LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES

We are surrounded and inundated with lies, half- truths and mis-statements,originating from everywhere and all directions, from which escape is impossible.

Lies come from the President, from the federal government, state government, county and city, Chamber of Commerce and furniture stores,

Doctors, lawyers, engineers, Electric power suppliers, nuclear power

stations and regulators.

Lies come from Wall Street, stockbrokers, accountants, corporate analysts

and chart readers and of course, the Federal Reserve. Government financial regulators, hedge fund managers and even Warren Buffett.

Lies come from our employers and employees, elected officials, and unelected officials. Lies come from those who are responsible to guard our health. our safety and our shores.

I have left out NBC, CNBC, CNN. CBS, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek and many others in the Main Street Media.

Ah , but there is one sanctuary from deceit: the internet--where we can always get the truth! Baloney! and BS! The infiltration of lies grows every day.

Where is truth to be found? Only in your own perception and discernment. Get your BS filter in place and "don't leave home without it".

Oh come on America, are you so propagandized, dumbed down and

dull of wit that you have no discernment or judgement whatsoever?

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

THE GULLIBLE MIND

Here is one theory about gullible minds:

Mike Adams – Natural News May 5, 2011

In light of the string of the blatant falsehoods being announced by the U.S. government these days (FDA, DHS, White House, etc.) it’s interesting that so many people still believe whatever they are told by “official” sources. It brings up the question of the functioning of their brains: How could a person swallow official information so gullibly and so completely without even asking commonsense questions about the reliability or factual basis of that information?

These people, it turns out, are operating from what I called The Gullible Mind. It is a psychological processing malfunction that filters out information based on its source rather than its integrity. People who operate from The Gullible Mind tend to have misplaced trust in governments, institutions, mainstream news networks, doctors, scientists or anyone who wears the garb of apparent authority.

Whereas a normal, intelligent person would raise commonsense questions about information they receive from all sources, the Gullible Mind wholly accepts virtually any information from sources that occupy the role of apparent authority in society.

Governments never lie

But how does this work inside their heads? It’s an interesting process. Gullible Mind people do believe it is possible for a government (or institution) to lie; but they believe that governments, institutions and doctors choose NOT to lie even when it would serve their own self interests to do so.

Follow this carefully, because this is the fascinating part. These Gullible Mind people effectively believe that even though a government official could lie about something, they would never actually do so. And why wouldn’t they? Because, ultimately, the Gullible Mind crowd believes that governments, institutions and mainstream media outlets operate from a sort of honor code. So even if it were in the interests of our own government to lie to us, it would never happen because that would violate this imaginary honor code.

Where does this honor code exist? Where is it written down? Nowhere, of course. It is imaginary. But to The Gullible Mind, it seems real. Interestingly, even though this “honor code” only exists in the imagination of The Gullible Mind person, they project this honor code onto sources of authority, imagining that they abide by it.

Extreme gullibility

This is how The Gullible Mind person believes that network news always reports the truth. The news networks have a sense of “honor,” they believe, and this sense of honor requires them to always report the truth and never manipulate the news for any nefarious purposes. So news networks never “shape” the news and they only report what is factually true without any consideration whatsoever of politics or advertiser profits.

This view of the world is, of course, laughably naive. And yet it is the core belief system of at least half the population – the Gullible Mind half that believes everything it is told by its own government, media or authority figures.

Interestingly, the Gullible Mind is also inwardly gullible because it does not recognize its own gullibility. Instead, it believes it is operating as a Rational Mind. This false Rational Mind believes it functions as a critical filter of incoming information, but even this is self deception. In truth, this false Rational Mind is on “auto filter” so that it filters out any information that conflicts with the information it is receiving from official sources.

This is the key to understanding the Gullible Mind — it isn’t the quality of the information itself that matters; it is the confirmation of the story from official sources that “makes it real” in the Gullible Mind.

The Easter Bunny killed Bin Laden!

For example, let’s say a Gullible Mind person comes across an announcement that says the Easter Bunny has killed Osama Bin Laden. The report claims that colored eggs were found near Bin Laden’s body, and there was evidence of feathers being left at the scene, which proves the Easter Bunny was there

.

Now, an intelligent, rational mind would have a lot of questions about this. For starters, rabbits don’t have feathers. And the Easter Bunny is a piece of fiction, too. On top of that, how could the Easter Bunny kill Osama Bin Laden? An intelligent person would, upon reviewing the holes in the story, be forced to conclude the story is fiction. The only logical conclusion from that is that the government is lying to them.

A Gullible Mind person, however, would not ask whether rabbits have feathers, or whether the Easter Bunny is capable of conducting a military raid. Instead, the Gullible Mind person would first look to other confirming news sources in order to determine the reliability of the story. They would turn on the TV or surf the internet, looking for the news to be repeated through “official” sources.

Once they found CNN, or Fox News, or some other “official” source reporting that the Easter Bunny killed Osama Bin Laden, then that news report would instantly become “real” in their minds. Suddenly it has shifted from their mental processing queue to the “absolutely truth” part of their brain, and from that point forward, no one can question that reality in their heads.

Don’t bother arguing with a Gullible Mind – they are immune to facts

At this point, their rational mind is completely shut off on the topic. No accumulation of facts can, at that point, rattle their “reality.” For example, a person who believes the government’s story of 9/11 has already embraced the Easter Bunny version of terrorists flying airplanes into the World Trade Center towers. So how did this act cause the WTC 7 building to collapse in a demolition-style free-fall a few hours later, when WTC 7 was never struck by airplanes? How can a steel and concrete building suddenly and magically collapse in perfect structural synchronicity merely from being on fire?

The answers don’t matter to The Gullible Mind, you see. There is no room for facts inside their heads, because all the space has been taken up with what is essentially a cult-like belief in institutions of authority.

We saw this in the Heaven’s Gate cult in California a few years back. The leader of that cult, a man named Applegate, positioned himself as the one and only source of authoritative information among the cult followers. So HE became the authoritative source whose information was wholly accepted without questioning or skepticism of any kind. At that point, he was able to quite easily convince his followers that an alien race was going to land a UFO on the far side of a comet, and that if they killed themselves, they would be transported onto the alien ship (or something like that).

The belief in such a story may seem silly… until you realize that the governments of the world use the exact same cult-like tactics to get their own “followers” to believe everything they say, without question. So if President Obama announced that an alien race was going to land a mother ship on the White House lawn, and that people who voted for him would have their consciousness transferred to an immortal alien body, the remarkable truth is that millions of people would believe that. Perhaps tens of millions. They would even worship him as an interstellar saint.

Remember Orson Welles’ radio program that announced aliens had invaded the Earth and were destroying our cities? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wa…) Huge numbers of people believed it was really happening… and not because it made any sense, but because the information came from the source they trusted. To those people, the alien invasion was just as real back then as Bin Laden’s official death is to government followers today.

Throughout history, many conspiracy theories have turned out to be true

Government lying, of course, has been going on for as long as governments have existed. Not all conspiracies theories are true, of course, but so many of them turn out to be true that the idea of “not believing” in conspiracies makes no rational sense.

To not believe in conspiracies means you don’t believe two people have ever sat down and plotted to take advantage of others in some unethical and deceptive way. Well gee, that describes virtually every board meeting of every large corporation in the world! Conspiracies are not just commonplace; they’re practically synonymous with modern-day capitalism! Even right now, Apple is being accused of a conspiracy to keep employee wages artificially low: http://www.appleinsider.com/article

With Love and Kindnes,

THE HATMAN

WHO THE HECK ARE YOU ANYWAY?

Oh come on America, are you so propagandized, dumbed down and

dull of wit that you have no discernment or judgement whatsoever?

The mysterious history of the black man in the White House. Why have we had such a difficult time learning about the birth, education,

financial circumstances of this current occupant of the Oval Office.

This disadvantaged person somehow had a lot of advantages, including travel to foreign countries, a college education including Columbia University pre-law and Harvard Law School. Amazing for a kid with

parents of average means! He claims it was all possible through

student loans, but of course there is no public accounting for these loans and their repayment.

Quoting Devvy Kidd, April 19,2011 www.NewsWith Views.com

"After several years of watching the putative president hop on his favorite toy (Air Force One) every time a serious issue needs to be addressed, to his total dependence on teleprompters, even some of his former loyal supporters now doubt the "brainy" candidate bringing hope and change.

Besides exposing fraud, I believe his college records will reflect Barry was a less than average student of less than average intellect. Quite the opposite of the manufactured image of this hot shot lawyer who gave up his law license (who also never had a single case in court). I believe it was to avoid being prosecuted for fraud and disbarment since he lied on the application when he said he never used any other names besides his current alias, Barack Hussein Obama.

Honestly, I don't know how the usurper has kept track of all his aliases: Barry Dunham, Barack Hussein Obama, Barry Soetoro, Barry Obama and Barack Dunham - all names known to be used by Mr. Cool in the White House. It is a fact he used Barry Soetoro while living in Indonesia. It is a fact he used Barry Soetoro while attending Occidental College. His mother used Barack Hussein Obama Soebarkah on one of her passport documents; I know because I obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act."

From a article by Devvy Kidd in www.Rense.com 4/28/11

"The display put on yesterday by the putative president was one of the greatest displays of unbridled hubris I have ever seen in my decades of being an activist, watching and studying political figures. It simply was breath taking in scope and so vile, you want to vomit. Backed up by an array of sycophants in the media, that cheap gangster from Chicago actually thought he could foist another forgery on the American people and go about his business of destroying this republic.

There are several excellent articles about what happened yesterday and why those who can still think are outraged by this latest horse and pony show. Many are speculating the usurper suddenly produced a birth certificate because of Donald Trump. Millions have been demanding that birth certificate for almost three years, yet, supposedly, Obama/Soetoro is so afraid of "The Donald" he flies an attorney to Hawaii to pick up the alleged document. As for Trump, I gagged watching him brag that he forced the president of the U.S. to produce a document no one else could. Donald Trump is nothing more than the modern day version of Elmer Gantry."

There are those including Hannity and O'Reilly, those great Patriots of Fox News, who label the quest for proof of Obama's U.S. birth as "birthers". To them and their ilk, violating the requirements of the Constitution the basis for all law in America, is of no importance and in concert with those who call it just a piece of paper.

So now they have produced a "Certificate of Live Birth", which is so full of goofs and inconsistencies that have answered nothing, other than the arrogance of those running our government, that the public of sheep will believe anything.

Sometimes I get so upset not about their lies, but at the gullibility of our otherwise intelligent population.

With Love and Kindness,

The Hatman

DONALD DUCK

I have witnessed over the years a number of candidates for public office, some good some bad, and some incredibly unqualified for the position they sought. Some were elected, some not- irrespective of their qualifications. Think about Lyndon Johnson, Spiro Agnew, George Wallace, Hubert Humphrey, John McCain or George W. Bush.

Yet, never, I say never has such a punk as Donald the Duck been considered as a serious candidate for the president of the United States of America.

This self-aggrandized blow hard has convinced some that he should be elected ( as a Republican no less ) to the presidency.

Oh come on America, are you so propagandized, dumbed down and

dull of wit that you have no discernment or judgement whatsoever?

As a so called billionaire businessman he has left a slimy trail of bankruptcies.lawsuits and failed business ventures all with other people's money. The uglinest of his business failures is matched by the ugliness of his buildings.

To witness his recent NH speech claiming that he alone forced Obama's hand to release a birth record is typical of a braggart without remorse. He is crude and he is rude. His ghetto styled remark to China will not be repeated here.

Given our present head of state , would Mr. Duck be an improvement?

I'm not sure.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

America IS Gone

Excerpted from www.American Thinker. com article by David Deming 10/24/2010

"There is a whiff of anarchy in the air this morning. As I sit here writing, a conservative victory in the midterm elections looms. But I find no reason to be optimistic. The midterm elections will solve nothing. The plain fact is that conservatives have lost the battle for America. The country that many of us were born in has ceased to exist. And we have no one to blame but ourselves

A few days ago it was reported that an eighteen-year-old geology student at Arizona State University had starred in an online pornographic film in which she performed "explicit and degrading" sex acts for a one-time payment of $2,000. The young woman explained that she needed the money to supplement her scholarship, and then inexplicably proclaimed, "I have morals!"

We are a nation of gluttons. About one-third of adults in the U.S. are obese. To qualify as "obese," the average person has to be not just overweight, but carry an extra thirty-five pounds or more. In the last thirty years, the obesity rate in America has more than doubled. It is the sheerest irony that today, the average person has the choice of a multiplicity of fresh, wholesome, and nutritious foods, all available at the lowest prices in history. But choosing and preparing the best foods takes time and effort. We would rather stuff ourselves with fast food because it's tasty and convenient. The consequences of this slothful lifestyle include hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. After ruining our health through gluttony, we then go to our physicians and demand a quick fix in the form of a pill. Pharmaceutical companies are glad to oblige. And the government must pay, because free health care is now a "right."

here is no better index for America's moral degradation than television programming. Compare today's shows with those of a generation ago. Every episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" contained a short moral lesson, and "The Twilight Zone" challenged our intellects and stretched our imaginations. But entertainment and instruction have devolved into shock and novelty. The networks are locked in a downward spiral to see who can provide the most outrageous and offensive programming. It's not their fault. They're just giving the American people what they want.

Children are not as smart as their parents. The average child today spends thirteen hours watching television for every hour he spends reading. We blame teachers and schools for failing to educate our children. But what can they do with undeveloped and undisciplined minds that expect to be entertained and rebel at the labor of thought? The decline in intellectual aptitude is so dramatic that the authors of the SAT test have had to add a hundred points to the combined math and verbal score just to make current averages equal of those of a generation ago.

We are oblivious to the fact that our society is intellectually and artistically bankrupt. Modern art is not good enough to be bad. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Leonardo da Vinci took four years to paint the Mona Lisa. He left the work unfinished because he was always seeking to add "perfection to perfection." Earlier this year, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy revealed that the way Leonardo created realistic flesh tones was by building up successive layers of pigments that were as thin as a few micrometers. A micrometer is a thousandth of a millimeter.

Compare Leonardo's work with that of the modern American artist Robert Ryman. Ryman began his career working as a security guard at a museum. The guard decided he wanted to become a painter, so he bought some white house paint and slathered it on a canvas. Art critics had orgasms. For decades, Ryman has continued to produce paintings that consist of nothing but monochrome white. The tones and textures vary, but most of Ryman's paintings consist of nothing but a plain white surface. Ryman has explained that he paints only white surfaces because he wants to "reduce visual disturbances." Imagine that the next time you're contemplating Michelangelo's "disturbances" on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Our popular music is a painful cacophony of obnoxious dissonance. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries had Mozart, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky. We have Snoop Dogg and Lady Gaga. Is that progress? We have advanced technology, but do we use it to uplift ourselves? No, we indulge the animal side of our natures. The internet is mostly used for downloading pornography or playing video games.

In America today, everyone is entitled to everything. According to a recent report by NPR, the mentally retarded are now attending college and receiving grants. Professors are being advised (i.e., pressured) to modify their curricula to accommodate the new students. People incessantly demand entitlements and handouts. Every government intervention in the free-market system creates a fresh problem that demands another ruinous intervention with unintended consequences. Nobody is responsible for anything, and no one wants to pay the bills. And believe me, they're coming due.

In this brave new world, everyone has the right to not be offended, and no one can be held accountable for anything. The fundamental unit of human civilization, the family, has been caustically eroded by feminism. The divorce rate is fifty percent. Oklahoma is supposedly a conservative state. Last year, a state legislator introduced a bill that would require parents with minor children seeking a divorce to first undergo counseling. Not only was the bill not passed, but the legislator was derided and mocked. How dare anyone be required to undertake the work necessary to save a marriage for the sake of his or her children? Why, it might interfere with their pursuit of happiness.

We celebrate homosexuality and then wonder why sexually transmitted diseases are exploding. According to the CDC, men-who-have-sex-with-men make up only two percent of the population but account for 53 percent of all new HIV infections and 64 percent of all new syphilis cases.

I'm beginning to acquire an appreciation for Paul's doctrine of Original Sin. The nation that began with freedom of religion has progressed to freedom from religion, freedom from moral constraint, and freedom from responsibility. Just as Plato described in the Republic, the "horses and asses" are "marching along with all the rights and dignities of freemen," and the ultimate result can be only that "tyranny will spring from democracy."

Elections matter only in the short term. Every long-term social index I am aware of is negative. The plain fact is that the American people are too morally degenerate to be capable of effective self-government. The Roman satirist Juvenal understood. "The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things -- bread and games!" I can find no reason to be optimistic. It is only our blind vanity that lets us pretend that the United States can endure forever. Rome fell, and so will America. For all intents and purposes, it is already over.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

SOCIOPATHOLOGY BECOMES NORMAL

REF: WWW. OFTWO MINDS.COM, CHARLES HUGH SMITH. 10/16/2010

The Normalization of Sociopathology in America

October 16, 2010

The moral rot at the center of American life results from a normalization of pathologies--sociopathic and psychopathic states and behaviors are now "normal" or incentivized. Moral behavior is institutionally punished.

My entry on the moral rot which has taken hold in all socio-economic levels of America drew a number of insightful responses: Runaway Feedback Loops, Wealth Concentration and Gaming-The-System (October 13, 2010).

While the American/Western worldview holds that we are autonomous individuals exercising free will at every moment, in reality we are all heavily programmed by our socio-economic class conditions. What is so striking about present-day America is the way in which the narcissistic, no-moral-compass social pathologies of entitlement, denial and fabrication of "truth"/reality has been "normalized" (accepted as normal behavior and thinking) in all social classes.

Before we analyze that further, let's get some direct experiences from three observant readers.

First up in Freeacre, one of the proprietors of the excellent Trout Clan Campfire blog:

Here are my examples (of the feedback loops you described):

Thirty-one years ago, when I was pregnant with my son, a friend in San Francisco explained to me that I should go down and apply for welfare. He told me the the social workers basically tell you the right answers to give when applying. They ask the question and you just say agree with whatever it is. That's the game. (I didn't do it, choosing to marry the father of our child and live a life of penury instead...)

2) We finally were able to buy a house in Portland. Our next door neighbor lived in one exactly like ours. But, she was divorced and had two kids. Her kids went to church school for free, got free clothing and medical care, her mom collected her rent from the state, she got food stamps, and on and on. Her ex even got a penile implant due to an unfortunate motorcycle accident! We ended up losing our home and car and having to declare bankruptcy due to our son's medical bills for cancer.

3) Years later, when my husband got cancer and I had to pay his COBRA payments up front, I had hardly any money for food or the house payment from my job at the Tahoe Daily Tribune. When I inquired what we could do to qualify for some assistance, the social worker said, "get a divorce." We did not.

4) Time and again, I find myself donating food, clothing, toys, etc. to "single moms" who live in more attractive homes than I do, with children who have more than my grandchildren, and who live with men who make more money than mine.

5) I recently attended a Food Summit - all about supporting sustainable locally produced food. At the end of the conference, a blanket announcement went out for any of us eligible for food stamps to not hesitate to sign up. "It's good for Oregon!" they announced. It brings in more money from the federal government!

And you know what? I'm considering it. If I don't have to lie to get it, I just might do it. With social security getting no increase again this year and the banksters getting more billions in bonuses and congress getting their increases, well, I think I am having a "'f*** 'em" moment as well.

Reader Don describes conditions which show the incentives to game the system and the disincentives to be honest and hard-working are not new dynamics in the culture:

Enjoyed today's post on the abuse of the welfare system. This is old hat to the "underclass". I managed Section 8 buildings in the '80s and most of the tenants, although without assets, lived better than my working poor, non Section 8 tenants. The tenant's share of Section 8 rent was usually in the double digits (I recall one tenant who couldnt manage to pay her $19 rent more than once every 4 or 5 months...), all of them got food stamps, medical care, the kids got school lunches etc. And in the 1980s, before friends of mine had color TVs, some of these apartments had one in every room of the five room apartments.

Perhaps most frustrating to me was that in the vast majority of households, the single mother had a working man in the house, but the welfare folks werent allowed to ask about it.

From your post, it looks like the working poor and the middle class have figured out the scam as well.

Anonymous Physician provides the context to understand both the ubiquity of Corporate Welfare/entitlement/cheating and the standard-issue welfare entitlement and gaming:

I have a great deal of experience with the poor, the very poor, the rich, and a few of the ultra-rich. Some accident of fate also gave me direct clinical contact with a least 6 serial killers (in custody) for extended periods. It is certain (i.e.; self-evident to the prepared consciousness as per Aristotle's definition of truth) that our current crisis of culture, political economy and political life is fundamentally related to the long-emerging filters on the roads to power and influence that now assure that cluster B personality types (sociopathic/ pyschopathic, narcissistic and to lesser degrees borderline and histrionic) dominate, in number as well as influence, all major institutions in this "country" as well as most of the rest of the world. (emphasis added) This state of affairs, in its extent, is historically unprecedented.

This is no counsel of despair. Goodness, the ethical will, as a potentiality, is proportionally much more frequent than the evil will in humanity but it must be cultivated and it demands truthfulness and willingness to sacrifice for its actualization.

Thank you, readers, for your insightful commentaries.

Here is my analysis, which as always is drawn from the foundation established in the Survival+ critique.

The depth of our own pathology can be measured by our resistance to admitting the systemic fraud, lying, entitlement and narcissistic pathologies in whatever slice of American society we value. For example, Liberals experience an overwhelming urge to excuse or deny welfare fraud and indeed, all the pathologies of the "underclass."

That is a direct measure of their own internal normalization of social pathologies.

Conservatives experience an overwhelming urge to excuse or deny Corporate Welfare and the partnership/collusion of the Central State (which they fear) and Crony Capitalism (which they revere, even though it is only a simulacrum of classic free-market capitalism).

To the degree that an individual dismisses cheating on tests in school, fabricated resumes, bogus balance sheets and dishonest mortgage applications and tax returns because "everybody does it," the sociopathologies have been fully absorbed as not just normal but as beneficial and acceptable.

Though we like to favor ourselves as autonomous entities brimming with individuality, most of our worldview and behaviors are programmed by our social-economic status and conditioning.

Consider how easily the behaviors and values of most Americans fall into three basic classes in American culture which are remarkable predictors of worldviews and largely unconscious "values" and behaviors.

This reality is part of what I term the politics of experience: we can't experience the "water" we swim in until we consciously occupy another more objective perch which is informed by history and the awareness of who benefits from the normalization of various beliefs and behaviors.

The "working class" is programmed to rely on television for most of its "information" about life, and thus they are programmed to:

1. Consume copious quantities of fast foods and convenience foods, and consider indolence a luxury. As a result, they are programmed to become obese/diabetic.

2. The boys are programmed to favor football and basketball in sports, service in the Armed Forces as the only viable choice to low-skill, fitful employment, to drop out of four-year college if pressured to enter, and vocational training, often paid for by the G.I. Bill after military service.

3. Males are programmed to place identity value on their vehicles and real-world "manly" skills (working on vehicles, farm equipment, woodworking, etc.), but their programmed aspirations are aimed at impossibly narrow fields: professional sports, hip-hop and other entertainment, etc. As a result, their real-world skills are generally undeveloped or modest.

In essence, they are programmed to fail in the "knowledge economy" and in real-world practical jobs which are not glorified by the broadcast media. They accept low-level work and are dissatisfied, often turning to drugs to relieve their ennui.

4. Their interests are channeled by the media into extreme sports, mixed martial arts, auto racing, football, etc., but they are programmed to express these interests through passive video games rather than by real-world experience. Programmed to low confidence, they generally give up quickly when faced with arduous training, except when forced by institutions such as the Military.

5. Working class families have few resources to draw upon, and the mobility favored by Corporate America has shredded the social networks which once offered support (church membership, social clubs, neighborhoods, etc.) Family "help" is a sofa to sleep on at a relatives' house.

6. The girls are programmed to have sex and children early, as motherhood has positive identity value, even if they are woefully unprepared for parenting. Career choices tend to be "pink collar" type labor in Corporate America's sickcare system or government jobs; females are programmed to support their children and demand little of the fathers. Dependency on the State /Welfare in one form or another is the norm.

7. Politics holds little interest and most of the working class are programmed not to vote as it "never does any good anyway."

8. There are few books or other reading materials around the house, little to no original decorative art, few musical instruments that can actually be played with any joy or expertise; the lived environment is a cultural desert. The TV and a computer offer distraction and entertainment and little else. If they pursue social media, they are members of My Space and Facebook. They are deeply attached to their cellphones, which are perceived as markers of accessible status. Passports are unknown; foreign travel is experienced through military service only.

The "middle class" aspires to the "upper class" life they see on television and other media, but their aspirations are for the trappings of wealth rather than for the engines of wealth.

1. Though the middle class person clings mightily to various totems of "membership" in the middle class, and experiences tremendous loss of identity and self-esteem when these totems are lost, in reality their wealth is modest and they have few family resources.

2. Though they watch a lot of TV, they also consume massive quantities of other low-value media through the electronic devices they see as emblematic of the "middle class" lifestyle: laptop computers, iPods, etc. Their cellphones and other electronics are key identity markers: the higher the status of the brand, the more valuable the device. Apple products are de riguer "high status."

3. Books and reading materials around the house tend to be best sellers or materials assigned in class; few households receive newspapers or magazines other than National Geographic. If books are read, they are genre books such as mysteries. Dog-eared copies of the Harry Potter series abound. Those households which aspire to "upper class" education may subcribe to a few magazines which are viewed as totems of high-class lifestyles: The New Yorker, Saveur, etc.

4. "Education" is valued but mastery is not; the goal is to obtain the certificate or paper required by gatekeepers in the government or Corporate America, not the actual skillsets. Though education is "valued," few households (regardless of income, which is often high) save religiously enough to fund university educations; borrowing vast sums of student loans is the norm. Adult education is pursued to obtain the same gatekeeper certificates in whatever field the adults toil in. Learning for the pleasure of learning is unknown or deemed a waste of time when "we could be having fun."

"Enrichment" classes are provided to the children, but the purpose is to gain a veneer of respectability as an aspirant to upper-class membership; piano lessons are dutifully offered but nobody plays music in the house for enjoyment, so the lessons are soon dropped. Live performances are also attended occasionally as "enrichment." Foreign travel is experienced via college programs or packaged tours fit into 2-week vacations allowed by Corporate America.

5. Favored sports include soccer and volleyball for the girls, and skateboarding and baseball for the boys. Team sports are favored over individual competition, and adults spend significant time ferrying kids to various after-school sports, which are deemed "character-building."

6. Ownership of status brands is highly important; brand consciousness is acute. Target is favored over Wal-Mart, and designer-luxury brand purses, shoes, autos, etc. are highly desirable "markers" of success and identity. Most of the family income goes to paying for these "markers" of membership.

7. A four-year college degree is the goal, with an MBA or master's degree considered a higher-level enabler of a better career. The cherished goal is acceptance to an elite university which is viewed as a magical ticket to "fast track" advancement in the government or Corporate America. Meritocracy is accepted as the norm. Military service is shunned in favor of attending college right out of high school. Favored social media are related to career/corporate advancement: LinkedIn, etc. Foreign films and chic dining are valued as "markers" of high-class status.

The upper class has the confidence born of the knowledge that the family resources can always bail one out. High-paying jobs will be provided via networks; art-aspirant careers are highly valued, and family resources enable dilletante dabbling in acting, film-making, visual arts, etc.

Entrance to prep schools and family money/connections enable entrance to institutions the middle class must gain entrance to via meritocracy.

Favored careers include venture capital, high-status government positions, management of family businesses, plum slots in NGOs, etc. Noblesse Oblige is served via membership on boards of charities, the local symphony and museum, etc. These networks provide connections to business opportunities unavailable to the middle class.

Children already get passports and foreign travel to exotic locales is standard. Middle-class aspirants are viewed paternalistically or with scorn; they are worker-bees for the Corporate America/State owned or managed by the upper class. The working class is avoided except as servants, who are often immigrants.

My point is that to varying degrees, the normalization of narcissism and social pathologies is now embedded in the programming of all social classes. The rot in America is not limited to "deviance" in any one class; it is present in various manifestations in all social classes.

Tweaking policies and gaming the gaming will not "cure" what ails America. Moral will "must be cultivated and it demands truthfulness and willingness to sacrifice for its actualization." Until we are prepared to make those sacrifices, then the rot will only deepen.

With Love and Kindness,

THE HATMAN

By Lou Pritchett, Proctor & Gamble

A LETTER FROM A PROCTOR AND GAMBLE EXECUTIVE TO THE PRESIDENT.

THE LAST SENTENCE IS THE MOST CHILLING

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America's true living legends - an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering." Pritchett rose from the soap salesman to Vice President, Sales and Customer Development for Proctor and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and "class", always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the "blame America" crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer "wind mills" to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use "extortion" tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaugh's, Hannity's, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

This letter was sent to the NY Times but they never acknowledged it. Big surprise. Since it hit the internet, however, it has had over 500,000 hits. Keep it going. All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. It's happening right now.