KBOO Presswatch script: mind control mythology
author: theresa mitchell
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Let's put the Ahura Mazda back in Christmas. (Radio script, broadcast Thurs AM)
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The Daily Mirror, in Great Britain, issued a famous post-election cover page that asked the question: how can fifty-nine million people be so dumb?
I think it's an excellent question, and even though it is clear to me that the dictator stole the election again, it is also clear that there are millions of people, mostly voting against their own class interests, who voted for George W. Bush. I have encountered plenty of bewilderment on this phenomenon right here at home—no need to go to England. What were people thinking?
The people who can best answer that question are the Republican strategists. They understand that they can manipulate much of the population to the point of delusion, using the loyal corporate-owned media, and they intend to keep on doing it. They have created a mental landscape for those fifty-nine million people, in which shadowy figures shift terrible weapons through Iraq, through Syria, to the Wal-Mart nearest you. In this fantasy world, homeless grandmas are rightly punished by the cold and rain on their donated blankets. Lovers who joyously take marriage vows after years of life as a couple are satanic perverts who would rape your children if given a chance. Dedicated activists who put their bodies on the line in an heroic effort to stop war and ecological destruction are actually dangerous terrorists with Middle East connections who bomb themselves in their manic frenzy of hatred. And it's all a sign that Jesus is coming.
It's this last aspect of the mind-control regime that I wish to focus on today. Fundamentalists have been quoting a recent Harris poll in which a vast majority of US citizens list themselves as believers in Christ and in his second coming. These
citizens represent fodder for a theocratic insurgency in the US. Quoting the website Theocracy Watch (.org):
"This movement values guns and the death penalty. It values the rich at the expense of the poor. It favors corporations at the expense of individuals. It seeks to eliminate virtually all regulations that protect the environment, worker safety, and public health. And in an effort to fulfill the dominionist belief in the manifest destiny of "Christian" nations, it values an aggressive foreign policy. It claims that the principle of separation of church and state is "a myth." It is possessed of absolute moral righteousness. It tolerates no dissent."
I view this as an alarming sign of educational degeneracy and mental illness. Here's why.
The Christmas story is a myth. It is not a new myth. The Persian Sun god Mithras, who later became quite popular among Fourth Century Romans, had his mythological birth hundreds of years prior to Christ's—to a virgin, in a manger, attended by three wise men.
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The Christian mythos later copied many aspects of the Mithraic Mystery religion. According to both ancient Roman and Vatican historians, St. Augustine even went so far as to declare that Christians and the worshipers of Mithras and Ahura Mazda, the One God of the ancient Persians, worshiped that same father deity. It was even stated in ancient Persian folktales that Mithra's mother was a virgin and he was the sacred harvest of a virgin birth. In Persian/Mithraic folklore, great Magi visited Mithras upon the eve of his birth and he performed miracles such as raising the dead, healing the sick, walking on water and casting out devils. [One might ask: what were Zoroastrian priests doing visiting a Jewish god?]
Even more similarities between Jesus Christ and Mithras occur, including the fact that before ascending into the heavens Mithras had a feast, a Last Supper, with his twelve disciples, who represented the twelve symbols of the zodiac. Mithras was also said to, upon his death, be placed into a cave--an image of his sacred earth mother's womb-- where after three days, he walked once more among the living. Moreover, Mithraism entered into many doctrines of the early Christian church through Manichean Christianity. Case in point: The Mithraic festival of Epiphany, marking the coming of the Persian sun-priests, or Magi, to the messiah's place of birth--it was adopted by the Christian church in 813 A.D.
(adapted from  http://differentpath.alternatehistory.com/mitra.html)
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One may, of course, choose to believe that Christianity, unlike all other religions, generated its myth out of whole cloth—but there is no rational reason to do so. It takes a willful disregard—or more likely, a stony ignorance—of anthropology, sociology, history, and comparative religion, at the least, to believe that Jesus Christ is the Savior of mankind, and that no other path will do.
Christianity as it exists today grew out of the desire of Emperor Constantine to combine the popularity of the Mithras cult in the military with the fanaticism and commercialism of Jewish Savior cults in Rome. He created an official organ of State mind control which grew into the Christian Church in its various forms. It is still used, quite effectively, to limit dissent, and to direct popular energy into loyalty to the ruling elites.
When Dictator Bush says "If you're not with us, you're against us," he is amplifying the sort of dualistic thinking that Christianity adapted from Zoroastrianism and Mithraism. The fundamentalists say that those who oppose them are with Satan. The word Satan comes from Ha-Shatan, the name of the similarly oppositionist demigod in ancient Persian belief. Christianity is actually the religion of God and of Satan—an obvious enough thing for nonbelievers, but a revelation to those who have accepted the idea that their idea of God is the only one, and that all else is in the category of Satan. The viciousness of Satan goes hand in hand with the redeeming qualities of Jesus, and one does not exist without the other. Thus it is possible to convince soldiers, and indeed the population at large, to act viciously while claiming absolute moral purity.
One may see this in all aspects of theocratic Christianity, from denial of health care and housing rights, to ecological destruction and war. The torture of prisoners goes without popular comment—after all, the victims were not Christian, and were doomed to be tortured forever, anyway. Historically, the Christian theocrats have been fond of torture. And war itself becomes merely an extension of God's will through the State, so that Satan-Jesus may lay waste to whole cities and countries, and then offer tender mercy to those who submit to the terror.
It's a brilliant system, really; it has worked for sixteen hundred or so years now, so there's no reason for the ruling elites to change it. The problem is, the Jesus-Satan cult is now rapidly destroying international peace and planetary ecological balance. I urge each of you to first overthrow it in your own mind.
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"The Book of Revelation is merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherence of our own nightly dreams." - Thomas Jefferson
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.
What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, needs them not." - James Madison
Looks like it's time for a new American Revolution.