Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Levi's: All-American or Neo-Communism

It seems that everywhere I go recently, I see these massive Levi's billboards along the side of the road. At first, I thought nothing of them. After all, they're just billboards, right? Plus Levi's is an all-American company, right? Visually, these ads are quite striking; mostly black and white, and quite crisp. Stark may be an even better word to describe their look, almost like an homage to depression-era life.
But when I saw the below billboard, I took notice. My opinion changed:
"Everybody's work is equally important"!?
Hmm...does that sound familiar to any of you? It sure sounded familiar to me...and in a sick-to-my-stomach kind of way. This idea is one of Karl Marx's own. In fact, one site even cheerfully refers to these ads as having, "Karl-Marx-approved slogans" [1]. This theme is one that is very much front and center in communism; this idea that we must all be equal, economically. In fact, one way to define communism [2] is as follows:
"Everyone shares everything. No one has more or less money than anyone else. The idea is that everyone deserves to have an equal part of wealth because everyone's work is equally important."
Here are a few snippets from a New York Times article [8] with their take on Levi's ad campaign:
"The “Go forth” campaign is replete with Americana imagery, in keeping with research indicating that teenagers and 20-somethings are patriotic and optimistic about the United States. Those elements include the poetry of Walt Whitman [4], flags, paeans to the pioneering spirit, declarations of independence, salutes to hard work and, in the star-spangled tradition of Madison Avenue, copious amounts of nubile flesh.
"Ads scheduled to run this week in newspapers -- alongside or near reprints of the Declaration of Independence for the Fourth of July -- will echo the style of help-wanted classifieds in seeking “independent minds for a small writing project with long-term publishing possibilities.” “Must have talent for revolutionary thinking,” the ads continue. “Rabble-rousing experience a plus.” On the Levi’s Web site, young computer users will be asked to “take up your pen, you general of the new revolution” and contribute to “the New Declaration of the United States of America.”
"New Declaration of the United States of America"!? Where is this all coming from!?
You may have heard of Walt Whitman -- and maybe you haven't -- but the entire Levi's campaign is based upon his poem, "Pioneers! O, Pioneers!" [3]. Using Whitman as our jumping-off point, here's a brief excerpt about Whitman from the book, "To Walt Whitman, America" [4] by Kenneth M. Price:
"In August, 1938, the Boston Globe reported that a trunk of personal papers belonging to Walt Whitman had been discovered and excitedly urged its readers to master Whitman's "Leaves of Grass" and "Complete Prose" because his "fecundity, breadth of soul, passion for beauty and strength and democracy have made him a symbol of American idealism at its noblest." These claims provoked one outraged reader to lament that Whitman's work was not banned and to assert that he is a "notorious communist."
"Two months later, Ben Shahn elicited similarly heated responses when he planned to quote from a Whitman poem in a federally funded mural, "Resources of America," in the Bronx General Post Office. Shahn's use of an excerpt from "Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood" in a preliminary sketch was decried as "irreligious," "pagan," expressive of "Asiatic" philosophy, and as "background for two false and fatal pseudo-messianic movements," Bolshevism and Nazism.
"The outraged Globe reader, A. Maurice Farrell of Cambridge, argued that "Walt Whitman is a notorious Communist, and his writings have been for years denounced by respectable and eminent authorities, from both pulpit and press, as vile and unspeakable maunderings. His so-called "poems" were suppressed for years in this very city by the public authorities. It is unfortunate that a lazy and careless public have permitted this well-merited ban to be lifted of recent years."
"Though simplistic, Farrell's labelling of Whitman as a communist was understandable. Whitman had served as an icon for American Leftists for decades: Horace Traubel, Emma Goldman, Newton Arvin, Mike Gold, Langston Hughes -- these were only some of the intellectuals intent on constructing him as a semi-miraculous father figure who, in Gold's words, "rose from the grave to march with us." [4]
And so it would seem that Whitman was, in fact, a communist in philosophy...which, when combined with the imagery and phrases in the Levi's ads, makes these ads a clear-cut case of Communist propaganda. Take, for example, the ad at right: this picture is in-set in the NY Times article. Beneath it, NY Times author Stuart Elliot, has written, "Phrases in the print ads suggest an aesthetic grounded in common sense during tough times."

"Let the average man be divine"!?
Elliot calls that "grounded in common sense"?
No, this is grounded in communist propaganda. And it's urging America's youth to "strike up for the new world" and to "take up your pen, you general of the new revolution."

And with an ignorant youth -- a youth with no sense of our true history; a history littered with the deaths of millions upon millions at the hands of communism -- this is a scary idea. This is when democracy slides toward tyranny. This is when the Liberty to Tyranny cycle [5] becomes complete.
Check out this still shot from the Levi's TV advertisement, below-left, in comparison to Stalin's communist propaganda, below-right:


That hand gesture look familiar? Hitler used it, as did Stalin and Mao...it's the communist salute, and it's hidden in plain sight within the Levi's TV commercial. 
 
First, let's take a look at why democracy always slides into communism and tyranny. Factually speaking, the overwhelming majority of people are average: average intelligence, average ambition, average income...just average overall. However, like everything in life, there is a small percentage of the population that excels. They're smarter, they're driven to succeed and they prosper more than the average person. This group, though wealthy and successful, make up but a small percentage of the population.

With that said, you may be wondering why I'm picking on democracy. Why do I believe we can thank our democratic form of governance for our lowly socio-economic reality? Well, quite simply because in a democracy, the majority rules. The group that outnumbers his foes wins. Might equals right. And with average people making up the majority, those who excel are punished in a democracy. With propaganda controlling the minds of the masses, poor decisions are made; decisions that may feel good at the time, but whose promised results (communist utopia) will never come; decisions that lead to communism.

Never will communism achieve equality for all; never will it feed every mouth or clothe every person; never will it create the Utopia promised to its believers by its prophets. It will create a tiny group of rich, powerful oligarchs and a massive population of serfs. History tells the tale.

Free markets and individual liberty have created the most prosperity for the most people the world over. This fact is undeniable, though the powers-that-be wish we'd believe otherwise.

In a Constitutional Republic, if the majority of people say that we must tax the rich more than the average family, this is simply not possible. In such a place -- as we used to be -- there are rules we live by that keep us free from the desires of the majority. Our Constitution, until the 16th amendment, deemed a progressive federal income tax illegal.

But once the 16th amendment was passed, the communistic progressive federal income tax was imposed. It was easy for the powers-that-be to convince the average person -- who, as I said, makes up the majority -- of the need to tax the rich for the benefit of themselves. Legal theft is, after all, quite tempting. Something for nothing always is. Hence the reason government taxes the rich more: everyone agrees it's acceptable; desirable, even. Strange logic considering that by default of making more money, they'd be paying more even at the same tax rate as everyone else. Yet somehow, our twisted sense of self-serving logic deems it morally sound to steal from a person simply because they earn more.

This CNN poll is the perfect example of this morally-bankrupt logic:

Ever since the 16th amendment was signed into law, the whole thing has been propagated via class warfare. Society's puppet masters create the divisive environment in the media; the one that drives us to clash with one another over who deserves what.

Today, class warfare has been renewed! It's was breathes life into these Levi's ads. Everyone hates Wall Street, which is currently the emotional foundation upon which government makes its case to steal yet more of our liberties. The march toward tyranny continues...

Communism always works its way into a society based on this notion that the rich are evil; that they're holding us all back; that somehow, by getting rid of the rich, we'll all get a piece of that pie.

But how illogical is that!?

Who, then, would be creating? Who, then, would be innovating? What would our motivation for betterment and real progress (not progressivism) be? Who would become the driving force of the economy to create the prosperity promised us by communism? Would it be the government, with their innumerable failed agencies and endeavors? With their failed Social Security, their failed Medicare, their failed Amtrak, their failed USPS and their corrupt, corporatist ways? Would that work for freedom and equality? For fairness?

No. It would lead to true poverty. Then who's left to blame?

Ourselves, in our infinite ignorance.

Why does no one realize that there's a group of oligarchs who run, not just the US, but the world economy? As James Garfield once said, "He who controls the money supply of a nation, controls the nation." Don't forget, one of the two main planks upon which the rest of Communism is built is the progressive income tax. This partially allows for the theft of the masses by the banks and those who enable their power over us within government...but only when paired with the other main plank of communism, which is a central bank. In the US, ours is called the Federal Reserve [6].
With a central bank and a progressive income tax, those in power can loot each and every one of our piggy banks without us having a clue, through a process known as "Inflation." This is the true nature of communism:




Believe it or not, the US actually hits on all ten of the planks in Karl Marx's, "Communist Manifesto" [7]. We're very close to true tyranny, unless we wake up to the truth about government: that they cannot secure us or save us; that they can only oppress us. True salvation and security can only be created through individual liberty and self-determination, and by embracing our desires for personal betterment. Our founders intended for our government to simply protect our individual liberty, not protect or care for us.

Today, powerful men control us. And I'm not talking about the wealthy small business owner or the average wealthy corporate exec. I'm referring to those who seek wealth and power; those who flip-flop back and forth between the public and private sector; those who would gain control if the revolution these Levi's ads call for were to occur. Control would not fall to the people...it would fall to a small group of men. And they would give you a leader, like Mao or Che or Stalin or Mussolini or Hitler.

Is that what we want?

There is a difference between wealthy and powerful. The powerful vilify the wealthy as a means to an end. By pointing at the wealthy people, blaming them for what ails this nation, those truly in charge can convince the average -- the masses -- that it is the wealthy who are at fault. Then, when it all falls down in a bloody revolution, the powerful will be there to seize complete control.

Here's the Levi's TV commercial. See if you can spot even more subversive or blatant communist propaganda in it:



And here's a mash-up of a bunch of Levi's ads, from billboards to magazine ads:

References:
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1. http://anidea.com/strategy/in-want-of-things-we-can-touch/
2. http://www.seslisozluk.com/search/communism
3. http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/logr/log_094.html
4. http://books.google.com/books?id=T3uYq_rmoD8C&pg=PA70&lpg=PA70&dq=walt+whitman+communist&source=bl&ots=O4qse9T1Y6&sig=ffXcu1Cu_CI-g06f0SXwNksQr8g&hl=en&ei=6OMHTcK-KYS0lQeEs9mYDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFUQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=walt%20whitman%20communist&f=false
5. http://www.truthoffering.com/choosered/2010/8/4/the-liberty-to-tyranny-cycle.html
6. http://www.truthoffering.com/choosered/2010/8/15/truthart-the-federal-reserve-banksters.html
7. http://www.truthoffering.com/politics/2010/6/20/the-united-socialist-states-of-america.html
8. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/business/media/30adco.html

[Source Truth Offering, Matt Gordon]

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