Astroturfing!

Astroturfing - the practice of faking a grassroots consensus while hiding the sponsorship behind the message.  It creates the impression of widespread support (where little exists) in order to popularize and exaggerate credibility.

... the creation of an artificial grassroots buzz favoring a viewpoint, i.e. lies, propaganda, brainwashing. ...



Examples:

Tobacco Industry: in the 90's, they funded the National Smoker's Alliance to generate what looked like public support for smoker's rights against legislation that would dampen their business.  It was fake support, of course, and the industry knew it.

By the time they were forced to come forward with the truth, that smoking “kills more people than murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes, and alcohol combined,” it was too late for the millions they'd killed ... deliberately, in defense of their profits.

Politics: GOPTeamLeader.com (now closed) offered a tool which sent a user’s letter to the editor to dozens of newspapers under different randomly generated names.  In 2003, virtually identical letters that were essentially lists of GOP talking points were published nearly simultaneously in over 70 newspapers across the US, creating the impression of broad support for controversial GOP policies.  Similar campaigns were used by GeorgeWBush.com.  

Such tactics are not exclusive to the right; the liberal website MoveOn.org used the same tactic the very next year.  Letters to the editor don't affect much these days, so there are twitter bots that fake and forward multiple thousands of generated messages.

Many organizations in the Tea Party movement are considered astroturfed, with direct connections to right-wing think tanks and lobbying organizations, and their activities controlled by wealthy supporters or the GOP.

The DNC under the control of the Clinton campaign persuaded Democrat voters that the choice of candidates rested completely on transparent process.  Not quite true, as we now understand.  By formal agreement, DNC staff and policy required approval by the Clinton campaign prior to implementation for more than a year before the primaries.

Environment: Since 1997 the Koch Brothers have spent over a hundred-million dollars funding supposed scientific organizations.  The groups are masked as think tanks whose purpose is to spread false ideas, to attack climate change scientists, and to popularize climate-change denial.  

Exxon has recently acknowledged that climate change has begun, due in large part to the burning of fossil fuels.  They had attempted to hide or obscure that truth for decades using deliberate misrepresentation detailed in a Harvard analysis and report, using non-peer-reviewed studies and editorial-style advertisements ('advertorials') challenging the science.  Exxon was aggressively and knowingly misrepresenting the results of their own scientific research across four decades, just like the tobacco industry did.  Residual misinformation generated by the oil industry persists in public thinking, even after having been repeatedly discredited.

... and anyone can buy thousands of 'likes' for their web page.

Today, it appears that the internet and media have become, among other things, a tool to shape us according to someone else's plan.  More often than not, the motive is money and power at the top of the pyramid.

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Apparently, Governments also do it.
Then there's Gaslighting.

It's hard!

For some folks, it's automatically going to be a hard battle, one almost impossible to win.  Reaching the goal just isn't going to happen without extraordinarily difficult tasks, choices, and sacrifice.

Being rich apparently insulates us from reality, from the real world, from God's view of things and people, even from our own children.

This young fellow came to the teacher and asked what he needed to do to finish well.  He was told to love God and obey the rules.  The guy said he'd done all of that, and the teacher told him to prove it, but he couldn't or perhaps wouldn't.  His wealth and position, it seems, had tainted his thinking, his view of himself, his comfort and luxury and future. He couldn't bring himself to consider changing course to a better purpose.

It's hard, the teacher said, for a rich person to finish well. Really hard. Later, the teacher's friends were struggling to understand.  "If that rich fellow can't do it, how can we or anyone?"   There is a way, but it's perhaps not obvious once wealth and class obscure things.  

He meant what he said, I think.  And if I live in America, chances are I'm rich, maybe fifty times richer than most others in the world.  Is that a problem?   What do I not see, what have I missed?  How much of my life is spent on the wrong things?

And as for that kingdom he was talking about ... what are the chances the richest country in the world, a wealth-focused culture and economy, is headed in the right direction?  

If the path I'm on seems easy, it might need a critical review.   

Is the goal clear?

The Threshold for Participation

A poor person in the U.S. is richer than half of the folks in the world.  True or not?

Because there's more to the question, perhaps not actually true.

The more complex the economy, the more it costs you to live in it.  That cost is the threshold for participation and the cutoff for survival.

The conservative view here is that the poor live rather well compared to the rest of the world, so we needn't worry much about them.  The reality, the top quintile household income rose significantly in recent decades while the lowest made no progress or lost ground. 

There's more, if you want to know.

More than half of the world lives at low income.  Few have regular jobs.  Most survive by fishing or small plot farms and flocks, perhaps a little trade and selling on the street.  They walk to the river for water.  There may not be public transportation or stores or health care nearby.

As an economy grows, it updates those rivers and footpaths and gardens with municipal water systems, city streets, and grocery stores, but living there means you pay your share of the cost.  

In any economy, if your contribution falls below that threshold, you're disenfranchised or perhaps homeless and on the street along with your family, begging.

The poverty line in the U.S. is indeed middle-income compared to the whole world.  That's because basic participation in the economy costs much more than in India or sub-Saharan Africa.  Here, if you don't have a cell-phone and a vehicle, you'll not likely be able to hold a job.  If you don't have a computer and internet, you're kids will have difficulty getting an education, and you'll have difficulty keeping up with your bills and finances.  A good diet, health care, shoes and clothes, soap and toothpaste ... making your way forward requires the ability to participate in the economy in which you live.

The GAP - The more useful measure for this issue is inequality.  When the privileged extract wealth from the economy at the expense of the rest, the result is a widening gap, or inequality.  The flow of wealth from bottom to top fosters persistent corruption in business and government, and deprivation below.  That's within a single country or economy.

Globally, countries can face the same difficulties.  There's a threshold for a country's participation in the global economy.  Poorer countries struggle and extractive trade policies are deadly.  Western countries have extracted wealth from African countries for centuries, for example, resulting in a deadly inequality and extraordinary difficulties for countries and their people.

Progress goes disproportionately to the top of the economic pyramid.  At the bottom, millions fall below the threshold for survival every year.  

Do your own inquiry - Human Development, extractive economics, and the GAP

Or look at fair trade vs. free trade, archenemies in international politics and competitive economics.  If international trade is just a competitive sport, then workers being abused and destitute isn't a problem.
Then there's the question of minimum wage vs. fair wage vs. living wage.

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(Smallholder farms depend on family labor for food and income. There are 460 to 500 million smallholder farms that grow 80 percent of food consumed in low income countries.)

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Change Makers and Help Bringers  -- The rich world's troubles fill our headlines, yet a more important reality is the yawning gap between the world's haves and have-nots. The average American income is 50 times that of a typical Afghan and 100 times that of a Zimbabwean. Despite two centuries of economic growth, over a billion people remain in dire poverty. We've yet a long way to go.

Protest, issues and responses

Burning flags and draft cards, protests and demonstrations.

Disrespect? Or a call to the nation for change.         

Our military veterans have earned the respect of us all. In serving,
 they offer their lives to preserve the liberty and justice we so
cherish.  More than two million served in Vietnam.  They
served with courage and at great personal cost.  Then 
  and now, they deserve our deepest appreciation.
Those who sent us there, however, were
deceptive and unjustified in their
decisions.  They mislead us.

Protest is often disruptive. The war in Vietnam brought protests that included riots and flag burning, campus demonstrations and the death of innocents.  The protests were pointedly about the need for change.  Public response was divided much like today with many attacking the 'unpatriotic' voices.

We found it difficult to separate our loyalty to country from the issues being raised.  The Vietnam war felt like a choice we had all willingly made and that we needed to uphold, but it wasn't.

From a recent conversation,
"Today's uproar reminds me of the 60's and the response to anti-war protesters. It was becoming clear, the war was devastatingly wrong, based on misrepresentation and unethical decisions. Instead of hearing the message, however, many attacked the protesters. And some died, precious young lives ended.  

And then there were those fifty-eight thousand more who died on the battlefield, those hundreds of thousands injured, those thousands more who never got over the war, a million refugees, and the two million civilians who died.  

The protest was valid.  The truth behind the war was eventually acknowledged, but it's troubling and rarely discussed."

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Kaepernick and a few others take a knee in protest against modern discrimination, oppression, and death, whether at the hands of police or by prejudice and inequality, now entering its fourth generation.  It's a call to the nation for change.  

Public response today is divided with many attacking the 'unpatriotic' voices.  
The protest is valid.  The truth will perhaps eventually be acknowledged.

"Which is more troubling ...
- that a protester takes a knee during the anthem, or 
- that black teens have to be taught how to avoid being beaten or worse not if they get pulled over, but when."  

That's what the parents of black children do, did you know? (ref)(ref)(ref)(ref)(ref)

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Curious; read further.

Look up Jonny Gammage for a little insight into Kaepernick's concerns.  
Or Master Sergeant Rossano V. Gerald, or Philando Castile, or other examples.
See Harsh History for more on protest and reason.  
Or The Courage of Conviction.

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Our hope, perhaps, is that we would be a noble nation, understanding and slow to anger, not easily offended, not quick to judge or condemn, and wise in our decisions.  🤝

The Stunning Expression of ...

"We all know something's wrong.

At first I thought it was just me. Then I stood before twenty thousand Christian college students and asked, "How many of you have read the New Testament and wondered if we in the church are missing it?" When almost every hand went up, I felt comforted. At least I'm not crazy."   ~Francis Chan

The magnificent love of God has given us life and has commissioned us to be the light that shines in a troubled world.  We are to be the stunning expression of his love and grace, compassion and acceptance.  We are to be his voice, his hands, his open arms.

So what's life about, anyway?  Meaningful life consists of:                                                                                      Middle ground:                                                                                                          Meaningless life consists of:

Select from the following: loving, helping, understanding, teaching, defending, serving, movies, sitcoms, social media, sports, style, gossip, annoyance, grudges, reality shows, 40-hour week, wealth, luxury, winning, position, power, influence, reputation, and the last word

The chance of a lifetime!

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If you're looking  ...

Continuing Opportunity '17  Dealing with drought  '16      Nobody wants to go '15      Want a better use for your money?        Opportunity '14       Kenya's Need '12

First memory, first understanding

Not me; just a kid in the mud.

His first memory is of sitting in the front yard, playing with some toys in the mud.

The years that follow are fascinating.  He tells us his story ...

"I watch and learn, trying to find the rhythm of this world where I live.  I observe and cooperate.  I float along with the current.  I make a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand, and perform the millions of gestures that constitute life on Earth.  I assimilate the thoughts I'm given, study the actions and choices until they become reflexes.

Why am I here?  I know there's more; this world can't be all there is.

Finally, I remember that long letter from Dad.  It arrived years ago, and I only read a little of it; I was very young at the time and the letter is really long.  So I find in the letter that this world isn't my home, and it's not all there is.  It's just school and work, and my Father has laid out a long path ahead of me with good opportunities along the way.

Nuts.  Now I have to undo all that assimilating and cooperating.  I have to dump all the 'normal' thinking I've worked so hard to learn, and I have to learn skills this world doesn't teach if I'm going to graduate.

I had a brief view of the sun and the 'real' world the other day.  Seen from the classroom window, the curtains were back and the horizon was just visible in the distance.

Flooding it all was this blazing light that somehow filled out everything it touched.  Nothing soft and gentle about it, it was powerful enough to shake me to the core as I stood watching.  That's probably why the curtains aren't open all the time; we'd never get any work done."

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From Dad's letter - instructions

Whatever it was that he saw, it was not a gentle occasion.