To The Root
(If you were previously subscribed to my website, I've added you to this Substack mailing list since Substack has become the new home for my writing, though I may occasionally crosspost an important article to my website. (Hasn’t happened yet.))
When I was a boy, I didn't realize that The Wizard of Oz was a story for adults, and I'm sorry now I never read the book. Particularly true to the world is the scene where the curtain is pulled back and the source of that invisible, awe-inducing, ominous voice is seen to be a feeble little man squirming behind a podium. That man, I would say, in modern-day terms is the propagandist. More succinctly, a complex network of actors working in concert, weaving a sophisticated web of lies each so flimsy they would never be given a second look if the public had not been spellbound by their "authoritativeness" that it has been conditioned for decades to believe in.
As the oft-quoted 20th century "father of public relations" Edward Bernays aptly put it in his 1928 book, Propaganda, "...our minds are molded, our tastes are formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of."
“...instead of a mind, universal literacy has given (man) rubber stamps, rubber stamps inked with advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of the tabloids and the platitudes of history, but quite innocent of original thought. Each man's rubber stamps are the duplicates of millions of others, so that when those millions are exposed to the same stimuli, all receive identical imprints. It may seem an exaggeration to say that the American public gets most of its ideas in this wholesale fashion.
― Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda
I’ve been uncovering rubber stamps for a long time. Only by searching and searching again, questioning and questioning again have I been able to glimpse beyond the most pernicious imprints they’ve left on my own consciousness.
To The Root is the continuation here on Substack of my previous research that can be found on my website Cry For The Earth. This research has focused on the medical paradigm, microbiology/virology, germ theory vs. terrain and toxicology, climate and the environment, though I’ve delved into political history and international finance. These digs have led me to uncover the pervasive corruption and collusion that has skewed our understanding of all of the above … and much, much more.
I launched To The Root with one of my longest articles ever. I’d been working on it for months, and felt it was important to share and would probably catch the eye of a fair number of people. Since then, I’ve created an abridged version, making for a shorter, easier read.
Due to my non-sedentary lifestyle and non-conventional approach to life, I post articles irregularly and somewhat infrequently. Something else that contributes to lag time is that I tend to do in-depth research before writing on a topic. I may read 20 to 50 articles and maybe even a book or two before I write a single article. I tend to be no-nonsense in both my thinking and my writing, though on rare occasions I try to have a little fun. If this style is to your liking, I’m glad to have you on board!
My writing is motivated by the desire to help bring some sanity to a world that has gone terribly awry following the pied piper of modernity. Most of what people in society believe they need, or believe they know has been imposed on them by others whose intent is far from our own best interests.
Tobin Owl is an independent researcher/writer. Over the past three years he’s conducted in-depth investigation focusing on the history of modern medicine, medical science and the environment.