Posted by panch from ? (64.79.4.3) on Wednesday, May 15, 2002 at 10:07AM :
When the Freedom of Information Act was passed into Law...Americans were amazed to learn that the majoirty of the members of the American Communist Party were FBI and CIA agents.
The oldest game in the world is to set up an "opposing" organization...or send out a call for "Solidarity".......and names and addresses, to the people you might not otherwise know the political leanings of.
For instance, if I was a left wing pinko nut who wanted to know who out there oppsed me...I would create an organization whose goals were the antithesis of everything I really believed...like bait to catch a lot of little dumb fish.
Real organizations, that have real goals, don't talk in cartoon bubble talk...they don't use bombast and "soul stirring" phrases to catch the gullible with. It's what the Gassbag is best at...cheap Soviet Era calls to the "masses" and all that rot. Real people, and real organizations, go about their work without empty fanfare.
A smart Tyrant announces an "amnesty" every few years...encourages "democracy" and "openess". And then he, and his Minister of the Interior, sit back and wait. They see the protest marchers...the rallies...send agents to "join" and all the time names and addresses are being gathered. When they have enough...some "emergency" crops up, and the police have to weed out "dissidents" and all rights newly granted are "suspended" because of an imminant "national emergency" that forces all of the people to "come together" against the "common foe". You fill in your favorite phrases.
Then the Opposition, who actually thought things had changed and raised their dumb heads...can get them chopped off all the easier. And quiet descends on the country, and peace and prosperity returns with "security"...and the people give thanks to their leaders. This goes on until people feel the pinch and squeeze again...realize they are suffereing as much now as they did then...and the Tyrant, seeing this...declares another amnesty and a new "openess"...and DAMN if the ones orphaned the last time around don't oblige by stepping forward.
These Tyrannies never last because eventually everyone is either braindead or dead.
-- panch
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