From the October 2001 Idaho Observer:

History has a lot of help repeating itself

The masses have fallen for the same basic tricks since ancient Greeks perfected them circa 800 B.C. A mass mind is being created in the aftermath of WTC to compel public support of the government's intention to wage war against an apparitional enemy that has been accused of masterminding the most deadly act of terror ever on U.S. soil. This all out assault on the sensibilities of the American people would appear to be the product of contemporary genius if the same tactics had not been used over and over again since being invented by the Greeks circa 800 B.C.

by Don Harkins

The first government that became powerful enough to be publicly unaccountable for high profile political crime arose to protect the interests of powerful Greek families between the 8th and 4th centuries B.C. According to the late historical and religious scholar Kent Stefkin, ancient Greek families from 900 -- 800 B.C. created the religious front known today as Greek Mythology to facilitate their criminal intentions. They learned that religion created a belief in the intervention of divine providence (or divine wrath) and was a powerful tonic to induce sane and rational men to become accomplices in acts that would otherwise be considered immoral and unethical.

Those corrupt and criminally-minded Greek families also learned about the same time that sane men can be compelled to relinquish personal control of their private affairs and will willingly delegate those responsibilities to representatives that have been elected to act in their behalf -- provided certain subtleties are employed to convince them to trust such representation. The most effective path toward this type of trust, they discovered, was through religion. “Boundless naiveté and the popular misconception that men sworn to uphold the laws of God will not -- and cannot -- commit moral and political perjury, became jet propulsion to the organized political crime of the big Greek family syndicates,” observed Stefkin.

The man credited by Stefkin to have finely tuned these two concepts, that combined can be referred to as the “Delphic Amphictyon,” is Cypselus (657-627 B.C.). Cypselus was a ranking member of the Bacchiadae family and is described by the Encyclopedia Britannica as a, “7th century Greek politician and tyrant of Corinth.”

The concept of amphictiony, transliterated from the Greek word amphictyones, or “dwellers around,” were religious associations of politically independent Greek city states.

The list of social conditions that were prevalent in Ancient Greece by the time of the Roman conquest in about 80 B.C. sounds amazingly similar to conditions common to the contemporary American experience.

As a learning tool, Bill Denman of Taxpayers United For Freedom of Sandpoint, made an interesting list of those conditions as described in “The Life of Greece” by historian Will Durant. Nudity, graduated income tax, welfare, slave labor, inflation, abortion, epidemic dishonesty from politicians, sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, state-controlled public instruction, subsidies for the arts, planning and zoning, nationalization of industry, public works and urban renewal projects, democracy, farm subsidies and import/export controls and the promotion of social preoccupation with appearance rather than intrinisic worth are just a few of the conditions that were either promoted by or resulted from the policies of Greek leadership. Greek leaders were typically either a member of a powerful Greek family or one of their puppets.

The two main concepts that provide the breeding ground for the perverse social conditions we are experiencing today, just as they were experienced by the Greeks and then the Romans, can be referred to as the Delphic Amphyction.

1. If people can be fooled into believing that their leaders are operating with the divine intervention of God, they will do things they would not do otherwise.

2. If you can convince people to trust that the government is divinely inspired by God, then they can be convinced to elect others to represent them in government and act in their behalf.

It is upon these two fundamental principles of governance that those in power throughout history have attempted to rule the masses.

The American Amphyction

The most recent and obvious incarnation of the amphyctyony has occurred in the wake of the WTC tragedy. Though most Americans have faith that representatives in government will support their self-important interests, God had been eroded from the subjugation equation. The Bush administration knew that selfish Americans would not blindly follow them into WWIII without God.

The first order was to convince us that the Afghanis caused the Twin Towers to topple. Fill them full of fear that more attacks are inevitable then convince them that God sanctions revenge. In the absence of evidence the American people needed a religious boost to ensure their cooperation in the coming global conflict.

So God has suddenly showed up in Washington, D.C. Our president is praying. The police and the firemen are praying. The people are praying. We are all praying now. Congress has even proposed a bill that will allow school children who have not been able to pray in school since the 60s to pray for the nation as it battles the dark forces of terrorism.

Government has effectively programmed the American people to believe that it will prevail in its mission to avenge the deaths of our countrymen with the aid of divine intervention. Pre-Sept. 11 Americans people can now justify avenging the deaths of our countrymen by killing persons that look like terrorists and the women and children near them because they believe that such revenge has God's blessing.

One has little choice but to view the federal government's theological flip-flop as a matter of political convenience. Prior to September 11, 2001, the federal government had criminalized public displays of Christianity in government buildings and public places. It would be a little silly for the federal government to really believe that God will intervene in its behalf after deliberately removing God from its day-to-day operations over the last three decades.

Then, we must infer that the federal government, which has been steadily losing trust and favor with the American people, decided it needed a boost from God to pull the public together so that it would follow it into Afghanistan and possibly start WWIII.

Americans who are willing to blindly follow its leaders into the hills of Afghanistan, or any other place they are told that terrorism lurks, have fallen for the oldest political tricks in the book: Scare people into believing there is a threat from without; fool the people into believing that their elected representatives are moving under the authority of divine intervention and then send them to faraway lands to kill or be killed in the name of God.