Boston a few weeks ago - which was allowed to remain
peaceful. Women held signs which read - My Son Is A Marine--
Support the Troops -- Bring Them Home!
This is a sensible response to the overwhelming
hypnotic of war-vision and the mind-numbing effects
of the continual barrage. I have a son-in-law who is
over there, flying above it all, in the middle of the rising
conflict, and of course I have mixed feelings...
I want to support the troops - by BRINGING
THEM HOME! As soon as possible! NOW!
************
Your TV Is Lying To You
There's some strife being created among friends
and family over this war stuff. I hear about quite
a bit of it because things have gone much farther
now. It was one thing to steal the election with
some very shady stuff with the Supreme Court.
To me that is unforgivable and must be corrected
before we can continue our proper historical
course as the land of the free. But now the junta
has extended its racketeer-style activity to a
global level, and to an even greater degree of
criminality, with its murder of civilians as collateral
damage of its conquest of the oil rich territory.
I am convinced that the only Americans who
support this barbarous carnage in Iraq are
people who believe their TVs. The single most
important point to get across to those innocent
souls who believe in this war is this:
Your TV is lying to you.
Your TV is the communications arm of a cluster
of huge corporations who make even easier
money off of defense expenditures than they
do off their mass hypnosis of the public for the
purposes of the corporate oligarchy that owns
them. They have an agenda, and it is not to keep
you informed. It is to hide from you their criminal
activity.
I recently got an e-mail from a friend who described
some family turmoil arising from opposite positions
on the invasion of Iraq. As I answered her e-mail,
a couple of things became clear to me, pasted
below:
I'm sorry for the turmoil this political stuff is
causing in your life. I do believe this is exactly
what is happening almost everywhere. Politics
is no longer "out there". It's banging down
everyone's door.
I have the same kinds of political differences with
family members whom I love like flesh and blood.
And I am convinced that it is a difference of our
understanding of what is happening rather than
a difference in principle. And it comes down to
the TV. If people get their information from the TV,
then they totally believe in this war because it is
a defense against the people who bombed the
World Trade Center and it's a replay of World
War II with Saddam as Hitler.
It's a total fantasy, but if they watch TV and
believe it, that is their view of the world.
So the one principle we need to try to get across
to our loved ones and other good people who
believe in this war and in this administration is this:
Your TV is lying to you. Once they see correctly
that the TV is the communications arm of a
corporate oligarchy that is actively engaged in
a plan for world domination -- a plan, by the way,
which must be stopped or it will kill all of us, and
already has apparently killed a lot of our spirit.
To think that we can watch as our government
bombs families in another country and just let it
happen is proof enough that we have been
dehumanized, deadened in our emotional reaction
to our world. This is the measure of "the triumph
of the propaganda system", as Chomsky called it.
That they can subdue the population of a supposed
democracy, supposedly a civilized country, shows
how effectively the whole brainwashing effort has
worked.
I was very impressed recently with some recordings
I heard of songs and interviews with Ola Belle Reed,
the bluegrass-mountain music singer-songwriter
of the '50s and '60s, who had a great political
sophistication and class consciousness. Regarding
this problem of trying to help good people understand
how they are being manipulated with lies, you can't
cram it down people's throats, you've got to do it
with love. The point is, most of these good people
would not feel the way they do if they weren't
believing the lies of the American mass media.
So my friendly challenge to people of good will
would be: "Turn off your TV." Give yourself a break
from the battering of war propaganda. Then start
reading a broad sampling of world media, depending
on what you can get hold of. Anyone with Internet
access can get to some of these headline link sites
like Buzzflash.com or Bushwatch.com and get a
great selection of news stories and editorials from
around the world, but with a countercorporate spin.
Today walking into CVS I see a row of newspapers
with massive color photos of GI Joes outfitted with
frightening looking weapons, looking like the most
refined killing machines every created out of human
flesh. They are in Baghdad, the headlines pound.
Iraqis are fleeing the city, God bless them. And what,
this is supposed to make me happy? Proud to be
an American? (a countermedia presentation from
HeadBlast.com)
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