主题：【讨论】NPR一个给9-14岁的书单（2013年8月） -- 南寒

The ever-steady drone of mainstream media, diligently serving the 'Divide & Rule' agenda; put forth by our so called, 'leaders.' It works hard to keep the people locked into carefully-crafted mind-sets, and perpetually divided against one another. It's goal; keep the populace fervently arguing amongst themselves, endlessly breathing renewed life into social and political divisiveness, ensure that their attention remains wholly fixed on their divides and disagreements, and never, ever toward their fundamental commonalities as human beings. Prod and stimulate their animal fears and desires, groom and inflame their long-nurtured prejudices, insecurities and grievances. Stir well the forever-simmering pot of racism, classism, religious extremism, and that ever so-effective crippling agent to free expression, "political correctness." Then foster their endless willingness to relate to the next political candidate as 'the magic fix' to all their problems. These are just some of the social controls and mental manipulations by which the people (allow themselves) to be held in psychological chains, in unwitting service to the 'Divide & Rule' construct which holds the reigns. As long as the masses are kept angry at, or suspicious of, one another, perpetually monopolized by promoted fears and culturally-seeded insecurities, the rulership remains secure in its standing. Keep them focused on the petty, the inane and the insipid, long enough that the bar for what's considered 'important,' 'meaningful' and 'intelligent,' may be lowered to the detriment of rational and intelligent thought. Fill their minds with useless garbage and desensitizing violence. Mandate their imbibing of mind-dimming fluoride in their drinking water, and assure them it's all just "to protect their teeth." And of course it is! For we all know how the geopolitical power-players lie awake at night, fretting about the health of the people's teeth. Reduce media drama and entertainment-buffoonery to the lowest common denominator. Frame human pettiness as a 'virtue,' encourage everyone to forever place responsibility for themselves at the feet of anyone BUT themselves, to hang their meager hopes on the next political puppet to be trotted-out as the next 'savior.' Parade victimhood across every 'tell-a-vision' and movie screen, declare the act of blame as the national past time. Given a long enough duration of time, intelligence levels will fall, and the capacity for critical thinking will have been effectively dismantled. 'Divide & Rule.' Few even recognize the prison, for the sadly-stupid reason that the word 'freedom' is painted on its door. No need to think for yourself, as Big Brother will do that for you. And so the controlling elements are left alone, unperturbed, to relish their power and count their plunder. With the rabble-masses well distracted, their time can then be spent ushering-in their hidden agendas and ever-spiraling minutia of confining laws and debilitating dictates. Assurances are generously offered, of course, that it's all merely toward the goal of "keeping the people safe" and "the betterment of society." We inhabit a public-supported political system, by way of our participation in it, which performs as barely a pantomime of 'democracy,' - a concept now leached of any real meaning, corrupted to its core. The wealthy, chess piece-puppets are methodically moved into place, selected by the elite club itself, while they somehow manage to yet fool so many into believing that they were ushered-in by, "the will of the people." So desperate are the people to place responsibility for themselves in the hands of another, they are loathe to even imagine a paradigm in which they make their own decisions. The hypnosis is deep, fooling so many into believing that a choice between 'Coke' or 'Pepsi' is somehow synonymous with a 'free society.' The Democratic party, the Republican party; two faces of a single, self-serving, parasitic entity, posturing before the unwitting for the sake of casting the thin illusion that "freedom of choice" is alive and well. They make a mockery of us, so confident in their capacity to cast the lot of us into their induced trance state. They adore how passionately we argue amongst ourselves over which party is superior, laughing heartily up their sleeves at our industrial-strength gullibility. It should now be painfully obvious to all; ONLY the political players engaged in the officially-sanctioned program are ever allowed a position on the game board in the first place. No true renegades, at odds with the long-established order, are EVER allowed to flourish on this political stage, for the status quo WILL be defended and maintained at all costs. There is no danger to 'the powers that be,' that the people's vacant definitions of 'freedom' could ever threaten their citadel of power, for their definitions are bereft of any real meaning. The entire staged soap opera is dressed up in its patriotic colors, bestowed with a voice of "sound reason," proffering its age-old assurances of "a better world" from its many mouths and forked tongues. They sing the songs our fear-ridden minds are always desperate to hear, assuring us that 'liberty' is alive and well, while ushering-in a government-sanctioned "protection" from the very villains they have long created, funded, and propped-up, in our steady-acclimation to a level of "safety" and "security" synonymous with well-appointed incarceration. We're spoon-fed the steady diet of pablum-platitudes and sound-byte-concepts that were never our invention, endorsed by institutions who's main priority has always only ever been to preserve themselves. The program; to regularly remind the people of how "free" they are, lest they dare awaken to the game being run on them, lest they fall out of lock-step-rhythm to the hypnogogic trance of that one social disease we've long been taught to honor and revere above all else; conformity. So many are still so eager to trade away their self-sovereignty, their truly free will, terrified to march to their own drum, ever-ready to give away all sense of self to the dominating, patriarchal rule of an ever-oppressive government; tyranny's entry point into a long-ago, hollowed-out liberty. We forget that not all prisons require steel bars. The most effective containment spaces are the ones forged of socially-endorsed perception and handed-down beliefs. We carry them throughout a lifetime, clutching to them as though our lives depended on it, seldom, if ever, bothering to question their validity. We passionately argue in favor of 'freedom', while never bothering to define it for ourselves. Dare to ask yourself honestly; "from where did all of my beliefs originate? Are they really mine, or are they someone else's?" If you're honest, you'll see that they were passed down to you by all those who came before; parents, teachers, friends, churches, government, media. Dare the boldness of wondering what we might have envisioned without the life-long drone of social programming, piped into our minds from the mouthpieces of a soulless and bankrupt culture. What kind of world might we be inclined to dream on our own, without all the myriad governors upon our expression we have taken upon us so willingly?