He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune

There is an interesting problem with modern journalists: Someone has to pay them. In this case the journalist interviewing Greenwald is paid by the government. In most cases when not paid by the government, it is the big media conglomerates that pay the salaries.

There is a saying:

"He who pays the piper calls the tune."

One reason I do not watch most news programs is this issue. I applaud those like Greenwald who bring us information that the "powers that be" do not want us to have.

Are You Crazy?

I can just see you asking this as I recommend that you watch a four-hour documentary. But this BBC documentary is that important. If you want to understand how the world works, at least the part of the world I call Babylon the Great, then invest the time.

Originally I had commentary of each of the four parts when I first recommended the series. The original links no longer work, so the one link below is the one you will have to use if you watch. If you want to know my understanding of the documentary, click the following links.

This is a different Bernays

Part I 

Part II

Part III

Part IV

The beloved editor of the Prophecy Podcast blog, Pam Dewey, has also written about these issues, and the "star" of the documentary, Edward Bernays. Click here for her commentary.

The Wizard of Adz 

If this is the first time you have thought about these issues, this documentary could literally change how you look at the world.

Those Were the Days

Pam Dewey, beloved editor of the prophecypodcast.com blog, has been doing some interesting things on one of her own blogs. One example is a set of old, funny ads that make you ask, "What were they thinking?" I have include my favorite to the right.  Click here to see the full set. You can look through the various blog posts on these nostalgic themes. 

Ozymandias

There is an important lesson in this poem, for us individually, as members of a nation and members of a church. 

                                   Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear –

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.’

Civil Religion

Am I the only one troubled by the iconography in many churches of the US flag? When I wrote about, and gave an example of Civil Religion last week, it was not well received. Here is what Prof. Philip Gorski who has specialized in studying Civic Religion said about the early church: 

In the standard genealogy, the term “civil religion” is attributed to Rousseau and traced to the Romans, sometimes via Machiavelli (Hughey 1983; Rouner 1986; Shanks 1995; Cristi 2001; Parsons 2002). While the peoples of Rome enjoyed a great deal of religious freedom, they were nonetheless obligated to take part in the civic rituals of the Empire (Scheid 2003). These demands, it should be noted, were of a purely ritual character. They did not involve a confession or creed of any kind, as regarded the efficacy or meaning of the rituals. The refusal of the early Christians to take part in the Roman cult was one of the principal reasons, perhaps the principal reason, why they were subject to periodic persecutions. Nor did the Christianization of the Empire bring an end to religious persecution; it simply shifted their target — from the Christians to the “pagans”

This was actually the subject of one of my earliest blog posts. It seems almost quaint that the early church was so concerned about such a trivial matter--and that is the problem, for the confusion of the state with God is a common error among Christians. This should not be a surprise as this was a common mistake throughout history. 

For those interested in this subject and who wish to go a little deeper, here is an interview with professor Gorski.  

Since I have meditating on this lately, you can no doubt expect more posts on this subject.