars around you. Look at how people dress. They live that crap.....its all a lie. Hiphop began as a counterculture movement.....Rap is the Satan of Hiphop. Seriously. I could go on but I am probably boring the shit out most of you. If yuo want to find HipHop music , its like anything else, you have to look really hard to find it.
Visible,
Could you give me your take on video games and how they are affecting our youth. I would like my son, as well as the masses of the potentially world changing youth to get an outside view of what is being done to them.
Thanks,
Geoff
I told myself that the next time anyone asked about something specific here, I would address it. I guess that means now, so, soon.
Thanks for reading and writing.
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