Iraqi Occupation: The Cognitive Fall-Out

Cognition is the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment. Millions of Americans have had this process shaped by the lies of the GOP propaganda machine. Lies and misinformation have been imbedded in their cognitive processes by emotionally based associations. Human beings in general seem to be susceptible to the lies and misinformation of skilled propagandists. As a result of this susceptibility and the sheer power of the GOP propaganda machine, there has been a mass alteration of cognition. This has resulted in a change in the way millions of people think on a fundamental level.

This fundamental alteration of the cognitive process is only half the battle in the war to change the direction of a nation. The propaganda machine that has been at work in our country has tremendous power. Joseph Goebbels would be in awe of this machine. Goebbles would probably be quick to point out the missing half of this machine. Goebbels said, “The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” The enabling power of a propaganda machine lies with its ability to isolate the propagandized from the truth. Reality cannot be allowed to come crashing in.

Right now, reality is crashing in on the GOP and their right wing surrogates. The truth is slowly working its way into the consciousness of even the most heavily propagandized Americans. Even the people who bought this pack of lies with reckless abandon are starting to raise questions. Struggling middle class families witness unchecked multinationals outsourcing good paying jobs, energy prices spiraling to crippling heights, and sons and daughters coming home in body bags. Even the most faithful are now starting to lose faith. Joseph Goebbels had no such problem. Even as the Allied Forces entered their bombed out cities, Germans still believed in the cause. The German people never found out the truth until it was too late. The GOP obviously neglected to read history or they don’t understand that, “the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”