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Slouching Towards 2012
For the last two days, Yahoo! has featured an article, “N. Korea alters photo of Kim Jong Il funeral.” Juxtaposing two images, it shows that half a dozen inconsequential figures have been photo-shopped out. It is fitting that Yahoo!, a leader in frivolity, is burdening its attentive yahoos with a pointless, carping article masquerading as political expose. This bitch slapping piece of pseudo-journalism is juxtaposed with “Baby Startled by Mom’s Noise,” “Model Pregnant on Runway,” “NASCAR Star Sorry for Tweets” and “Disney’s Women’s ‘Real’ Looks.”
Future observers will be aghast to discover that, as our economy collapses and the country slides into Fascism, our mostly numb and passive population is left to ponder the true identities of cartoon characters and who Jim Carrey is sleeping with. When it comes to putting a population to sleep, North Korea could take a few lessons from the US, and in fact, many Communist states already have. Don’t ban anything, just suffocate people with nonsense, bombard each brain cell relentlessly with so much tedious “entertainment” that it can no longer think straight.
(Photo/Linh Dinh)All governments lie, but empires lie even more voluminously because they have a grander fiction to maintain, as well as a larger and more complex audience to pacify, stroke and sucker. The list of facts and events, recent and historical, that have been airbrushed from American history would occupy thousands of Howard Zinns for thousands of years. In their places, the official, unending bullshit. Wonders of wonders, tallest buildings collapsing at free fall speed, one without being hit by anything, its demise announced before the fact even. Or a murder without corpse of a most wanted target, with the “heroic” hit team conveniently packed into a helicopter, then killed. Nothing is ever explained, because nothing needs to be explained to a well-opiated audience.
I have contended that a hidden agenda of the Occupy Movement’s tent cities, now mostly gone, is to remove oneself from a normal, domesticated environment, with its attendant, nonstop media brainwashing via television, computer and other electronic gadgets. Freed from these insidious and poisonous mediators, one could discover other human beings, one’s neighbors, and oneself, at last. It wasn’t just a sacrifice to endure the elements and poor sanitation to feel solidarity and community. It was also an attraction, an atavistic yearning to see, hear and feel directly, and to jettison all of the soft yet stubborn, plugged-in shackles. As a sign at Zuccotti Park said so well, “FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE, I FEEL AT HOME.”
Many inhabitants of these encampments had no other homes, however, so when these tents were cleared out, they had to scramble. In Philadelphia, a group relocated to an out of the way, vacant lot in a distressed neighborhood, then issued this plea to be left alone, “We are not here protesting or to make a statement, we’re homeless. We are sick of being forced to exist alone, sick of being told that shelters, which are not tolerable living facilities for sober people, are an adequate alternative to being “allowed”, by the government, to work, live and share together to create for ourselves […] ”
Forced by necessity or motivated by activism and desire, these tent dwellers will only multiply in the years ahead. Becoming a tribe unto themselves, they will reclaim entire swaths of America. Squatting on land, they will also get a chance to occupy their own minds. There, they will discover that the tucked away answers are already many degrees wiser and saner than the drivel being pumped out daily by their masters of murderous greed and war.
So far, our overlords have not been overly alarmed by our budding awakening and rebellion. Time Magazine even gave the movement a pat on the head, with a chuckling reminder that it took the Civil Rights Movement a decade to achieve tangible results, but we don’t have ten years to chip and dally away. The bankers are more entrenched than ever, with the next POTUS, their loyal servant, no different than the last, and don’t bet on Ron Paul being allowed to occupy that ceremonial seat.
The Pentagon’s core budget, as submitted by Peace Laureate Obama, is the biggest ever, though hefty cuts have been applied to Overseas Contingency Operations. Whenever another war starts, however, and who knows how many more we’ll see in 2012, the cash spigot will spill as madly as the blood. Trust me.
It’s another year coming, but I doubt that most Americans feel any sense of renewal. In spite of reassuring or silly headlines, pervasive dread is in the air. The election year will give the Occupy Movement energy and focus, but unless it can sharpen its message and allow exceptional individuals already in its midst to emerge as spokesmen and leaders, it will continue to accomplish merely minor, symbolic victories, as their opponents continue to kill, loot and, yes, laugh in their faces.
The you are a leader, I am a leader mantra is patently nonsense, because it takes a highly intelligent, charismatic and forceful figure to galvanize and inspire. A leader must earn his status, and when he has, lesser voices will naturally defer, and if he turns out to be a fraud, he should be chucked aside. Faced with a monomaniacal, brutal and well organized enemy, we cannot just counter with a horizontal position, because they will gladly accommodate this inclination.
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Show AllLinh Dinh has a good feel for the culture pulse and for synthesizing truths as the year ends. I have a lot of respect for his writing and photography. What stops me from forwarding this article to my intelligent friends, however, is his unfortunate troofer "free fall" nonsense included here. I really hope Dinh hasn't gotten sucked into THAT suffocating entertainment. There is much work to be done in 2012.
More 9-11's to come. Maybe you're a little too wary, and should find some more intelligent friends willing to examine the important questions that already have convincing answers.
- opps... edited because it is just such a waste of time.
the old "troofers" vs "fallfers" game.
look at the footage: no building collapses that neatly without help.
Good point, about that HELP.
My suspicion has long been that the psychological impacts of the staged disaster, were a meticulously fashioned invasion and subversion of our individual and collective: minds, feelings, and existential yearning for our God to protect us against "theirs."
Subcontext, this pretext event demonstrates that supposed Muslim terrorists' God is capable of ripping the steel beating heart out of several of our tallest buildings, such that we should viscerally and existentially FEAR and doubt the power of our own Gods to protect us.
Therefore, we must send in the clowns of Weapons of Mass Deception (Distraction), because even our faith was demolished, that day.
Before you so quickly dismiss more than 1,500 architects and engineers, as well as valid questiona about Building 7's collapse at free fall speed when it was never hit by any plane, see the following:
AE911Truth.org
http://www.ae911truth.org/
Patriots Question 9/11 - Responsible Criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report
http://patriotsquestion911.com/
Anyone who uses the term "troofer" is unworthy of serious consideration. Kudos to Linh Dinh to say what so many are afraid to say or too blind to see.
My advice: deal with it, or make very sure you're consistent. Mocking terms organically arise among the population for subjects deemed unworthy of respect. I'm sure proponents of Obama, for example, feel similarly about people who refer to him as Obomber, Oilybomber, Odrona, Obummer, "The Nobel Peace Laureate" in ironic quotes, etc.
For consistency's sake, I hope you don't make those or any other mock references, and I hope you're just as critical of those who do, as you are of those who think troofers are generally science-challenged, self-styled martyrs with vastly misplaced focus, and say so.
My advice is that you read ED's post at 5:41 pm as he does a most effective job of rebutting your rather feeble comments. According to your logic we are supposed to believe what the Bush administration has said concerning the mysterious events that occurred on September 11, 2001 in the eastern part of the United States despite the fact that the Bush/Cheney gang had lied about practically everything under the sun while they were in power. I think not.
Try reading the works of David Ray Griffin or Towers of Deception by Barrie Zwicker as they might help to broaden your horizons on this topic.
What ever.
You might include ObomnableBorg[to resist is futile], ObomanationBorg, ObomberBush which I take credit for and a term that has been used by Ralph Nader.
If you think those of us who question the Official 9/11 Conspiracy Theory (19 Muslims who could barely fly Cessnas highjack four airliners, evade the most extensive air defense system in history, fly three of them into buildings, three of which in NY City collapse at free-fall speed into their own footprints even though the Twin Towers were especially constructed to withstand jet airliner collisions and Building 7 was not hit by any airplane) are science-challenged, then you obviously have not accessed the two web sites I gave you.
Here they are again. This time, I urge you to spend some time on each site:
AE911Truth.org
http://www.ae911truth.org/
Patriots Question 9/11 - Responsible Criticism of the 9/11 Commission Report
http://patriotsquestion911.com/
I suspect that wary gets his "science" from Scientific America.
As if, you have any credibility being a "free fall" denier ?
Ever hear of Isaac Newton, and apples falling from trees ?
Hell of a fine article to end the year with-or begin a new one with. Scarier but oh-so right on, Linh, is the way you made your point about 9-11, about the death of bin-Laden, and how you tied that into the death of many of the "Seal team 6" members. We are a nation of well-trained sheep, aren't we? More in tune with Lindsey Lohan, Lady "Gag-Gag", and NFL players salaries instead of our own neighbors, we are happily aquiescing to the slick as glass powers that be who sell us on never ending fear of "those others", on perpetual war for perpetual peace, and the futility of standing up against corporate oligarchies by shaming the "occupiers" as filthy hippies without a clue.
Oh what a year it's been, and I'm sure another one awaits.
I have to dispute your including Lady "Gag-Gag" at least the video's. Until USAner's realize that their FORCED CONTRIBUTIONS,. withholding taxes, of taxing labor to transfer to the banksters to pay the interest on THE COUNTERFEIT DEBT created by the banksters conditions will not change.The Wall St. Wash., DC is the Axis of Evil, a criminal conspiracy of fraud, theft, lies orchestrated by the government, business, and pretend christians trumpeted by MSM and consumed by a gullible USAn pubic..
Headline:
"Woman in hurricane delivers same baby three times."
--Tracey Ullman
We need a new word, or term, for a world that is both absurd and surreal.
Trylon
Fine piece, including the remarks about 9-11--but I'm not sure about the conclusion. Charismatic leaders are all well and good, but they are so easy to kill, arrest, or otherwise sideline. A movement that claims it has no leaders of course does have actual natural leaders--but when these are sidelined others pop into the breach much faster than within a movement with official leaders. Would a movement in which national leaders together crafted a single, focused national strategy be more effective than the chaotic rumbling of myriad temorary strategies we have now? Maybe--but I'm not certain. Sometimes different wings working even at apparent cross purposes can achieve together the goals they share. In my opinion, the most important thing the occupy movement needs to do in 2012 is ignore the election spectacle. There will be great efforts to drag them into that, to waste their energies with that. "Really, this time I'll hold it for you, Charlie Brown," says Lucy with a football, time after time. Predator Odrona (thanks to whoever I stole that one from) has amply demonstrated how the game works--we need to focus on contests we can win, things we can change.
Actually if the Occupy movement did have a charismatic leader, it would simply make it much easier for the forces of darkness to "decapitate" the movement. Leaderless resistance might well be a strategic choice, and an intelligent one.
We know they will spend vast fortunes to dismiss, demonize, marginalize, categorize, intimidate, arrest, betray, assassinate, slander, and otherwise attack the Occupiers.
The invisible leadership of OWS provides the only hope of success. You can't attack what you can't see.
The 99% vs. the 1% is likewise brilliant and unasailable.
Linh Dinh has the guts to be pure and his words ring true. Linh is right when he says OWS needs more focus to endure. But the purity must remain, to prevent the essence from being watered-down or coopted.
It's forever overdue. We must dispense with the fiction.
A Corporation Is Not A Person.
nice..
"Wonders of wonders, tallest buildings collapsing at free fall speed, one without being hit by anything, its demise announced before the fact even."
wonder of wonders, such a statement published on CommonDrams.
LD cleverly phrased his statement without using the usual buzzwords that make redlining so easy for the censors.
The CD editors must be asleep at the switch. Linh Dinh's fine article has allowed the laws of physics to intrude upon the sacred myth of 911, and on a progressive website to boot. He even has the gall to suggest there might be something hinky about the alleged OBL hit. The Ministry of Truth must be furious. Next these quacks will be claiming that passports aren't fireproof. Quick! Scrub it! Where's Winston Smith!?
on holiday in Wales.
Let us be thankful for small victories. Today CD, tomorrow the world...
Love it:
"allowed the laws of physics to intrude upon the sacred myth of 911"
Let's look toward and celebrate the day, when USAians somehow discover that "Free Fall" is NOT at all like Free Trade, nor like a free lunch (TANSTAAFL).
Great pic
America is like a star that blew up some time ago but still looks like its there.
Interesting comment. That we are somewhere in space and we are observing the USA that existed light years ago and the light is just reaching us. Wishful thinking on my part. Although we could be in a black hole and not even realize it.
Thank you Mr. Linh Dinh for your thoughts in this essay and all year long. A thousand Howard Zinns indeed and quite a few Orwells too. Keep writing and thinking no matter who tries to belittle you. I wish you a Happy New Year.
Yes - I agree - keep on keepin' on Mr. Dinh ~
And yes, natural leaders will be targeted - and are vulnerable
But Linh is entirely correct, I believe, and though we may hope for a dispersed multi - leader moving - target sort of revolution - human nature and all of our history argue otherwise.
As JFK pointed out -
'ships are safe in harbor, but that's not what they were built for'
Happy New Year Linh Dinh
Manysummits
=====
Excellent article. Outstanding photograph.
Please stay away from the words "trust me".
The horizontal position barb is a honest question for the quasi anarchic organizing principles of OWS which echo that of the anti-globalization movement.
For resistance the leaderless model is the ideal structure, but for actually taking the fight to the heart of power? We still haven't figured that out with parties or revolutionary cadres, etc. The system adapts to each new threat as they emerge, and OWS has to figure out a new model of organizing even though the physical occupation of space was a brilliant move.
Another excellent Linh Dinh commentary!
I wolfed it down, partly because it's an appetizing alternative to the surfeit of banal, tendentious, formulaic end-of-year articles that are standard fare here and elsewhere.
I particularly enjoyed the skeptical 9/11 peanuts skillfully blended into the mix. For some, it's an acquired taste-- and of course, others are so allergic to the skepticism that even the slightest taste makes their tongue and mucous membranes swell up to a point that induces potentially fatal incapacitation.
And FWIW, I'm not put off by Dinh's comment about the need for leaders as the OWS movement continues to evolve. He seems to take everything with a grain of salt, so I believe that he is aware of the potential pitfalls and risks in wishing for, or relying upon, charismatic leaders.
As I read it, though, I think he's warning against lapsing into one of the traps or flaws that arose like a pernicious side-effect of Sixties counterculture and identity politics: reflexive sentimental egalitarianism, combined with a penchant for buying into superficially positive slogans to a point where they become meaningless.
It's a huge subject, and I don't mean to either pontificate on it (much) or attempt to thrash it out here. After all, Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve is at hand.
But if I'm understanding Dinh correctly, he's only saying that there really are individual differences, and that different people have different merits or abilities.
In his view, which I agree with, the admittedly challenging approach is to nurture and encourage "the best and the brightest" within the Occupy movement instead of repressing and discouraging meritorious individuals in homage to a shallow or dogmatic aversion to authority and hierarchy.
And I'd guess that he's well aware that the notion of "the best and the brightest" has historically become insidious and perverted. But... hell, if I could think of a subtler cliché than "the baby and the bathwater", I'd use it.
As I read him, Dinh objects to taking the "no leader" concept to a point of diminishing returns, just as the term "occupy" can reach a point of diminishing returns if it's overused and indiscriminately applied to everything under the sun.
Even the most well-intended attempt at therapeutic empowerment can become vitiated and self-caricaturing; I believe that Dinh is cautioning against the prospect of the "no leader" condition being invoked until it becomes like the vapid Special Olympics mantra "Everybody's A Winner!"
is Dick Clark still alive!?
What a sad shame that the solid insights Linh Dinh offers here are undermined by conspiracist nonsense about WTC 7 and the supposedly faked death of Bin Laden.
If the progressives in the US can't get past this kind of foolishness, they will deserve the defeat that inevitably attends the paranoid and the irrational.
And since fools like you can't get past the foolishness of the laws of physics, the Left continues to play the game of the powers that be. What a sad shame.
that great slogan to the effect that "if you're not pissed, you haven't been paying attention," has a corollary - for those who have been paying attention, being pissed is not sufficient - you might just have to do something about it.
however when it comes to the doing, getting bogged down in lack of agreement over the particulars (to the point of giving up) is perversely effective in diffusing the energy needed to precipitate radical change.
the occupy phenomenon is a wonderful metaphor for individual action: all kinds of tactics can be effective, but you have to get your own doubts and rationalities for inaction out of the way first. coordination and coherence will surely follow well intentioned personal commitment.
The article notes that "...and don’t bet on Ron Paul being allowed to occupy that ceremonial seat." But what one can bet on is that Ron Paul is no friend of the Occupy movement as he has looked down upon what this organization has done with derision and scorn.
Actually I've heard Paul make statements sympathetic to the Occupy movement in various interviews. Clearly his dogmatism concerning anything deemed even vaguely "socialist" makes him skeptical of their general worldview, but he definitely understands their outrage at the 1%'s abuse of the system and erosion of the rule of law, and he is basically a tolerant person.
Thank you, Linh Dinh, for this great end of the year article!
Happy to see that you, too, are not taken in by the nonsense fed to Amerikkka by the 911 Commission's report.
The following is intended for folks here who, although they despise 911 skeptics, apparently have not even taken the time to read the National Institute of Standards and Technology's reports on the collapse of the three WTC buildings. In its final report on the collapse of Building 7, even NIST recognizes that the building was in free fall for 2.25 seconds: "a freefall descent over approximately eight stories at gravitational acceleration for approximately 2.25 s" (page 607). 'gravitational acceleration' is another way of saying free fall acceleration.
Naturally, free fall acceleration can only be achieved if there is no resistance to the components of the building as they make their way down. The upper part of the building that was acknowledged by NIST to have collapsed in free fall could only have done so, if some force had removed all the steel and concrete in the lower part of the building, which would otherwise have opposed resistance to the process of collapse. This force could only have been supplied by explosives.
Et cetera.
It is time to inform oneself about this grave matter before issuing gratuitous insults and facile put-downs (which only reflect upon the issuer, by the way). For further information, see the Web site of Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth, and read Arthur Naiman's "9/11 The Simple Facts" (Soft Skull Press, 2011).
As the world gets more complicated, dangerous, and violent in the coming years, people - if societies are to survive - are going to have to solidly embrace good reasoning and science (along with plenty of empathy), and a big part of that is learning how to vet information sources and judge arguments and MAKE good arguments.
I could post the links that show how Oikos' selective quoting above ignores critical context from a technical report, and how that missing context provides the opening for manipulation by the usual suspects like Griffin and other opportunists, and how that leads to bogus conclusions endlessly parroted by the faithful (a typical example of which Oikos provides above) - but I vowed a couple years ago to stay out of the bottomless rathole of a timesink that is arguing with 9-11 conspiracists in their trenches.
I'm somewhat sorry for turning the comments thread to Dinh's mostly fine article into the usual mind mush that develops when trooferism is criticized - I knew better.
But the larger specter that haunts me is, again, that the world is getting more complicated and the forces of propaganda will continually crank up the volume, but the crowd on one of the leftest and most critically astute web sites I know can fall so hard for such a monstrously bad collection of reasoning surrounding a politically important historical event. And it all happens without a hint of irony - this crowd prides itself on seeing clearly, on seeing through the multiple layers of bs being thrown at the powerless, in so many arenas.
But yet there's a weird group dynamics which prevents clear thinking on this issue, which tells me that it can and probably does happen on other issues. It seems very similar to the phenomenon of climate change denial, which takes hold strongly in certain populations. Weird feedback loops against reason happening. Gives me the chills, actually.
You provide not a shred of reason or any real explanation, to rebut Oikos' clear and insightful analysis and references -- but nonetheless claim to be capable of doing so.
Frankly, no one believes that you can explain way free fall, which you previously on this same thread reversed yourself entirely about, and claimed that it was pure nonsense.
To wit: Linh Dinh's "unfortunate troofer "free fall" nonsense," at Dec 31 2011 - 3:48pm.
Is the NIST report nonsense now as well, or how exactly was this fact supposedly ripped from its proper understandable context, so as to invalidate its simple truth ?
Why is the simplest explanation, that fits all the facts -- supposedly nonsense and mush -- while the official narrative stipulates that it doesn't know why the building fell, BUT that is somehow supposedly a rational and better founded explanation ?
How is it that you can so easily switch on/off your own denying reality and irrational attacks, and then attempt to personally attack and paint ALL those seeking the truth about 911 as being the equivalent of "Gives me the chills" and "climate change denial" ?
The ill-gotten breadth of your tainting over-generalizing paintbrush is renown.
Have you ever heard of addressing people's facts, analysis, and arguments, instead of scurrilously impugning their character, dignity, and sanity ?
I suppose that is what you call the process that you refer to as entering "the bottomless rathole of a timesink that is arguing with 9-11 conspiracists in their trenches" ?
How sad (but illuminating) that you seemingly associate critical thinking with ratholes and time wasted, but seeing what you do bring to the discussion, that does seem a relevant observation of your own discussion skills.
Basically you're all about highly affected and afflicted emotionally charged attacks and innuendo -- which is usually referred to simply as propaganda -- while you're wanting us to believe in the baseless implied assertion that you're very serious, measured, sincere, and analytical.
You do provide a great examples of what you claim others do, making "manipulation … bogus conclusions endlessly parroted … turning … usual mind mush."
"...there's a weird group dynamics which prevents clear thinking on this issue"
Yes, and you are a shining example of it, wary.
Be wary, or not to be wary -- that is the question …
… that you've answered
I kept reading your comment each para after another hoping you will have some technical explanation and/or quotes from some source to counter Oikos's take on WTC building (free?) fall. He gave his explanation and also provided quote from NIST's report.
Your arguments is that other person is wrong because "I say so", no explanation of why you are write or other person is wrong. I'm not sure how to take that, especially as per your OWN writing "are going to have to solidly embrace good reasoning and science (along with plenty of empathy), and a big part of that is learning how to vet information sources and judge arguments and MAKE good arguments"
Thank you Oikos.
\ / _ \ / _ \ / _ \ / _ \ /
What comes next is a good example of some of the problems and tribulations that truth seekers and open discussion advocates face.
Yes, be wary of what comes next …
Climate change, More poor every day, democracy a dim memory, and the realization that it never really existed----everything is going down and the shit of 200years with it.
Pretty much it - concise - to the point.
Happy New Year
Manysummits
======