Caroline is right about Obama but wrong about America. Ordinary people are in the process of rising up courageously to make a difference. On all sides.

While the MoveOn.Org Occupy Wall Street gathering will more than likely end in no particular result there, the result of people agreeing on Wall Street, Corporate America, our government, the economy and our place in it in general cannot help but lead us to a better end.

That's what I call ordinary people are in the process of rising up courageously to make a difference.

Lets see, the Far Left, Liberals, Moderates, Centrists, Independents, the Tea Party all seem to agree that the bail outs were wrong, big banks are out of control, big business is betraying the American working family, government (Republican or Democrat) is not working for the American people, Obamacare is a farce, Trade policy's are hurting us and favoring other country's and are demanding something be done about it.

I hold the voters responsible. Obama made it clear during his campaign that he would increase military budgets. He is a democrat. Can any more be said ? Those who voted for him are a part of the problem. Will they ever learn ? I'm not betting on it. The lesser of the evils, is still evil.

Now is the time to let it be known that both Parties, not just the nominee on top, should be rejected. A vote for any Democrat is a vote for war and economic injustice.

While I've been guilty of doing the same thing, when I read such generalities, I see that generalities can be distortions of truth to justify our own logic. This isn't to deny that we have huge, frightening challenges. We do. Still, countless exceptions come to mind to this author's point of view, including large and small acts of personal bravery, selflessless, compassion. Even if it's not reported in gloom-and-doom news, there is tremendous--I mean tremendous--caring, generosity, creativity, genius and splendid goodness going on here, there, everywhere.

I've just come through the medical emergency of a loved one. The surgeon and the nurses at the hospital were wonderful. A hospital is busy 24-hours a day. And I thank goodness these dedicated individuals have skills and passions I don't have--or my loved one might have perished.

Everyone who is taking a risk today is being courageous and brave--and I, for one, applaud this bravery. Doing the easier, not-brave thing is, well, easy to do. Lying, for example, is easy to do. That's why so many people do it! Lying takes no strength at all. It's honesty that takes guts and courage.

There is a galaxy of difference between passive-ism and active-ism. As long as action is non-violent and harmless, active-ism is extremely hopeful activity. We don't know the outcome although active-ism is the actual stuff of change--to the individuals actively participating, too. This is my personal experience as well and it includes the truth of Margaret Mead's words, "Never doubt that a small group of caring citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." More passive-ism and its choice of personal victimhood are exercises in futility--which are also easy to do.

Unlike this author's reservations, I'm extremely enthusiastic about Occupy Together. I'm thrilled that we human beings are finally willing to step up, participate, choose to empower and include ourselves. We've begun to bust through a wall of delusion called passive-ism and take deliberate, non-violent action together.

Bruce Levine (author of Get Up, Stand Up) says that successful revolutions have two key ingredients: Self-respect and collective self confidence.
May our self respect and collective self confidence grow and grow! Catch the OccupyTogether spirit of unity and shared humanity.

All the best Caroline. I can't help thinking of the words from "September Song," "One hasn't got time for the waiting game."

These were truly words from the heart and reflect the feelings of many of us. I've been somewhat hard myself on this lady over the years for having so much faith in the system and specifically the democratic party. Yet I too reluctantly voted for this president. Instead of my usual independent vote for Nader, I, like a few others, took one for the team (okay –the Professional Left's Team) in hope that it would be different this time. Instead of a new leader, we got GWB in black – and worse.

It is perfectly clear now that to change this nation's course it will take mass and continuing confrontation in Washington D.C. to remove these criminals. If they respond with violence as they did at the Air and Space Museum yesterday it will likely have to met with the same.

This Federal Government must be neutralized and removed.

Hang in there Caroline. People do care.

There is much to commend in this heartfelt report of a journey into therapeutic disillusionment. But I am struck by one important contradiction.

Early on, Arnold writes this: "I recognize that lies and misrepresentations are basic tools of information management in our socially-structured, media-mediated world. We all use them to manage information in pursuit of our interests, and I see no moral utility in categorically condemning lying, disinformation or persuasion."

I take this statement as a resigned and fatalistic, if reluctant, acceptance of what the now-obscure social critic Jules Henry termed "white sham".

"White sham" is essentially the notion of de minimis personal "little white lies" escalated to the cultural level; it refers to the ostensibly innocuous euphemisms and everyday courteous deceits, small and large, necessary to help social interactions proceed more smoothly.

It's important to note that Henry's concept of "white sham" doesn't assert that it actually IS innocuous, benign, and benevolent-- it's a meta-observation of a phenomenon that is generally, if typically unconsciously, present in modern Western "civilized" societies.

That is, there's a pervasive belief that a society can't survive with too extreme a standard of personal and collective honesty; the potential for conflict, friction, hostility, and violence is too great and must perforce be countered or mollified by judiciously obscuring or stretching the truth.

"White sham" is a culture's way of dealing with popular fictional character Colonel Nathan R. Jessep's lapidary declamation: "You can't handle the truth!"

(Digression: to me, that film is artfully, even insidiously, manipulative: contrived to make the rugged man's man Jack Nicholson character the righteous anti-hero of the drama, especially when contrasted with his pretty but superciliously dweeby Tom Cruise antagonist. It's no fluke that the average viewer irrationally identifies with and even roots for Jessep, contrary to the express message and rationale of the story.)

The problem with "white sham" is that it arises from the eye of the beholder, i.e. is subjective. Once one gives oneself over to the general principle that it is OK to lie and distort just a little bit for constructive and even necessary purposes, one has placed one's leading foot upon the proverbial slippery slope.

The problem with tolerating, if not cultivating, the habit of artful deceit is that it's like stepping into a riptide or undertow-- it's far too easy, and likely, that before one knows it one's been swept far away from one's landmarks, bearings, and good intentions. And one begins to swim and navigate with reference to the self-referential whirlpool into which one has drifted.

I presume, perhaps erroneously, that Arnold's qualification that she does not "categorically" condemn lying, disinformation or persuasion is a recognition that apart from "white sham", there is indeed pathological, pernicious, and reprehensibly immoral and unethical deceit.

But in the concluding paragraphs, there is this: "Our information structures and media based on lies and misrepresentations have left us cynical, mistrustful and divided."

It is for exactly this reason that I disagree with Arnold. I see a profound moral utility in categorically condemning lying, disinformation or persuasion.

It may well be tragically true that we are destined to struggle within a mendacious culture despite the better angels of our nature and our noblest aspirations. But I think the better part of valor is to begin by categorically condemning mendacity instead of pragmatically accepting it.

I'm dismayed and affronted by commenters who've chosen to harshly mock and excoriate Ms. Arnold's thoughtful essay. But I will suggest that too ready an acceptance of the practical merits of "lying, disinformation or persuasion" may contribute to a well-intentioned, even idealistic, complacency and credulousness that causes a person to foolishly pin on that "Obama '08" button in the first place.

If one feels obliged or fated to sup with the devil, it behooves one to bring the longest spoon one can acquire. Sitting down too blithely is a presciption for a badly scorched nose and singed eyebrows, and commensurate post-prandial regrets and laments.

And I thought I was cynical.

I didn't vote for Obama but I really think it's a stretch (to say the least) to claim that anyone who did gave their consent to be betrayed.

What in the world?

And the idea that because Obama has betrayed the hopes of so many millions, "all hope is lost" is absurd on its face.

It simply perpetuates the myth that Obama was our only (ie, last) Hope (with a capital H).

That's not only extremely counterproductive thinking but it really is just nonsense.

Sorry to be so blunt and I'm sure folks will jump all over me for this, but so be it.

Personally, I am more optimistic than I have been in years because of what I see going on around the country with all the protests.

It shows me that people are takin gthings into their own hands -- and when they do that, they realize what power they -- WE -- have when we work together.

This kind of direct action is ALWAYS what it takes to bring real change.

Change rarely comes from politicians and even when it does, it usually comes with (purse) strings attached.

"Obama betrayed us".

The question is, how much legal graft, bribery or personal threats would it take to buy any politician?

The 99% can't be bought or threatened.

Direct democracy

Political candidates are sold by ads: by lies. What support does anyone have for the idea that Obama really thought he could create a more humane or more populist nation? He has consistently moved against both, and he must have sealed his principal deals before the election; that is how his lies were funded.

No one betrays with consent. Sure, there were ways some did know and others could have known that Obama was lying. But to blame rank and file Democrats occupied with their lives and their jobs for voting for Obama is like blaming an admittedly clueless victim for a rape. Just because one can take advantage of another person does not make it partially the victim's fault. Obama's financiers spent record funds, and Obama himself devoted considerable time and attention to misleading the American public. Moreover, both Obama and the news media (in general) did just about everything possible to preserve and extend the public's ignorance.

Now, I regret that Obama has so besmirched the words *hope* and *change.* But that is no reflection on the concepts and entities that these words once referred to.

Obama is not a reflection on others who would change Wall Street -- notably, for now and hopefully for some time, #Occupy. Obama is a reflection on others like him who support Wall Street:

If it takes a button to support the protests, get a button.

Our forgotten dream
http://www.gpln.com/ourforgottendream.htm

There is a beach a couple of hours from here where you can drive your car down a narrow, one and a half car wide cement strip from the parking lot all the way down to the beach. On occasion, a car or truck has to go off the strip onto the soft, car swallowing sand next to the strip - usually to let cars going in the other direction past. This often results in the vehicle getting stuck in the sand (which is unlike the sand lower down that is packed well enough to drive on).

Every time I've seen this happen, a spontaneous crowd of strangers gathers and pushes the car back onto the cement strip.

It doesn't seem to matter if the car or truck is new or old, or if it has political bumper stickers on it, or flags designating some affiliation. The crowd forms, pushes it onto the strip and then disperses.

So, I'm not quite out of hope for us.

Funny, I was at the gas station yesterday putting fuel in the new gas cans I'd just purchased to replace the ones stolen from my back porch two nights ago. (yes, I still need to drive and still use gasoline) Before loading them into the truck bed I came upon the bumper sticker Obama/Biden '08 glued to my tailgate. I pulled the sticker off, ripped it into tiny pieces and threw it in the garbage. Maybe that's going around. With sadness and regret, I mumbled, "Bye, bye Obama. Never again."

Unlike the author of this piece, I am pissed, disappointed and ashamed of President Obama. And I hold him liable for many of the failures I've witnessed in this country the last four years. Where I take full responsibility is in not doing my homework thoroughly enough before voting for him. It will never happen again.

I'm reading Suskind's book right now, Confidence Men, and I am stunned not only by Obama's continued failure to prosecute the Wall Street thugs (with all that Suskind is revealing) but that so many of the criminal activities continue as we speak.

I don't know what 2012 holds in terms of a viable presidential candidate but I can tell you this much, between the Republican boobs shooting off at the mouth right now and our big Democratic failure who remains silent on subjects that need the strongest voice, I'll be writing in my dog's name, Barney, at election time. The entire political system as it stands today needs to be completely dumped.

The world begins within us, and change begins with hope. Please have hope again, Caroline.

Maybe not so much in Obama. He seems to be losing his soul. A weak man, perhaps.

Instead listen to John Lennon, who would be 71 today, and still fighting for love and peace. "Imagine all the people, living life in peace... you may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one... maybe someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one."

I'm SURE Lennon would still be fighting. Yoko is. That gives me hope.

"Hang on, Caroline, Caroline hold on... it's gonna be alright... we're gonna win the fight..." - John Lennon, Plastic Ono Band, lyrics slightly altered.

Love, Jessica

Who's this "We" white woman?
Speak for yourself.

Your gullibility and millions like you cause real death and suffering. A little shame and remorse is in order. And how about WAKE UP instead of "oh poor me I lost hope". Go away you're useless.

To return to an earlier topic on this thread, McCarthyism---which remains vitally relevant to this day---Sioux Rose, who is like me a stickler for good grammar and proper punctuation---referred to the "Sunshine" law that enabled discovery that the McCarthyites who accused other people of being Commies were bad spellers (pun intended!).

Perhaps she meant to reference the Freedom of Information Act, or the acronym, FOIA. I used that Act to access my father's FBI files right after Dubya got elected but before he took office. (The FBI set up obstacles and I had to seek the aid of a Senator...)

I discovered that my father had been investigated at least twice for being an alleged Commie: before WWII and after WWII. Joe McCarthy had nothing to do with the first Great Red Scare. His career, beyond his law practice in Shawano County, Wisconsin, started when he beat a LaFollette in a U.S. Senatorial race (circa 1948), when Senator Lafollette was too busy trying to implement the Post-War Marshall Plan in Europe to campaign for his own expected re-election. (Soon after, he is alleged to have committed suicide...)

NOT ALWAYS were the accusers and Red-Baiters bad spellers. In both cases, my father's accusers were academics or aspiring to be so. He was studying bacteriology (later immunology). His accusers were quite good at writing and spelling and punctuation, but what they lacked was historical perspective. (This goes to C.P. Snow's "The Two Cultures," circa 1957, a critique on the divide between "science" and "the Liberal Arts.")

What I found was that my father was accused of being a Commie by scientifically-oriented younger students who were both historically and psychologically ignorant. They were capable of writing full sentences. The problem was that, whether they knew it or not, they were writing lies while in essence accusing my father of being a "traitor," for whatever personal reasons their "neurotic" psyches held.

My father had never been a Commie. I find it ironic that the FBI exonerated him in the late 1930s and then again in the late 1950s, when I was in high school (when the parents of my classmates in a small college town were being interviewed by FBI agents while I wondered why I wasn't "popular"!).

He was extremely well-read. He had met Einstein at Princeton (in a bathroom!). He knew Linus Pauling and Albert Sabin and was intensely interested in the issues involving the production of vaccines. Raised on Midwestern farms, he grew up as a Populist-Progressive of the Farmer-Labor bent---he would have voted for Hubert Humphrey had he lived so long.

The massive toll on Family created by the Red Scares is inestimable.

Our national politics is really a continuation of this history. Individual "paranoia" is one thing; an organized National Paranoia is quite another.

In any case, I commend Caroline Arnold for her perseverance in writing with great relevance even into her 80s. She comes from a unique life-changing historical perspective. She writes about lies, but she is not lying!

-30-

"I threw away the Obama button because I’ve lost hope. It’s too late: our present structures, beliefs and habits are driving us toward extinction." And so on.

Caroline, Caroline, CAROLINE ! The world is not Black and White, either/or, pass/fail, and it certainly is not do or die... yet. You are correct in asserting Barak Obama is not going to solve our problems. But you overlook that he is not the only tool in the box. You need only select the correct tool, and suddenly the job is much easier.

Now, how do you do this? You stop thinking the only choice available is between Democrat and Republican. There are also Greens. A tiny party in the U.S, but a large one in many other countries. That's right, the Greens are (all caps) AN INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ORGANIZATION.

The Greens are already bigger than the Democrats AND the Republicans, put together. And the difference they can make here is, they can change the topic in Washington D.C.

They Do need your vote though. Since you have quit, you don't mind if they borrow your power, do you?

Thank you, Caroline.

we want lesser evil prevail 2012 election, that mean strengthening blue dogs stable before republicans kicks in 2016 - another generation to the drain

Just for the record, there are some major questions about the "planned successions" of American Power and they go beyond the politico-military staging of the New American Century crazies. One such item stands radically unanswered and that has to do with a serious and comprehensive inquiry as to just how Obama came to power in the first place. At least one author has raised a
profile that seems to make a lot of sense in view of a sequence of outcome based realities that surround this administration that contradict his narrative profile.
You judge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NquIKlMQ4U&feature=related
BARACK OBAMA is a CIA CREATION
and it seems that if that were true...a lot of things fall right into place!

gardenernorcal, aqifer, and sandpoint greenie, thanks. I should have looked a little more carefully but at least I know now. Had enough with Justice Arcs. He must be having another imaginary axe to grind with me or it might have been my pissing him off that I preferred Jake Newton to him or SR. Whatever. He's just another cyberbully.

As for the flagging, it must have been "ctrl-z". S/he is always obsessed with Shawn Berry but is a Dim Party apologist just like him. Yeah, stay in the Democratic Party, huh? I've lost enough hope in 2009 that I joined the Green Party last year. Quit whining and join the Green Party.

Before I go, I'll leave with one more advice. Don't believe anyone who complains about people posting at odd hours. People post from all over the world or just when they personally feel like it so are any of us to police this site on when to post? If you look closer, you'll notice that the same vampires don't make any mention about their favorite posters posting at odd hours. Ditto on complaining about certain users changing their screen names while keeping a tight lip on their favorite posters doing the same. That's all for now. L8r.