Reading Rant: "War Made Easy" by Normon Solomon

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." -- George Bush, "President Participates in Social Security Conversation in New York," May 24, 2005.

Norman Solomon's latest work, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" is a must-read for those whose brain cells have been numbed by the constant drivel of the mainstream news media. In this book, Solomon dissects the time-proven slogans and propaganda techniques that have been used by Administration after Administration to -- in effect -- motivate the American people against themselves and their own best interests -- not to mention those of citizens in many other nations.

You've heard it all before, and you will no doubt hear it again. "Our leaders will do everything they can to avoid war." "They attacked us." "Our enemy is a modern-day Hitler." "This is all about human rights." And, at some point after these and other pronouncements had echoed through the media for weeks or months, American troops marched into Vietnam, Panama, or Iraq. Since the mid- 1960s, American presidents have developed, refined, and perfected powerful propaganda machines for leading the nation to war. Greg Palast ( author of another highy-recommended book, " The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" --http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=15352) makes a fantastic recommendation: " Read one passage each night to your children to protect them from the brain-snatchers and dummy-fication zombies of America's news media of the living dead."

Alternet has posted the audio online as an MP3 that can be downloaded or listened to online.

-MixMasterE

Authenticity by MixMasterE

What a loaded word, yet quite poorly understood in a connotative sense. Denotatively, authenticity means " being true to one's self" or, in the parlance of some of my brothers and sisters who choose to creatively appropiate and expand the otherwise ossified structures of the English language, "keeping it real, sonnn!". My contention is that this "keeping it real" is not only laden with paradox, but also a very risky venture that few people are willing to take.

Living an authentic life means that one lives by one's own authority and not by what others think (which does not mean that other people don't matter, it's just that the power of their authority superseding yours is nullified). I have collected my fair share of detractors over the years who took a dislike to my oftentimes jarring, 'in your face' personal style and my refusal to go along with consensus thinking. I will not pretend to like you if I don't. I will tell you exactly what I think, Devil take the hindmost. And, on the flipside, I (will) deeply respect those who do the same towards me.

The paradox one faces in choosing to live authentically is best captured by the great writer James Baldwin( http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/baldwin.htm) when he observed: " Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." You will be liked by some, but disliked/unenvied by most who choose to safely blend into society ( however flawed) with the hopes of achieving a modicum of success/recognition, material rewards/comforts and relative security (which raises the question of whether this blending in compromises one's authenticity). This paradox is best exemplified by the life of the Caribbean scholar/physician/activist Frantz Fanon (http://kirjasto.sci.fi/fanon.htm).

Fanon refused to blend into society in his native Martinique. Many, if not most, quietly succumbed to the racial myths ( and subsequent psychic damage) the white French creoles imposed on those who were of darker complexions ( social status declined steadily as skin colour darkened, until you reached the poor nègres) Fanon bucked the debilitating consensus thinking and, like an Old Testament prophet, emphatically bellowed, "No!" He wrote, in Black Skin, White Masks: "The white man slaves to reach a human level . . . The white man is sealed in his whiteness, the black man in his blackness". Like a surgeon with a scalpel, Fanon examined the way colonisation bred racial guilt and inferiority, and how its victims were forced to don white masks and forfeit their true identity. This analysis is still relevant today. Of course, not everything Fanon said I agree with, but the fact that he took a stand and tred on a path less taken (stumbling along the way, retracting some positions, resynthesizing others, etc) is indeed exemplary. In fact, Fanon himself recognized this when he said, " I should constantly remind myself that the real leap consists in (enabling) invention into existence.In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly (re)creating myself."

What if Fanon decided to just blend in and simply enjoy the luxuries his profession would have endowed him with? (Although there is nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of labor, it becomes problematic when this (i.e materialistic joy / self-centered pursuits) becomes an end in itself). We would not have had his penetrating socio-political critique and humanistic vision. We would have had one less authentic voice.

The challenge then is to awaken the authentic self like the self that would, in the realm of politics, take a principled stance against, say, U.S imperialism, no matter the stigma or backlash. Simply allowing things  which are morally reprehensible and intellectually bankrupt to just slide by is unacceptable. (The image of  Jesus overturning the tables of the money-changers comes quickly to mind). Of course, exercising good judgement in any given moment is absolutely essential. There may be times, however, when one has to throw caution to the wind and utter the unspeakable...

"Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream"
W.C Fields

Fable of the Emperor and the Grieving Mother by DAVID KRIEGER

Once upon a time there was an Emperor who thought that the war he had started was exciting, albeit troublesome. He thought that running a war was "hard work," and thinking always made him tired. So, he decided to take another vacation and visit his castle in the provinces, where he could relax with his vassals and nobles seeking his favor and not have to think. Nearly all of the vassals and nobles, like the Emperor himself, liked war very much, although they didn't like to personally participate. Many had cleverly avoided their own involvement in wars when they were young. For instance, the Emperor's chief vassal, Sir Dick, loved war nearly as much as life itself, but had been a champion at getting deferments from participating in war as a young man. In this way, he could live to grow old and send new generations of young people to war.A problem arose in the Emperor's realm when a grieving woman whose son had died in the Emperor's war decided to visit the Emperor and ask him what purpose her son's death had served. She traveled to the Emperor's castle in the provinces where he was relaxing from the "hard work" of war. She sent a message to him, which said, "I have lost a son who was most precious to me and I wish to know from you that his death was not in vain, that he died for some greater purpose. Please come out from behind the walls of your castle and let me know how my son's death has been for a noble cause."One of the Emperor's vassals approached him, and told the Emperor that he had a message from a grieving mother of one of the Emperor's fallen soldiers. After reading the message, the Emperor turned to the vassal and asked, "Why do you bother me with this, the words of a simple woman, when I have an empire to run and am relaxing from the hard work of war? As you know, tonight we have more riches to gather, and I must be in a mood for gaiety."The vassal bowed low and backed away, apologizing, "I'm sorry," he said, "I thought that her encampment before the castle might stir up trouble among the people of the realm.""Leave me," said the Emperor imperiously, "My loyal subjects know better than to speak ill of me." The Emperor was supremely confident in the knowledge that his subjects, and especially the scribes, would not speak ill of him.But the woman's message had put the Emperor in a bad mood. He thought it impertinent of this woman to send such a message. He had an empire to run, and no time for explaining to a grieving mother why her son had died. It should be obvious to her that her son died because that's what soldiers do. They die in battle. If they cannot avoid the military, like Sir Dick had done, or at least stay out of war as the Emperor himself had done, then they die in battle if they are unlucky and then are replaced by other soldiers. The walls of the Emperor's castle were high, and the Emperor knew he was safe from this grieving mother and her kind behind them. He and Sir Dick knew best what the empire needed, and he knew that now was the time to relax so that after some weeks he could return to the "hard work" of war.But while the message of the grieving mother encamped in front of the Emperor's castle did not move the hard heart of the Emperor, it did indeed miraculously resound through the empire, and the populace did indeed begin to question with her whether her son had died in vain and whether the Emperor's war had been no more than tragic folly.All fables have a moral, and the moral of this one is: If your son or daughter has died in war and you are a grieving mother, know that while your words may not move the Emperor to come out from behind the safety of his castle walls, your pain and courage may still stir a revolt across the empire and save other mothers' sons and daughters as well as the innocent citizens of far-off lands.

BOOKS!! by MixMasterE

Here are a few good online book resources:


http://www.malaspina.com/fivestar.htm


http://eserver.org/


http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/


http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.60.00


http://www.questia.com/Index.jsp

Appreciating A Towering Intellect by MixMasterE

I was introduced to the works of Dr. Cornel West in the summer of '91 with the release of "Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life" ( with bell hooks)(http://www.southendpress.org/2004/items/BreakingBreadCl )

Up to that point in my life, I had never read a book by two highly respected academics/activists - a man and a woman -  deep soul-diving into the tempestuous storm of being in America . It provocatively threaded the spiritual, progressive and feminist into an organic definition of Black intellectuality ranging from theology to contemporary music, film, and fashion. It blew me away. I was also introduced to the co-author, bell hooks, at the same time. (Her vision is equally extraordinary which I will one day elaborate on).

In describing his mission in life, Dr. West said:

I am first and foremost a modern Christian person of African
descent in America trying to love my way through the darkness
of an advanced capitalist global system and the thunder of
postmodern market-driven culture. The complex interplay of skepticism
and hope, doubt and faith--in Pascal, Montaigne, Kierkegaard
and Coltrane--is shot through my work. Yet the centrality of
compassion and love in my view locks me into premodern figures
(like Jesus) and modern writers (like Chekhov and Hardy)
- Cornel West Reader ( http://goinside.com/02/3/west.html )

This brother spits fire! The way he situates himself historically, drawing from Christian, Marxist, and historicist traditions that also involve social theories on culture, music, race, and gender is breath- taking.And he does all of this with such flair, conviction and, oddly enough, humor. And what is even more admirable about this brother is that he
doesn't just sit in some well-furnished office cogitating about this or that--he acts! He embodies what he preaches which sets him apart from most intellectuals.

In the Cornel West Reader, he states:

My painful quest for wisdom is an endless journey that tries to delve into the darkenss of my soul to create a more mature and compassionate person. My political project of deepening democracy in the world is a perennial process of highlighting the plight of the wretched of the earth and broadening the scope of human dignity."

Yes, his words may be a tad self-indulgent, but the depth and meaning ring clear and should be instructive to all of us. His identification with the prophetic tradition is also interesting. For West, what it means for him to speak from a prophetic tradition "is not to be a prophet or elitist. Rather, it is humbly to direct your strongest criticisms at yourself and then self-critically speak your mind to others with painful candor and genuine compassion" .

(Great interview with Amy Goodman here:
http://www.lannan.org/lf/rc/event/cornel-west )

..nuff said.

Cornel West on Hope v. Optimism

("He who has never despaired has no need to have lived." -Goethe)



"The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. This is true at the personal level. But there's also a political version, which has to do with what you see when you get up in the morning and look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you are simply wasting your time on the planet or spending it in an enriching manner. We need a moral prophetic minority of all colors who muster the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, and the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, hoping to land on something. That's the history of black folks in the past and present, and of those of us who value history and struggle. Our courage rests on a deep democratic vision of a better world that lures us and a blood-drenched hope that sustains us. This hope is not the same as optimism. Optimism adopts the role of the spectator who surveys the evidence in order to infer that things are going to get better. Yet we know that the evidence does not look good. The dominant tendencies of our day are unregulated global capitalism, racial balkanization, social breakdown, and individual depression. Hope enacts the stance of the participant who actively struggles against the evidence in order to change the deadly tides of wealth inequality, group xenophobia, and personal despair. Only a new wave of vision, courage, and hope can keep us sane and preserve the decency and dignity requisite to revitalize our organizational energy for the work to be done. To live is to wrestle with despair yet never to allow despair to have the last word".

A Measure Of Success

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
And the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
And endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
A garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because
You have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

(attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

though it may be by poet Bessie Stanley)

-MixMasterE

Debating Existence

TIME magazine's current issue explores the hot issue of Intelligent Design (Creation) vs Natural Selection (Evolution) is in parts interesting, but mostly an insipid and predictable read ( see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1090909,00.html). I am in agreement with some that there is really no need for a divide (i.e between Science and Religion) Is it not possible for Science and Religion to coexist? I think with understanding they both can, though not always in harmony.

Did God create man, or did man create God in order to explain the unexplainable? Or are both of these ideas correct? The late Stephen Jay Gould wrote in his essay 'The Creation Myths of Cooperstown'-

Too few people are comfortable with evolutionary modes of explanation in any form.... One reason must reside in our social and psychic attraction to creation myths in preference to evolutionary stories—for creation myths ... identify heroes and sacred places, while evolutionary stories provide no palpable, particular thing as a symbol for reverence, worship, or patriotism.

The concept of evolution is both challenging and disturbing. Could the origin of our universe possibly be the result of a long series of events that were chaotic or governed by chance? It’s much more pleasant and reassuring to believe that God handled the entire job in six days ( Book of Genesis). Yet, to me, the concept of evolution is infinitely richer and more expansive. The creation myth is limiting because, through it, man views himself as a creature subservient to God, instead of realizing that God is within the breast of mankind and is the Life Force, the Fire, the Passion that infuses all of existence. Nietzsche had to say that God was dead in order to impel us to realize the true depth of our humanity (Note: This quote is misunderstood by many people. See http://psychcentral.com/psypsych/God_is_dead for some background).

(See also http://www.becominghuman.org/ for an interesting documentary on evolution)

President Bush's support of Intelligent Design and the teaching of this religious concept in public schools along with the science of evolution is probematic. Since when is Intelligent Design a scientific concept?Is it fair to privilege one religious viewpoint by calling it the other side of evolution, especially by a democratically-elected President?." It is important to note that the U.S Supreme Court in 1987 ( Edwards v. Aguillard) ruled that public schools may not teach creationism or "creation science" alongside evolution. So much for the separation of Church and State.

We, human beings, are a mystery. In attempting to gain an understanding of the many questions surrounding our raison d'etre, religion plays a vital role. Reason plays a vital role. But also a dash of craziness (imagination) too. No one is absolutely right or wrong. We are too recent on this planet, in this universe, to really know what the hell is going on.

So, whether you take one view or another, it's good to keep an open mind. It's also instructive to question the notion of objectivity. Everything is tainted by our perception of it. In fact, most scientists believe that the very act of observing something influences the thing observed. So, don't be so quick to judge or label--continuously search for the 'truth'.

Willaim Blake somewhat gets the a handle on this sublime "truth' when he says:

"I know of no other Christianity, and of no other Gospel than the liberty both of body and mind to exercise the Divine Arts of Imagination (note: Blake used imagination and spirituality interchangeably) : Imagination, the real and eternal World of which this Vegetable (Material) Universe is but a faint shadow, and in which we shall live in our Eternal or Imaginative Bodies, when these Vegetable Mortal Bodies are no more".

Better still: Every thing possible to be believ'd is an image of truth.~ William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (http://www.bibliomania.com/0/2/81/197/frameset.html )

- by MixMasterE

Democracy (R.I.P) by MixMasterE

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting. George Orwell

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping on a human face - forever . George Orwell

" We will defend our freedom. We will take the fight to the enemy " . I can't count how many times I've heard Lil George shamelessly utter these tired and irresponsible words not even registering, I am sure, the pain and suffering thousands of families are experiencing in the US from the loss of a family member in this deadly farce. The realization by a growing number of citizens that this Administration has lied to them is about to create a PR disaster for the war-mongers. There is even some talk circulating about a time-table for withdrawal (quite a remote, last option strategy, I'm sure).

Dr King once said that truth crushed to the ground will rise again and no lie can last forever. This is readily apparent when one examines all the pretexts of democratizing and freeing the Iraqi citizenry when in actuality Iraq has been utterly ruined and its' natural resources siphoned off to the imperial vultures. A fundamental question arises: To what extent are we a domocracy? By launching a crusade on spurious grounds and stubbornly ignoring the objections of the majority of the US population ( not to mention world opinion), is downright machiavellian. 

Let's examine the sequence of fictitious rationales the Emperor (and his minions) threw out to keep us lulled:

First it was about saving the world from deadly weapons of mass destruction.

Then it was about liberating people.


Then it was about spreading democracy.


Then it was about fighting terrorists over there so we wouldn't have to fight them over here.


Then it was about keeping the peace in a land of violent convulsions where friend and foe are indistinguishable (come on, can you tell a Shi'a from a Sunni?), while we wait for a constitution to be written, approved, and rooted. But it's a pipe dream floated by the administration that keeps springing leaks and creating misery for those not fortunate enough to be in on the lucrative oil and gas contracts. This nonsense has to stop and the American people need to take their democracy back ( what we really have now is a plutocracy which is a government system where wealth is the principal basis of power. See Paul Krugman's excellent essay on this viewpoint: http://faculty.pnc.edu/arw/gbg344/For%20Richer.htm. See also http://www.greaterdemocracy.org/money.html ).


Democracy may be hanging by the threads in this post 9-11 nightmarish landscape ( see http://www.newamericancentury.org/ ), but there is still hope. And history has proven that when people's backs are against the wall and their threshold for eating shit has reached its limit, they fight back ( read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" for a brilliant and moving history of the American people from the point of view of those who have been exploited politically and economically and whose plight has been largely omitted from most histories).


The power is in our hands.....

Class Matters by MixMasterE

The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers. ~William James


If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. ~Charles Darwin



The word "class" has been banished/misunderstood in repectable circles for quite some time now. It brings with it all types of images and ugly truths which many of us simply sweep under the rug as we continue to enjoy the trappings (inanities?) of the 'good life". I have nothing against living comfortably and enjoying the fruits of my labor, but in no way am I blind to the ravages of the U.S socio-economic order ( what Gore Vidal terms, " socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the rest of us". See http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040913&c=3&s=vidal) and the political spinelessness that plays handmaiden to the Captains of Industry. It seems to me that until one is hit by some type of crisis in his/her personal finances, the empathy towards and understanding of those tossed up in the vortex of wealth accumulation (by any means) is minimal to non-existant. The mainstream media ( now dominated by fewer, greedier hands with a Right-leaning persuasion) has always played its' necessary role of mirrors, smokescreens and downright lies in order to, as Noam Chomsky famously put it, "tame the bewildered herd" ( see http://www.chomsky.info/books/mediacontrol01.htm).

Until now.

It looks like some big fish in the mainstream are playing close attention now to this term "class". It's about frickin' time. The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and L.A Times have recently done a comprehensive series of articles dealing with class issues. (Click here: http://www.inequality.org/Summers.htm). This was bound to happen sooner or later--a classic case of the chickens coming home to roost.

As Peter Tosh aptly put it, "You fool some people sometimes /But you can't fool all the people all the time/And now we see the light/ We gonna stand up for our rights" .

Policing Our Children: Killing Hope by MixMasterE

The Aftermath

When there's gun-fire and blasts,L
ives wrecked in a mad-mans task,
In the hurt and the grief
Many children believe,
We have a cure.
There's illness and sorrows
Lives wrecked, not tomorrows
In the hurt and the grief,
Many children believe,
We have a cure.
Politicians and their policies,
Lives wrecked, nations politics,
In the hurt and the grief,
Many children believe,
We have a cure.
Parents toil and strife,
Suffering other pitfalls of life,
In the hurt and the grief,
Many children believe,
We have a cure. ~Angela Henderson


It's one thing to handcuff and arrest the criminals amongst us ( from the petty thief to the corporate swindler), but the line should be drawn when it comes to children. Check here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4475513.stm This video is a snapshot of the downward spiral of US society into a quasi-police state (http://www.sfu.ca/cfrj/fulltext/chauhan.pdf ) divorced from any form common sense or reason. The child is clearly having a temper tantrum ( is this abnormal?) which is clearly of no danger to anyone. She lightly slaps a teacher with a level force that would barely swat a fly. Before the police handcuff her, she is seen calmly sitting down and being quiet. Still they persist to treat her like a criminal--at the age of 5!! Zero tolerance some call it in defense of the authoritarian zeitgeist (a constant nightmare overhanging darkly)...how about zero intelligence.

My Dawg, Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living, says Socrates, the wisest man in ancient Greece. His credo has become the basic tenet of the philosophical quest.

At his trial in 399BC by the citizens of Athens, Socrates declared that from his incessant questioning, he found his contemporaries spend their lives pursuing various goals -- money, ambition, pleasure, physical security -- without asking themselves if these were important. Unless they raised such a question and seriously sought the answer -- through careful reflection, alert observation and critical arguments -- they would not know if they were doing the right thing.They might be wasting their energy, time and money in useless or even dangerous pursuits.


How do we believe what we believe? How do we arrive at our underlying set of beliefs (which includes assumptions, prejudices and convictions)? It is important that we examine the process to determine if we have acquired the correct set of beliefs because they influence our thinking and motivate our action.

Check the following link: http://www.philosophypages.com/hy/2d.htm
(substituting Bush for the over-confident Euthyphro provides some very interesting parallels).

by MixMasterE

Reading Rant: Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink:The Power of Thinking Without Thinking"

 
Snap Judgements
by MixMasterE

Malcolm Gladwell's latest work, " Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" is a fascinating read.

How do we make decisions, good and bad, and why are some people so much better at it than others? That's the question Malcolm Gladwell asks and answers in the follow-up to his huge bestseller, Tipping Point. His link is here: http://www.gladwell.com/blink

Utilizing case studies as diverse as speed dating, pop music, and the shooting of Amadou Diallo, Gladwell reveals that what we think of as decisions made in the blink of an eye are much more complicated than assumed. Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, he shows how the difference between good decision-making and bad has nothing to do with how much information we can process quickly, but on the few particular details on which we focus.

Leaping boldly from example to example, displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, Gladwell reveals how we can become better decision makers  in our homes, our offices, and in everyday life. The result is a book that is surprising and transforming. Never again will you think about thinking the same way.