Re: [Futurework] Denial and Deception

[Darryl and Natalia]

Karen, your instincts are correct.   A brief excerpt from my recent (past) job. I was talking with a customer about the somewhat "checkered" past of the Bush family and did not realize that someone else was listening in. Well! When the one had left, the "uninvited listener" was all over me. (Paraphrased): "What right had I to smear his president. He was doing what he should to keep the world free of terrorists and we (up here in Canada) should be grateful the he was because we (up here in Canada) were too *** stupid and scared to get involved."   He did not want websites for information. He did not want to check the Library of Congress for historical documentation.   This person could not accept the idea of "free speech" or "dissension" or any P.O.V. that was in opposition to the current political will (or is that wall) of the U.S. war machine. He even went as far as complaining to the owner of the business about my attitude re: speaking about politics while at work. And the owner told  me to apologise. So, I apologized for him listening to a private conversation and left the room.     I believe there is a percentage of people in the U.S. that are so angry at so many things in their own country that were wrong or they have no power over and cannot change that they need an scapegoat and any opposition to that scapegoating will not be brooked and may turn the angry mob against the well-intentioned information giver.   How to make Bush the scapegoat is the billion dollar question.     Darryl   P.S. Please fire your "article" over.     ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Watters Cole To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Keith Hudson ; Ray Evans Harrell Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 3:04 PM Subject: RE: [Futurework] Denial and Deception Krugman wrote: After all, suppose that a politician — or a journalist — admits to himself that Mr. Bush bamboozled the nation into war. Well, launching a war on false pretenses is, to say the least, a breach of trust. So if you admit to yourself that such a thing happened, you have a moral obligation to demand accountability — and to do so in the face not only of a powerful, ruthless political machine but in the face of a country not yet ready to believe that its leaders have exploited 9/11 for political gain. It's a scary prospect. The New Republic article by Judis and Ackerman that Krugman referred to as “magisterial” is too large to attach and pass through FW’s filter, (I MB) but if anyone wants to read it in a easy to read Word format, (11 pages) please contact me.  Otherwise, it’s at http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030630&s=ackermanjudis063003.  I don’t think it’s a matter of naivete.  You have to open people’s mind to their deception gently.  It you accuse someone of being willfully stupid and willingly deceived, they will be even more defensive and retreat into denial.  It is my instinctive feeling that the American public is weary of scandal, beginning in importance with the travesty that was the Clinton sex scandals that led to a sham impeachment proceeding, calling into question the motive and intent of all subsequent and more relevant, legitimate reasons for it in our checks and balances.  Many people felt "used" by the excesses of the Starr Report as they saw life return to normal, Clinton's job approval ratings surviving right up to the end when the pardoning scandals unleashed yet another wave of mental overload.  Who knows what it will take for comatose America to wake up?  I suspect something dramatic will have to come to light, more than leaked stories by enraged intelligence officials, stories from soldiers returning from the war, a jobless recovery confirmed beyond a reasonable doubt and the best efforts of the corporate media to hide it.  Besides a smoking gun, which hopefully the article above will provide catalyst for,  we need people to be brave enough to look at their communities and neighborhoods, to the families affected by joblessness, being shut out of higher education by rising tuition and fewer scholarships, by homelessness and the increase in personal crimes (domestic abuse, rape) venting personal emasculation, and the declining prospects for real health care and retirement for millions of people who have put a lifetime into Social Security who are feeling betrayed.   It is very discouraging to read that the Bush campaign is already halfway to its fundraising goals, with the reality of what that money can buy, but this simple overdone greediness may wake a few people up to the presence of a real threat to the election process and practicing democracy.  I remain hopeful, because I must.  Maybe that is part of the syndrome, too, however; that we don't want to know how bad it is and hold onto the dream that it is still working, real and viable.  Some of us are working fervently and diligently, some of us carefully and incrementally. Some of us are ostriches, some dreamers, some of us rabble-rousers.  We may fail, but I'll be damned if I am going to sit by silently and passively.   What we need is an abundant sense of outrage and civic call to duty. - – KWC