A recent science fiction movie called the Matrix is set in a future world where humanity lies sleeping in a drug-induced collective illusion, connected to a monstrous machine that's sucking the life out of them while they dream that they are free people living out real lives. The hero of the film begins to wake and see through the illusion, and, he finds others who are also waking. He is told that he may return to his fairly pleasant dreams by taking a blue pill, or take a red pill and face the unvarnished truth. Tonight's program will address our collective social illusions and make the case we are in fact already the sleeping subjects of a totalitarian one-world government that views our lives much the way that we view batteries in a flashlight - use them while they work, trash them when expended.
First, a reading of "Escaping the Matrix" by Richard K. Moore of cyberjournal.org. Then an interview with John Stauber of PR Watch on how public relations techniques have been used to propagandize war and push harmful corporate products. We conclude with a talk by Professor of Philosophy John McMurtry of the U. of Guelph on the one-world government by tyranny.