Nancy Snow, John Stockwell, Michael Parenti, William I Robinson, Russ Baker, Jean Bertrand Aristide, Orson Welles, Christopher Simpson, John Stauber, Morris Berman, Peter Philips, Sig Mickelson, William Blum, Donald Rumsfeld, John F Kennedy and others...
This episode continues where we left off last time, with a radio adaptation of the remainder of the most recent of Scott Noble's 2012 film, The Power Principle. This half focuses on the sequence of fears used by the ruling elite to keep the 99% submissive and afraid, whether of communists, nuclear war or Muslim fundamentalists. Insiders and other commentators reveal a bigger picture of US Foreign Policy driven by an aggressive and ruthless clique using organisations such as the CIA, the arms industry and big media to exploit and oppress the 99% both at home and abroad.
Thanks to Scott Noble for such an effective film.
This week a radio adaptation of the rest of part 2 and all of part 3 of Scott Noble's 2012 film, The Power Principle. This part charts the rise of the US National Security State, exploring the Orwellian notion of perpetual war for perpetual peace to look at how the 1% keep the 99% submissive and cowed. While last week focused on how the the Cold War and the spectre of 'communism' played out abroad (as a new cloak on the traditional US Foreign Policy mainstays of imperialism and neo-colonial exploitation), this week we focus on the impact within US itself.
In the conclusion of part 2, we hear from more CIA whistleblowers who note the CIA is much more akin to a terrorist force than the information gathering agency mandated by US law. How does this simple but important fact escape the attention of so many US citizens? We hear this week about CIA 'assets' in the US commercially controlled media able to effectively dictate the news agenda and enforce censorship of unwanted topics or frames.
Part 3, Apocalypse, looks at how close the world came to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis and in the subsequent arms race. We hear that there was a body of top military officials which was in favor of all out nuclear aggression against USSR, and of some of the near misses - occasions on which due to false alarms or other protocol failure, the firing of nuclear weapons was prevented only by the stubborn refusal of single individuals. The film challenges the idea that increased military spending on the arms race hasten the demise of the Soviet Union, arguing instead that by favoring Soviet hard liners it probably hindered and delayed reform.
The film's postscript notes that for a tiny fraction of what the US spends on weapons, all humans on the planet could be provided with food, water, shelter and other basic amenities. How long will humanity suffer under the curse of militarism? Can we free ourselves from the threat of thermonuclear annihilation?
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