Full at
http://blog.cheapmotelsandahotplate.org/2010/12/06/who-dares-to-tell-the-truth/
This is an excerpt from the blog entry:
Aside from the usual suspects, such as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame,
Assange and WikiLeaks have few supporters, certainly none that I know of in the
mainstream media or in the halls of Congress. Why not? Doesn’t the public
have a right to know what its own government does? Shouldn’t Assange be a hero
instead of a villain?
Here is what I believe is going on. We live in a society dominated by large
corporations and their owners and financiers (often the same). The government
serves their interests, in as many ways as possible—with tax money, with
legislation, with court decisions, with police and military actions when
necessary. Since these facts fly in the face of any claim that we live in a
free and democratic country, they must be suppressed. One way to do this is
for the system’s many and well-rewarded apologists to tell us, over and over
again, in every imaginable venue, that they are either not true or don’t
matter. But another way is to ignite the false democracy of patriotism, to
make it appear as if it is us (all Americans) against them (our enemies). From
earliest age, we are bombarded with nationalist propaganda. We live in the
best country in the world. God shed his grace on thee. We are the world’s
beacon of freedom. We are the shining city on the hill. We are surrounded by
evil enemies who want to destroy our way of life. Everyone, everywhere wants
the American Dream. Those who criticize the monied oligarchy that has the real
power here are denounced as un-American. Those who are opposed to the
capitalism that creates this oligarchy are branded communists or socialists,
and these are by definition un-American. Popular culture is full of pithy
patriotic slogans. America, love it or leave it. Support the troops. “If
you’re runnin’ down my country, man, you’re walkin’ on the fighting side of
me.” “I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free.”
It is obvious, I think, that most of us buy right into this and are prepared,
just like Wolf Blitzer , to agree not to know certain unpleasant truths and to
howl like a bloodthirsty mob for the head of anyone who dares to tell the
truth. Even most working men and women, those who are most damaged by our
political and economic systems, buy into it. They wave their flags and recite
the Pledge of Allegiance, despite the harsh economic and political reality that
stares them in the face every day. Andy Stern, former president of our largest
union and a member of President Obama’s thoroughly anti-working class deficit
reduction commission, tells us that he won’t be beholden to labor when he
decides which of the odious commission recommendations he will support. He
will, instead, act in the national interest.
I have news for Stern and for all workers. The national interest is nothing
more than the interest of the rich. It has nothing to do with what is best for
you and me. You can be sure that the same politicians who, in the interests of
the wealthy, want to cut social security and destroy the unions of public
employees, also want to eliminate WikiLeaks and put Julian Assange in prison or
to death. We go along with this at our peril.
In his great anti-Vietnam War anthem, “The War is Over,” Phil Ochs sang, “So do
your duty boys and join with pride, Serve your country in her suicide, Find the
flags so you can wave goodbye, But just before the end even treason might be
worth a try, This country is too young to die.” I’m not sure that the United
States isn’t already at least half dead. But if it is to raised back to life,
we are going to need a lot more “treason,” and many more “traitors.” They will
at least try to tell us the truth, to strike our freedom- and democratic-loving
nerves, to goad us into action. This is why they are so dangerous to the
powers that be; they threaten to remove the veil that so tightly covers our
eyes.
So all hail to Julian Assange, to Specialist Bradley Manning (who is charged
with supplying WikiLeaks with documents giving us a damning picture of U.S.
military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan), Daniel Ellsberg, to all of those who
made the decision to make the truth known, to be citizens of the world.
Regardless of the consequences.
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