In September 2015, Neil deGrasse Tyson interviewed Edward Snowden,
the NSA whistleblower who revealed the mass spying program(s) used across the
globe by multiple intelligence agencies, private governments, and more. His
revelations had broad and immediate consequences for both the elite they exposed
and the now-informed public, who, prior to the leaks, considered
government surveillance a conspiracy theory. Leaks continue to expose
government surveillance and the tools/technology they use via Snowden and other
whistleblowers, document platforms like Wikileaks, and the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA). As a result, distrust in our governments is at an-all
time high, and on a global scale.
All
of these leaks have brought the existence of Special Access Programs (SAPs) and
Unacknowledged SAPs into the public consciousness. These are programs run by
what’s become known as “The Deep State,” or a government within
the government, which has also been discussed by multiple political
insiders and academics,.
Here
is one out of many examples we’ve used many times:
Political parties exist to secure
responsible government and to execute the will of the people.
From these great tasks both of the
old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general
welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them
impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government
sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no
responsibility to the people.
To destroy
this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt
business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the
day. (source)
To
see more quotes like this, you can check out this article. And to learn more about the
Black Budget, you can read this one that goes more in-depth.
Modern Day Education
In the interview, Snowden offers his views on
education, which align closely with our own here at CE:
It’s
a question of who teaches the untaught? Knowledge has to arise from somewhere.
There has to be a fountainhead from which it flows. That can’t be a classroom
because the teachers themselves had to learn it from somewhere. Original
research, the scientific method, the pursuit of the unknown, and the
questioning of accepted conventional wisdom and probing at the unknowns. The
fact that the most interesting thing for someone who’s interested in how
knowledge is created are the problems that haven’t been solved. It’s not
what do we know. It’s what we don’t know.
The
interview is lengthy and covers a range of topics, but my focus here is
education.
It’s something I’ve always wondered:
Who does teach the untaught? When one goes to teacher’s college, or medical
school, or to any other institutions to be trained to share knowledge,
information, and assistance, they are simply being taught by those who have
gone through the same system — a system that is now plagued with
corruption and misinformation, and which demands obedience from us, the
participants, the people meant to keep this mass machine going and thriving off
of our efforts. We simply take in the information and believe it, without
doing any probing, questioning, or critical thinking for ourselves.
I
think it will be some time before we’re all ready to open our minds to
information that doesn’t fit the framework of accepted knowledge.
It
reminds me of this recent “fake news” epidemic, in which Facebook has teamed up
with Snopes, the Disney Corporation (mainstream media), and more to decide for
people what they are able to see on Facebook’s platform and what they are not
able to see. We now have outside agencies determining for us what is real and
what is fake, rather than us doing it for ourselves. The key is not to censor
information, but rather teach people how to think critically and examine
sources.
“In our dream we have limitless
resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding
hand. The present educational conventions fade from our minds; and,
unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and
responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their
children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We are not
to raise up among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We
shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will
we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers,
doctors, preachers, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply.”
– Rev. Frederick T. Gates, Business Advisor
to John D. Rockefeller Sr., 1913
In
school, we are simply taught to obey and memorize. If we don’t, we are
punished. Each child is required to learn the accepted version of reality
in order to fit into the specific mould necessary for us to
become “productive” members of society. We are taught to be like everybody
else, to never question the information we are given, and to move on and be a
“product-full” member of society. Just like television, much of
traditional education is simply programming. We are told we must do well in
school in order to get a job so we can make money and pay our bills. It has
nothing to do with the type of growth a human being needs. Good grades and
marks do not signify intelligence. In school we are shown how to
obey authority, how the world works, and what intelligence is — and is
not.
Modern
day education is heavily marketed as a place for us to learn, but is that
really what it is? It’s just like many pharmaceutical grade medications — do
they really heal, or have we simply been made to believe they do?
Prior to the late 1800s, education was a
private practice that took place in private institutions or through home
schooling. That all changed in 1902 when John D. Rockefeller created the
General Education Board in conjunction with Frederick T. Gates, his close
friend and business/personal advisor. The General Education Board was
responsible for funding the American public school system, and provided over
one hundred million dollars in 1902 while continuing their support beyond 1902.
If we follow the money, it becomes clear that the GEB was responsible for
the creation of the American public school system.
Does education not play a large role in
manipulating the consciousness of human beings? By consciousness manipulation,
I mean trying to influence the way that we perceive the environment around us.
In order to implement this system, teachers need to teach, and somebody needs
to teach the teachers, and somebody needs to teach them, too. It’s time we
start questioning the real purpose of education, who exactly is putting
human beings through this system, and for what purpose.
One cannot think for themselves in this
type of environment. Real education comes from the individual, and has nothing
to do with schooling.
“I want a nation of workers, not thinkers.” – John D.
Rockefeller
A Real Education
I
believe a real education comes from within. It is those who are passionate and
curious about this world who will become truly educated, rather than
receive the “education” that is used to obtain a piece of paper, so we can
earn more pieces of paper in order to live.
Think
of a child and how curious they are; the truly educated adult is the one who
has maintained that curiosity and wonder.
All
of the information presented in school can be accessed through the library.
Does our continued support of the educational system, therefore, really stem
from an innate desire to learn, or are we simply motivated by the idea of a
good life? Do we simply want to fit in, make money, and get a job that
people respect?
Forcing
children through this system, into their early adulthood with post-secondary
education, leaves them with no time to learn about our world because they are
kept busy learning what the government wants us to learn.
We are almost at a point where it seems
we’ve completely lost our critical thinking and questioning ability; the moment
one questions something that is accepted by society, like eating meat for
example, or the official story behind 9/11, one is instantly met with criticism
and ridicule from people who haven’t bothered to research these issues for
themselves.
The
good news is that, with the birth of multiple social media platforms, the
public now has access to information and sources that were not
available to them before. We’ve seen billions of eyes viewing some
sensitive information, which means there is something important happening. It
means that millions of people are starting to question the world around them.
This simple questioning opens the door to investigation, critical thinking, and
answers. To question what mainstream media says, to question what governments
tell us, as Snowden has alluded to so many times, is the duty of a true
patriot.
These
things are definitely not learned in the classroom, and there’s no doubt that
education is key to changing our world, but school as we know it is not.
“Never confuse education with intelligence.”
–
Albert Einstein
