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Americans scale the heights of naïveté

by The Canadian

Dec. 21, 2007

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Re Only a dream, only a myth

I continue to be amazed by the fact that at this point in America's history its Citizens are the only 1st-world people who truly and deeply believe their own propaganda.

Please name me one US President in the last 100 years that was placed in power due to his convictions only without the monied aid of business interests. The belief that this is possible or was ever possible remains the height of naïveté.

Even a critique of the present US system of government generally includes the underlying presupposition that the ideal of US democracy once existed or can exist.

It has never existed in its ideal form, but it did grant a great deal more personal and economic freedom than other competing forms of government during the 20th Century.

I am not naive enough to think that life would have been better without the use of US power over the last 100 years or so. Living under communist / fascist rule would have been a far less livable life than we know today. Under the present circumstances, however, I see only the ever present march toward a 21st Century version of a theocratically conforming police state in the US. Following 8 years of disastrous neocon government policy, even the ideology of Democracy remains but a thin veneer.

Beware the Ides of March Julius Caesar.

The Canadian

The only thing I can quibble with here is that I guess I'm not surprised that average Americans still believe the lies of American absolute excellence. The propaganda is, I swear, just about the only thing the commingled government and media here do really, really well. From the earliest moments of public education to virtually any newscast allowed on radio or television that reaches more than a tiny sliver of the audience, virtually every statement spoken and unspoken is either a lie or based on underlying assumptions that are lies. The shrinking minority of Americans who read newspapers are somewhat better informed, but it's hard to wring the truth out of corporate media that habitually says what government tells it and asks no questions.

I like to believe Americans wouldn't stand for what's happening if they knew what's happening. I say "I like to believe" because I have no evidence it's true, but if I don't believe it I'll have to shoot myself. But there's next to no access to the un-spun truth unless you're reaching beyond American borders to find it, and most Americans are working their butts off just to pay their medical and heating bills -- they don't know there's an emergency, don't know there's been a coup, because "nuts" like you and me are the only people telling them there's a problem. On every channel, in every newspaper, the nation's leaders and media tell us everything's relatively ordinary, business as usual, nothing to see here, move along, move along ...

Helen & Harry

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