Is it just me, or is there something darker going on
here? Is this a warning system or a heinous tool
constructed to manipulate the masses?

I submit this for your consideration: after a brief
training period (setting the indicator to high levels
when there is an actual emergency, and setting the
indicator to low levels when the populace is to be
lulled) you can begin to elicit a conditioned response at
will.

The democratic national convetion is about to meet in,
say, Atlanta then set the indicator to 'high' and put the
American populace on edge. Set the indicator on 'low' for
the Republican convention.

I'm sure that you get the idea.

Tom Ridge makes Joseph Goebbels look like a pious Sunday
school student in short pants. A-A-And the tools, nay
weapons, that Ridge has at his command --portable,
community-sized skinner boxes and video games to name
just two of them-- to manipulate the American
consciousness are hellishly frightening.

I'm afraid to say this almost. Chomsky is an optimist,
these guys are way beyond consent. Way beyond the zero.