#120: The Crowd's Fictions

“Even Mr. [Everett Dean] Martin, who on several occasions in his volume talks with severe condemnation of what he calls propaganda, sees and admits the fundamental psychological factors which make the adherents to one point of view impute degraded or immoral motives to believers in other points of view. He says:

"The crowd-man can, when his fiction is challenged, save himself from spiritual bankruptcy, preserve his defenses, keep his crowd from going to pieces, only by a demur. Anyone who challenges the crowd's fictions must be ruled out of court. He must not be permitted to speak. As a witness to contrary values, his testimony must be discounted. The worth of his evidence must be discredited by belittling the disturbing witness. 'He is a bad man; the crowd must not listen to him.' His motives must be evil; he is `bought up'; he is an immoral character; he tells lies; he is insincere or he 'has not the courage to take a stand' or 'there is nothing new in what he says.'

"Ibsen's 'Enemy of the People,' illustrates this point very well. The crowd votes that Doctor Stockman may not speak about the baths, the real point at issue. Indeed, the mayor takes the floor and officially announces that the doctor's statement that the water is bad is 'unreliable and exaggerated.' Then the president of the Householders' Association makes an address accusing the doctor of secretly 'aiming at revolution.' When finally Doctor Stockman speaks and tells his fellow citizens the real meaning of their conduct, and utters a few plain truths about 'the compact majority,' the crowd saves its face, not by proving the doctor false, but by howling him down, voting him an 'enemy of the people,' and throwing stones through the window."”

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Bernays, Edward. Crystallizing Public Opinion (pp. 101-102). Kindle Edition. (Bold emphasis added.)

Edward Louis Bernays (... November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations".[3] Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life.[4] He was the subject of a full-length biography by Larry Tye called The Father of Spin (1999) and later an award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC by Adam Curtis called The Century of the Self. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

#119: “To Methodize Anarchy”

“...what was done in France was a wild attempt to methodize anarchy; to perpetuate and fix disorder. That it was a foul, impious, monstrous thing, wholly out of the course of moral nature. He undertook to prove, that it was generated in treachery, fraud, falsehood, hypocrisy, and unprovoked murder. ... That by the terror of assassination they had driven away a very great number of the members, so as to produce a false appearance of a majority.—That this fictitious majority had fabricated a constitution, which as now it stands, is a tyranny far beyond any example that can be found in the civilized European world of our age.”*

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*from P. J. Marshall, Donald C. Bryant, and William B. Todd (eds), The Writings and Speeches of Edmund Burke, Vol. 4: Party, Parliament, and the Dividing of the Whigs: 1780–1794 (Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 376 https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke (Bold emphasis added.)

Edmund Burke (... 12 January [NS] 1729[2] – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman, economist, and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party after moving to London in 1750. Burke was a proponent of underpinning virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state.[3] These views were expressed in his A Vindication of Natural Society. He criticised the actions of the British government towards the American colonies, including its taxation policies.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

#118: Benefactors of Tyrannical Abuses

“To the above comes another difficulty, which is, that the state that becomes free makes enemies for itself, and not friends. All those become its enemies who were benefited by the tyrannical abuses and fattened upon the treasures of the prince, and who, being now deprived of these advantages, cannot remain content, and are therefore driven to attempt to re-establish the tyranny, so as to recover their former authority and advantages. A state then, as I have said, that becomes free, makes no friends; for free governments bestow honors and rewards only according to certain honest and fixed rules, outside of which there are neither the one nor the other. And such as obtain these honors and rewards do not consider themselves under obligations to any one, because they believe that they were entitled to them by their merits. Besides the advantages that result to the mass of the people from a free government, such as to be able freely to enjoy one’s own without apprehension, to have nothing to fear for the honor of his wife and daughters, or for himself, — all these, I say, are not appreciated by any one whilst he is in the enjoyment of them; for no one will confess himself under obligation to any one merely because he has not been injured by him.”*

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* Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Complete Works of Niccolo Machiavelli: Thoughts of a Statesman, The Prince, The History of Florence, The Art of War, Diplomatic Missions, and Discources ... (6 Books With Active Table of Contents) (Kindle Locations 20706-20714). Kindle Edition. (Bold emphasis added.)

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ... 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian diplomat, philosopher, politician, historian and writer who lived during the Renaissance. He is best known for The Prince (Il Principe), written about 1513.[5] He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.[6] For many years he served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is of high importance to historians and scholars.[7] He worked as secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli

For this blogger's view about ideas of expediency attributable to Machiavelli see: https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2014/02/niccolo-mockiavelli.html and consider his words as quoted in Burnham, James. The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom (p. 6). Lume Books. Kindle Edition as noted in Voices ... #099 and repeated here:

Machiavelli: “I come now to the last branch of my charge: that I teach princes villainy, and how to enslave. If any man will read over my book … with impartiality and ordinary charity, he will easily perceive that it is not my intention to recommend that government or those men there described to the world, much less to teach men how to trample upon good men, and all that is sacred and venerable upon earth, laws, religion, honesty, and what not. If I have been a little too punctual in describing these monsters in all their lineaments and colours, I hope mankind will know them, the better to avoid them, my treatise being both a satire against them, and a true character of them …” , from a Letter to a Friend.

#117: Companions of Thieves

23 Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.*

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*Old Testament | Isaiah 1:23

Isaiah was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. ... Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the prophet",[9] but the exact relationship between the Book of Isaiah and any such historical Isaiah is complicated. The traditional view is that all 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah were written by one man, Isaiah, possibly in two periods between 740 BC and c. 686 BC, separated by approximately 15 years, ...
The first verse of the Book of Isaiah states that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah (Isaiah 1:1). Uzziah's reign was 52 years in the middle of the 8th century BC, and Isaiah must have begun his ministry a few years before Uzziah's death, probably in the 740s BC. Isaiah lived until the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah (who died 698 BC). He may have been contemporary for some years with Manasseh. Thus Isaiah may have prophesied for as long as 64 years.[10] [from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah]

#116: Conspiracy Fact - Affair of the Diamond Necklace

France

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace (French: Affaire du collier de la reine, "Affair of the Queen's Necklace") was an incident from 1784 to 1785 at the court of King Louis XVI of France that involved his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette.

The Queen's reputation, already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the false implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud the Crown's jewellers in acquiring a very expensive diamond necklace she then refused to pay for. In reality, she rejected the idea of buying it only to have her signature forged by Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy. Although Jeanne was later convicted, the event remains historically significant as one of many that led to the French disillusionment with the monarchy, in that it was one of the contemporary scandals that gave moral weight and popular support for the French Revolution.*

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* From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_Diamond_Necklace (Bold emphasis added.)

#115: False Flag - Operation Embarrass

“Operation Embarrass was a false flag bombing campaign carried out by MI6 [British] to try to stem Jewish immigration.

“In late 1946 the Labour government of Clement Attlee asked MI6 for “proposals for action to deter ships masters and crews from engaging in illegal Jewish immigration and traffic,” adding, “Action of the nature contemplated is, in fact, a form of intimidation and intimidation is only likely to be effective if some members of the group of people to be intimidated actually suffer unpleasant consequences.” Among the options contemplated were "the discovery of some sabotage device, which had ‘failed’ to function after the sailing of a ship, ... tampering with a ship’s fresh water supplies or the crew’s food... [and] fire on board ship in port." Stewart Menzies, the chief of the SIS, suggested these be blamed on a fake terrorist group called "The Defenders of Arab Palestine".”*

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* https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Operation_Embarrass

* "A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on a second party. ... The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression and foreign military aggression." (Source: Wikipedia)

#114: Control of the Press?

... the sole aim of journalism should be service. The newspaper press is a great power, but just as an unchained torrent of water submerges whole countrysides and devastates crops, even so an uncontrolled pen serves but to destroy. If the control is from without, it proves more poisonous than want of control. It can be profitable only when exercised from within. If this line of reasoning is correct, how many of the journals in the world would stand the test?*

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* Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's Life in His Own Words (Kindle Locations 639-642). Navajivan Trust. Kindle Edition.

 
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi(... 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer,[3] anti-colonial nationalist,[4] and political ethicist,[5] who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule,[6] and in turn inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "great-souled", "venerable"), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world.[7][8] / Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, western India, Gandhi trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, and was called to the bar at age 22 in June 1891. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

#113: “Silence about Truth”

“Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects ... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.”*

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*https://www.azquotes.com/author/7118-Aldous_Huxley/tag/truth
https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/silence-quotes

Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher.[1][2][3][4] He wrote nearly 50 books[5][6]—both novels and non-fiction works—as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with an undergraduate degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death.[7] By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time.[8] He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times[9] and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley

#112: “Appalling Silence of Good People”

“If the moderates of the white South [and of this 2021 world] fail to act now, history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Our generation will have to repent not only for the acts and words of the children of darkness but also for the fears and apathy of the children of light.”*

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* https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/06/17/good/ (Bold emphasis added.)

Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the American civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King advanced civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He was the son of early civil rights activist Martin Luther King Sr.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

#111: A [Secret] Cover Is Always Necessary

“We must consider [says Weishaupt*], how we can begin to work under another form. If only the aim is achieved, it does not matter under what cover it takes place, and a cover is always necessary. For in concealment lies a great part of our strength. For this reason we must always cover ourselves with the name of another society. The lodges that are under Freemasonry are in the meantime the most suitable cloak for our high purpose, because the world is already accustomed to expect nothing great from them which merits attention....”**

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** from Webster, Nesta H.. Secret Societies And Subversive Movements (p. 152). Kindle Edition.

*Johann Adam Weishaupt (... 6 February 1748 – 18 November 1830)... was a German philosopher, professor of civil law and later canon law, and founder of the Illuminati, a secret society. ... / On 1 May 1776 Johann Adam Weishaupt founded the "Illuminati" in the Electorate of Bavaria. He adopted the name of "Brother Spartacus" within the order. Even encyclopedia references vary on the goal of the order, such as New Advent saying the Order was not egalitarian or democratic internally, but sought to promote the doctrines of equality and freedom throughout society;[18] while others such as Collier's have said the aim was to combat religion and foster rationalism in its place.[19]
The actual character of the society was an elaborate network of spies and counter-spies. Each isolated cell of initiates reported to a superior, whom they did not know: a party structure that was effectively adopted by some later groups.[18]
Weishaupt was initiated into the Masonic lodge "Theodor zum guten Rath", at Munich in 1777. His project of "illumination, enlightening the understanding by the sun of reason, which will dispel the clouds of superstition and of prejudice" was an unwelcome reform.[18] He used Freemasonry to recruit for his own quasi-masonic society, with the goal of "perfecting human nature" through re-education to achieve a communal state with nature, freed of government and organized religion. Presenting their own system as pure masonry, Weishaupt and Adolph Freiherr Knigge, who organised his ritual structure, greatly expanded the secret organisation.[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Weishaupt

Nesta Helen Webster (24 August 1876 – 16 May 1960) was an English far-right[?] conspiracy theorist [analyst], who revived theories [researched facts] about the Illuminati. ... She claimed that the secret society's members were occultists, plotting communist world domination, through a Jewish cabal, the Masons and Jesuits. ... She blamed the group for events including the French Revolution, 1848 Revolution, the First World War, and the Bolshevik Revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesta_Helen_Webster

#110: "Secret Combinations, Even As In Times of Old"

22 And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.*

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*Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 26:22 (Bold emphasis added.)

#109: Conspiracy Fact - Beer Hall Putsch

Germany

"The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch,[1] ... was a failed coup d'état by Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff and other Kampfbund leaders in Munich, Bavaria, on 8–9 November 1923, during the Weimar Republic. Approximately two thousand Nazis marched on the Feldherrnhalle, in the city centre, but were confronted by a police cordon, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Nazi Party members and four police officers.

"Hitler, who was wounded during the clash, escaped immediate arrest and was spirited off to safety in the countryside. After two days, he was arrested and charged with treason.[3]

"The putsch brought Hitler to the attention of the German nation for the first time and generated front-page headlines in newspapers around the world. His arrest was followed by a 24-day trial, which was widely publicised and gave him a platform to express his nationalist sentiments to the nation. Hitler was found guilty of treason and sentenced to five years in Landsberg Prison, ... where he dictated Mein Kampf to fellow prisoners Emil Maurice and Rudolf Hess. On 20 December 1924, having served only nine months, Hitler was released.[4][5] Once released, Hitler redirected his focus towards obtaining power through legal means rather than by revolution or force, and accordingly changed his tactics, further developing Nazi propaganda."*

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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch (Bold emphasis added.)

#108: False Flag – Operation Wappen

“In 1957 Operation Wappen was a second coup plan against Syria, orchestrated by the CIA's Kermit Roosevelt. It called for assassination of key senior Syrian officials, staged military incidents on the Syrian border to be blamed on Syria and then to be used as pretext for invasion by Iraqi and Jordanian troops, an intense US propaganda campaign targeting the Syrian population, and "sabotage, national conspiracies and various strong-arm activities" to be blamed on Damascus. ... This operation failed when Syrian military officers paid off with millions of dollars in bribes to carry out the coup revealed the plot to Syrian intelligence. The U.S. Department of State denied accusation of a coup attempt and along with US media accused Syria of being a "satellite" of the USSR. ...”*

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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

#107: “Stressing the Possibility of a Plague”

“[I]nstincts are utilized by the public relations counsel in developing ideas and emotions which will modify the opinions and actions of his public.

“The action of public health officials in stressing the possibility of a plague or epidemic is effective because it appeals to the emotion of fear, and presents the possibility of preventing the spread of the epidemic or plague. Of course, the element of flight in this particular situation is not one of movement, but of a desire to get away from the danger.”*

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*Bernays, Edward. Crystallizing Public Opinion (p. 73). Kindle Edition. (Bold emphasis added.)

Edward Louis Bernays (... November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations".[3] Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life.[4] He was the subject of a full-length biography by Larry Tye called The Father of Spin (1999) and later an award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC by Adam Curtis called The Century of the Self. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

#106: Perfect Freedom to Impugn

“It follows that before a [scientific] theory can be considered true, it is virtually indispensable that there be perfect freedom to impugn it. Any limitation, even indirect and however remote, imposed on anyone choosing to contradict it is enough to cast suspicion upon it. Hence freedom to express one’s thought, even counter to the opinion of the majority or of all, even when it offends the sentiments of the few or of the many, even when it is generally reputed absurd or criminal, always proves favorable to the discovery of objective truth.”*

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*Vilfredo Pareto as quoted in Burnham, James. The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom (pp. 247-248). Lume Books. Kindle Edition. (Bold emphasis added.)

Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto[3] (... born Wilfried Fritz Pareto; 15 July 1848 – 19 August 1923) was an Italian civil engineer, sociologist, economist, political scientist, and philosopher. He made several important contributions to economics, particularly in the study of income distribution and in the analysis of individuals' choices. He was also responsible for popularising the use of the term "elite" in social analysis.
He introduced the concept of Pareto efficiency and helped develop the field of microeconomics. He was also the first to discover that income follows a Pareto distribution, which is a power law probability distribution. The Pareto principle was named after him, and it was built on observations of his such as that 80% of the wealth in Italy belonged to about 20% of the population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilfredo_Pareto

#105: Group Egoism

What is lacking among all these moralists, whether religious or rational, is an understanding of the brutal character of the behavior of all human collectives, and the power of self-interest and collective egoism in all intergroup relations. Failure to recognise the stubborn resistance of group egoism to all moral and inclusive social objectives inevitably involves them in unrealistic and confused political thought. ... They do not see that the limitations of the human imagination, the easy subservience of reason to prejudice and passion, and the consequent persistence of irrational egoism, particularly in group behavior, make social conflict an inevitability in human history, probably to its very end.

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Niebuhr, Reinhold. Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics (Arkosh Politics) (Kindle Locations 151-153, 155-157). Arkosh Publishing. Kindle Edition. (Bold emphasis added.)

Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr[a] (1892–1971) was an American Reformed theologian, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years. Niebuhr was one of America's leading public intellectuals for several decades of the 20th century and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. A public theologian, he wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics, and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man. The latter is ranked number 18 of the top 100 non-fiction books of the twentieth century by Modern Library.[26] Andrew Bacevich labelled Niebuhr's book The Irony of American History "the most important book ever written on U.S. foreign policy."[27] The historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. described Niebuhr as "the most influential American theologian of the 20th century"[28][29] and Time posthumously called Niebuhr "the greatest Protestant theologian in America since Jonathan Edwards."[30] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr

#104: The Voice of the Herd

[Does this help explain the herd mentality and psy-oping of 2021 AD?]

“The gregarious tendency in man, according to Mr. [Wilfred*] Trotter, results in five characteristics which he displays in common with all gregarious animals.
1. "He is intolerant and fearful of solitude, physical or mental." ...
2. "He is more sensitive to the voice of the herd than to any other influence." ...
3. "He is subject to the passions of the pack in his mob violence and the passions of the herd in his panics."
4. "He is remarkably susceptible to leadership." ...
5. "His relations with his fellows are dependent upon the recognition of him as a member of the herd."”**

“The gregarious tendency, Mr. Trotter believes, is biologically fundamental. He finds therefore that the herd reaction is not confined to outbreaks such as panics and mob violence, but that it is a constant factor in all human thinking and feeling.”***

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* Bernays refers to him as William Trotter.
** As quoted in Bernays, Edward. Crystallizing Public Opinion (pp. 51-52). Kindle Edition. (Bold and color emphasis added.)
*** Bernays, Edward.Crystallizing Public Opinion (pp. 51-52). Kindle Edition.

Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter, FRS[1] (3 November 1872 – 25 November 1939) was an English surgeon, a pioneer in neurosurgery. He was also known for his studies on social psychology, most notably for his concept of the herd instinct, which he first outlined in two published papers in 1908, and later in his famous popular work Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War, an early classic of crowd psychology. Trotter argued that gregariousness was an instinct, and studied beehives, flocks of sheep and wolf packs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfred_Trotter

#103: Wasting and Destruction

4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.*

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* Old Testament | Isaiah 59:4-8  (Bold emphasis added.)

Isaiah was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. ... Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the prophet",[9] but the exact relationship between the Book of Isaiah and any such historical Isaiah is complicated. The traditional view is that all 66 chapters of the book of Isaiah were written by one man, Isaiah, possibly in two periods between 740 BC and c. 686 BC, separated by approximately 15 years, ...
The first verse of the Book of Isaiah states that Isaiah prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah (Isaiah 1:1). Uzziah's reign was 52 years in the middle of the 8th century BC, and Isaiah must have begun his ministry a few years before Uzziah's death, probably in the 740s BC. Isaiah lived until the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah (who died 698 BC). He may have been contemporary for some years with Manasseh. Thus Isaiah may have prophesied for as long as 64 years.[10] [from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah]

#102: Conspiracy Fact – Deposing Empress Theodora

Byzantine Empire

“In the mid-ninth century A.D., a young man named Michael III assumed the throne of the Byzantine Empire. His mother, the Empress Theodora, had been banished to a nunnery, and her lover, Theoctistus, had been murdered ; at the head of the conspiracy to depose Theodora and enthrone Michael had been Michael’s uncle, Bardas, [brother of Theodora] a man of intelligence and ambition. Michael was now a young, inexperienced ruler, surrounded by intriguers, murderers, and profligates.”*

“Both Bardas and Michael would eventually be assassinated by Basil I, who would then usurp the throne and establish the Macedonian Dynasty.”**

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* from Greene, Robert. The 48 Laws of Power (p. 9). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodora_(wife_of_Theophilos)

#101: False Flag – The Shelling of Mainila

“The Shelling of Mainila ... was a military incident on 26 November 1939 in which the Soviet Union's Red Army shelled the Soviet village of Mainila ... near Beloostrov. The Soviet Union declared that the fire originated from Finland across the nearby border and claimed to have had losses in personnel. Through that false flag operation, the Soviet Union gained a great propaganda boost and a casus belli for launching the Winter War four days later.

“... Earlier in the same year, Nazi Germany had staged the similar Gleiwitz incident to generate an excuse to withdraw from its nonaggression pact with Poland.[1] Also the Soviet war games held in March 1938 and 1939 had been based on a scenario where border incidents taking place at the village of Mainila would have sparked the war.

“Materials in the private archives of Soviet party leader Andrei Zhdanov show that the incident was orchestrated to paint Finland as an aggressor and launch an offensive.[6] The Finnish side denied responsibility for the attacks and identified Soviet artillery as their source—indeed, the war diaries of nearby Finnish artillery batteries show that Mainila was out of range of all of them, as they had been withdrawn to prevent such incidents.

“The Soviet Union then renounced the non-aggression pact with Finland and on 30 November 1939 launched the first offensives of the Winter War.”*

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelling_of_Mainila

*”A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on a second party. The term is popular amongst conspiracy theory promoters [analysts] in referring to covert operations of various governments and cabals.[1] ... The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression and foreign military aggression.”[7] ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag

#100: Safeguards against Conspiracy

“Not to be hated or despised by the body of his subjects, is one of the surest safeguards that a Prince can have against conspiracy. For he who conspires always reckons on pleasing the people by putting the Prince to death; but when he sees that instead of pleasing he will offend them, he cannot summon courage to carry out his design. For the difficulties that attend conspirators are infinite, and we know from experience that while there have been many conspiracies, few of them have succeeded.”*
[SMS: BUT some have, (more than Machiavelli could ever have imagined in our technocratic world) at the expense of millions of lives and the destruction of God-given rights and freedoms as this Voices blog exposes; as we are daily witnessing in 2021.]

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*Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince (Kindle Locations 932-935). Personal Development Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ... 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian diplomat, philosopher, politician, historian and writer who lived during the Renaissance. He is best known for The Prince (Il Principe), written about 1513.[5] He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.[6] For many years he served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is of high importance to historians and scholars.[7] He worked as secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli

For this blogger's view about ideas of expediency attributable to Machiavelli see: https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2014/02/niccolo-mockiavelli.html and consider his words as quoted in Burnham, James. The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom (p. 6). Lume Books. Kindle Edition as noted in Voices ... #099 and repeated here:

Machiavelli: “I come now to the last branch of my charge: that I teach princes villainy, and how to enslave. If any man will read over my book … with impartiality and ordinary charity, he will easily perceive that it is not my intention to recommend that government or those men there described to the world, much less to teach men how to trample upon good men, and all that is sacred and venerable upon earth, laws, religion, honesty, and what not. If I have been a little too punctual in describing these monsters in all their lineaments and colours, I hope mankind will know them, the better to avoid them, my treatise being both a satire against them, and a true character of them …” from a Letter to a Friend .

#099: In Describing These Monsters

Machiavelli: “I come now to the last branch of my charge: that I teach princes villainy, and how to enslave. If any man will read over my book … with impartiality and ordinary charity, he will easily perceive that it is not my intention to recommend that government or those men there described to the world, much less to teach men how to trample upon good men, and all that is sacred and venerable upon earth, laws, religion, honesty, and what not. If I have been a little too punctual in describing these monsters in all their lineaments and colours, I hope mankind will know them, the better to avoid them, my treatise being both a satire against them, and a true character of them …”*

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* Niccolo Machiavelli, from a Letter to a Friend as quoted in Burnham, James. The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom (p. 6). Lume Books. Kindle Edition.

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli ...; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian diplomat, philosopher, politician, historian and writer who lived during the Renaissance. He is best known for The Prince (Il Principe), written about 1513.[5] He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.[6] For many years he served as a senior official in the Florentine Republic with responsibilities in diplomatic and military affairs. He wrote comedies, carnival songs, and poetry. His personal correspondence is of high importance to historians and scholars.[7] He worked as secretary to the Second Chancery of the Republic of Florence from 1498 to 1512, when the Medici were out of power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli

For this blogger's view about ideas of expediency attributable to Machiavelli see: https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2014/02/niccolo-mockiavelli.html

#098: Persecution for a Hypothesis?

"Now here we find ourselves confronted with an amazing fact. When, in the past, opinions so arguable have been enforced by State violence, it has been at the instigation of fanatics who held them for fixed and flaming certainties. If truths could not be evaded by their enemies, neither could they be altered even by their friends. But what are the certain truths that the secular arm must now lift the sword to enforce? Why, they are that very mass of bottomless questions and bewildered answers that we have been studying in the last chapters—questions whose only interest is that they are trackless and mysterious; answers whose only glory is that they are tentative and new. The devotee boasted that he would never abandon the faith; and therefore he persecuted for the faith. But the doctor of science actually boasts that he will always abandon a hypothesis; and yet he persecutes for the hypothesis. The Inquisitor violently enforced his creed, because it was unchangeable. The savant enforces it violently because he may change it the next day."

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Eugenics and Other Evils by G.K. Chesterton. Cassell and Company, Limited London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne, 1922 at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25308/25308-h/25308-h.htm (Bold emphasis added.)

Gilbert Keith Chesterton KC*SG (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer,[2] philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox".[3] Time magazine observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out."[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton

#097: A Multiplied Tyranny

I hate tyranny, at least I think I do; but I hate it most of all where most are concerned in it. The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny. If, as society is constituted in these large countries of France and England, full of unequal property, I must make my choice (which God avert!) between the despotism of a single person, or of the many, my election is made. As much injustice and tyranny has been practised in a few months by a French democracy, as in all the arbitrary monarchies in Europe in the forty years of my observation.

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Letter to Captain Thomas Mercer (26 February 1790), quoted in Alfred Cobban and Robert A. Smith (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VI: July 1789–December 1791 (1967), p. 96 https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

Edmund Burke (... 12 January [NS] 1729[2] – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman, economist, and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party after moving to London in 1750. Burke was a proponent of underpinning virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state.[3] These views were expressed in his A Vindication of Natural Society. He criticised the actions of the British government towards the American colonies, including its taxation policies.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

#096: By sad Experience

39 We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.
40 Hence many are called, but few are chosen.*

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* Doctrine and Covenants | Section 121:39-40 (Bold emphasis added.)

The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the Latter Day Saints: Carefully Selected from the Revelations of God, editions of the book continue to be printed mainly by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [RLDS Church]). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_and_Covenants

#095: Conspiracy Fact - Watergate Crimes & Cover up

USA

"The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continuous attempts to cover up its involvement in the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Washington, D.C. Watergate Office Building. After the five perpetrators were arrested, the press and the U.S. Justice Department connected the cash found on them at the time to the Nixon re-election campaign committee. ... Further investigations, along with revelations during subsequent trials of the burglars, led the U.S. House of Representatives to grant its judiciary committee additional investigation authority to probe into "certain matters within its jurisdiction", ... and the U.S. Senate to create a special investigative committee. The resulting Senate Watergate hearings were broadcast "gavel-to-gavel" nationwide by PBS and aroused public interest. ... Witnesses testified that the president had approved plans to cover up administration involvement in the break-in, and that there was a voice-activated taping system in the Oval Office. ... Throughout the investigation, the administration resisted its probes, which led to a constitutional crisis."*

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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal (Bold emphasis added.)

#094: False Flag - In Business Practice

"In business and marketing, similar [False Flag] operations are being employed in some public relations campaigns (see Astroturfing). Telemarketing firms practice false flag type behavior when they pretend to be a market research firm (referred to as "sugging"). In some rare cases, members of an unsuccessful business will destroy some of their own property to conceal an unrelated crime (e.g. safety violations, embezzlement, etc.) but make it appear as though the destruction was done by a rival company."*

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* https://military.wikia.org/wiki/False_flag 

False flag (or black flag) describes covert military or paramilitary operations designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities, groups or nations than those who actually planned and executed them. Operations carried during peace-time by civilian organizations, as well as covert government agencies, may by extension be called false flag operations if they seek to hide the real organization behind an operation. https://military.wikia.org/wiki/False_flag 

The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as a purely figurative expression to mean "a deliberate misrepresentation of someone's affiliation or motives". ... [unreliable source?] It was later used to describe a ruse in naval warfare whereby a vessel flew the flag of a neutral or enemy country in order to hide its true identity. The tactic was originally used by pirates and privateers to deceive other ships into allowing them to move closer before attacking them. It later was deemed an acceptable practice during naval warfare according to international maritime laws, provided the attacking vessel displayed its true flag once an attack had begun. ... The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression and foreign military aggression. ... Similarly deceptive activities carried out during peacetime by individuals or non governmental organizations can (by extension) also be called false flag operations, but the more common legal term is a "frameup", "stitch up", or "setup". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag

#093: The Abyss of Degradation

“I deplore with you the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed, and the malignity, the vulgarity, & mendacious spirit of those who write for them: and I enclose you a recent sample, the production of a New England judge, as a proof of the abyss of degradation into which we are fallen. These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste and lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information and a curb on our functionaries, they have rendered themselves useless by forfeiting all title to belief. That this has in a great degree been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit I agree with you...”*

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*Letter to Walter Jones (2 January 1814) https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson  (Bold emphasis added.)

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743[a] – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He had previously served as the second vice president of the United States under John Adams between 1797 and 1801. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation; he produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national levels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

#092: "That Lying Vehicle"

"It has become a sarcastic proverb that a thing must be true if you saw it in a newspaper. That is the opinion intelligent people have of that lying vehicle in a nutshell. But the trouble is that the stupid people–who constitute the grand overwhelming majority of this and all other nations–do believe and are moulded and convinced by what they get out of a newspaper, and there is where the harm lies."...*

"That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse."*

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* Mark Twain "License of the Press" speech, 1873   https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced,"[2] and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature".[3] His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884),[4] the latter often called "The Great American Novel". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

#091: Constipation of Conscience

Our mistakes have become our secrets. Editors and journalists tear up with a guilty air all that reminds them of the party promises unfulfilled, or the party ideals reproaching them. It is true of our statesmen ..., that socially in evidence they are intellectually in hiding. The society is heavy with unconfessed sins; its mind is sore and silent with painful subjects; it has a constipation of conscience. There are many things it has done and allowed to be done which it does not really dare to think about; it calls them by other names and tries to talk itself into faith in a false past, as men make up the things they would have said in a quarrel. Of these sins one lies buried deepest but most noisome, and though it is stifled, stinks: the true story of the relations of the rich man and the poor in England. The half-starved English proletarian is not only nearly a skeleton but he is a skeleton in a cupboard.

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Eugenics and Other Evils by G.K. Chesterton. Cassell and Company, Limited London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne, 1922 at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25308/25308-h/25308-h.htm

Gilbert Keith Chesterton KC*SG (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer,[2] philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic. He has been referred to as the "prince of paradox".[3] Time magazine observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out."[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton