Israel is a Democracy! Right?

Israel most certainly is a democracy and a beaut of one it is too. In the space of this essay we will define democracy properly and it will become painfully apparent just how democratic the State of Israel is.

In order to make clear what democracy is, I should like to share the following with the reader:

There was once a particularly well done and disturbing episode of The Twilight Zone on American television. In an imagined 'future' there were some five or six state-sanctioned physical and mental types for each both men and women. Everyone had to undergo the operations necessary to become one of these types. The choice of which type to become was free, but the types were set. Each of the types were considered physically perfect and deemed mentally and emotionally desirable in this futuristic society. There was one young woman who, though physically plain and quirkily imperfect, didn't want to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She accepted herself as she was and didn't think that becoming another doll-like mannequin would be an improvement. She was subjected to a great deal of social temptation to become one of the state-sanctioned types. She was told that it was to her benefit to undergo the operations and those benefits were described, tantalizingly, to her. Yet, she persisted in wishing to remain herself. She was afterward cajoled, then she was ridiculed. As she persisted in holding her ground, ridicule turned to pressure, to making her feel isolated and unwanted and ultimately to threats. Yet, she held out and did not undergo the operation. It was explained to her 'rationally' that she was being unreasonable, irrational and unnecessarily iconoclastic. She was cajoled. She was told that she was being a troublemaker. She was told that she was, incidentally, rather repulsive physically as well. She was told that after undergoing the operations and becoming perfect in every way she would be happy that she did. Every manner of social pressure was heaped upon the young woman for the "crime" of wishing to be and remain herself.Finally, she did break and in the chilling last scene of the episode she is seen standing in front of a mirror, admiring her new-found perfection, every vestige of her interesting individuality completely lost. It could be inferred from that last scene that all of the others who had become state-sanctioned types had also once been individualistic, had tried to defend their own being and integrity insofar as they were able to, but they broke under "democratic" pressure to be like everyone else.That episode was aired when I was about ten years old. It had a tremendous impact on me and even at that young age I was able to understand that it was an only slightly hyperbolic description of the American society that I was living in. I understood that this was the maximum amount of freedom that was allowed to me and to the people around me by the American regime - we were allowed to 'choose' to become one of a limited number of state-sanctioned types.

You may say: "But we citizens and denizens of democracies can be vociferously critical of our governments. We can say and write what we think publicly without being censured or fear for our freedom and welfare."

I answer: Indeed. Have you ever noticed that the dissenters in democratic societies level the same criticisms, employing the same cliché phraseology, adopt the same modes of comportment and so on. There are state-sanctioned expressions of dissent. They are not only harmless to the government; they serve it by giving people the illusion that they are voicing critique. In fact, the critiques they level are mere parroting of that which they hear in the media in exactly the way in which they hear them in the media. That is to say, those "critiques" have been OK'ed by the powers that prevail. If a real critic of society, expressing original thoughts and employing original phraseology voices his or her opinion she or may be sure that she or he will be anathematized at the very least, first and foremost by the brainwashed masses of democracy, then jailed and isolated from "decent" people by those bodies who receive their salaries from the Plutocrats who are running this ersatz "democracy" to preserve "law and order" at the worst.

Democracy, in truth, is the mass illusion of personal and societal freedom created by the "manufacturing of consent" and the "engineering of consent" as developed by such "engineers of public opinion" as Walter Lippmann, Edward Bernays. Their equally nefarious, reptilian spawn, the "shapers of public opinion" continue their work to this day, having refined their techniques. It is they who are hired by the Plutocrats that run society to train the masses to think and behave as the Plutocrats wish them to. I should mention at this juncture that Edward Bernays was not only a nephew of Sigmund Freud, he was also an admirer of Ivan Pavlov, whose techniques he incorporated into his "engineering of consent".

As Edward Bernays expounds chillingly in his book PROPAGANDA, published in 1929, once individuals with some leadership skills and organizational abilities have been inculcated with the values, tastes and attitudes that the ruling classes wish the masses to be inculcated with to the extent that they think those values, tastes and attitudes are their own and arise from their own free will and inclinations; they will influence others to think similarly. A free .pdf download of PROPAGANDA and my book review in English on: http://www.crimsonbird.com/history/propaganda.htm .

Democracy capitalizes on human gregariousness and need for belonging. We humans are biologically, psychologically and emotionally constituted to be part of a group. Most of us experience the need to be loved, to be respected, to have as much status as we are able to accrue to ourselves and to belong as imperatives.

Democracy threatens us with alienation and isolation if we do not adopt acceptable behavior, speech and attitudes.

Democracy is the tyranny of the ubiquitous, immense, inchoate masses that have been conditioned to perceive the true dissenter as an alien and a threat that must be eradicated and whose behavior and reactions have been "engineered" and "manufactured" by the "engineers of public opinion" in the employ of the Plutocrats to beat the individualist into submission.
Only the 'hold-outs' are the true and genuine and can ever be free. Those who cannot be tempted, cajoled, ridiculed, insulted or threatened into submission and giving up what they are are those who are free. They are the ones who smash the idols (even if they are being made in our own fathers' workshops) and who slaughter the sacred cows (of the mind – let there be no misunderstands of my intentions in writing this). Abbey Hoffman is quoted as having said: "Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers." Playful nose-snubbing, rather than strident ranting, at the establishment is the hallmark of the true dissident. Their ability to be playful derives from the fact that they were not broken as children by the "free" public school system.
The truly free can never be a state-sanctioned type. The person of integrity bends to no social lie - no matter what the reward of doing so may be, no matter what the punishment of not doing so may be. It is for that reason that dissenters are, always have been and always will be the objects of public derision and private envy.

The best piece of advice that I can extend to Israelis is to turn off your radios and television sets. It is astonishing how these media of mass hypnosis, opinion forming and emotion arousing are ubiquitous in this country, even by Western standards. One can nary go into a waiting room without a TV being situated there "for entertainment" and to "give you something to do while waiting". Every cab driver and bus driver feels compelled to have the radio droning in the background continuously. In every supermarket the talking head blather on and on and... Big Brother is Big Brother even if it shimmies and shakes and sings and is presented to us in too, too bright colors and cutesy, catchy slogans and jingles. We do not need distraction from ourselves. We do not need to be told what to think, what is right and what is wrong, what is beautiful, what is desirable, what we must buy. We most certainly do not need to have our emotions artificially aroused by media that entice us onto a daily rollercoaster of alternate fear, sexual excitation, anger, feelings of superiority, feelings of inferiority, feelings of helplessness and what not.

Turn those damned machines off and read a book. Better yet, think for yourself. You will find that your mind is vastly more interesting that anything that can be staged and scripted for you in the media.

What is the alternative to "democracy"? True Anarchy, as described on the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/AuthenticAnarchyHEB.htm

The Hebrew version of this article is to be found on:

http://www.geocities.com/dordot2001/IsraelDemocracyRightHEB.htm

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat, Yisra'el
DoreenDotan@gmail.com