Letters
In Orwell’s novel the people were subordinated to a party doctrine, a party which in Clear Lake is the dynasty of wealth and power controlling the citizenry through a “Ministry of Truth” (government and news media), creating a classic Orwellian “authority” in Lake County.
A new unofficial task force of concerned citizens met for the first time at the Lakeport Yacht Club on Oct. 8, giving the impression that its purpose was to disseminate more factual and scientifically based information to the public. Instead, it offered propaganda and misinformation.
The concerned citizens were served double-talk and news-speak such as lake water getting clearer and sunlight being cause of recent massive algae scums, suggesting nothing need be done as the lake is doing what it does naturally for a few unpleasant days of the year.
According to Clay Shannon, speaking at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting, only for about 30 days of the year algae are a problem: again, algae not a problem, but for who? A substantial increase in the number of wineries in Lake County has occurred since 2004 (now numbering 37). Do they contribute to pollution? Not according to Greg Giusti, a speaker at the new lake task force meeting.
Are we to have reliable information about lake waters or propaganda? Controlled government misinformation and a compliant news media keep citizens uninformed and misinformed with propaganda that fosters power and control by a wealthy few in control of “authority” in Lake County.
The control infiltrates like the sleaze of corporatism nationally, where every governing sphere is tainted by a controlled element of wealth.
Such a longstanding tradition of power appears acceptable, smooth as plaster, natural as lake water to those in control and for those uninformed or misinformed alike, until cracks appear and contamination becomes more visible and unavoidable, like excess algae in lake water, in spite of propaganda to the contrary.
The plaster, cast as the influence of wealth, controls what newspapers print and what a Board of Supervisors decides. It shuts down a television station if the station threatens news not controlled. It has caused much damage to Lake County in the neglect of lake waters.
Maurice Taylor lives in Clearlake, Calif.
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- Written by: Maurice Taylor
The ancient models seem to no longer serve us and to be dying from within.
To create a new society within the existing social framework has been attempted. Today many intentional communities, with many different structures, exist, yet they exist under the mainstream culture, and shadowed to some extent by it, not as free as they would like to be.
In my opinion we must first lay the foundation, which is a spiritual question, before we can create a new way to be, for a society is a way of being human together.
I think the foundation must be about what it means to be human. Currently I would say that we are not really human, for the simple reason that we fight our own nature. We have done it for centuries.
As a matter of fact we fight all of nature, the outer and the inner, and rather intensely and mercilessly.
To make it simple: we are related to everything, we are connected to all life at every known, imaginable and yet unknown level. We must internalize this fact deeply and see how it affects and transforms our being and opens up our hearts and souls.
From there, from this understanding of the unity and kinship of all life, we should be able to create a new culture that expresses harmony and cooperation rather than fear, subjugation and exploitation.
It goes without saying that balance means the end of the dominant and destructive power of the patriarchy, and a return towards the union and harmony of female/male energies within the human psyche as well as within all social structures and human endeavors.
Indeed, if we want to save the world, meaning save ourselves, we must urgently let women be the leaders who will restore balance, and will guide us to sanity and do away with patriarchal, unintelligent pursuits of dominant power and supremacy, which serve nothing but the perpetuation of injustice, abuse and fear and defeat love and life in all of their expressions, to the point of making our very survival as a species questionable.
Raphael Montoliu lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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