The video describes the expansion of the national security state following 9/11:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQgImAQ3pCE
The article is titled "Systemic Destabilization in Recent American History: 9/11, the JFK Assassination, and the Oklahoma City Bombing as a Strategy of Tension," and it looks at historical examples of the national security state committing what Lance deHaven-Smith calls "state crimes against democracy." Scott writes:
I wish to propose that America, as well as Europe, has also suffered from a similar series of false-flag structural deep events, including bombings, that have, in conformity with the same strategy of tension, systematically moved America into its current condition, a state of emergency.You should understand from these readings what the "strategy of tension" is. How does the strategy of tension complicate the ability of the average person to define "the state"? In other words, Americans live under the cloak of democracy, but within that system is a massive apparatus that acts in secret and not always for "democratic" reasons; so, what do we mean when we talk about "the state"?
According to the video "strategy of tension" is a method that the government uses to somehow make the people into thinking that no one can be trusted and that everyone is basically a terrorist. Although, it is better to be over careful than not careful enough, the video showed none of the "could have been" devastations were actually stopped by the people who run this "strategy tension" but by regular citizens.
ReplyDelete"The state" according to the reading has different parts. There is the state that the public is aware of and then there is the state where all secret things take place which is potentially committing crimes against the public state. Although, Scott does say that the "secret" state cannot be blamed for all the crimes that happen to the state, and that there is a difference between crime committed against the state rather than by it.
Based on the article and the video, what is meant by "strategy of tension" is causing unnecessary unrest in the general public, allowing the government to more easily influence them. Many people believe that the government is allowing certain acts of terrorism to pass in order to take complete control of the people (which they had before any of these events took place). From what I understand, the average person would describe "the state" as the current state of mind they are living in. Those that feel threatened will be more open to suggestion than those who don't.
ReplyDeleteFrom the article, he was talking about the links between the assassination of JFK, RFK, the Oklahoma City bombing, and 9/11 and how they were being used to manipulate the people for better control. He used the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 as a good example of "strategy of tension." They were both used to pass bills granting law enforcement more power over the people. Many people believe that these and many other historic events were conducted by government officials to create chaos among the people in order to better manipulate them. From the Oklahoma City bombing, the Antiterrorism Act was created within a day, and from 9/11, the Patriot Act was created within a day. Both documents were drawn up before the event had actually occurred, making people think it was all a set up.
From the video, the narrator was describing a situation involving a police officer and one of the alleged high jackers from 9/11. It turns out that he had pulled one of them over for speeding, and let him go free just two days before. I can only imagine how he felt knowing he let a future high jacker go. He probably felt somewhat responsible for it, and he shouldn't have to. It was his choice to do that, and should have no effect on the officer. Again, many people believe that this was the last nail in the coffin which enabled the government to continue gaining control of the people. I cannot believe that there are people out there that think their government is purposely causing tension for manipulative purposes. It's absurd! All they are trying to do is gain control of the situation by relying on the people to support them (which would seem to be the cause of the paranoia).
The strategy of tension portrays a manipulative tactic that has the ultimate goal of the government achieving “extreme nationalism” amongst its citizens. This strategy of tension can be seen through a series of events that are tragic such as 9/11 and the JFK assassination. These events typically leave some citizens fearful which leads to turning to the government in hope of a way to ease this sense of fear.
ReplyDeleteThe ability for the average citizen to define “the state” has become rather complicated, as we have seen in the video. There are sources such as the media outlets, which influence defining the state and portray the strategies of tension in a manner that aims to make citizens “brainwashed” into believing the government’s version of events. The state is no longer interpreted as just being the government of the country but rather now includes organizations such as the FBI and CIA. Ultimately, any organization that joins forces with the government in order to seek control or patriotism from individuals can be considered as being part of “the state”.
As we have seen in the video, the government has its own secretive agenda and there are buildings in Washington that are believed to be used to for purposes that are unknown to the public. The no-trespassing signs are likely there to instill a sense a fear for the public. It was interesting to see how the intelligence agencies aim to make individuals fearful by arresting any person who appears to be engaging in suspicious activity. In this context, suspicious activity can be anything as harmless as picture taking. Ultimately, if the strategy of tension continues to persist, some citizens will likely continue to support nationalism to ease their concern.
What I understand here is that the “the strategy of tension” is the sense of fear, which the government created, of uncertainty in the world, the fear of anyone around you has the potential to be a terrorist and could attack the civilians, therefore we need a series of regulations and acts to ensure the controllability of government so that they can actively protect the public. The article suggests that whenever the authorities want to manipulate peoples mind and to gain better control of them, they set up some traps then sit and wait until people walk into the traps, and let those catastrophic deep events happen, then pretend to be the savior again and make people feel necessary to form strategies to cope with terrorism. So many examples such as, the response to Oklahoma City the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, while the response to 9-11 was the first implementation of COG and the passage (after a false flag anthrax attack) of the patriot Act. The authorities make up the problematic events and solutions in the way of favoring themselves and against democracy.
ReplyDeleteAs we see in the article and the video“the state” may imply the centralization of power and resources, therefore the groups of people who have the access to the power may use them inappropriately. Sometime those secret government and agencies can escape from the jurisdiction of the law and other restraints of the constitution and the public state. It could be very dangerous to the rest of the world when the ones who have the privileges can act freely and shield themselves under the name of authorities. Actually it is contrary with democracy, but more like autocratic because the civilians of course have no influences on them without even knowing the existences of them.
The article and video are quite convincing, because they show how governments gain better control of people, and how public are monitored and manipulated by them gradually, but I still do not want to believe they are true until I see the solid evidences.
Strategy of tension is a specific tactic that is used to divide, manipulate and control the people through the usage of fear and disinformation and false flag terrorist actions. This tactic basically uses false flag violence to in someway discredit other political parties and to land the country in a state of emergency.
ReplyDeleteFrom what i understood the state is the secretive aspect of american government. The state government is the government that is protecting Americas secrets and the part of government with the most control. So from this understanding i suppose that the NSA could be considered the state government.
In the video it is clear that America's obsession with terrorism and terrorists leads them to very quickly jump to conclusions about people. They almost assume everyone could be a terrorist until otherwise proven. This is because of a very broad description of what a terrorist is and has lead to many false accusations. This is all part of Americas "global" war on terror. to me there is not really anything global about it its purely about the Americans.
Under a democratic system, the government is supposed to have limited control over their citizens. By using a strategy of tension, the government is able to manipulate the views and beliefs and people in order to ultimately recapture some of that power that is supposed to be protected. If public actions are to shape to the decisions that the government makes, then by imposing certain views on the public, the government is able to shape the course of their actions to their own personal liking.
ReplyDeleteAfter the events of 9/11, the American government was able to instill a belief of fear and paranoia that enabled them to subsequently take away some of the fundamental rights of their citizens in order to so called "protect" the general public. This concept has completely changed the view on "the state." The idea of the state is to act on behalf of the public and protect the rights of their citizens. In cases such as the Watergate scandal or the Patriot Act, the public is exposed to some of the ulterior motives that the state possesses, and this causes the public to question how much power they really have. The state has used some of the devastating events like the JFK assassination and 9/11 as a means to extrapolate more control over the public and allowing the government to withhold information for what they declare is for the greater good of the people.
Over that last half century or so, I believe that the vision of what the state is has changed dramatically both in the eyes of the government as well as the public. The concept of these extremely secretive divisions within the American government has changed the perspective of the state as a democratic body. With the government in control of such valuable and secretive information, it is very difficult to decipher whether or not the public or the government truly possesses more power and control over the country.
Through these measures, the government has been able to create such a strong sense of fear within the public of not only terrorists, but of the government themselves. They have shown to be in possession of so much power, that the public remains hesitant to oppose their actions for fear of what the consequences may be. As long as the government can continue to convince the public that there is a legitimate reason to continue to enforce these restrictive policies and withhold information that could compromise the safety of the people, then the government will continue to have a unique control over the people that in theory should not exist under a democratic system
The video describes how life in America has changed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, based on responses by the government and police forces. The actions undertaken by the police forces and intelligence agencies are absolutely staggering in their scope, and has resulted in the US almost resembling the steps needed to create a police state. There are programs being implemented costing billions of dollars, which are recording and organizing information detailing more than millions of citizens. These are including license plates, popular traffic routes they take, and "suspicious activity" which can be as simple as taking pictures or drawing maps around an important building. As I feel that national security is very important, the amount of information being collected is going way too far. Most of this information isn't even being used to stop these attacks, as most attacks are only counteracted by individuals alerting police officials.
ReplyDeleteA strategy of tension is a strategy used by the government to scare and disorient the public, and persuade them to allow for more restrictive and protective policies. The reason this strategy allows for difficulty defining the state, is because of the idea of deep politics. While the government has many public appearances, it is seen that much information is stored and withheld from the public eye. This is why some people seem to believe the police and these intelligence agencies are really the state, as they seem to hold all of the information and power.
My impression from the article as well as the video is that a ‘strategy of tension’ is used to by the government in order to implement a high degree of nationalism among civilians. A nation in panic is more willing to implement extreme measures in order to ‘protect’ that nation. Historically this strategy has been used successfully.
ReplyDeleteA strategy of tension directly interferes with an average persons definition of the state as in a heightened state on panic one is less likely to question ‘the state’s’ actions. The United States as an example have used the terrorist’s missed police check in order to implement a ‘big brother’ mentality which potentially tracks the movements and phone calls of all citizens. The extreme expansion of secret service agencies goes relatively unnoticed by the majority of citizens, as these are measures to ‘protect’ the state.
The mentality of strategy of tension is extremely interesting and is not merely limited to internal relations. It seems to be that within the covert operations that go on within the 'secret state' international political parties could be affected as well. The United States have a history of interfering in other nations, by increasing fear within their own country they are able to more covertly affect others as well.
According to the video and the article, a strategy of tension is something implented by the government to instill fear and paranoia in the minds of the countries citizens. The government then takes advantage of this fear to gain more control over the citizens and to create new legislation granting more power to the government and the various secret organizations.
ReplyDeleteThe state can be easily viewed as two different parts. There is the state that is the country itself, with its democratic government, where the people of the country have some say in what happens. Then there is the secret state that operates out of the public eye and quite often performing operations without the government knowing.
What makes the state itself so hard to define is the fact that these two parts are in some ways completely different and independant of one another but in other ways they are the same thing and operate together. The line between the two is blurred and at some points non-existant making it difficult to say which one is the actual state or they together form the state as it is now.
From what I understand from the video and article, the strategy of tension is used to control and manipulate public opinion by using fear, false flag terrorist actions and so on. In the use of this “strategy of tension” the government is therefore able to keep some of the power because they now will have the public certain views drilled into the public the public that support their actions.
ReplyDeleteCitizens are unable to define the state due to a series of complications that we see in the video. The state no longer just means the government body it also includes organizations involved in the same matters as the state, including the FBI and CIA. These organizations have taken some control of the citizens, in partnership with the government. There is also the sense of “the state” that the citizens are aware of but as well as the “secret state” which in the video you can see although many people may know about it, nobody knows exactly all the functions or the costs. As defined in the article there has been many events such as 9/11, Oklahoma City bombing, and the assassinations of JFK and RFK that have led to war events by America. The ability of the average person to define the “state” is much more complicated than just one aspect of the government, but rather the organizations as well as American events that have instilled fear into the citizens allowing some fundamental freedoms to be taken away without a single thought.
Strategy of tension appears to be a powerful form of rhetoric that was thought up by the government to make people believe that there is trouble all around America and no one can be trusted. The government and police may use strategic tension to abuse their power. This is shown by the woman who was arrested for "suspicious" behaviour. Her taking the photos of the train was deemed suspicious by officers which shows an abuse of power. Government O Mally of Maryland brings up a valid point and thats that America's freedom is what allows them to be attacked by terrorists but their freedom also allows them to be attacked by their government and the government may do more harm to the people than the terrorists do. The video shows that the government does not trust anyone abuses power shown through the police taking photographs of liscense plates.
ReplyDeleteAs for the average American citizen it is hard for them to truely define "the state". So many influences are within the society that makes it quiet difficult for every citizen. The government hides what the state truely is. They make the people believe in democracy but the article shows how defining the state is very difficult
The strategy of tension (from the Wikipedia term you sent us) is the tactic that aims to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using strategies such as fear, propaganda, etc… According to the article, Peter Dale Scott writes about how certain events in history led up to new laws and acts being enforced today. He believes that events such as the JFK Assassination or 9/11 were false flag structural deep events. Due to events like this, and the acts that result in it, this would make it harder for people to define what “the state” is. These acts are being implemented quite fast after these events (according to the article) and not only that, to prevent these events from reoccurring the government is creating secret services/agencies. The government spends billions of dollars on trying to create ways to prevent any terrorist attacks, but they aren’t telling the citizens about what they are planning. This leads to questions and to other conspiracy theories. The United States is considered as a democracy, but it isn’t very democratic if they are hiding these plans from the rest of the country.
ReplyDeleteIf I was able to define the state it would include the meaning of working together to create a stronger nation. People work together to improve the state, but with the new “secret system” and enforced acts (due to emergency), it makes it look more like “the state” is dividing into two with one side controlling the other in a way that makes it seem like it’s not their fault.
When we talk about the state, I honestly do not know what we are referring too. If I were to make an assumption, I’d say that there are two parts to “the state”. The outside layer that makes the state look as if everything is okay, and then the inside layer that is full of secrets. In other words, the state would be referring to the government going to such an extent to keep information from its people to protect the people or gain more control. In the case of the article it would be to gain more control.
The strategy of tension complicates the ability of the average person to define ‘the state’ in a number of ways. Firstly, forces at work within 'deep politics', to coin the term from Peter Dale Scott, are typically not the figureheads or institutions that the public knows and recognizes as ‘the state’, but rather unseen and unknown people working within that the average person does not know about and would not associate with 'the state' that they have come to know.
ReplyDeleteAlso, to paraphrase from the reading, the state is often the victim of events arising from deep politics. ‘The state’, as it’s seen by the average person, is an enabler of democracy, however there are also forces within the state that work against that very goal and other goals the state have publicly put forward that are known and counted on by the average citizen. One of the ways these actions are accomplished is through strategy of tension, which may branch out and affect democracy in the state as a whole, or, through deception and manipulation, may be able to influence public opinion enough to convince a case in which elements of the state such as the military would be used to serve the purpose of those involved in deep politics rather than the people, subverting something which is one of the cornerstones of democracy and of the state: serving the people.
Thus, it becomes complicated to define ‘the state’ with these types of factors in place, especially when you consider the internal conflict which occurs when executed strategy of tension goes against the purported goals ‘the state’ has. Initially, with what is thought to be what the average person knows and comes to trust, 'the state' simply comprises of a group of institutions serving the people, as well as democratically elected representatives carrying out the will of those who elected them.
However, when we talk about ‘the state’, we know there is more to it than that, particularly in the United States. We saw this demonstrated in the video with the establishment of Homeland Security as an institution to protect the people against terrorism after 9/11. The intelligence fusion centers being established in each state, which on the surface seemed to be a trusted reaction to terrorism, later were revealed to have lack of oversight over intelligence gathering, leading to potentially being used for other reasons than its original goal. It also gave an excuse for increased domestic surveillance of all citizens, without much proof that it was all actually preventing terrorism. Perhaps this demonstrates how terrorism was used in a way of strategy of tension for those involved in deep politics to accomplish a goal of further militarization of the state through information gathering and control.
Based on the video and article “strategy of tension” seems to be used by states across the globe to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda and disinformation. Referring back to 9/11 was an inside job could relate “strategy of tension” as a type of psychological warfare that aim to false flag terrorist actions to achieve their ultimate goals. The ultimate goals that we can only speculate on and unfortunately cannot fully determine.
ReplyDeleteI feel the average individual long ago have felt they have become disconnected with the state. They are only able to see what the state wants them to see. As explained in the video, they show us a four-story building but hide ten stories underground deceiving the public and anyone else they may be interested. The state seems to always have it’s own plans with political reasoning and citizens are the puppets necessary for that play. Then there is the media who only distort what the citizens think of the state and their role further.
After the final straw, which seemed to be letting one of the 9/11 terrorists go after speeding, it does seem logical to create a universal database. However, who knows what all these government agencies and states are able to do with this vast information. If I were an American citizen I would hope that all of this money is actually being put to good use to make my country safer; however, I would not have a good feeling about that. There is such a vast amount of data that will be providing false alarms (such as the guy taking a picture of the train) that they could miss over someone that was actually important.
The video shows that the strategy of tension, which is an attempt to control the public and their opinion's, was used by the US government after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in order to make the public gain suspicion and fear of terrorist attacks. This was taken advantage of by the state by increasing surveillance of the public by using camera's around the city and other methods. The governments also seemed to have increased the number of secretive buildings that do not cross the public's mind as suspicious as the public believes the state is just trying to protect. Even with all of this increased surveillance that is apparently supposed to protect us from terrorist attacks, the video shows that standard police work is still the most effective method in decreasing terrorist activity as these surveillance methods do not work very well. This would complicate the average person from defining the state as the US is supposed to be a free country, but with the government always watching it's difficult to say if they are truly free or not.
ReplyDeleteThe article described many different events throughout history where the government has implemented the strategy of tension through terrorist attacks committed by themselves but blaming it on terrorist activity. The events confirmed to be done by governments agencies were in Italy in 1969, 1974 and 1980, but some people believe these same tactics have been done in the US in Oklahoma City and during the 9/11 attacks. The attacks in Italy were done by right wingers in order to discredit the left wing and create a poor public opinion of them. These attacks committed apparently by a secret government makes it difficult to define the state, especially in a democracy, as democracy is supposed to be about the people and their choices and opinions, but this strategy of tension takes away from this democracy as the secret government is swaying the opinions of people without them even knowing it.
The "strategy of tension" is defined as control the government works on building over the the public opinion through manipulation and propaganda. There is two types of government, one that is exposed to the people that does good for the public in their eyes. And the second is the "secret" government that according to conspiracy theorists does things selfishly that are not necessarily for the public good, but is advertised as being the right thing. A strategy of tension is the governments way of making the people believe in certain events, just so they will support more restrictions and policies that they otherwise may not be able to implement.
ReplyDeleteThrough this strategy, it is hard for the citizens to have their own opinion and definition of the "state." They are forced to believe certain things, yet so much is kept hidden from them which causes mixed opinions and often distrust in the government. So much happens secretly, and events like 9/11 are believed to be done by the state, because of the amount of power they hold, but also due to this constant secrecy. The public feels betrayed because they feel the government is keeping things from them, but also are influenced from the strategy of tension, which causes many different opinions about the state.
The strategy of “tension” complicates the ability of the average civilian to define “the state” because it questions our knowledge of “the state” as we know it. Through the strategy of tension we lose the innocent or naïve understanding of what “the state” meant, and with that a different understanding of “the state” is starts to emerge.
ReplyDelete“The State” then comes to mean (as I understand it) the covert America, the American government that is hypothetically secretly participating in crimes against democracy. With the strategy of tension, “the state” is many things to many people; to the conspiracy theorists “the state” is the boogey man, the massively complex and elaborate secret government behind all major policy altering events. To skeptics, “the state” could mean the fear of something more powerful than they’d like to admit, something more powerful and elaborate than they could fathom existing. And to people who just don’t know “the state” is the scary idea that all is not what it seems and maybe conspiracy theories and theorists deserve a second look.
When I think of “the state” I think of all the power that is in the government, and all the possibilities that lay behind that power. I begin to question what I think I know, and what questions remain unanswered. Then I start to question where I stand and whether I am a conspiracy theorist, skeptic, or if I just don't know; which I think is a unwanted consequence of the strategy of tension: People begin to wonder where they stand within "the state" what "the state" is and whether or not to trust it.
After watching the video and reading the article, it is clear that strategy tension is used widely by the government to manipulate people. It makes it difficult to define the state because we are all in the dark about a lot of things that go in within the government. Like the video stated, only God knows all the special access programs, which I definitely would agree with. The public doesn't have access to all the information, so their definition of the state could greatly differ from someone within the government. The government definitely influences the public to think a certain way about the state through manipulation and propaganda, and when suspicions rise about conspiracies, the government will try very hard to prove these conspiracies wrong. I think that no matter what, people are going to think what they want, but there definitely is a great influence on how we should think. It's difficult to have an opinion and form a definition on something that you don't necessarily know about. Although we have a basic understanding on how the government runs the state, we will never fully understand it to great details, and I think that is why we live under the cloak of democracy.
ReplyDeleteBased on the video, I conclude that what they mean by tension is a complete state of paranoia. They were arresting random people off the street with the slightest look of suspicion, and tried to control the public by manipulating them. They arrested the person who was accused of "suspicious activity" when he was taking photos of the train which I presume made them feel much more "in control" of the situation, and felt they were doing their job right. They were trying to make everyone believe that the government was causing the terrorist attacks, and turned the country against it.
ReplyDeleteThe article tells about the tactics used by the government to initiate fear through so-called "terrorist attacks" which supposedly is some kind of plan for power. The state, we can define it as a collection or group of powerful people including the CIA and FBI who get together to form an organization and work towards a specific "goal" relating to power and control. The state may be known to the average citizen as the government, which controls the humanities and state affairs.
As for me, my definition of "state" would be the country. The democracy that everyone is entitled to have. The freedom of living in a world where you aren't in danger of being accused of homicide bombing and terrorism in the "land of the free and home of the brave."
What I learned from the video and the article about the "strategy of tension" was that its something invented by the government to distract american citizens by scaring them and making them live in fear of terrorists. They make it seem like almost anyone could be a terrorist and that nobody can be trusted. Through this strategy, the government manipulates people to control and have unnecessary power over them. I am unsure what "the state" is defined as. I almost think its what the government wants the American citizens to think so they only show them what they want and make them believe what they are doing is good for the people of their country. In reality, they have something completely different going on and we as the people really don't know what that is because it's all a 'secret.'
ReplyDeleteThe state could be secret groups around the world that the government is not aware. Which the public begins to find ways they can place transgression against the state. The state can be known to the public, so they are aware of all the power the government has over the public in different countries around the world. In the video they talk about the programs they have created since 9/11 to prevent for any situations similar to 9/11. Strategy of tension is what the government created around the world to put fear and terror in the minds of the public across the world. With all that the video talked about occurred after 9/11 was a way the government could gain power from all the different secret organizations.
ReplyDeleteThe "strategy of tension", from my understanding based on the article and video, is a method of creating unrest among citizens as a means to control them more. This kind of control is not necessarily to be taken as a brain-washing kind, but more of a manipulation tactic. The government is unable to do everything themselves without causing more unrest so they influence the people into doing it for them.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, the government wants specific groups of people monitored for their purposes but doesn't necessarily have the means of doing this properly so they get citizens to do it for them. They manipulate the people into thinking this specific group has wronged the government, and in turn the people, in some sort of way. This creates tension around them and in turn the citizens become more aware of the target groups behaviours.
I am not entirely sure that this "strategy of tension" does alter ones ability to define "the state". To me, the state is still the governing body that controls laws and people. This strategy may influence how comfortable people are with the governing body and there may no longer be any sense of trust. If you cannot trust your governing body it can be difficult to identify with it, but it still should not alter the definition of it.
Melissa Martland
The biggest issue facing Americans is inability to know the truth. The mind boggling amount of information and agencies makes it, by design, impossible for anyone to put it all together. Even the people on the very top of the inside may have no idea what is going on in other agencies. Is there actually anyone in the world that knows everything? It doesn't seem like it, and by not having anyone or group of people in charge, the amount of secrecy and overlap only increases. The process of information gathering is ridiculous, going off the list of "suspicious behaviours, every person in the world can be deemed under suspicion of "terrorism". We are supposed to be living in the age of freedom of information, yet it seems the public knows less of what is going on than ever. Even people who have dedicated their lives to find out about what is really going on can only get so far. The strategy of tension seems plausible, it is as if we can't live in a state of relaxation, there always has to be an enemy. Whether it be Nazis or Soviets or "Terrorists" there is always someone to shift focus off of and validate increased government secrecy and power. How much does the president or high level government really know about what is going on? This is supposed to be the leader of the free world, yet might not really be in the loop. Is there a loop to be in? We need to somehow figure out a way to oversee all agencies and amalgamate all of the information. Why are there so many different agencies doing seemingly the same work and why are they not freely sharing information to improve results? "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." - Abraham Lincoln.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all few comments on the video and the article, absolute mind opener. These are the type of videos that all the Americans, well for that matter, everyone should take some time out of their busy lives and watch it. One must not always rely on what is presented by media, and should also do their own research.
ReplyDeleteNow, after watching the video and reading the article, both the article and video, "Strategy of Tension" can be explained as the alert state in which the public must remain. This tactic is used to manipulate and divide public opinion. As we saw in video, they had signs all over the place which read "Report suspicious activity". This can manipulate general public into thinking that there is always some sort of terrorist activity going on.
This is interesting because once the "state" has implemented strategy of tension, we as a general public will turn to our state to provide us with greater security. When we turn to the state for greater security, this gives them the absolute power and reasons to invade privacy and spent billions of dollars. Do we know all that money is spent for our security? or do they have a separate agenda going on? As said in video, only God knows!
We are brought up with the belief that the “State” is governed by the people, and can be relied on. The State is thought to be uncorrupt, and stem from the beliefs of the people. The article and film speak of series of false-flag events have resulted in the emerging of a “Top Secret America”, where by democratic governments are now working in secrecy. In America, events such as the JFK assassination, Robert Kennedy assassination and the 1993 bombings have resulted in the erosion of civil rights and constitutional power. This is done through the development of emergency legislations such as the imposition of Continuity of Government (COG) measures and Patriot act. In America, this has lead to the development of secret agencies and special access programs that continually monitor the population, and create databases that monitor suspicious activities, and unusually behaviors. This “Secret America” that exists within these organizations is hidden from the public. It’s as if the population is blinded by the very idea of a democratic state, when in actuality they have no power and opinion when it come to making decision.
ReplyDeleteThe "strategy of tension" is outlined as an aims to manipulate and control the public opinion using tactics such as fear and propaganda which the government creates purposefully. The government creates enough fear to the public that it leads them to quickly question or assume the wrong thing. Because of the "strategy of tension," Americans are quick to judge an individual as a terrorist because of the fear and lack of knowledge that has been created as well the outcomes and effects of 9/11 has made this fear more prominent. The sense of safety and trust is well forgotten.
ReplyDeleteTherefore defining the term "the state" is a grey area for the public as it seems the definition would be more of an opinion because there is so much confusion on the topic. But in general "the state" seems like a term of power and is a group that makes decisions and knows the truths behind major tragedies that in turn make conspiracies. Overall, my conclusion from watching the video and reading the article is how the government is leading the public a stray by keeping us unknowing which is ultimately feeding their power.