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What Can We Do About The Great American Lie?
I. F. Stone told us many years ago that All Governments Lie. Daniel Ellsberg, in Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, told us why governments, including Presidents, always lie, and must continue to lie about what they know to be true, but about which they cannot talk under constraints of "National Security." The lies place an impermeable barrier between Those Who Know and Those Who Cannot Be Told, a barrier that trickles downhill, forever separating the citizenry of the United States from their government.
Today, the lies continue, as they must, even though journalists, bloggers and other malcontents desperately chip away at the facade. The raid into Pakistan to capture Bin Laden is revealed to have been not a one-off military adventure, but part of an on-going campaign of covert military intervention in 120 countries around the world on the part of a highly organized and secretly funded cadre of 15,000 specially trained soldiers let loose on the world. There was never any intent to capture Bin Laden alive. The goal of the raid was to kill this living embarrassment to the United States government and remove any chance that he might say something awkward and revealing before he died of kidney failure on his own.
It's not just the President who is foisting lies on the public. Politicians of all stripes meet in smoke filled back rooms with corporate lobbyists and industry representatives, barely deigning to conceal the bribes slipped under the table into their grasping clutches. Nudge nudge, wink wink. The press is summarily dismissed from these gatherings, such as ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, as politicos hide their faces from the peering eye of the Internet, pretending we do not see. The back slapping and glad handing continue safely within the confines of the Marriott Hotel, where legislation is crafted far from the public eye. Would that they were only making sausage.
What do we do in the face of a government corrupt to the core, a government that professes to be Of the People, by the People and for the People, yet continues to do the bidding of unaccountable corporate lobbyists, revolving door "experts," and an overweening military technology industry? Do we continue to vote for new fodder for the corporate grist mill, aka Congress? Do we demand legislation that will stop the Congressional gravy train, from those who are first at the gravy bowl? Do we demand a President to lead us out of the wilderness scheduled to be clear-cut for corporate profits?
The central authoritarian government doesn't have the answer, as it is the central problem. Jeffersonian Republicans knew what they were doing when they opposed Alexander Hamilton's Federalists at the turn of the 19th Century. They foresaw the coming excesses of centralized authority in a world dominated by capitalist greed. They viewed the Federalist agenda as anti-revolutionary, a continuance of the economic system that had strangled the North American British colonies until the Revolution tore them free. The Anti-Federalists argued for small government, democracy, mutual aid, self-reliance and self-government. As foreseen, Hamilton's paternalistic state has fostered a populace that cannot take care of itself, let alone serve as a beacon of democracy and freedom in an increasingly privatized world.
There is only one path open to those few willing and aware US citizens: turn around and take a new step forward. We cannot solve the problem of corrupt government by appealing to the corrupt government. Jefferson was fond of the concept of public dissent and rebellion: "Every generation needs a new revolution."
It's time for our generation to expose the lies and foster a new revolution, a revolution that starts between the ears, and works outward through our families, neighborhoods, communities and bioregions. Not a violent revolution, as that which spawned this country, but a quiet revolution over back yard fences, neighborhood meetings in living rooms, public gatherings with local representatives, the anonymity of the polling booth. By the time the central authority recognizes the revolution, it will be too late, a fait accompli, a done deal.
The challenge at present is to penetrate the fog of lies and mindless distractions of popular culture sufficiently to foster such a revolution.
The solution is simple: we tell the truth. The Orwellian bumper sticker tells us: "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." Whenever we encounter a lie, we respond with the truth. From local neighborhoods to the White House, in the coffee shop or City Council chambers, we never let a lie pass unchallenged. This accomplishes two goals: we raise the consciousness of all within reach, and we challenge those who lie to us and expect to get away with it.
Thus the revolution begins.
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Show All"The solution is simple: we tell the truth. The Orwellian bumper sticker tells us: "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." Whenever we encounter a lie, we respond with the truth. From local neighborhoods to the White House, in the coffee shop or City Council chambers, we never let a lie pass unchallenged. This accomplishes two goals: we raise the consciousness of all within reach, and we challenge those who lie to us and expect to get away with it."
I am with you. It's just regrettable that it's taken so many so long to come to the same conclusion.
Telling the truth can make one a rather lonely individual, but it's worth it.
Really. I've been sharing my understanding of the Truth about what's been going on in this country for more than a decade and, I dare say, most of my family, friends, neighbors and former colleagues, have determined that I am a nut case.
But, I am happy to report that at least a few of them have recently seen at least a bit of the 'light'. So, as you say, definitely worth it to keep repeating the Truth and maybe it will set all of us free from what is beginning more and more to look like out-and-out fascism.
"The goal of the raid was to kill this living embarrassment to the United States government and remove any chance that he might say something awkward and revealing before he died of kidney failure on his own."
Bingo! Anyone with the slightest shred of critical thinking would immediately question why you would not want to take alive the head of a supposed military adversary. It would be an intelligence bonanza. Now that his come out they had no intension of taking Osama alive makes one realize they just wanted to shut him up permanently, mafia style.
It was certainly revealing that they absolutely did not want bin Laden alive & tried in a court of law for his various alleged crimes around the world. Of course, they would have never tried him in open court but they could have manufactured one of their "secret military tribunals" for him and found him guilty of all charges.
Since he was the reputed head of a secretive organization bent on the destruction of the U.S. and Christian civilization (and the Zionist colonial project), it would have been a bonanza of information for them to capture him. All his organizational contacts, operational secrets, tactics, long term strategies, etc. One could only assume he would break down under their regimes of torture and give them invaluable intelligence.
Utterly no interest in that. No interest in a trial -- secret or otherwise. Even by the rules of warfare simply executing an enemy who is unarmed and of no threat is generally considered illegal or at the very least 'poorly played'.
http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/genevacon/blart-3.htm
Naturally, the typical Amerikan fascist insists that it was totally appropriate:
http://www.commandposts.com/2011/05/was-shooting-bin-laden-legal/
We know of course that the U.S. is now a lawless state quite comfortable with both torture and murder. However, refusing to capture the head of an 'enemy' organization when he is available on a silver platter is truly revealing.
It shows just how far down the road to barbarism the U.S. has advanced.
We have reached a point where the Stalinist show trials conducted against such figures as Gregory Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, and Nicholai Bukharin, et. al. look like models of moral probity and legal transparency compared to U.S. actions in the 'war on terror'. Many people were actually duped into believing the charges against the old guard Bolsheviks since they were tortured into confessions and evidence was presented against them in OPEN court with Western observers in attendance.
"At the time, many Western observers who attended the trials said that they were fair and that the guilt of the accused had been established. They based this assessment on the confessions of the accused, which were freely given in open court, without any apparent evidence that they had been extracted by torture or drugging."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Trials
The bin Laden raid is essentially a high tech version of the ice pick in the head carried out in Mexico against Trotsky by a Stalinist assassin.
Or a simple Mafia killing directed against the head of a rival criminal gang.
Excellent post. And let's not forget, a similar M.O. was used in the capture of Saddam Hussein. Again, the "enemy" is silenced before any inconvenient facts or testimony can emerge. Yep, that's the free world, with the right to a trial, and the presumption of innocence on view for all to see! And now, the Prez need not bother with so much as a published accusation... a covert warrant is all that's required.
If media did its job in educating the public, they would see that this is the way the kings and czars and absolutely corrupted monarchs of yesteryear operated. With merely an accusation, on the part of supreme authority, guilt is as good as established. The only lacking item, bringing forth "the head" of the accused.
So for all the centuries of rebellion, of legal scholarship, of teaching our young to observe how these trends tainted history... the U.S elite in their lust for blood and others' resources, have turned the clock back on time, and by doing so, taken justice for a dark, dark underworld ride.
The media's mission is to destroy the audience's critical thinking skills, thereby making them responsive to media propaganda.
Our allies the Kuwaiti's executed the men they accused of trying to kill former President George H W Bush, before the FBI had a chance to interrogate them after their trial! A quick trial and an even quicker execution! Another case of dead men tell no tales!
I think that the biggest and most important lie is the official 9/11 fantasy. As long as that lie stands, everything is tainted. How Obama can believe that Saudis with box cutters managed to pulverize thousands of tons of concrete into a pyroclastic cloud, I don't know. Either he is nowhere near as "brilliant" as we are told, and believes the official 9/11 lies, or he knows, and is part of the cover-up. I suspect the latter.
FROD: When you drive down a road and look back, you see things missed on "the way there." This knowledge that Obama published NOTHING while serving as a law professor has the scent of CIA all over it. The manicuring of a would-be Manchurian Candidate.
I was thinking about who could have silently set the explosives, and the answer of course would be those with that kind of training, those capable of holding their cover. What came to my mind was Erik Prince. He's a one stop shop these days for training armies, and no doubt knows all the ins and outs of explosives, added to the covert use of force. His potential complicity could explain why he was lavished with one government contract after another. Big money can buy silence.
I would not rule out foreign agents, such as the Mossad, as well...
The lie of (what is constituted by) National Defense.
The lie of the free market/capitalism
The lie of convenience
The lies about "nothing to see here" insofar as global warming is concerned
The lies about fair elections
The lies about the need to bail out the banks (without placing regulations back in place after doing so)
The lie about a separation between church and state (these days, with the Air Force busily programming the next generation of bombers to think Jesus gives his nod to this level of carnage)
The lie about public education
The lie about the economy improving
ETC.
It's ALL lies; however, 911 was the one utilized to begin the war on Civil Liberties at home; and wow, they've got the public paying for the spying operations AND prisons that may one day (not so far off) house all dissidents. And who but those paying attention to this government's considerable sins and lawlessness would fall into that category... quite the Catch-22!
My mistake!-Double post...
Sioux Rose:
"that Obama published NOTHING while serving as a law professor has the scent of CIA all over it"
This comment caught my eye, because as a retired academic I know something about faculty publishing and not publishing.
If I remember correctly, Obama was not a full-time faculty member at the U. of Chicago Law School. He certainly did not have the credentials to be hired full-time. And part-time faculty rarely publish - they are too busy at their day jobs to do the work needed to get things published, especially in law journals.
Going a step further, lots of people refer to the fact that he taught Constitutional Law at Chicago. That does not make him a Constitutional scholar. It just means he was assigned to teach a course that no one else was available to teach that semester, or that no one else wanted to teach. Think of him as a lawyer, not as a Constitutional scholar.
Let's not leave out the fact that Bush's nephew, or was it cousin, was conveniently on the board of the security agency in charge of security of the World Trade Center Buildings.
In addition to this, it has been well documented that there was "Elevator Upgrading" construction going on in the weeks before 9-11..The Building's Main Support Columns were easily accessible and in close proximity to these elevator shafts. Ironically, all one needed was A typical "box Cutter" to cut an opening in the 5/8" drywall adjacent to the elevators..
There were armed guards stationed at the elevator "Upgrade" locations...This would of course assure that the "Thermite Technicians" could go about their business in complete secrecy as in any black ops. misssion..
It has been repeatedly acknowledged that there were only two groups that could have accompished this coupe-de-etat successfully, the CIA or the Israeli Mossad, or the two combined....
The one major fact alone, that 3 of the planes were able to reach their destinations over some of the most highly protected airspace on this planet just begs the question of US Military involvement...
STUBONES . . . it was his cousin, Wirt Walker III. George's brother Neal was also on the board of directors of the company, named Securacom. They have since changed their name, if I'm not mistaken.
Seventhson-Thanks for the clarification...I really believe that this fact among many other suspicious, beyond circumstancial oddities need to be remembered and brought to everyone's attention...I can only imagie what changes would be given chance to breath if the truth about 9-11 were brought out into the open light of day...It is all such A disgusting LIE!!!
I agree. It's a lie that has been going on for TEN YEARS. Far too long.
And I misspoke. I apologize. It wasn't George's brother Neal. It was his brother Marvin.
"however, 911 was the one utilized to begin the war on Civil Liberties at home"
Sioux-I believe that the escalation of the war on our "Civil Liberties" was when Tim McVeigh took out the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City...Janet Reno's actions at Waco and the Ruby Ridge FBI fiasco revealed what the US Government held in regard to our "Civil Liberties"..<>
http://www.constitution.org/2ll/2ndschol/136pre.htm
Excellent article. As John Lennon said, "All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth." The author succinctly summarizes why the best solution won't work. A Constitutional Amendment ("A Corporation is not a Person . . .") would require that Congress vote to de-fund itself. Ain't gonna happen.
All that's left is peaceful revolution. I would add BOYCOTTS, a variant of truth telling.
Pipe dreams. Spreading "the truth" is all fine and good, but the plain fact of the matter is that 1) what good what it do if every Amereichan knew the truth? Suddenly our President and Congress would stop lying, stop raping us, stop their military hegemony and illegal invasions? I think not. Obama and team have screwed us 9 ways from Sunday, and when we pointed it out to him his buddy Rahm said "What are they gonna do? Vote Republican?" Touche.
2) No matter how much we scream the truth from the rooftops, the MSM is louder and reaches more ears and brains. Combat that all you want, but unless it involves blowing up TV and Radio transmitters, it ain't gonna beat the propaganda machine.
3) The "truth" has been right out there in plain view for many years. The fact that our government is not a democracy, but a Fascist Plutocracy; all the illegal doings of our Presidents and Congresscritters. Torture. Illegal wars. War crimes. Assassinations. Violating the Constitution. Giving head to the rich Plutocrats and the finger to the Amereichan people. Etc. All you have to do is turn the boob tube off and go to alternative news sources, and there you see the Truth. So what? Hasn't done diddly for the vast majority of Amereichan sheeple.
Right on. The truth is not enough. What is needed is a concerted effort to counter right wing propaganda while working to disable it. Ultimately, any effective resistance is going to be met with violence. The rich have gotten used to a certain rate of progress towards their goals. This means that we don't actually have to undo their gains to face violence, we merely have to slow their progress down. The real question any organization seriously considering a fight needs to take up is how to deal with such violence. If the left can't look after people like Tim Dechristopher or make his incarceration into a tool to further its cause, then quite frankly it is simply fighting on the verge of a rout.
>
I agree. The author's solution will not solve any of our most pressing problems as a global society.
Many of us have been trying to tell the truth for a very long time, but the raging river of lies issuing from this corrupt corporate government have easily drowned out our voices. This is another in an endless series of articles urging "all of us" to spark a revolution (always non-violent) by simply raising our consciousness and telling the truth. But none of this would need saying, perpetually, if All Of Us were even close to being on the same cognitive page. There's never been more than a tiny minority of "us", and I'm not seeing any signs our numbers are growing. We have a corrupt congress and executive and judiciary because "we" are always so damn few. They don't have to listen to us. Corporate money and power speak the only language they understand. And bumper sticker revolutions, even if they quote Orwell, so far haven't gotten beyond sound bites and slogans.
Lewis is right that appealing to the very corrupt circles (politicians and their institutions, and the corporate gravy train) who have made this world a living hell for most people is profoundly irrelevant and self-defeating. Yes, we have to create a revolution, in fact we should have done so at least 30 years ago, but we still don't know how to do it. Telling each other the truth over backyard fences, for those lucky enough to have a backyard, is only a very small first step. When do we learn how to really walk?
"There's never been more than a tiny minority of "us", and I'm not seeing any signs our numbers are growing. "
That's because there never really has been more than a tiny minority willing to face, and tell, the truth.
That's because most people, due to ignorance, fear the truth.
It seems to me that Truth is subjective. As long as there are mysteries, the human species will forever be left to theorize.
This is a GREAT article! Succinct, straightforward, and true! Sorry Demonstorm, but your negativity does not sway me. We need a quiet, determined, persistant, non-violent revolution. I, for one, believe it is worth a try.
I agree.
TELLING and STANDING UP FOR the Truth is an action.
Boycotting is an action.
Voting is an action.
Refusing to participate in evil is an action.
United people understanding Truth is what the propagandists fear. If we all stand together for truth they might set aside the propaganda charades and reach for the homeland security big gun tools.
People fear that government's tools for controlling mobs are more scary and powerful than in the past. But staying scared can't be the answer. Winning hearts and minds is the only way.
Think about it-- what would even the Powerful do if they blew up the planet? They would screw themselves. Deep down they must know it. And they could choose another way.
sorry double post
This blog tracked well until it got to the paragraph beginning with "It's time for our generation to expose the lies and foster a new revolution,........"
The regulars on CD, once they take time to read the whole thing will make chopped meat of it. "Not a violent revolution...". You've got to be joking! Where are your non-violent revolutionaries lining up? Where are there coming from? Not from that population of average USians, with their dual inclination toward an epic myth of rugged individualism composed essentially of lies and fabrications and toward their expectation of instant gratification coupled with an almost Pavlovian, consumerist materialism that has been cultivated during the last half century of world economic dominance.
Before real, mass revolution in the US could possibly occur, there would have to be misery and deprivation on a scale of that which is being experienced by the bearers of Southern Somalian culture - the women and children of that nation now walking a trail of tears toward Kenya - upon the trail where they face starvation, pain, sorrow, and death. And even that may not be enough for the deluded, muddled, and distracted population of the US
Great post, richsmith2! I wouldn't, though, say "almost Pavlovian." Definitely, overtly Pavlovian, mixed in with Freud and Skinner. The most evil institution in the world, I swear, is psychology, the wellspring of most of the evils of our age. For a primer on how it works, check out this documentary, entitled "Social Engineering: Human Resources." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrJiCmcdELQ
Or watch Adam Curtis's "Century of the Self." http://www.archive.org/details/AdaCurtisCenturyoftheSelf_0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
Come on now, it's pretty crazy to slag all of psychology because some of it has been misused or capitalized. Psychology can be incredibly enlightening and productive, leading to greater understanding of the self and others.
Ripping on Skinner is a little unfair also. Check out "Walden Two," where he outlines a rather utopian vision of how society could be. Psychology seeks to understand the human condition, is that condition easily exploitable, sure. But that doesn't mean the discipline is evil.
And yes, I study psychology, or did until recently.
Absolutely spot on article! Especially the part about Bin Laden, as has been pointed out in some of the excellent comments here. This government has become a total joke.
OK, so is this non-violent revolution gonna happen, and will it be enough? I'm afraid I have to side with some of the more pessimistic folks who have commented here. I believe its a question of too little and too late. The mass culture has such a strangehold on the people and the average American has his head buried so far into the sand, that as long as he/she can maintain that "comfort zone" , nothing is gonna happen. It will take, as one commenter said, a scale of deprivation comparable to what has occured in Africa before people rise up and take this governmant back. And when it happens, it will be just like Russia in 1917- all the politicians, corporate plutocrats and filthy rich lined up against the wall and summarily disposed of. This is how all corrupt systems must end. As some of my bush rat friends are saying here in remote Alaska, "It's time to stock up on avgas and bullets"
limeres,
Just months before her assassination, Benizir Bhutto told David Frost of the BBC that Bin Laden was already dead. He died in December, 2001, of kidney failure. Before his death he made a statement indicating that he had nothing to do with 9-11. Further, though on the FBI most wanted list he was not wanted for 9-11 (look it up). Interestingly, the terrorist group in Pakistan that took credit for Bhutto’s assassination is the same terrorist group that was in communication with the CIA contractor who killed two ISI agents that were following him about a year ago. Coincidence?
With regard to the article, there will be no quiet peaceful revolution. That type of thinking demonstrates that your head is where only a proctologist can remove it. I’ve been told that people went quietly and peacefully to the cattle cars, and then to the showers. Here in the U.S.A. the government has quietly build FEMA camps to house…who? This government has put MLK on a pedestal and given him his own holiday. Why? When he was alive politicians and the FBI hated MLK. Why would he all of a sudden be embraced by the government? Because he taught non-violence. The government is afraid of our violence. They have no fear of our peaceful demonstrations. They could care less. Look how many people demonstrated against invading Iraq. We all knew that it was illegal and we didn’t want our government to do it. The will of the people was clear. It didn’t matter. When BushCo and Congress wanted to bail out the banks people called their representatives by a margin of around 100 to 1 against it. The will of the people was clear, but it didn’t matter.
Voting is an exercise in futility so long as corporations are allowed to count the votes with their proprietary software. This system can’t be fixed with these people. This country cannot survive any longer on a capitalist model. Unlimited growth and unlimited extraction is a myth. So long as we remain a capitalist society wage and debt slavery will continue. “Domestic enemies” specifically addressed in the oath to the Constitution are already upon us.
"Look how many people demonstrated against invading Iraq." Not enough, because too many were for it, and too many still are!
"We all knew that it was illegal and we didn’t want our government to do it. The will of the people was clear. It didn’t matter." No, we didn't ALL know it was illegal or IMMORAL. If anything, the majority or at least half supported going to war against people who were not responsible for 9/ll. That mattered.
"This government has put MLK on a pedestal and given him his own holiday. Why? When he was alive politicians and the FBI hated MLK. Why would he all of a sudden be embraced by the government? Because he taught non-violence."
Wrong. He has been put on a pedestal for PR propaganda purposes of our government pageant show for the little people. The government does NOT embrace MLK, because they work against what he stood for: brotherly love, and equal opportunity for all. While he was alive, the government must have thought of him as the enemy and they were forced to give some tokens.
You have it correct, Donna Lou. MLK was winning. The supreme court had ruled in Brown v. Education against separate but equal schools. Only a few years later, the civil rights and voting rights acts passed. The young had come out into the streets in massive numbers to protest Vietnam. MLK spoke up against Vietnam and exactly a year later got a bullet for it.
I don't believe we need a violent revolution and the rich know it, too. We outnumber them 99 to 1. We can rise up and say no, but it will take truly massive numbers of people willing to disrupt cities, traffic, and see if the police fight for the rich like they always have in the past, or can we convince them that they too belong to the proletariat.
America needs a Truth and Reconciliation Commission like South Africa.
To hell with reconciliation. How about justice?
from the article:
~ Not a violent revolution, as that which spawned this country, but a quiet revolution over back yard fences, neighborhood meetings in living rooms, public gatherings with local representatives, the anonymity of the polling booth. ~
this sentence embodies the problem...
the very concept of a backyard is the problem...
a fence?
a living room?
a representative?
anonymous polling?
these comfortable, familiar notions are the very problem...
the government is just a bunch of murderous criminals...the revolution is not against the government, it is against a lifestyle driven by selfish agenda...
the government will fall as an aside...as will all else...
how does one revolt against oneself? against one's lifestyle?
take back the land...stop working to pay another...
Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...
we only have a little longer before industrial devastation, chemical inundation and ecological upheaval void all plans...
"how does one revolt against oneself? against one's lifestyle?"
Join a Buddhist Commune and donate all your accumulated wealth to it. Become a monk, in other words. This might not work if you're trusted with the care of others--elders specifically--unable/incapable of making such a transition. Or you could establish your own Commune/Monastery.
Self abnegation is not the same as revolution.
Be true to yourself.
Easier said than done.
Maybe what we need is a reversal of perpsective.
Chapter 19 "The Reversal of Perspective"
The light of power is waning. The eyes of individual subjectivity cannot adapt to mere holes in a mask, which are the eyes of those fog-bound in shared illusion. The individual's point of view must prevail over false collective participation. In total self-possession, reach society with the tentacles of subjectivity and remake everything startingwith yourself. The reversal of perspsctive is what is positive in negativity, the fruit which will burst out of the old world's bud (1-2).
One day Monsieur Keuner was asked just what was meant by "reversal of perspective"; and he told the following story. Two brothers deeply attached to one another had a strange habit. They marked the nature of the day's events with pebbles a white one for each happy moment and a black one for each moment of misfortune or displeasure. But when, at the end of the day, they compared the contents of the jars one found only white pebbles and the other only black.
Fascinated by the persistence with which they lived the same experience differently, they both agreed to ask the advice of an old man famed for his wisdom. "You don't talk to one another enough" said the wise man, "Both of you must give the reasons for your choice, and discover its causes". From then on they did so, and soon discovered that while the first remained faithful to his white pebbles and the second to his black ones, in neither jar were there as many pebbles as before. Where there had been about thirty there were hardly more than seven or eight. After a short while they went to see the wise man again. Both looked extremely miserable. "Not so long ago," said one, "my jar was filled with pebbles the colour of the night. My despair was unbroken; I continued to live, I admit, only through the force of habit. Now I hardly ever collect more than eight pebbles, but what these eight signs of misery represent has become so intolerable that I cannot go on like this." And the other said: "Every day I piled up white pebbles.. Today there are only seven or eight, but these obsess me to the point that I cannot recall these moments of happiness without immediately wanting to relive them more intensely and, in a word, eternally. This desire torments me". The wise man smiled as he listened to them. "Excellent. Things are shaping up well. Keep at it. And one thing: whenever you can, ask yourselves why the game with the jar and the pebbles arouses so much passion in you." When the two brothers next saw the wise man it was to say "We asked ourselves the question but we could not find the answer. So we asked the whole village. You can see how much it has disturbed them. In the evening. squatting in front of their houses, whole families discuss the black and white pebbles. Only the elders and chieftains refuse to take part. They say a pebble is a pebble, and all are of equal value." The old man didn't conceal his pleasure. "Everything is developing as I foresaw. Don't worry. Soon the question will no longer be asked: it has lost its importance, and perhaps one day you will no longer believe you ever asked it." Shortly afterwards the old man's predictions were confirmed in the following way: a great joy overcame the members of the village; at the dawn of a troubled night, the rays of the sun fell upon the heads of the elders and chieftains, impaled upon the sharp-pointed stakes of the palisade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_of_Everyday_Life
dubet and I have had a two-three yearlong running discourse closely related to the questions of his I responded to that focuses on the cultural dysfunction that's led to our current political-economic dysfunction, and we're generally agreed on the cause and necessity of its negation. I'll point you at dubet's primary observation: "the very concept of a backyard is the problem..." That ought to qualify as a "reversal of perspective."
Well done, Michael. Keep chipping away at the facade.
I like the article.
But don't expect telling the truth to be easy.
It may not be recognised.
People will think you are mad
People will get angry. They will get violent.
They may be embarrassed and confused if you speak love.
But I know one thing.
Truth has power. :~D
The 5th paragraph with its historical recap is full of very glaring holes, myths, and wishes. Once in office, Jefferson did his utmost to expand the US Empire with his undeclared war against Spain for Florida, and his sponsoring the covert Lewis and Clark mission. The author's rant that the American Revolution was against "a continuance of the economic system that had strangled the North American British colonies" is continuing a myth/lie doublethink that resides at the heart of the overall Great American Lie (Read "Rough Crossings" for the necessary corrective).
I must concur with the very informed dissenters's comments and again repeat that no change will occur until the 1787 constitution and the institutions it fostered are pillaged and removed forever and the constant lies told to protect its genesis are no longer repeated. Yes, the Truth can set you free, but it's extremely difficult to break through the multiple layers of indoctrination to find out just what that Truth is, which takes lots of time and effort since it's not contained in any one book or essay, but many. And no professor/teacher will last long if s/he tries to teach the Truth to students--the sexual harassment "tool" will be employed to destroy your career, and the only way to defend yourself is to have your every moment after becoming a teacher on film or some other way of providing a constant alibi, which is almost impossible. Yes, I tried, which is how I know what happens.
don't quit teaching... which you have done here ... doesn't have to be in that institution
Thanks for your cheer, donnalou.
Naive article at best. The truth the author's refering to is really opinion, and that's completely malleable. 99% of Fox News viewers think Obama is a Nazi and a Communist. Can't possibly be true because those are mutually exclusive terms. But for them it's "true". And I'm sure many of them share that truth "over the backyard fence".
And as far as quiet revolution is concerned, in the words of The Borg (Start Trek fame, aka the global elite): revolution is irrelavent. Read about South Africa in Shock Doctrine if you don't believe me.
We can tell the truth all day and night.
And we will be drowned out by 1000+ RNC talk stations, the Fox TV network, and the fact that the Obama White House is talking with the narrative and terminology of the right-wing on every issue that counts.
Time to tell the truth in the streets of DC. All we need is a MLK, an RFK.
Someone to sent a date; someone to light the powderkeg.
Until the reasons for those overflowing streets become the new narrative, the new truth... we're hosed.
"There was never any intent to capture Bin Laden alive. The goal of the raid was to kill this living embarrassment to the United States government and remove any chance that he might say something awkward and revealing before he died of kidney failure on his own."
Add to the long list of "permanently silenced":
Sadam Hussein--executed (I'm no fan of Sadam but I smelled something fishy)
Dr. Bruce Ivins (microbiologist accused of anthrax attacks)--suicided
Ken Lay--heart-attacked (knew too much about Cheney's secret oil cabal)
Senator Wellstone---conveniently plane-crashed
Oswald--silenced mafia-style before he could reveal the entire false flag op
Mike Connell---plane-crashed (knew all the inside voting machine shenanigans & Karl Rove's tricks: http://www.macon-bibb.com/voting.htm
And more...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x25601
How about the attack on patriotic whistleblowers? A further attempt to silence
the voice of truth and all those who speak truth to power.