Power Control In The Information Age

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In 1440 Johannes Gutenberg's printing press revolutionized the flow of information. It took it out of the hands on the elites and made information that was only accessible to a very few available to many. Of course it didn't happen overnight, there was still the problem of limited literacy, but as years went by and people became able to read, newspapers popped up and the stranglehold that the elites held on the flow of information became threatened. It's arguable that the 1st Amendment's prohibition against limiting free speech might have been unnecessary if not for Gutenberg. It was the ability to gather, store and freely disseminate information more than anything else that led to our democracy.

Similarly, the internet in the early 1990's made the flow of information virtually instantaneous (after dial-up was replaced by hi-speed internet, of course). Before the advent of the internet, and more particularly social media, the mainstream media had a virtual lock on disseminating important information and once again, the elites that own and operate the MSM, along with the political elites who depend on them to put forth their narrative, are threatened.

"Elizabethan philosopher and scientist, Viscount Francis Bacon’s (1561-1626) ideas are considered to be the early basis of modern science. Perhaps his most well-known comment, “Knowledge is power,” is truer today than when he said it 400 years ago. For almost all of that time, the power elite controlled the information and thereby controlled the people." In a journalism class I took the professor told everyone that it would be information rather than money that would control power in the very near future... the civilized world would be made up of information-rich vs. information-poor individuals.

According to Dr. Tim Ball: "This ability marked the start and promoted the success of the Revolution. Now, it is marking the final phase and guaranteeing the continuance of the Revolution. However, as Benjamin Franklin said when asked if in negotiations they had settled for a republic or a democracy, he replied a republic, if you can keep it. People now have access to information, if they can keep it."

The free flow of information and the private ownership of land is what sets America apart from the rest of the world and both are rapidly waning. Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development are threatening private property ownership as globalist powers are trying to force us into population zones. The mainstream media is silent as America's sovereignty is being stripped away. The US is becoming more like the UK every day. In the UK, the aristocracy owns over one-third of the land. In the US, more and more land is being put into "federal trusts" to "save the environment."

Before the American Revolution, the British owned the newspapers. in effect controlling the flow of information. So how did these revolutionaries spread the word? Pamphlets... Robert Parkinson wrote: "The pamphlets channeled and focused colonial resistance by framing dissent via appeals to history and political experience.”

In 1782, William Cowper wrote a poem entitled Progress of Error...

How shall I speak of thee or thy power address,
Thou God of our idolatry, the Press?
By thee religion, liberty and laws
Exert their influence and advance their cause;
By thee worse plagues than Pharaoh’s land befell,
Diffused, make earth the vestibule of Hell;
Thou fountain, at which drink the good and wise;
Thou ever-bubbling spring of endless lies;
Like Eden’s dead probationary tree,
Knowledge of good and evil is from thee.

Those words ring true to this day. Whoever controls the flow of information controls America. "Since the American Revolution, the Press, with the direct support and control of the power elite, reasserted itself. We are now at the point explained by A. J. Liebling that “Freedom of the Press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” In the period since the Revolution, the Press has expanded into the Media, but all the controls and condemnations of Cowper’s poem apply. The Press and the Media were now in control by determining who would win and who would lose. They decide who would win and who would lose. In archaic terms, they became the king-makers and the king-breakers. This means that anyone running for political office, especially the presidency, needed media support or a way of bypassing them."

Things have changed, however, since the advent of the internet. The decentralized nature makes a hegemony on information dangerous without outright censorship. It was the internet that won the 2016 election for Donald Trump and even more than that was a slap in the face of the mainstream media who thought they still had a lock on the flow of information. They believed by broadcasting false and misleading poll numbers they could tip the votes in favor of Hillary Clinton- after all nobody likes to vote for a candidate projected to garner only around 10% of the vote. It didn't work and now the MSM and powers that be are in the panic mode.

"The recent Congressional hearings with Mark Zuckerberg were a façade of Democrats and Republicans blaming Facebook for bias so they could argue that government controls were necessary. In those hearings, both parties underscored their swamp membership. Only we, as professional politicians, know what needs to be done and it cannot include free and unfettered access to all information." The elites are fighting to gain back their hegemony on the flow of information.

"The battle over the internet and knowledge is the same as the battle over free speech. It is impossible to limit in any way because the minute you do, somebody is deciding what other people can say. Bacon was right, knowledge is power, but it is the sole property of the people and now they have it, they must never let go." This is why it is critical that we the people do not lose the battle to keep the internet, and especially social media, free of censorship. This is a fight we cannot afford to lose. This is a reason that platforms like Steemit are so important. If we lose the internet, tyranny will prevail. It's up to each of us to make certain that this never happens.

Platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google and the like are stepping up their censorship. We need to direct as many people as we can to platforms like Steemit, Minds, Gab, etc. as we can. If we keep the internet open to the free flow of information we will be victorious in this Information War.

https://www.technocracy.news/how-access-to-information-can-make-or-break-the-elite-stranglehold/