WFFJ-TV

By:  David Deschesne
Editor/Publisher,
Fort Fairfield Journal
May 31, 2023

An allegory on church sound
systems, the Grand Jury and
Militia…(Huh?)

The Habitus of society is the state or condition of any given culture based upon the beliefs and ideologies of the group as a whole. While there may be separate political ideologies within a culture, the Habitus rises above that and encompasses norms that are generally accepted by the whole in order to facilitate efficient and predictable interactions with each other. Some of these features of the Habitus today are traffic signals and Stop signs. Whether people lean politically to the Left or the Right, they all understand and accept the meanings of these traffic signals.

Other portions of the Habitus in society are the ideas that getting a quality education and hard work will generally yield a rewarding life; covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze helps reduce the spread of germs; and helping others in need is virtuous.

The Habitus is a collection of norms within a society that helps that society to function and gives people within that society an idea of what to expect in their interactions with other people within that group. There can be a darker, more sinister side to the Habitus, though.

Governments and social planners have found they can use the Habitus for their playground as they use the corporate news media and social media trolls to introduce and reinforce destructive ideas into the Habitus in order to steer the society in the way they want them to go. Oft-times this artificial steering of society goes unnoticed by the group at large who end up suffering socially, financially and spiritually as a result with little understanding of what happened to them, or how it happened.
Let me give you a hypothetical allegory of how people can be misled, conjured up from my days as a commercial sound system contractor when I used to install sound systems in churches and schools in this area.

Suppose a particular church is using a plain, two-microphone, low-powered karaoke sound system for their church service. They have always used that budget system, pretty much everyone in the church knows how to operate it and it has been in place for years. That karaoke system has become part of the Habitus in that church setting.

Now, suppose that church congregation grows much larger and the production from the platform is becoming increasingly more complex. There’s an eight-piece drum set, an electronic keyboard, an upright piano, a string section and some brass (trumpets, trombones, etc). That setup would require a significantly more complex sound system.

But, the people in the church—who are so conditioned that their karaoke system is the only way to provide sound reinforcement—continue to suffer from inadequate sound and know no other way to achieve anything better.

If someone in the church speaks up and says there is a better way and more suitable equipment available to do the job, most of the people there refuse to accept that new information. After all, the karaoke system is still working and everyone is comfortable with using it.

Now, on the outside of the Habitus are the salesmen and marketing agents of karaoke systems. They work diligently to market their product and make sure churches only use karaoke equipment to provide sound for their services. These marketing agents even put lobbyists into positions to affect legislation which mandates only karaoke systems are allowed to be installed in churches and nothing else can be considered. Anyone who says otherwise is reflexively labeled a “kook,” “extremist” or “spreading misinformation.”

These marketing agents spend a large portion of their time belittling and trash-talking all other options—even if they’re better options for the individual churches—because it secures their market position. Most churchgoers and administrators in this scenario think sound systems are too complex a topic for them to understand so they take the easy way and stick with karaoke systems. After all, it’s not only the “law” but all of the experts they see on TV continually tell them karaoke systems are the best and only way to get adequate sound in their church sanctuaries.

Now, in that scenario, what would happen if I came along and snuck an Allen & Heath SQ-5 digital mixing console, along with adequately sized speakers and power amplifiers, into this church building with the big stage setup? I know this is the best tool for their job. It has parametric equalizers, graphic equalizers, compressors, limiters and noise gates. With a digital stage box, one can connect up to 48 microphones and line level sources to the mixer with a single CAT6 cable and there would be plenty of options to get just the right mix for the sound.

Now comes Sunday and the congregation arrives to see this strange new contraption that nobody knows how to use. Most of the people have bought the mainstream media’s marketing narrative that only karaoke systems are to be used in churches and all other options are sacrilege. The group within that Habitus argues and ponders for about a half hour then moves the digital mixing console out back in the closet and goes back to what they are accustomed to—inferior sound provided by an undersized karaoke system that continues to be inadequate for their needs and produces horrible sound.

But, that is what they’re used to and have been told is the only way to do it. That is their Habitus and it can be hard to break them away from it.

Now, let’s step back into the world we are living in. We have a Constitution that every politician swears an oath to uphold, but few even know what it says.

Over the years, we have been placed into a position of untenable debt and have a government that increasingly views the citizenry as its subjects, bordering on slaves, and bosses them around, micromanaging every aspect of their lives—as if politicians are qualified to tell other people the right way to live.

Well, we have in the Constitution all of the tools necessary to fix these errant politicians and send them packing. We have a Grand Jury system which is where the general public selects some of its own to investigate illegal activities and issue indictments. We have in our Constitution—and even our state laws—the ability to raise a militia, or a group of citizen law-enforcement officers, to back up those indictments by force. We also have a monetary system in our Constitution which protects us from the ravages of unpayable debt to foreign international bankers.

But, very few people in the Habitus of our modern society know how to use those tools, or that they exist.

For years, marketing agents who have a vested interest in maintaining the current illegal functions government agents are engaging in have been spewing the propaganda that the Grand Jury is a tool of the courts and subject to the whims of judges and prosecutors; that the militia is a group of anti-government extremists; and that gold and silver coin as money (which the Constitution mandates) is an old, outdated concept.

Over the years, these “karaoke salesmen” of society have been building their own empires in military, energy, health care, education and banking. They don’t want society knowing there is a better way to do things—a way that is laid out in very plain English in the U.S. Constitution and the Constitutions of the several states in the Union.

So, they stopped educating on those documents in the public schools. They produce an endless stream of stories in the media belittling the ideas that will threaten their ability to retain power and profit.

Now, what if a person comes along and points out the tools of the Grand Jury, Militia and gold/silver-based money system. How would the public react? How would the media react?

Think back to my allegory of the church sound system. There was a better way with the digital mixing console, but even though it was given to them for free, it ended up in the closet because nobody knew how to use it, and were unwilling to learn because they had been programmed by the media and politicians that the establishment’s way was the only way.

And, here we are.