At least since the Babylonian mystery schools, the length of human history is rife with examples of organised religions and their priesthoods collaborating closely with rulers for the organisation and control of a social consensus amongst the people, in order to corral them into viewpoints that would maintain the status quo, keep them working hard for a pittance and remove or stigmatise any desire for dissent, rebellion against more privileged classes or even improving their lot in life. These religious institutions would happily do so in exchange for a respected position in the state and social heirarchy, the right to tax a percentage of the people’s livelihood, and own their own land upon which they would build special awe-inspiring buildings. These religious institutions were characterised by large numbers of devout, well-meaning workers who would try their best to reconcile the interpretation of their dogma with the politics and aims of their superiors and the common-sense of the people they were “spiritually guiding”. Over time this was perfected so much that both the priests and their flocks would develop mental automatisms to reconfigure “on the fly” information recieved from just about any source so it would fit in with their beliefs. The opposite rarely occured, as any ideas contrary to the current interpretation of dogma would be strongly – often violently – resisted, thus encouraging a very robust form of “socio-political correctness”. This has kept many countries in a stranglehold for large parts of their history, stifling creativity, innovation and progress. At the worst, it has led to crusades, inquisitions or Jihads responsible for the deaths of many, many innocents.
Over the last couple of centuries organised religions have taken considerable hits on their credibility and lost a lot of their previous influence on the beliefs of many peoples around the globe. This has resulted in a void waiting to be filled. By it’s very nature, power in any form cannot exist unless supported by subsidiary groups that execute it’s agendas and provide public demonstrations to prove to the people how essential their masters are for continued existence, comfort and security.
So for many people, the evolution of scientific discovery has eroded their belief in strange gods, cults and superstitions, and they have turned their attention away from priests and scriptures, towards scientists, researchers and their institutions, hoping that these people would reveal the secrets of reality and contribute to the common good through their careful and painstaking work. The structures of contemporary power having changed, shifting from the leadership of geographicaly limited areas by small groups of people to widely dispersed political and financial trans-national entities that can formulate policy for entire continents, or own the finances of entire sectors of the economy woldwide, results in much greater opportunities, money, and influence for organisations or people of any stripe that put themselves under their protective wing in exchange for aligning their own goals with the objectives of their masters. It seems unfortunately that many scientists have been attracted by the same material things that seduced religious institutions into working so closely with power before, and in many areas are now perfoming the same functions of coralling wiewpoints, creating consensus aligned with political expediency, stigmatising dissent, and creating dogmas to justify the policies of their masters. In exchange they are provided with status, land on which to build awe-inspiring buildings, ressources, and a portion of the people’s taxes, doled out in many forms (grants, subsidies, etc…). Notice the similarities with the priesthoods of old ?
A good current example of this can be seen in the current WHO scandal involving corruption and fraud, where numerous scientists are being investigated because of funds recieved from big pharma companies that would have (and have had) an immense direct financial gain if a pandemic was declared. The power structure in question – the private curiously named World Health Organization – has attained after years of effort the capacity to force hundreds of countries around the world to act in concert if certain health criteria – defined by itself of course – were met. In this case, the “priesthood” were so keen on helping their contributors, they actually changed the definition of a “pandemic” to be able to classify the swine-flu outbreaks under this heading, thus allowing them to legally force countries around the world to spend huge fortunes on enacting a series of national emergency preparations, including buying billions of dollars worth of badly tested and largely ineffective vaccines produced by companies that both directly and indirectly keep the WHO and it’s initiates supplied with financing.
Here is an excellent summary of the current pseudo-pandemic rout by people who are good at “following the money”
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/engdahl/2010/0111.html
Another good example of the same trend is shown with the “climategate” scandal, where it seems the IPCC top dogs were willing to go to any length, including falsifying data, obstructing scientific debate, designing biased computer models and fraudulent graphs, in a most unscientific attempt to convince everyone about their beliefs and destroy any other viewpoints. Whether global warming is happening or not, this kind of behaviour completely opposes so many principles that “good science” is based on, it is not suprising they have blasted their credibility for many people ! I am sure they would have never gone to such risky lengths if they were not closely entwined with a giant financial network that stands to gain billions through the implementation of the new carbon economy all over the world. I have noticed that alongside the global financial mess, many powerful groups are transforming themselves into vectors of the “green economy” in order to continue raking in millions while wearing a “holier than thou” cloth and pretending to be selfless saviours of humanity. Maybe they are hoping to avoid the grizzly fate that might be awaiting their banker brethren if a majority becomes aware of the depths of larceny (er, stealing many times over the value of the world’s economy in less than a century…) they have sunk to.
Somehow the carbon credit system reminds me of Church “Indulgencies” sold so rich sinners could buy their way back into paradise….
For an overview of some the companies desperately fighting for the moral high ground while making a buck try the IETA site.
As an end note: In the same way medaeval town criers would never shout out news going against the will of the monarch or the local religion – or be out of a job pretty quick – contemporary media seem to toe the line or simply not report the most important facts when “informing” people about both international power structures or the groups that serve them, unless someone involved has screwed up so massively that there is no way they can avoid it. Even then there are numerous methods to distort truth, misdirect public questioning, produce absurd theories to discredit serious information or whitewash sensitive material. When the news they carry is produced by especially credible/powerful organisations, they have even less reason to do anything but parrot what they have been told. Real, no-holds barred investigative journalism seems to be relegated to the web these days.
Expect more encyclicals from the new priesthoods soon – and maybe an “ordo inquisitoris” will be knocking on your door soon to check your green lightbulbs (you know: the bulbs responsible for thousands of mercury poisoning deaths and the ruining of an entire water table in China under the factories producing them…)
Luckily, burning at the stake is not very carbon friendly in this neo-feudal world ! They will have to find something else…
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