Historic Heroes of the Glorious Global Oligarchy: Bertrand Russell

"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair."

-- Bertrand Russell (b.1872 - d.1970)

The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (1967-1969)

Prologue: "What I have lived for".

Such noble words. We can imagine them being penned as Bertrand sipped a cup of rare Pu-erh tea and nibbled a scone, enjoying a late Wednesday brunch under a shade tree of his country estate, with an unobtrusive servant standing at the ready from a discreet distance.

Bertrand was poignantly aware of his duty, as a member of the privileged class, to help construct the best possible world for his minions and peers -- much like a compassionate yet practical rancher who realizes that unhappy cattle are less profitable and more difficult to control than content ones.

This is not to imply that Bertrand never acted as a champion of the common folk -- he appeared to, at times. Nevertheless, it seems clear from The Impact of Science on Society, first published in 1952 when he was 80 years old, that he never for an instant entertained the idea that he would wind up on the receiving end of his plan for global domination. That book is the source for the information and quotes that follow.

Bertrand had a vision for a glorious world order, in which an elite global ruling class presided over a peaceful flock of contentedly obsequious citizens. It would be achieved through what he called a "scientific dictatorship" -- a system where knowledge gained through science would be deployed by the ruling class to control ordinary citizens.

An important component of the scientific dictatorship was information control. Access to information by the citizens would be carefully restricted -- particularly access to the scientific information being used to control them. He explained:

"Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for a generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen."

Unfortunately, Bertrand failed to anticipate the advent of Amazon, which made it possible for the commoners to read all about his secret plans. If they are so inclined, they can also read about the methods of public manipulation in more detail in books like Propaganda and Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward Bernays.

Under Bertrand's plan for a scientific dictatorship, real science would be reserved for the ruling elite on a need to know basis. Everyone who did not need to know would be taught pseudo-science, hoaxed to believe whatever ideas the rulers considered most useful.

(A surprising number of people would not need to know, including doctors, researchers and others working in the fields of science who usually must rely on the accuracy and completeness of the information they've been taught.)

For example, if the rulers found it useful for people to believe snow was black, they would be trained that it was so, and that anyone who believed otherwise was a bit of a nut. Bertrand believed that whatever was taught in government-controlled schools, if started from an early enough age and done correctly, could be sold to a gullible public. As he explained:

"What is essential in mass psychology is the art of persuasion... It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment... The social psychologists of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakeable conviction that snow is black."

The Internet, developed after Bertrand's time, is a technological tool that has proven to be a double-edged sword when it comes to the implementation of his ideas. While undoubtedly an invaluable means of conveying officially sanctioned information to a worldwide audience, the Web is also a pesky source for actual facts, some of which people still manage to find amidst the cacophony of cleverly disguised propaganda.

In Bertrand's model for the scientific dictatorship, all sources of public information, from school curriculum to the printed word and broadcasting, would be controlled by the global oligarchy. The only real source of trouble, he theorized, would be "unauthorized propaganda" passed by "secret whispers from one individual to another" -- something he felt would not be too serious a problem, since it would be "rendered appallingly dangerous by improvements in the art of spying".

Improvements in the art of spying have undoubtedly surpassed Bertrand's wildest dreams. And while many have been meekly submissive in the face of its dangers, dutifully censoring themselves in response to Edward Snowden's official cue, a concerning number of citizens continue to flippantly ignore them. Some seek out creative ways to circumvent the spying, and shockingly, some even have the presumption to challenge it.

Apparently, some people are much more committed to saving the minds of humanity than Bertrand anticipated, but fortunately, information control was not the only manipulative trick up his sleeve.

Bertrand was opposed to war, theorizing that in a globally unified society, there simply wouldn't be anyone to fight. However, he recognized there were certain problems with a war-free world, noting that historically, war has served as an effective means of achieving social cohesion:

"The passions that inspire a feeling of unity are hate and fear...these depend upon the existence of an enemy, actual or potential."

Some time after Bertrand's passing, the rulers discovered a number of creative and lucrative ways to keep the cohesive liquor of hate and fear flowing, with or without war.

By far the most successful and lucrative method was the threat of invisible viruses.

As long as the people believed these terrifying tiny invaders were real and were the cause of a horrible and life-threatening disease, it worked like a charm. Getting people to believe it turned out to be surprisingly easy. Just roll out a few white coats to announce it, strategically blame a handful of unrelated deaths on it, and the entire media and medical cartels would jump on board without a second thought.

As for the rest of the people...if something is repeated often enough, by enough sources, most people just assume it's true. Before you know it, they're lining up demanding to buy virus tests, and injections of anything they're told might protect them from the invisible enemy.

And not only do people not protest when their rights are taken away in response to the germ terrorist -- they actually demand it, insisting that anyone with a sniffle be shuffled off to quarantine to "keep everyone safe".

It's a surprise, really, that a brilliant thinker like Bertrand didn't come up with the viral pandemic idea himself.

Still, he realized that medical ops would play an important role in the creation and maintenance of the glorious global oligarchy. As he put it:

"Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible. Even if all are miserable, all will believe themselves happy, because the government will tell them that they are so."

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