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Coronavirus: The Life You Save May Be Your Own…

Have you noticed this persistent and pervasive theme…? I know I sure have. See the more than two dozen examples below. But, recently I started thinking; how does that square with the Bible – or does it even? I have talked many times about what I generally refer to as the Death Cult. This is not a formal organization per se, so much as what is perhaps best embodied in those to whom Jesus referred in John 8, in conjunction with what He said in John 10:10.

You are of [your] father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own [nature,] for he is a liar and the father of lies.

John 8:44 [NASB]

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly.

John 10:10 [NASB]

The Biblical concept of ‘whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,’ issued by Jesus Himself, is expressed in all four Gospels, including; Matthew 10:39; 16:25-26; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33; John 12:25.

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.” [emphasis added]

Luke 9:24 [NASB]

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” [emphasis added]

Mark 8:35 [NASB]

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” [emphasis added]

Matthew 16:25-26 [NASB]

Considering the juxtaposition, and its profound and sobering consequences, this got me thinking even more. Is this merely a slogan? Are we being duped (by the death cult ideology) into effectively losing our lives in the ostensible effort to ‘save’ them…?

At this point, I can imagine many decrying, “C’mon, Chris. Are you saying every one of the authors of the more than two dozens instances you cite below are all somehow in on some ‘grand conspiracy,’?” Not at all. I don’t believe that at all. But I do believe people can be deceived, and I also believe history proves that there are those work have worked diligently to deceive their fellow man – at times, on a grand scale.

Following are a few examples. Adolf Hitler is credited with coining the term ‘big lie’ in his 1925 book Mein Kampf, regarding the use of a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously”. Operation Earnest Voice, the US government’s ongoing CENTCOM-based astroturfing campaign is part of a broader state-sponsored Internet propaganda initiative.

The FBI’s COINTELPRO projects targeted American dissident groups using a variety of deception – even engaging in illegal practices. The CIA was once so bombastic concerning its propaganda (deception) efforts that the CIA’s first chief of political warfare, Frank Wisner coined the metaphor of the “Mighty Wurlitzer” to describe their efforts. More recently, Hugh Wilford wrote a book about it, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (2008). In his NY Times book review, Nathan Glazer wrote:

“Mighty Wurlitzer” was the metaphor Frank Wisner, the first chief of political warfare for the Central Intelligence Agency, used to describe the C.I.A.’s “array of front organizations.” They were, he said, “capable of playing any propaganda tune he desired.”

Many books have been written about societies – like Nazi Germany – which, by all accounts, most people would think would have ‘seen it coming’. The End of America, The Road to Serfdom, It Can’t Happen Here, They Thought They Were Free, The Gulag Archipelago, Ordinary Men, War Against the Weak, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, and Worse Than War are but a few examples.

So, we know as a historical fact that deception is real, exists, and is at times even perpetrated on a grand or ‘colossal’ scale. And we also know that, despite the confirmation bias of our own (socially engineered) American exceptionalism, even our own government has engaged in these practices – at times, even against its own citizens. Referring back to the Bible, considering these words, I guess this comes as no real surprise:

We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in [the power of] the evil one. [emphasis added]

1 John 5:19 [NASB]

For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. [emphasis added]

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 [NASB]

Edward Bernays was Sigmund Freud’s nephew, and a cultural icon of the twentieth century. The title of his 1995 NY Times obituary read, “Edward Bernays, ‘Father of Public Relations’ And Leader in Opinion Making, Dies at 103”. The “father of public relations” had many notable clients and campaigns. He also wrote several provocative works, including; Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Propaganda (1928), and The Engineering of Consent (1947). In the opening words of Chapter one of Propaganda, Bernays provides the reader with unsettling insight:

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.

Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) CHAPTER I. ORGANIZING CHAOS

In Chapter three of Propaganda, Bernays coined the term “public relations”:

The invisible government tends to be concentrated in the hands of the few because of the expense of manipulating the social machinery which controls the opinions and habits of the masses.

[…]

For this reason there is an increasing tendency to concentrate the functions of propaganda in the hands of the propaganda specialist. This specialist is more and more assuming a distinct place and function in our national life.

[…]

New activities call for new nomenclature. The propagandist who specializes in interpreting enterprises and ideas to the public, and in interpreting the public to promulgators of new enterprises and ideas, has come to be known by the name of “public relations counsel.”

Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) CHAPTER III. THE NEW PROPAGANDISTS

In Chapter four of Propaganda, Bernays alluded to the motive behind these efforts:

The systematic study of mass psychology revealed to students the potentialities of invisible government of society by manipulation of the motives which actuate man in the group. So the question naturally arose: If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it?

The recent practice of propaganda has proved that it is possible…

Edward Bernays, Propaganda (1928) CHAPTER IV. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

Edward Bernays was no stranger to the public service announcement (PSA) – in fact, he practically invented the concept. All of which leads me to wonder; are we witnessing a massive ‘PSA’ campaign, with one of its slogans being ‘the life you save may be your own’? Speaking of the dangers of propaganda and slogans in the hands of authoritarian regimes, Dietrich Bonhoeffer experienced such dangers firsthand. In his posthumously published Letters and Papers from Prison, Bonhoeffer wrote:

Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. … The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging circumstances. The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings. [emphasis added]

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison (1951)

[emphasis added]