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Oh hello, sorry. War! We love it, right?

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Blowing stuff up, watching people suffer and die, it's exciting!

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Violence, domination, retribution and other attributes of this competitive

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warring fascination clearly dominates our media

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with films, television and other expressions constantly

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glorifying and reinforcing this gesture of conflict.

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In fact, it has been found that by the time an average kid

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reaches the age of 14 in the West,

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he or she has visually witnessed over 8,000 depicted acts of murder.

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Given all of this, it might make you wonder:

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Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?

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Likewise, isn't it interesting how most of us in America sleep quite well at night

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while our military forces routinely invade,

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slaughter and steal from other nations at will;

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as, of course, all global empires have done historically,

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with, this time, a global civilian death toll well over 1 million

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in the past decade alone, many of them women and children.

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Yet, the same American culture shudders in horror and confusion

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when some dude stumbles into an American schoolyard and randomly wipes out

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a couple dozen or so kids.

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I ask you, by what measure do we differentiate importance

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when it comes to the death of different groups of people?

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What makes us so special?

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While history is certainly full of xenophobic, racist, religious

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and nationalist conceits which have served as convenient justifications for

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external dehumanization, subjugation and imperial power abuse,

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a rather unnoticed yet profound scientific truth has also emerged:

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Today, every person on Earth can trace his or her lineage

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back to a single common female ancestor who lived about 200,000 years ago.

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'Mitochondrial Eve', she is now called,

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proving indeed that we are truly one family.

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Likewise, the planet Earth, the habitat this family shares, it knows no division.

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It is a unified, synergistic system at every turn, fully connected.

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It has no idea what a nation, a politician or a racist is.

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It has no notion of any such human conceit, for that matter;

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for division simply doesn't exist

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in the order of nature by which we're all invariably subject.

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Mark Twain once wrote

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"Man is the only Patriot. He sets himself apart in his country,

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under his own flag, and sneers at the other nations,

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and keeps multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense

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to grab slices of other people's countries,

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and keep them from grabbing slices of his.

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And in the intervals between campaigns he washes the blood off his hands

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and works for 'the universal brotherhood of man'- with his mouth."

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While we all love to give lip service to the idea of peace and collaboration,

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holding up icons such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

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something underneath the surface is clearly holding us back.

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Yes, we know for a fact

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that if we took the total war budgets of all the nations on Earth

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(tens of trillions of dollars over the past quarter century alone)

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and applied that energy-producing capital towards creating

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an advanced, intelligent, efficient system of Earth/Human management,

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not only would poverty and most deprivation be removed from our lives on the global scale

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our progressive capacity to create, build and improve

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rather than pillage, seek and destroy

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could catapult the human family into an age of prosperity

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never before seen.

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Just imagine. If we took America's Pentagon or Britain's Northwood

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along with all the world's advanced military centers,

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kicked all the army freaks out...

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OK, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be harsh.

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I guess we have to do something with them.

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Maybe we can just take them all and place them in the Grand Canyon

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and just let them beat the piss out of each other,

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and hopefully they'll get it out of their systems and move on.

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I don't know, we'll figure that out later.

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But we, as the intelligent, mature human family

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now interested in improving the lives of all,

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we use that incredible technology to help assist true developmental progress.

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Imagine if the Manhattan Project, which harnessed about 130,000 people,

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mostly scientists and technicians, was dedicated not

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to building a bomb that could destroy on a scale never before seen;

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but rather, utilizing that collaborative drive to solve true global problems,

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perhaps those very problems

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which are causing the interest in war to begin with.

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Today, the hyper-glorified, romanticized obsession with competition,

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advantage and conflict has made it into almost every facet of our lives.

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Not only do we declare war against virtually everything that annoys us:

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'the war on drugs', 'the war on poverty', 'the war on crime',

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'the war on terrorism', 'the war on cancer', you name it;

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we also, apart from the near constant nationalist wars,

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live in a perpetual state of common war or 'class war'

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where we battle each other on a daily basis

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for unnecessary economic survival and delusions of status.

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The fact is, something has been set in motion

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that keeps us all on a multilevel war path.

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Something in our psychology and, hence, sociology is constantly pushing us

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into justifications of these patterns, and as this episode will argue

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that something appears to reside at the very foundation

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of the socioeconomic condition itself:

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a foundation which has given rise to an ever-expanding destructive neurosis

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a neurosis clearly characteristic of a culture in decline.

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From the creator of the Zeitgeist film trilogy

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comes the worst reality show of all time

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the real one

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GMP Films presents

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Culture In Decline

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with your guide, Peter Joseph.

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Breaking news

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This just in: The President has finished an emergency session at the White House

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where he announced that the security focus of his administration

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will be moving away from the global war on terror,

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instead, focusing all available resources against something the administration

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has deemed a larger threat to US and international security

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than anything recognized before: Nature itself.

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That's right, Dodge, the newly declared war against Nature

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will be usurping funds from the Department of Homeland Security

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effectively replacing it with a new department, the Department of...

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I think I'm reading this right:

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"Fuck The Earth And The Science It Rode In On."

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That's correct, Summer, the administration has already appointed a head

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to this new department, the CEO of Monsanto Corporation, Satan himself.

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When questioned regarding concerns about a possible conflict of interest

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of the new appointee, the Obama administration responded:

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"Monsanto's reputation of challenging the vast power of this intolerant,

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bullying force that goes by the terrorist name 'Natural Science'

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holds great potential for our victory.

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We feel if anyone can take down these insurgent laws

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which restrict our God-given freedom, it is the professional experience

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of our true lord and master: the Prince of Darkness.

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We've just been informed that a press conference is now underway

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with the Pentagon's spokesperson answering questions.

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We now go live to the White House.

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As the President said earlier, the greatest barrier to US interests

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has been a constant state of offensive interference by this rogue network.

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Nature has been forcing its will against our freedom for long enough.

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Our economy, our values, the American way of life, it's not negotiable.

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Either Nature concedes to our interests and stops terrorizing us

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with its hatred of our liberty,

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or we will be forced to destroy it.

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Next question.

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Hi. Joe, from L.A. Times:

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Don't you feel it could be a bad idea to move against

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a force which has historically never been overcome

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or even phased by human action?

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Also, I understand Nature has given a set of demands which, if met,

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would cease many of its counterattacks.

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Has the administration considered just meeting these demands?

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Listen Joe, we don't negotiate with terrorists, and I've seen Nature's demands,

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full of queer Communist propaganda such a balance and sustainability.

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It even demands that we shut down our infinite growth consumption economy

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to make way for something where we are to be slaves to some oppressive

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natural regeneration respect.

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Listen, I didn't spend 35 years defending this country

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to have some metaphysical terrorist group with science on its side

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ruin what has made this nation great.

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No further questions.

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(P. Joseph) When we think of war, we usually think about gun-wielding soldiers,

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tanks, flame throwers, fancy metal honors and other theatrics.

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Yet, when we step outside the theater,

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digging deeper in our examination of the world around us

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we find that war is actually a state of mind,

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a reaction, driven by some type of competitive condition.

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If we had to classify the different levels of large scale competition,

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we might end up with two broad categories:

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imperial war and class war.

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Imperial war, otherwise known as national war,

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is when an aggressor nation decides to invade some other nation,

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justified by some form of perceived threat.

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Back in the day, this threat often appeared as purely ideological with

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religious groups battling it out to make sure they were in good with God,

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while in a mildly more literate scientific world today,

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the threat is more often than not pitched as direct to each of us.

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Such as, a rogue nation getting a nuclear weapon

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to blow up your grandmother's bingo tournament

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or perhaps a crazed state-funded hijacker crashing a plane

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into your favorite taco stand (bastards!).

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Regardless, in virtually every historical case, the justification for war

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put forward for public digestion has always been far from the truth.

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You see, there is indeed always a true threat,

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but that threat has little to do with the vast majority of the population.

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Instead, it is a threat that bothers only the highest echelons

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of social hierarchy, an elitist upper class self-preservation

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based around a loss of broad power and control.

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When was the last time the citizenry actually cried out for war?

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It doesn't happen, only the politicians go for it.

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Since the establishment would be hard-pressed to explain to their citizens

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that they are going to invade some nation for its natural resources,

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maintain currency domination, enable freedom for transnational corporations,

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along with other generally economic concerns

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to secure the interests of the upper 1%,

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various superficial, psychological ploys are used instead.

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The most common today is the moral crusade:

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We must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people.

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(P. Joseph) coupled with some basic yet irrational threat of attack.

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Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat,

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not just to the US, but to Iran's neighbors and our allies.

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(P. Joseph) In the words of famed sociologist Thorstein Veblen, writing from 1917:

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"Any warlike enterprise that is hopeful to be entered on

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must have the moral sanction of the community.

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It consequently becomes the first concern of the warlike statesman

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to put this moral force in train for the adventure on which he is bent."

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You see, a large part of the imperial war is the psychological war

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against the domestic citizenry itself.

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The US government spends billions of dollars every year

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on public relations and recruitment alone,

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producing signs like this one:

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"For our nation, for us all."

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Is it me, or does that sound like Orwellian doublespeak?

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If it's 'for our nation', then it clearly isn't 'for us all', as the human species

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is the closest thing we have to 'all'. If it's referring to all of us in the nation

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that would be hideously redundant, right? I think what they mean to say

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in this warm, loving community slogan is:

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"For our nation, screw the rest."

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Cooking with Pepé

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Hello! Welcome to the show! My name is Pepé.

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Today, I've got something very special for you,

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a true international delicacy:

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War!

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To prepare for war is a very delicate matter.

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The first thing we need to do is create some spicy tension

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to put fire in your belly.

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The first ingredient we need is a well-tempered provocation.

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Provocations are, of course, seasonal and subject to personal taste.

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So may I suggest something along the lines [of]

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a very nice Gulf of Tonkin,

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a robust Pearl Harbor,

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and if you're feeling bored, a bustling 9/11.

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Then, we let that cook for a bit and prepare our second ingredient,

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a special sauté to give life to our fiery dish:

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the mainstream media.

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Can you just smell the propaganda and delectable ignorance?

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After we get a nice sizzle going,

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we now add our final, most important ingredient:

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the delicious soldiers.

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The most ripe soldiers tend to grow in the more poor,

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rural areas of the world, often with limited literacy.

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You want to pick them around

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18, 19, because their brains are very immature and quite yummy,

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perfect for participation in our war meal.

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We mix it all together.

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Perhaps add a few, some preservatives like patriotism

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(not too much)

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jingoism,

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and, of course, our very special secret sauce.

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OK! And we are ready! The moment you have all been waiting for.

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I present to you the greatest international delicacy of all time: War.

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Bon appétit.

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(P. Joseph) Perhaps one of the most amusing aspects of national war

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is the circus-like pageantry and ceremonialism.

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Cute costumes, little hats, shiny pieces of metal,

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various parades and official posturing

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and all adornments and theatrics that give this air of honor and authority.

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Of course, this is not to dismiss the true sacrifice

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00:15:53,846 --> 00:15:58,761
of those who have given their lives in war, as there are always two sides.

247
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This true honor comes from a position of working to help others,

248
00:16:02,888 --> 00:16:06,372
not exploit them. Just as we hold the bravery of a firefighter

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00:16:06,512 --> 00:16:10,031
who enters a burning building to save a child in high regard,

250
00:16:10,171 --> 00:16:15,427
the intention to help society through military service is indeed a noble gesture.

251
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Even though, sadly enough, 99% of those who enter the military

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00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:24,133
with such noble intentions are more often than not being exploited

253
00:16:24,273 --> 00:16:28,417
for the criminal purposes of the corporate state.

254
00:16:28,780 --> 00:16:33,211
Still, you have to be impressed by the skill to give credence to an idea

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00:16:33,351 --> 00:16:36,185
merely because of the nature of its presentation.

256
00:16:36,325 --> 00:16:40,044
In fact, whether it's academia, the news media, government itself

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00:16:40,184 --> 00:16:44,208
the military or anything else in society, our culture tends to believe

258
00:16:44,348 --> 00:16:49,982
and respect people merely because of their presentation, confidence and rhetoric,

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00:16:50,122 --> 00:16:54,291
not the actual meaning or reasoning of the communication itself.

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00:17:00,931 --> 00:17:03,870
Did you know that the first television sets of the 1950s

261
00:17:04,010 --> 00:17:07,179
were actually supposed to be used as prosthetic replacement heads

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00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:10,287
to give new hope for those who had been tragically decapitated?

263
00:17:10,427 --> 00:17:12,508
But, technology, weight and

264
00:17:12,648 --> 00:17:15,823
cord length being what they were at the time, it failed.

265
00:17:15,963 --> 00:17:19,570
Luckily, they could play other things besides the faces of the deceased

266
00:17:19,710 --> 00:17:23,824
and TV sets sold nationwide, and it's all true!

267
00:17:23,964 --> 00:17:28,440
You know why? Because you heard it from some guy in a tie.

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00:17:31,890 --> 00:17:36,456
In the end, once the traditional, propagandized illusions in defense

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00:17:36,596 --> 00:17:40,719
of the act of organized human murder and resource theft have been overridden,

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00:17:40,859 --> 00:17:46,113
dismissing such shallow justifications as paternalism, honor and protectionism,

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00:17:46,253 --> 00:17:49,870
we realize that war today is actually an inherent characteristic

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00:17:50,010 --> 00:17:53,210
of the propertied, scarcity-driven business system.

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Major General Smedley D. Butler,

274
00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:58,900
one of the most notable and decorated officers in US history

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stated the following with respect to the business of war in 1935:

276
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"I spent 33 years and 4 months in active military service and during that period

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00:18:09,150 --> 00:18:13,120
I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for big business,

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00:18:13,270 --> 00:18:15,279
for Wall Street and the bankers.

279
00:18:15,419 --> 00:18:18,660
In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

280
00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:21,116
I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico

281
00:18:21,256 --> 00:18:25,624
safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba

282
00:18:25,764 --> 00:18:29,430
a decent place for the National City boys to collect revenues in.

283
00:18:29,570 --> 00:18:32,899
I helped in the raping of a half a dozen Central American republics

284
00:18:33,039 --> 00:18:36,040
for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua

285
00:18:36,180 --> 00:18:40,980
for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902 -1912.

286
00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:45,690
I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916.

287
00:18:45,830 --> 00:18:49,292
I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903.

288
00:18:49,432 --> 00:18:52,198
In China in 1927, I helped see to it that

289
00:18:52,338 --> 00:18:55,539
Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.

290
00:18:55,679 --> 00:18:59,487
Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.

291
00:18:59,627 --> 00:19:02,670
The best he could do was operate his racket in three districts.

292
00:19:02,810 --> 00:19:05,739
I operated on three continents." -Major General Smedley D. Butler

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00:19:06,082 --> 00:19:09,873
Given all of this, it's unique how the general public tends to separate

294
00:19:10,013 --> 00:19:12,939
the day-to-day competitive business acumen

295
00:19:13,079 --> 00:19:17,055
from the severe form of competitive violent warfare,

296
00:19:17,195 --> 00:19:20,949
when there is very good evidence to show that they are deeply intermeshed.

297
00:19:21,089 --> 00:19:25,060
To gain some perspective on this, we now welcome back our resident guru,

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00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:27,055
Louie the Logic Gremlin.

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00:19:27,818 --> 00:19:30,263
Ah! Before we get into the questions, I do have a letter here

300
00:19:30,403 --> 00:19:33,502
that I would like to read to you and get your opinion on.

301
00:19:33,642 --> 00:19:38,062
It reads: "Dear Peter, I really enjoy the new show.

302
00:19:38,202 --> 00:19:41,333
I think it is helping get these important messages across.

303
00:19:41,473 --> 00:19:46,809
However, I am disappointed with the crude Louie the Logic Gremlin character,

304
00:19:46,949 --> 00:19:50,429
as it is just irritating and hideously stupid.

305
00:19:50,569 --> 00:19:54,150
Also, would you please stop eating when you are speaking in the show.

306
00:19:54,290 --> 00:19:57,264
It's really disgusting and annoying.

307
00:19:57,404 --> 00:19:59,262
Rock on. Joe."

308
00:19:59,402 --> 00:20:03,008
I'm sorry, Joe. Louie, what do you think about that?

309
00:20:03,148 --> 00:20:05,768
Aesthetic orientation is largely a cultural phenomenon.

310
00:20:05,908 --> 00:20:08,500
Your decision to directly agitate your audience is odd,

311
00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:10,839
but not without its communicative merit.

312
00:20:10,979 --> 00:20:14,450
Toats! [Totally] Sorry, Joe, shit stays.

313
00:20:17,271 --> 00:20:21,198
All right, so what's the skinny on war, man?

314
00:20:21,338 --> 00:20:25,339
Aren't we just crazy animals that have to be in endless conflict

315
00:20:25,479 --> 00:20:28,360
with each other due to our biology or something?

316
00:20:28,500 --> 00:20:31,498
While the conflict reaction is predictable in our evolutionary psychology,

317
00:20:31,638 --> 00:20:33,759
the assumption of inevitably is absurdly false.

318
00:20:33,899 --> 00:20:36,736
Human nature exists as a propensity of interaction with conditions.

319
00:20:36,876 --> 00:20:39,120
If you reward competition and produce scarcity

320
00:20:39,260 --> 00:20:41,945
as we do today, you will perpetuate a conflict propensity.

321
00:20:42,085 --> 00:20:44,228
If you work to ease stress and reward balance,

322
00:20:44,368 --> 00:20:47,600
you will generate a collaborative propensity. - OK, I see what you're saying.

323
00:20:47,740 --> 00:20:51,100
You're saying that war is actually a system consequence?

324
00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:54,798
Correct. The real underlying conflict is the war against social balance itself.

325
00:20:54,938 --> 00:20:56,998
National war is really a form of class war.

326
00:20:57,138 --> 00:21:00,438
Just as we have an economic hierarchy from lower to upper classes in America,

327
00:21:00,578 --> 00:21:03,290
the world is stratified in the same way, for the same reasons.

328
00:21:03,430 --> 00:21:05,134
In this case with terms such as

329
00:21:05,274 --> 00:21:08,003
"super-powers", "sub-powers" and "vassal states". - Interesting.

330
00:21:08,143 --> 00:21:12,070
So, how do we resolve this war tendency then?

331
00:21:12,310 --> 00:21:14,356
Remove the social reinforcements of it.

332
00:21:14,496 --> 00:21:17,439
If society shifts to rewarding balance, abundance and collaboration,

333
00:21:17,579 --> 00:21:19,300
then your species may have a chance.

334
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:21,770
Otherwise, you people are likely fucked, as you are

335
00:21:21,910 --> 00:21:25,072
too immature right now to handle your own technological power. - Gotcha

336
00:21:25,212 --> 00:21:27,825
Well, thank you for your time, Louie.

337
00:21:27,965 --> 00:21:30,244
To gain some public consensus on the issue,

338
00:21:30,384 --> 00:21:33,446
we now turn live to our east coast 'Culture in Decline' correspondent,

339
00:21:33,586 --> 00:21:36,150
Big Scottie D, who's live in New York City

340
00:21:36,290 --> 00:21:38,570
to talk with people about what they think of war.

341
00:21:40,270 --> 00:21:43,700
Well, thank you, Peter. I am here in New York City

342
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,452
on a beautiful cold day and

343
00:21:46,592 --> 00:21:49,861
I'm going to try to find some people to maybe talk to.

344
00:21:50,001 --> 00:21:52,299
Excuse me, excuse me, Ma'am, would you like to...

345
00:21:52,439 --> 00:21:54,969
Excuse me, Sir... Sir, would you like to talk about the war?

346
00:21:55,109 --> 00:21:57,478
- What? - Would you like to talk about the war, Sir? - No.

347
00:21:57,787 --> 00:21:59,979
- Would you like to talk about the war today?

348
00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:01,723
War? No?

349
00:22:02,307 --> 00:22:04,720
Sir, would you like to talk about the war? - God bless.

350
00:22:04,860 --> 00:22:07,112
- No? The war? Please? The war?

351
00:22:07,252 --> 00:22:10,253
Anyone who would like to talk about the war?

352
00:22:12,440 --> 00:22:15,530
I am just sick of this, Peter. You're sending me on these assignments.

353
00:22:15,670 --> 00:22:17,876
It's freaking freezing out here!

354
00:22:18,016 --> 00:22:21,899
I'd rather be in a bar getting drunk and then maybe I can do this, all right?

355
00:22:22,039 --> 00:22:23,999
I think there's a bar up here.

356
00:22:24,139 --> 00:22:25,909
Let me just grab my shit.

357
00:22:26,049 --> 00:22:27,879
You know, I'm just sick of this.

358
00:22:28,391 --> 00:22:30,390
Goddammit!

359
00:22:33,691 --> 00:22:36,180
I said I am done, man! I am done!

360
00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:38,456
Get some other monkey, OK?

361
00:22:39,127 --> 00:22:41,789
There's trash and shit all over the place!

362
00:22:41,929 --> 00:22:45,160
What does Peter wants to know about? He wants to know about the war!

363
00:22:45,300 --> 00:22:47,916
Well, I am sick of it, man!

364
00:22:48,056 --> 00:22:51,101
I've got to calm down. I just need a drink.

365
00:22:51,811 --> 00:22:54,529
- Any of you are Occupy Wall Street types?

366
00:22:54,669 --> 00:22:56,468
[Praise. Applause]

367
00:22:56,608 --> 00:22:59,950
♪ Oooh it's not about money, except when you can't eat ♫

368
00:23:00,090 --> 00:23:04,119
♪ and it's not about foreclosures except when you've got nowhere to sleep ♫

369
00:23:04,259 --> 00:23:07,729
♪ It's not about elections except when they can be bought ♫

370
00:23:07,869 --> 00:23:11,371
♪ and it's not about the wars except when they're fought. ♫

371
00:23:11,511 --> 00:23:15,091
♪ It's not about the environment except if we're running out of time ♫

372
00:23:15,231 --> 00:23:18,749
♪ It's not about my choices, except when they're not mine ♫

373
00:23:18,889 --> 00:23:21,919
♪ It's not the lack of justice, except when you can't fight back ♫

374
00:23:22,059 --> 00:23:26,159
♪ and it's not about the police, unless, umm, your black! ♫

375
00:23:26,299 --> 00:23:29,795
♪ Fuck this shit! Fuck this shit! ♫

376
00:23:29,935 --> 00:23:33,583
♪ Come on, you want to say it, fuck this shit! Everybody ♫

377
00:23:33,723 --> 00:23:36,554
♪ fuck this shit! fuck this shit! ♫

378
00:23:36,694 --> 00:23:39,300
♪ Don't worry, none of these people are going to be at work tomorrow ♫

379
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:41,036
♪ Fuck this shit, oooh ♫

380
00:23:41,176 --> 00:23:44,670
We're so totally ruled by the 1%, which is basically all the corporations.

381
00:23:44,810 --> 00:23:47,853
wanting to sell us shit, influence us, influence our culture,

382
00:23:47,993 --> 00:23:50,420
so that we can't even think for ourselves and we're...

383
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:53,750
our sense of self is altered and even our sense of health.

384
00:23:53,890 --> 00:23:57,350
I don't even fucking smoke! I don't know where this comes from? Jesus!

385
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:02,149
Peter Joseph has asked us to stand out here in the freezing cold

386
00:24:02,289 --> 00:24:05,150
and talk about the difference of classes here, but

387
00:24:05,290 --> 00:24:08,440
he is sitting in his LA loft, relaxing

388
00:24:08,580 --> 00:24:12,170
with his big flat screen TV.

389
00:24:28,335 --> 00:24:29,692
New video message!

390
00:24:36,040 --> 00:24:37,957
- Yeah, fuck him!

391
00:24:38,683 --> 00:24:40,130
- Fuck Peter Joseph!

392
00:24:40,394 --> 00:24:45,039
The only thing that we don't have a war on, is a war on war,

393
00:24:45,179 --> 00:24:48,350
and I think that, as peace activists,we don't want to fight;

394
00:24:48,490 --> 00:24:51,669
so, we are going to end up loosing, due to irony!

395
00:24:54,350 --> 00:24:56,113
Final thoughts:

396
00:24:56,253 --> 00:25:00,292
How do we think about resolution of something as detrimental as national war,

397
00:25:00,432 --> 00:25:04,740
when, on the micro level, we in society actually praise, reward

398
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:08,400
and reinforce the same basic underlying competitive drive?

399
00:25:08,782 --> 00:25:12,430
Generally, when faced with such a question, people tend to play the morality card,

400
00:25:12,570 --> 00:25:15,496
as though a matter of degree is what's relevant

401
00:25:15,636 --> 00:25:18,249
not the philosophical basis itself.

402
00:25:18,389 --> 00:25:22,096
Usually this vague distinction is gestured to the effect that

403
00:25:22,236 --> 00:25:27,365
competition is good, but we should never go too far and be violent in any way.

404
00:25:27,505 --> 00:25:31,340
Then, of course, the question becomes "What constitutes violence?"

405
00:25:32,051 --> 00:25:34,590
What if, instead of physically attacking you directly,

406
00:25:34,730 --> 00:25:37,762
I put you into a subtle yet deeply toxic condition,

407
00:25:37,902 --> 00:25:40,999
where your life is shorten by decades via heart disease, cancer,

408
00:25:41,139 --> 00:25:43,600
mental illness, and other such consequences.

409
00:25:43,740 --> 00:25:45,694
Would that be considered violent?

410
00:25:45,834 --> 00:25:49,100
And what if such intentions were not even directly malicious,

411
00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:52,185
such as a lower class, desperate single mother

412
00:25:52,325 --> 00:25:54,509
forced to work three jobs to keep up,

413
00:25:54,649 --> 00:25:57,930
who fails one night to provide proper supervision for her child,

414
00:25:58,070 --> 00:26:00,661
resulting in the death of her child?

415
00:26:00,801 --> 00:26:05,296
I ask you "What is the true origin of the resulting death,

416
00:26:05,436 --> 00:26:08,196
and does that qualify as violent?"

417
00:26:08,751 --> 00:26:10,907
To paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi

418
00:26:11,047 --> 00:26:14,506
"Poverty is the worst form of violence."

419
00:26:14,646 --> 00:26:18,400
You see, the real war going on is not as obvious as many think.

420
00:26:18,540 --> 00:26:22,927
The real war exists in the very structure of our society itself,

421
00:26:23,212 --> 00:26:25,646
something public health officials have now termed

422
00:26:25,786 --> 00:26:27,552
'Structural Violence':

423
00:26:27,692 --> 00:26:31,658
a war, in fact, against public health and balance itself,

424
00:26:31,798 --> 00:26:36,500
constantly producing casualty after casualty in its hidden oppression;

425
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:39,669
and this form of violence today kills more people

426
00:26:39,809 --> 00:26:43,881
than every type of direct behavioral violence put together.

427
00:26:44,021 --> 00:26:46,119
Its origin? A social system

428
00:26:46,259 --> 00:26:50,856
literally built upon competition and exploitation itself

429
00:26:50,996 --> 00:26:53,698
So, for all you noble activists out there, for all of you

430
00:26:53,838 --> 00:26:57,507
who pile into protest zones each time a new national war emerges

431
00:26:57,647 --> 00:27:00,500
and yell at the top of your lungs, keep in mind,

432
00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:05,297
that you are only targeting a symptom of a larger sociological problem

433
00:27:05,437 --> 00:27:09,150
and until the activist community realizes this, I am sorry to say:

434
00:27:09,290 --> 00:27:12,003
your protests have no long-term consequence,

435
00:27:12,143 --> 00:27:14,595
as they do not address the root problem.

436
00:27:15,341 --> 00:27:19,419
But, on the bright side, it's still great entertainment, right?

437
00:27:19,559 --> 00:27:21,950
so let's keep watching this bizarre human experiment,

438
00:27:22,090 --> 00:27:25,772
certainly the greatest, yet worst reality show of all time, for sure.

439
00:27:25,912 --> 00:27:28,739
I am Peter Joseph, and yes I, like you,

440
00:27:28,879 --> 00:27:32,364
am an agent and victim of a culture in decline.

441
00:27:35,690 --> 00:27:37,819
Where is the credit scene?

442
00:27:37,959 --> 00:27:41,708
What? What do you mean "Bob didn't get hurt"?

443
00:27:44,630 --> 00:27:46,312
I'm sorry, Bob.

444
00:27:46,452 --> 00:27:48,500
It's the format of the show.

445
00:27:51,123 --> 00:27:54,525
"Neither the great political and financial power structures of the world,

446
00:27:54,665 --> 00:27:58,121
nor the specialization-blinded professionals nor the population in general

447
00:27:58,261 --> 00:28:01,747
realizes that... it is now highly feasible to take care of everyone on earth

448
00:28:01,887 --> 00:28:04,641
at a higher standard of living than they have ever known.

449
00:28:04,781 --> 00:28:07,650
It no longer has to be you or me. Selfishness is unnecessary

450
00:28:07,790 --> 00:28:10,542
and henceforth unrationalizable as mandated by survival.

451
00:28:10,682 --> 00:28:14,470
War is obsolete." - R. Buckminster Fuller

452
00:28:20,326 --> 00:28:25,790
Written and edited by Peter Joseph while severely constipated

453
00:28:26,377 --> 00:28:29,366
Culture in Decline

454
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:48,870
What if what I'm about to tell you makes you question 'what is what'?

455
00:28:49,010 --> 00:28:51,997
What if I propose a 'what if' scenario?

456
00:28:52,137 --> 00:28:55,154
What if I were to take up precious time in your busy life

457
00:28:55,294 --> 00:28:59,678
just spinning you on a soul-dulling spiral with meaningless double-talk?

458
00:28:59,818 --> 00:29:03,940
But at the same time, what if I kept you distracted with flashy graphics?

459
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,230
Would you notice? Or for that matter, would you care?

460
00:29:07,429 --> 00:29:12,129
Naah. You're too busy, listening to some guy in a tie.

461
00:29:12,269 --> 00:29:13,489
And sleep. (Snap!)