SHOCKING prophetic 30 second spot by Ad Council from 2002 becomes TRUTH

[Walt Starr]

Watch this Ad council Public Service Announcement from their 2002 Freedom Campaign:

http://boss.streamos.com/real/adcouncil/cff/cff_tv_library_30_rp_v2.smi?siteid=adcouncil

Then read this story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050518/cm_usatoday/librariansbrushwithfbishapesherviewoftheusapatriotact

Chilling.

:scared:

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Scariest commercial ever.

[Walt Starr]

2. The commercial became TRUE

Did you read the story?

[Hugin]

4. Walt, I'm on dialup... Could you summarize, please?

[Walt Starr]

5. Library ad from 2002

Guy goes to check out a library book. He's told the book was no longer available and they'd need his name. Ends with government officials taking him away.

Story is about a fishing expedition by the FBI at a library.

[Hugin]

7. Yeah, I see your point.

I've noticed a few links have been blocked too... They
claim "pornography", but, I know for a fact they're only
political blogs.

No kidding.

Thanks for the summary.

[blondeatlast]

15. Ask to have them reviewed. They will unblock them almost every time.

Take it from one on the front lines--I screen the stuff people ask to have unblocked.

One of the problems we often encounter is that the blogs are hosted on sites that also host porn, so the filter software blocks them. If that's the case, we unblock them whenever possible.

Librarians are at the fronts fighting the good fight regarding free expression. Check out the ALA site for proof.

[slor]

3. Thanks for posting! n/t

[Pawel K]

6. Wow

that simply all I can say. I can't believe I didn't think of this ad earlier when I first heard of the story.

[leveymg]

8. Must have been written pre-9/11. Yes, America has changed

One would hardly recognize us.

If someone had said in 2000 that the election of George W. Bush would lead within five years to America becoming a one-party Right-wing dictatorship, the creation of a huge internal secuity agency with the Orwellian name, Department of Homeland Security, and to US troops torturing POWs in large numbers around the world, would you have taken that warning seriously?

It can happen here. Yes, it already has.

:eyes:

[Walt Starr]

9. Actually, that ad was post 9/11

and the Freedom Campaign was directly in answer to 9/11.

[leveymg]

10. Then that's all the more astonishing. Whoever produced that

ad must have had very little understanding of the Patriot Act, which was enacted within four weeks of the attacks. Or, maybe, they understood it very well.

That AdCouncil spot was either a masterpiece of willful blindness or intentionally misleading government propaganda.

This really makes me dread what they'll do next to destroy America and the truth --and I'm not talking about al-Qaeda.

:nuke:

[catzies]

13. "Take it seriously?" I *was* saying most of that in 2000.

No one could have envisioned everything that's happened, but a lot of us had a clue.

Not meant to be an insult or a slight; I don't bash DUers. :loveya:

[Jamastiene]

14. I had the clues too.

All I had to hear was Bush's quote about freedom of speech "needing limits" and the warnings from what happened in Florida and warnings from the former governor of Texas, Ann Richards and I knew we'd be in shit shape by now. I predicted military action against Iraq and wars galore too. And I was serious about those predictions too. Sounds like we think alike when it comes to putting two and two together. :pals:

[JohnyCanuck]

11. Paradoxical messaging as a brainwashing technique.

From "Brainwashing America" by Dr. Norman Livergood, former Dept. Head at the US Army War College:

Even intelligent people can be taken in by this brainwashing technology of paradoxical messaging. An example of this phenomenon is a current operation by the Advertising Council. The Ad Council expresses it overall purpose in this way: "We marshall the volunteer forces of advertising agencies and media companies to affect positive social change." You can, in the example below, interpret "effect positive change" as "brainwash people into fearful submission." One of the Council's current operations is called the "Campaign for Freedom." If you believe the Council, "The initiative is designed to assist Americans during the war on terrorism through the development and distribution of timely and relevant public service messages.

This first round of PSAs for the campaign has been created to celebrate our nation's freedom and remind Americans about the importance of freedom and the need to protect it for future generations." "According to research, Americans are looking for messages that will inform, involve and inspire them during the war on terrorism. This inspirational campaign is advertising's gift to America on the occasion of its birthday, Independence Day. All of the ads conclude with the powerful tagline, "Freedom. Appreciate it. Cherish it. Protect it." The first of six video clip "messages" involves the image of an American urban block, with the voiceover: "On September eleventh, terrorists tried to change America forever." The image changes to the same urban street but this time with American flags hanging in front of every house. "Well, they succeeded."

Now, that seems rather prosaic, doesn't it? The message is: "We showed those terrorists what we're made of!" Nothing to quarrel with, is there? Well, maybe. Note the critical element of the image/message: EVERY house has a flag in front of it. So the paradoxical message is: America is changed forever to a 200 percent patriotism that can see no wrong with whatever the Bush administration does. I recommend you examine all six Ad Council "messages" to see the paradoxical communications in each.

<snip>

Theme: Library
Ordinary Message: Aren't you glad you live in a country where you can read what you want to and no one will bother you.
Paradoxical Message: You're living in a country where police and intelligence agencies monitor what you read and can arrest you on suspicion of subversive activity.

http://www.new-enlightenment.com/brainwash1.htm

[leveymg]

12. The ad indeed operates on multiple levels, the meaning taken depends on

the perspective of the viewer. As you said, some will look at the ad and respond immediately with a feeling of patriotic well-being and pride that we live in a free country and this "doesn't happen here." Those people are likely "swing voters". uninvolved and unaware of the details of anti-terrorism legislation and of politics in general.

The second possible response, as you indicated, would be a chilling fear that would cause a person to avoid potentially controversial reading materials or public discussion. That person might normally be a Democrat, but could become so discouraged that they won't vote in the next election. Some percentage -- perhaps a decisive amount -- of the Democratic vote was suppressed this way.

There is however, a third response to such a message. That is to see it for what it is: a grotesque lie and a form of political oppression. That response would start as disbelief, and advance to anger, and has in many of us here at DU grown into an almost obsessive commitment to personal empowerment, group communication and global political action. That is the unintended effect of propaganda that the AdCouncil's opinion-makers didn't count on.