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Dead Constitution See other Dead Constitution Articles Title: Mad Cow Nation: America's Willing Surrender Mad Cow Nation: America's Willing Surrender Written by Chris Floyd Michael Massing has written a very important story about a very important truth: the main reason that the American people are so deeply uninformed about the reality of the war of aggression being waged in their names in Iraq is that they do not want to know. Massing shows that the rigorous self-censorship practiced by the American people and the media is actually worse than the machinations of Big Brother in Orwell's 1984; at least in that fictional world, the draconian repression of reality was imposed by force at the hands of an all-powerful state – but today we are doing it to ourselves. Not that the Bush Regime isn't giving Big Brotherism the old college try, but as Massing points out, there are too many venues and formats of information dissemination for the state to control it all, especially in the United States, where many vestiges of freedom remain. Yet one of the most disheartening aspects of American society today is how very little use the people make of those freedoms they still have. Indeed, Massing's observations on Americans' self-censorship – the surrender of the awareness of reality in exchange for self-regarding fantasy – have implications far beyond war reportage. In our time, we are witnessing a society voluntarily surrendering its liberties, its rights – its gumption – to a harsh and malevolent authority. We are witnessing a society surrendering its pride and its moral core to torturers and thieves, liars and killers. And it is a willing surrender, as if vast swathes of the American people are relieved that they can finally lay down the burdens and responsibilities of freedom. What can you say about a society whose leaders – including the leaders of the so-called opposition – are about to approve the appointment of an enabler of tyranny and an apologist for torture as the chief law enforcement officer of the nation? (And this is only the latest of a series of such outrages, going back years.) You can only say: This is a country that has lost its soul, lost its nerve and – literally – lost its mind. It's like watching a loved one being destroyed by a brain-eating disease. But the Iraq War is where this surrender of moral consciousness reverberates most sharply, and most murderously. Massing's story draws heavily on the published accounts of soldiers in the field – those who know the reality in all its depths, and who have been maddened by their fellow Americans' refusal to grasp it. Massing writes: Yes. Back home they're glorifying the war, or else, at most, tut-tutting over how "incompetently" it has been managed -- or, as Hillary Clinton likes to do, berating the Iraqis for not taking advantage of the wonderful opportunity we've given them by invading their country, killing their families, destroying their society, robbing them blind and empowering violent sectarians to rule over them. This is the full range of acceptable, "serious" discourse on Iraq: it's either a noble crusade marching steadily toward victory or a noble if mismanaged crusade on behalf of a bunch of ingrates who don't deserve our benevolence. Only a nation that has willed itself and dulled itself into a state of extreme torpor could stomach the hideously depraved and infantile level of America's political debate today – a mindless howl that will reach an unbearable crescendo in the coming months as the sinister carnival of the presidential race kicks into high gear. And then the reality of the abomination in Iraq will recede even further out of sight, out of mind.
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#16. To: aristeides (#0)
thank you. I totally agree. on another thread yesterday I said pictures of iraqi children we've maimed should be on billboards. I truly believe that. they should also be on magazine covers and on tv news. if that doesn't wake people up, then they're just assholes. one thing that really bothers me is one of bush's lines that people like to repeat: we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here. to me that's the height of selfishness. suppose your neighbors were going to have a knock-down drag-out fight, but didn't want to mess up their living room so they decied to have it at your house, even though it had nothing to do with you. that's essentially what we're doing to the iraqis, and people act like that's a good thing because it doesn't interfere with their lives. in the words of barbara bush: "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
#17. To: kiki. the thread (#16)
How many people think like this? A lot, I guess.
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