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Gerald Celente's comments below were directed at the American public, Canadians would do well to take his advice to heart as well. Celente is an economist who had predicted our current global financial crisis far before it started.  
 
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"I am calling for an 'Intellectual Revolution'. I ask American citizens to free their minds from the tyranny of 'Dumb Think.' This is a revolution about thinking - not manning the barricades. It's about brain power - not brute force."  
 
For society to survive and grow, it must wake up and grow up. Americans must acknowledge what their opinions are based on, who they listen to ... and why.  
 
What are America's prime information sources? CNN, "The most trusted name in news"? Fox, "Fair and balanced"?  
 
 
CNBC, "First in Business Worldwide"? The New York Times, "All the news that's fit to print"?  
 
Who do the people listen to? A closed circuit of familiar faces guaranteed to take predictable positions. Authorities on nothing, yet pronouncing upon everything: a cadre of media aristocrats, pretending they're the people's voice.  
 
Bill O'Reilly, Steven Colbert, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Sean Hannity, Jon Stewart, Chris Matthews, Jim Cramer, Joe Scarborough, Anderson Cooper, Bill Maher.  
 
TV tough guys, broadcast big mouths and Beltway blowhards have now been joined by featherweight comics throwing powder puff punches at sitting targets.  
 
 
This new addition to the critical debate is celebrated by the world's leading financial newspaper:  
 
 
Wall Street Riveted by Comedy Clash  
 
Financial Times, 13 March 2009  
 
"A showdown between a comedian who has become one of America's most challenging commentators and a news commentator known for his comedic antics has shown the brightest spotlight on the media's market coverage since the financial crisis began.  
 
On Thursday night, two cable television celebrities squared off as Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show ... on Comedy Central ... confronted Jim Cramer ... star of CNBC's Mad Money programme."  
 
Without a hint of irony, FT bestows the title of highest American intellectual common denominator upon a clown. A pencil throwing, screaming, wryly grimacing professional comedian has become "... one of America's most challenging commentators"?  
 
"Wall Street riveted by comedy clash"? "The brightest spotlight on the media's market coverage"?  
 
With the world financial markets in collapse, this rivets Wall Street? Nearly two years into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, this shines as "the brightest spotlight"?  
 
From Wall Street, comedy moves to the White House. President Obama made history using comic Jay Leno's Tonight Show as a platform to peddle his policies.  
 
World shaping decisions are packaged in sound bites and pitched by the nation's Showman-in-Chief. There is no time or place for debate or discussion. It's all entertainment.  
 
"The 'Intellectual Revolution' must be waged on the battlefield of the mind," said Celente. "Americans are doomed unless they kick the junk news habit, deprogram themselves from celebrity worship, refuse to blindly follow political leaders and question all ideological dogmas ... especially their own.  
 
"For the revolution to succeed, people must repudiate the one-headed, two party system, and learn to think for themselves," said Celente.  
 
While the corporate-owned mainstream media and the government still control the broad avenues of news and information, only willing and lazy minds need be held hostage to it. The Internet world is awash in data, facts, analyses and opinions (independent and mainstream) for all to access and assess.  
 
Think for Yourself. The "Intellectual Revolution” has begun.  
 
 
Link to Celente's Trends Research Institute website:  
http://www.trendsresearch.com/  
 
 
 
 
Edited by Ken, 2009-04-15 19:50:50