Welcome to the Machine

February 21, 2003

Economics

Economic forces encourage those with money to invest their wealth on projects that will increase their own wealth and power regardless of the long-term effects. The Machine is an unconscious entity that acts in its own immediate self-interest.

Education

It is not in the best interests of The Machine to have a well-educated populace. People incapable of critical or independent thought are more likely to conform to the norms of consumer taste favored by economies of scale. The cuts in education also result directly in worsened economic conditions, greater drug addiction, and thus more justification for the War on Drugs.

Entertainment

You may believe that commercial television exists primarily to supply you with entertainment and that it is financed with advertising. But consider an alternative interpretation: commercial television exists primarily to supply producers with consumers. It is financed primarily by the production of programs designed to attract your attention and then hold it while you are subjected to advertisements. Economies of scale make it necessary to reduce the complexity and diversity of programming which, in turn, forces a reduction in the population's cultural diversity.

Law Enforcement

The worst thing about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 is that it has given US law enforcement agencies all sorts of new excuses to curtail our civil rights. As if the War on Drugs wasn’t enough, this new threat is being used as justification for removing the famous Miranda protections. We have released a document that The Machine probably doesn't want you to read: How to use the Recent Supreme Court Ruling to Legally Increase Pressure on Suspects.

Newspapers

Why do only eight corporations control 90% of America's newspapers? Why do American news outlets only cover events in the US? (Sure, disasters and wars in other countries are covered, but what else?) Why is San Francisco's mayor trying to destroy the diverse small neighborhood newspapers?

Cops

Many important lessons can be learned from watching this important piece of civil-control propaganda:

• You can beat up black people and drug dealers all you want.
• If you accost black kids, arrest them all and haul their asses off to jail.
• If you accost white kids, make them lie down in the grass and lecture them for fifteen minutes, then let them go home.
• If you want to get away with shooting someone, make his buddy stand right in front of your cop car's handy-cam so the precise circumstances are not recorded.
• Only white trash or black people have domestic disturbances.
• Crime only happens in low-income areas -- never in middle- or upper-class residential neighborhoods.

World's Scariest Police Chases

You can learn a lot about the world by watching this program.

• There is only one person in the United States who narrates the action from the vantage point of chase helicopters. Remarkably, he is on hand for every scary chase.
• During every chase, the announcer must say at least once, "Oh, my God! He almost lost it there!"
• When you're following a chase in a helicopter, you can't hear your helicopter's engine or rotors, and you can't hear any other traffic noise. But you can clearly hear the police sirens and the noises the suspect's car makes.
• When a car is being chased, it makes the same tire-squeal noise around every curve, no matter how tight the curve is, how fast the car is going, or what kind of car it is.
• When the suspect approaches an intersection, the guy in the airplane has the uncanny ability to predict the moment of impact with cross traffic.
• Every crash, no matter how many cars or secondary collisions are involved, sounds like this: KerSMASH-tinkle.
• When the suspect is driving a stolen $200,000 Bentley, the cops are required to stay well away and do everything possible to prevent damage to the vehicle.
• When the suspect is driving a stolen $20,000 mini-van, the cops are required to try to get the mini-van to crash so they can apprehend the thief.
• Motorcycles can never get away from the police.

Conspiracy?

No. There's no conscious hidden conspiracy behind these trends. Just simple economic forces.

Conformity

Macroeconomics 101 teaches the concept of economies of scale. A larger operation can produce the same goods for a smaller unit cost. The steel and aluminum industries have known this for decades; other industries are learning it now, and the result is a mad scramble of mergers and buyouts. Economies of scale operate in all industries. If people could be trained to like a smaller variety of consumer goods, then it would be easier to supply them with what they want. Best Seller lists, bubblegum-rock Top 40 lists, blockbuster movies ... these all exist to reduce the diversity of product you are exposed to and will likely be interested in.

Even nonconformity has its place in the Machine. Go to any "art" theater and look at who produces and distributes all the "independent" movies you watch there. These so-called independent distribution companies are all subsidiaries of the big entertainment conglomerates.

Talk Shows

Jerry Springer, Opra, and the like exist primarily to ridicule and intimidate anyone even slightly weird. Conformity to some arbitrary white-bread cultural standard is prized ... and works to the advantage of the producers. Talk shows also keep people's attention focused on trivial problems rather than on important problems. The Machine is not interested in having people think about the problems it is causing them, and would rather have them focus on trivial things.

The War On Drugs

The War on Drugs is nothing more or less than an official excuse to abridge your civil rights at the drop of a hat. People have been frightened into asking the government to restrict their rights in exchange for greater "security" from drugs. The War on Drugs is a dismal failure. If NASA suffered such failures, its funding would be severely cut, yet the steady deterioration leads to increased spending. Workable solutions to the drug problem are well known (and famously applied in other countries) but are ignored. It is not in The Machine's interest to solve the drug problem.

Welcome to the machine.