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Well, I'm in the mood to rant and there's nothing like Independence Day (the 4th of July) -- zillions of US flags everywhere; worse this year than ever -- to get me going. Let me start off by exploding one of the quaint old left myths -- that is, 'the average American' is too thoroughly indoctrinated and stupefied to realize 'how bad things are.' What a paternal assumption. The material is out there (especially in the information age), at least enough of it is out there. Most US citizens can read. Take the continuing oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians: the photos come up on the wires daily -- the bulldozers, the weeping women, the children with rocks facing tanks, the carnage, the miserable tents. '"The problem isn't just that Americans don't know... It is that they don't care that they don't know"' (Palestinian doctor quoted in The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid, ed. Carey, Verso 2001, p. 275). It's not that 'the average American' is clueless; the clues are readily available. It's just that the US is a settler nation itself, with a long history of abusing minorities. If the US has been so insensitive about it here, why would 'the average American' give a damn when it happens somewhere else? Look at Israel: it's like looking at the US in the era of Andrew Jackson and the Trail of Tears (which, for the record, wiped out as many civilians as 9-11). I think 'the average American' chooses to know as little about it as possible. MIM calls it 'calculated ignorance' and I agree. Most of those yellow ribbons in 1991 were on working class neighborhoods and most of those polyester American flags flapping from automobiles in 2001 are in working class neighborhoods. They know the score: they just don't give a shit -- at best. And why should they? I think 'the average American' intuitively realizes that his and her relative affluence is predicated upon exploiting the rest of the world. Sure, it isn't a pretty sight and, sure, sometimes it can make for a guilty conscience, but -- ultimately -- it's the where the affluence comes from. The real laugh is when 'the average American' goes 'tut tut' at all those 'undemocratic' countries -- countries mostly DESIGNED to be 'undemocratic' (by the US) because if they ever could become 'democratic,' all those exploited workers would sure as apple pie 'vote' to get paid a hell of a lot more for making all the stuff for the US they are compelled to make in their sweatshop hellholes. There's always been 'democracy' as long as no one looks further than the manor or the Acropolis, whatever. You want global democracy? Capitalism will have to go -- and so will the relative affluence of the Empire nations, led, of course, by the US. Will 'the average American' choose a reduced level of consumption? There's no precedent in history to make such an assumption. The utopians are the biggest hypocrites on this score. They always want their socialism to be instant, or peaceful, or 'democratic,' or whatever -- a million qualifications with each blueprint -- all the better to give up and wait for heaven. Screw 'em. So then. There's American flag bikinis from sea to stinkin' sea this summer, American flag everything -- and this year is a special year: it's the year of the infinite and perpetual 9-11 tributes (the one moment of US suffering eternalized). And all those old policies of covert operations (like the one that failed in Venezuela) are getting thrown over and the US is going straight to the chase: the First Strike Doctrine. No surprise the US isn't interested in any sissy International Criminal Court or anything. Where's 'the average American' on this issue? At the mall, at the beach, waving a flag. Are they concerned about the planned assassination of Saddam, which would seriously be a violation of international law? Planning a coup against Arafat? Are they fretting about that Afghan wedding party that just got wiped off the face of the earth? Rejecting the ICC? Kyoto? Protecting Kissinger just like the Taliban protected bin Laden? Go on, ask some of those flag waving idiots where they stand on that noise. Speaking as an American to the exploited people of the world: Reason won't work with us, just ask those folks on the Trail of Tears. No folks, you will JUST have to beat us, in whatever manner works, in order to gain your freedom, SEIZE your freedom -- from us. Globalize the intifada! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
