Patriotism is not loyalty and subordination to state power. The flag is
a method of controling people and turning them into jingoist sheep George
Orwell once wrote: "The nationalist not only does not disapprove of
atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not
even hearing about them."
Many a jingoist hypocrite, forgets a very
important detail, the root of the problem: that the best way of stoping
terrorism is to stop participating in it.
There's a reason why Al Quaida attacked us and not Sweden. We should
recognize that the US (being 3.5% of the world's population &consuming
50%of resources) exploits the world economically (especially the 3rd
world, that's how we get rich) Contrary to what you hear, the US
multinational establishment never favored free-trade. The economy relies
very heavily on a dynamic state sector to socialize cost and risk, a
radical violation of market principles. Needless to say, in much of the
world the US is regarded --correctly-- as a leading terrorist state.
What was the invasion of South Vietnam, for example, in 1962, when
Kennedy sent the Air Force to bomb South Vietnam and start chemical
warfare? That's aggression. We killed millions of innocent people. Or what
was the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, killing 100's of thousands?
What was the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which ended up killing 20,000
people? These last two were carried out thanks to decisive U.S.
diplomatic, military, and economic support. The invasion of Panama, what
was that? The attacks on Cuba, Nicaragua and much of South America? The
bombing of Cambodia? Yugoslavia? The forceful overthrow of governments?
And the list goes on. We've supported and sold weapons to dictators like
Pinochet, Suharto, Mobutu,Marcos,the Shah, Duvalier, Ceacescu, Saddam
Hussein, Diem, Batista, Duarte, Cristiani, Cerezo, Stroessner, Trujillo,
Somoza, Batista, Idi Amin, Suazo, Botha etc. We are the biggest weapons
merchant in the world, and we spend more on means of violence that
practically the entire rest of the world combined. Bin Laden does retail
terrorism. We do wholesale terrorism.
If we bomb them, that's normal;
that's what we do, and it's always "in defense" If we get attacked and
receive a small fraction of what we routinely do to others it's the end of
the world.
Let's stop our self-adulation and delusion and start
applying to ourselves the same standards we apply to others (most basic
moral principle) If we can't even rise to that minimum level of moral
integrity, we should not talk about things such as "human rights" "good
and evil" "Our christian values" etc because our hypocritical talk should
be dismissed with utter repugnance. Let's not point at the splinter in the
other person's eye while we have a log in ours. Let's get our bloody hands
off of people's affairs. Let's stop our terrorism and exploitation and
work towards a better world.
And it's not "blaming America", it's blaming real people like you or me
who are allowing horrible things to happen. There's no abstract entity
"America" that acts. Don't put the blame anywhere else.The concept
"anti-American" is an interesting one. The counterpart is used only in
totalitarian states or military dictatorships. Thus, in the old Soviet
Union, dissidents were condemned as "anti-Soviet." That's a natural usage
among people with deeply rooted totalitarian instincts, which identify
state policy with the society, the people, the culture. In contrast,
people with even the slightest concept of democracy treat such notions
with ridicule and contempt. Suppose someone in Italy who criticizes
Italian state policy were condemned as "anti-Italian." It would be
regarded as too ridiculous even to merit laughter. Maybe under Mussolini,
but surely not otherwise.
Actually the concept has earlier origins. It was used in the Bible by
King Ahab, the epitome of evil, to condemn those who sought justice as
"anti-Israel" ("ocher Yisrael," in the original Hebrew, roughly "hater of
Israel," or "disturber of Israel"). His specific target was Elijah.
The US(especially now with Bush) is, ---and has been for the last half
century--, a vicious imperial power whose internal freedom has no
correlation with its external behavior; a country where people are
brainwashed to believe official pieties, support state atrocities and be
ignorant/apathetic or jingoistically enthusiastic about the brutal and
heinous crimes carried out by the US, which is dominated by corporate
interests in their insatiable quest for power and wealth. The brainwashing
is done through the manufacture of consent, a technique of social control
by which people get to regard themselves as thinking perfectly
independently, while they are in fact just servile to power, weak members
of the herd who have internalized the values of the prevailing and highly
indoctrinated intellectual culture.
Here are some of the ways they do
it:
1- The US is not a totalitarian state, so you don't get the propaganda
line. In the intellectual realm what you get is something much more
subtle, yet similar. Namely, vigorous debate within a framework of fixed
and unquestionable presuppositions, and those presuppositions ARE the
propaganda line. So take the war in Vietnam; the "left" said:
"We
began with blundering efforts to do good, but by 1969 it became too
costly, we found it was a disaster, too costly for ourselves, so therefore
we should get out."
The right said "You're selling us out, we can win
if we fight harder, etc." All of it assumes that the US attack against
south Vietnam was in defense of South Vietnam, and an effort to do good
(which of course, is totally false). That's the genius of the propaganda
system.
2- Selection of people (students, workers intellectuals) who are
obedient& subservient to power (they get rewarded& get ahead in
life), and discrimination of others. Also, a biased, nationalistic version
of US history & American values is taught in schools & family
households. People end up internalizing the values of power and regard
themselves as thinking perfectly freely/independently.
3- Lots of distractions(Sports, stupid TV shows etc)and Major
(Corporate) media control: filtering of information, distribution of
concerns, emphasis, framing of issues, bounding of debate within certain
limits (so that you can't present evidence if you say anything against
power or anything other than what's common knowledge). They determine,
select, shape, control, restrict, in order to serve the interests of
dominant elite groups.
4- Trying to impose a philosophy of passive consumerism in a country
that is not a democracy, but rather a system of elite decision and
periodic public ratification.
The rulers don't represent the people,
and the election process is a show that stays away from any important
issues (healthcare, minimum wage etc)
Like Herman & chomsky
explain in Manufacturing Consent, the filters of our media are:(I) the
size, concentrated ownership, owner wealth, and profit orientation of the
dominant mass-media firms; (2) advertising as the primary income source of
the mass media; (3) the reliance of the media on information provided by
government, business, and "experts" funded and approved by these primary
sources and agents of power; (4) "flak" as a means of disciplining the
media; and (5) "anticommunism" as a national religion and control
mechanism
Now, unless we bring the autocratic central institutions that control
society (comercial, financial, industrial) under popular democratic
control, our democracy will be a sham, we'll have wars, and we'll always
be reduced to tossing a coin&picking a king every 4 years. Our
freedoms were not gained because CEO's or gov officials gave them to us.
They were gained by popular involvement, such as the civil rights movement
in the 60's, the labor movements that gained the 8 hour day, the feminist
movement, the movement to end segregation etc by people who were often
called "anti-American" by people like those who want to make it illegal to
burn the flag.
