2.10.2003
"We are many, and they are few... They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. And on a quiet day, if you really listen, you can here her breathing." -Arundhati Roy
Felt a need to mitigate the darkness and misguidedness of the Nixon and Goering quotes below. When learning the truth of political matters one can feel a sense of loss, of despair; the "loss of innocence" cognitive dissonance that comes with learning what lies beyond the political platitudes in the realm of actions in the world, the despair that momentarily washes in with the realization that many of the worlds injustices were (and are) committed by people caught up in power, in greed, carrying out those actions without reflection, at least without making moral choices while representing our nation... and the system is so big, seemingly so entrenched. But Roy says it all and so simply.
We are the agents of change, the 'simple' folks that see the emperor standing there with his military trappings, pomp and smirk, feeling all powerful- and our simple laughter at seeing his bare ass in the breeze is bringing the house of cards down. Slow but sure, the groundswell of awareness is growing. The pundits will continue to talk of his finery as he stands there pale and weak and the laughter grows, hey, they want to keep their celebrity and influence. But the laughter is spreading, the pundits and their 'same as it ever was' is starting to grate on we, the 'stupid masses', (seriously, unless we are taken for really stupid people, how could we be lied to so blatantly?) the people that are America, the ones doing the jobs , providing and paying for the goods and services that keep the economy rolling. As people question and learn, the context gained allows for choices based on the Democratic values that are conveniently mouthed, but obviously difficult for those concerned about money and power to employ. Every day the world we are taught about at our grandparents knee, the world envisioned by our founding Fathers as we were taught in school, from the voices of great moral leaders past and present grows closer. With our help, with our participation in Democracy itself while helping others learn from thoughtful analysis of present day policy in the context of honest data i.e 'facts' and history.
Let's take a look at Argentina through an article by Naomi Klein; we will see how are fellows from the south made change. Regular people that didn't need to learn of thier countries' repressive history through a book.
Now I mentioned that we must be taken for imbeciles because we are so easily lied to. Perhaps the tractable media atmosphere of our times makes lying a temptation (and leadership technique) too hard to resist.Case in point, the tax cut and the budget. Tthings are bad, cut taxes and yup, cater to the uppermost income bracket. OK, so that didn't work- the economies tanking; "Well it didn't work the first time, let's try it again" while the crowd of his upper tax bracket cronies gives him a standing ovation; as they did again as he gives the war a hard sell. Attacking Iraq I mean, not the Phillipines or Columbia. Are thier children going to war? Military duty, as we all know, tends to be a phenomenon of the "regular people", people who will get no benefit from abolishing the estate tax or the dividend tax. And it's the plain ol' people that know you have to live within your means, you can't run up you bills intending to let the grandkids suffer the interest on your debt.
Mr Bush can speak religiously but I wish he would act that way. The Pope is even trying to reason with him. Jesus wouldn't bomb folks, at least from my reading, nor would he put the greedy needs of the few over the good of the nation, its people and the generations to come. He should be ashamed.
"Why of course the people don’t want war… But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship… Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
-Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials.
2/10/2003
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"People react to fear, not love. They don't teach that in Sunday school , but it's true." - Richard Nixon
Quotation taken from 'The Culture of Fear- Why Americans are afraid of the wrong things...' Barry Glassner, Basic Books1999
Global media, said Levin, "will be and is fast becoming the predominant business of the 21st century." So predominant, in fact, that the media business is now "more important than government. It's more important than educational institutions and non-profits."
-Gerald Levin CEO AOL-Time Warner
Have you ever considered how our mental environment is shaped by the corporate controlled media, and to what purpose?
2/10/2003
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