From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Wed Oct 09 2002 - 23:24:25 BST
> > PACO:
> > Note also how you dismiss huge numbers of people's
> > opinions that disagree with you as not having "ideas of
> > their own." Here you manage to discard any possibility
> > that people can have ideas or values that are different
> > than yours or the same as Bush's. Please let me know if
> > I have misrepresented you though.
>
> NATE:
> Mmm, no, not really. I was merely illustrating what happens when I say
> anything against popular opinion around those who hold it. By "idea of
> their own" I meant that I have an opinion which strays sharply from what
> Fox News tells them is happening in the world.
>
DMB:
Recently Al Gore gave a calm and sober speech in which he criticized
Bush's war plans and foriegn policies. In that speech he essentially
repeated what three four-star generals had said that very day to Congress.
Was he applauded for having the courage to disagree in public? No. The NEW
YORK POST ran a headline that read, "Al Gore, Wimp". Fox's Sean Hannity only
commented on his outward appearance, "He's sweating profusely... He didn't
look Presidential. I didn't see any gravitas, any leadership. George Will
called the speech "moral infantilism" Charles Krauthammer called it "a
disgrace". The POST's Micheal Kelly described the speech as "dishonest,
cheap, low, hollow, wretched, vile, contemptable, a lie, a disgrace, equal
parts mendacity, viciousness and smarm". (Whew!) This is the kind of
treatment dissenters can expect in these hyper-patriotic, right-wing times.
Here's a few words on the topic from... guess who?
"It is in the interest of the Republican Party both to have a
blanket war-powers resolution passed, and to make sure that the country
think of itself as "at war" for as long as possible. Those who control that
party - an amazingly greedy and cynical oligarchy, with no interest whatever
in the in either the rights of the cotizen or the welfare of the poor -
would like nothing better than to re-create, and continue indefinately, the
state of mind that led to Roosevelt's re-election to an unprecedented fourth
term in 1944. It is in their interest to bring about the permanent
militarization of the state described in Orwell's 1984, and suggested by the
title of Gore Vidal's latest book: Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace."
"Any Democratic senator of congressperson who expresses doubts about
a new war against Iraq can count on being described by members of the Bush
Amdiminstration as an effete Europhile, unworthy to hold office in a country
that must stand against evil. .. We share the concern felt by Europeans over
the amazing arrogance that our government has displayed since President
Bush took office. We are horrified by our government's repudiation of the
last vestiges of Wilsonian internationalism - manifest in our government's
insistence that American soldiers never be under a foreigner's command, and
that American war criminals never be tried by an international court."
"If mega-terror does come to Europe, it is likely that any
right-wing party that happens to be in power at the time of an attack will
imitate the strategy adopted by the Bush Administration. It will try to
replace a democratic republic with a nationa security state - one in which
the intelligence agencies and the military take the place of elected
legislators in deciding national priorities. It will institute measures that
will eventually lead to an Orwellian condition of perpetual war."
"We may have the strength to keep our democratic institution intact
even agter realizing that our cities my never again be invulnerable. We may
be able to keep the moral gains - the increases in political freedom and in
social justice. But we shall only do so if the voters of the democracies
stop their governments from putting their countries on a permanent war
footing - from crating a situation in which neither the judges nor the
newspapers can retrain organizations like the FBI from doing whatever they
please, and in which the military absorbs most the nation's resources."
The last four paragraphs were penned by Richard Rorty, who writes in
the current issue of THE NATION, my favorite magazine. (Yes, the same
Philosopher you've been discussing in this forum.)
Thanks for your time,
DMB
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