http://www.swans.com/ August 2, 2004 -- In this issue:
Note from the Editor: "My fellow Americans, this is the most important
election of our lifetime. The stakes are high. We are a nation at war -- a global war on terror against an enemy unlike we've ever known before," said Mr. Bush the other night in Crawford, Texas. What, what, what do you say? It was Mr. Kerry who uttered those words last Thursday in Boston, not Mr. Bush? Not Crawford? Are you sure? Oh well, we did not listen to Kerry's peroration as we were rejoicing upon our first day out of suburbia -- at long last, AT LONG LAST! (more on this another time. We have a house for sale though; if you are interested to live in Menlo Park in the Bay Area, rush to 545 Palmer Lane -- Beautifully renovated redwood/fir bungalow on almost one half of an acre of land...the American Dream, you know... Suburbia!) Anyway, seriously, these words could have originated from the mouth of our "great" war leader, could they not? And thinking of it, they could have come as well from another "great" war leader, Mr. Hitler, who, after reading the short report filed by Eli Beckerman on the street protests -- or better said, the
gagging of the protesters -- brings to mind the comment William Shirer made in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, "The Germans imposed the Nazi tyranny on themselves." A people has the government it deserves...
Here we are, in Boston, the First Amendment pretty much abrogated while a hypnotized crowd cheers another savior. Talk about mass psychosis...which Manuel García does quite eloquently as he examines how small groups of wealthy elites control larger populations, and looks into the psychological key, if any, that could open the American mind to a Green Socialist future. Then, if you still have any doubt about who calls the shots in Washington D.C., the mascot in the Oval Office or his corporate masters, Phil Rockstroh adds his 2 cents that will make you much richer, from a neuron perspective, mind you; and Philip Greenspan uses his bullshit detector to bring another of his reality checks to the fore without mincing words.
Buried by propaganda, getting their news from Jay Leno and Rush Limbaugh, the American people are marching, in the words of Marilynne Robinson (Harper's, August 2004, p. 17), "lockstep to enormity and disaster." She continues, "A successful autocracy rests on the universal failure of individual courage." The halls of power, as noted by Richard Macintosh, glitter by the dearth of cowardice, with the exception of a few lonely voices. And it must take some moral courage for new contributor, José Tirado, to plead, "stop urging us to vote for your party [Democratic]," and to state the obvious, "we can't get the system we want by voting for people who don't want our system." Duh! Whether it's courage or exile (Tirado lives in Iceland, like John Steppling lives in Poland -- perhaps Americans should travel more...) he sure
gets it. Michael Moore gets it too as Gerard Donnelly Smith avers (at least to a point...that should exclude his idiotic endorsement of Wesley Clark, the perfect embodiment of a war crimes criminal). Gerard reviews Farenheit 9/11 and its "objective" propaganda, in which Moore allows the players and events to speak for themselves -- no need for scripting and staging -- and you be the judge.
Milo Clark, a history buff, and an even-tempered mind, reminds us that the Rule of Law can be and has been upheld or restored by some faction of the elites "demanding and getting a piece of the action." So, yes, there is hope, even if faintly, that the Rule of Law will be restored (Americans think of FDR as a man of the people...when he was nothing more than the rescuer of capitalistic interests, forced by the masses to legislate compromises favorable to the workers -- compromises that, when implemented, have been chipped away ever since); but it remains that the laws are made by the elites themselves...to serve their own interests...and there is no mass movement in the U.S. of 2004 and JFK II is no FDR!
When a Moroccan Swede gets interested in Straussian and Wilsonian politics, the idealist/realist discourse in the U.S., you end up with a Clinton looking much like a Bush, and vise versa. Please welcome the scholarly work of Mohammed Ben Jelloun, another new contributor.
A poem on Gomorrah; the work of Louis Proyect still posted on the front
page (it was indeed a book review); and the Letters to the Editor conclude this issue. Enjoy it as much as we did pulling it off in the midst of boxes!
As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans.
*****
Here are the links to all the pieces:
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/elib018.html I Will Not Be Herded by Eli Beckerman
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/joset001.html Damned If We Do? Damned 'Cause We Didn't! by José M. Tirado
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/mgarci19.html The Imprisoned American Mind by Manuel García, Jr.
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/procks32.html
From The Annals of Presidential Style: Do The Clothes Make The Mascot?
by Phil Rockstroh
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/pgreen47.html Dubya's Elixir: Bigger And Brighter Same Old Crap by Philip Greenspan
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/rmac26.html Courage II by Richard Macintosh
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/gsmith22.html The Documentary As Propaganda by Gerard Donnelly Smith
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/mgc134.html Rebalancing Power by Milo Clark
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/jelloun1.html Wilsonian Or Straussian: Post-Cold War Idealism? by Mohammed Ben Jelloun
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/jmarsh01.html The Robots Of Gomorrah Poem by John Marshall
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/lproy17.html The Case for Nader-Camejo by Louis Proyect
http://www.swans.com/library/art10/letter47.html Letters to the Editor
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