General Discussion ~ AN E-MAIL TO A FRIEND
Zlatko Waterman
Posted: Wed Nov 03, 2004 11:11 am
(ALSO POSTED ON GENERAL DISCUSSION)
Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 197
Location: Los Angeles, CA USA
All:
Here is an e-mail I sent this morning to a friend of mine in Massachusetts who was optimistic about a Kerry win. The question he asked, saying he was in a rather despairing mood was, "Did you feel like this in 1968?"
( paste below)
Dear Lescaret:
Yes, it felt like this in 1968--- a repudiation of almost everything that I might choose to characterize an enlightened society.
And I face it now, not at age 23, as I did in 1968, but at age 59. I am the same age as Margaret Hassan, that fine lady and head of CARE, who languishes in the hands of her tormentors at this moment:
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=32655
Kerry was not an anti-war candidate, and I believe that, had he been, the margin of victory would have been greater for Bush, as it was for Nixon over McGovern in 1972. Nixon called all the lemmings grouping together at the ballot box" The Silent Majority."
Nicolaus Von Hoffman pointed out that the phrase came from the Greek poet Homer, a phrase which Homer used to refer to the dead.
Here's an article by "Creepy Corsi" that ties the two elections together.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.a ... E_ID=41261
The craziness, about the same as it was in 1968 and 1972, during a "war scare", is heightened now by the fact that the continental US itself was hit for the first time in a very forceful way, by "the enemy."
As anyone over the age of twelve should know, "the enemy" is identified and created-- shaped, molded and stigmatized by the government. Once that "enemy" is fully in place ( or all over the place, as with the current "enemy"), nothing must stand in the way of its obliteration and conquest. In this the US resembles the Romans, or more accurately, their ideological descendants, the English, in its look at the world.
One has only to walk around English villages and towns ( and London) viewing public military monuments to see how warlike the English are and were. Our system of government, and its inclination to conquest, is based on theirs. Because we have the digital "frictionless" transmission and reformation of data at our disposal, and fifty years of tv advertising power accumulated and groomed for political use, the rest is relatively easy, given the proper dramatic incident, to begin the formation of the "enemy" image.
The "Arabs" as enemies are even more efficacious as a rationale for total control of US resources and purported "free speech" than the "communists" were ( all quotes and capitals or their omissions are completely intentional).
The main problem is that everyone watches television, and that television has replaced all other media of mass communication. Our educational system is paralyzed. The power of discernment is no longer fostered in schools. History is neglected and "numbed" down, in addition to dumbed down.
"The Silent Majority" doesn't want to discuss, be persuaded, or persuade. It knows what is safe and that the answer is "Jesus" , a "Jesus" far from the scriptural one who was a communist, a completely non-materialistic dreamy, visionary soul, a fomentor of revolution and an extremist who advocated putting God before all, even your family and friends. Here's an interesting essay and interview, written about the time of the fall of the Soviet Union, our great "enemy."
http://www.30goodminutes.org/csec/sermo ... n_3519.htm
A piece from 1992 by William Sloan Coffin, a clergyman and long-time peace activist. I remember him well from the Sixties.
Judging the long sweep of history, I feel this Bush administration is the most dangerous I have seen during my lifetime.
I have often said two things to Mary:
One, that Bush would be "elected" when it came around in 2004, simply because the electorate is too fearful and uninformed not to elect him. and
Two, that there would be a "nuclear incident" somewhere in the world, possibly in the Middle East, where our Israeli surrogates could be used to retaliate for us.
Other than those observations ( I limit myself here), I must re-affirm the subversive essence of art and go on working.
During the Reagan years, political thinkers on the left ( and moi, aussi) were fond of saying "They have all the power, the nuclear weapons, and we have Garry Trudeau . . ." We still have him, and The Funny Times, and Zlatko and Lescaret, on this unpromising beginning of the next installment of the Pax Americana.
Your friend today, as then and ever,
Zlatko
