I believe that the hypnotic power of the weapons of mass deception work to emasculate our will to independence. The effete left fails to embrace its rightful heritage. Being a humanitarian, nature-loving, generous person has become anathema. "Tree-hugging liberals" they name us. Harshness, coarseness, cruelty, and selfishness are the characteristics celebrated by the "successful" among us. And we have little sense about how to defend ourselves with freedom of choice. I exhort every American to totally disengage with mainstream weapons of mass deception. Do as I do. Television has been banned from my home for 36 years. I've raised five children during that time. Not one of them suffers any important loss from never having watched the Discovery Channel everyone touts as essential to the modern person and the main reason why my method should be shunned. I pay extra to Comcast ($6.00 per month) to _not_ have cable television. None of my family members in our t.v.-less house is subject to the hypnotic power of engineered belief systems poured into the typical American consciousness. What happens to a mind thus liberated? We read quite a lot. I allow Amy Goodman into my I-pod and listen to her one hour program almost daily while commuting. I find the Machiavellian tactics of the American government (and Rupert Murdoch) utterly powerless over my consciousness. I confess that such a state of mind gets me into some difficulties with my neighbors, the school board, my superintendent, and my principal. But my Walden Pond isolation fends off sacrificing my independence. However difficult to withdraw from your addictions to the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fox News and even football, you will find that the rejection of such mind-copping ways to spend your hours will empower your transcendental capacities enormously. Throw the weapons of mass deception completely out of your life and strengthen your will to endure the "friendly" criticism of the addicted who believe you are out of your mind and beside yourself; life without the myopic and twisted view of the telescreen will make you stronger (and more "liberal"). You might even consider not answering the phone. It's the sort of power derived by fasting in the Gandhian mode. Set an archangel to guard your eyes and your ears from the demonic intrusion that produces exhausted will and apathetic non-participation at the voting booth. 10% of my community's registered voters determined the outcome of our last local school board elections. 90% didn't vote at all. Now, spirit of Spiro Agnew, that's _effete_. We're like Tennyson's Lotus Eaters. Freedom from choice is what we want. Freedom of choice is what we've got. Exercise choice so much that you become strong in your independence. The Republican National Convention's Nazi police tactics against the independent press should inspire every American to utterly reject the weapons of mass deception.