All considered, the gap between the facts and
the misconceptions held by a substantial number of
hoodwinked Americans is, obviously, wide. This is so
even when we don't add in the outlooks of those
amongst the evangelical masses, such as the silly
notion that ME warring should be joyfully encouraged
since it represent a sign from God that Armageddon is at
hand.
Yet, how could such an immense disparity exist? In
addition, the discrepancy begs other more critical
questions: How could such a sizable portion of US
citizens be so easily duped and what agents are
responsible for such easy acceptance of erroneous
conclusions? In other words, who created these bogus
sets of facts and, equally important, were
they deliberately crafted?
The answer is obvious. While fictitious interpretations
of events are clearly founded in misinformation, their
prevalence is quite understandable given that the US
mainstream media is funded by advertising industry whose
puppet strings are, ultimately, yanked by big
multinational corporations -- the same companies that
our government courts and woos by creating
expensive wars (in regions laden with resources coveted
by those worldwide businesses) and myriad laws favoring
globalization at the expense of American jobs.
So somewhere along the way, some devious group of
people, both connected to the government and big
business, developed a plot to bamboozle the American
people to go along with the war, a not too difficult
task following 9/11. This same group could have easily
decided to not push for the reinstatement of the draft
in that a mandatory draft became the indirect cause that
led many Americans to protest the Vietnam War. (It got a
little too close to home when one's own middle and upper
class sons were called to arm.)
Consequently, life, all in all, goes simply onward with
misguided factual backdrops enduring intact because few
reputable mainstream sources dare dispute them. This
is especially the case as most news programs simply
aren't going to get beyond such topics as the best ways
to fix your hair on high humidity days, the stores that
have the cutest summer fashions, the highest grossing
movie of the week, ways to make vegetables more
appealing to children, the car accident in the next
town, the foiled robbery at a local convenience store
and so on -- all making up the bland harmless
pabulum demanded by sponsors, and that we can watch day
after day if we choose such fatuous fare.
Meanwhile, oil's still plentiful despite its
continual rising price, which likely has, in part,
resulted from the ME incursions. In addition, there's,
apparently, not too great worry about global warming
(not enough, anyway, to curb use in oil for overseas
vacations, miscellaneous car trips for ice cream
and children's sports games, multitudinous excursions to
malls and myriad other incidental locations, as well as
air conditioning, which will be, increasingly, set on
high as global warming takes its toll).
Similarly not much thought seems to be given to the cost
of the Iraq war ($432,805,108,172 according to
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182),
the national debt at $8,844,982,217,061.83 as of June
9th, 2007 (source:
www.brillig.com/debt_clock/);
the average household US deficit, in 2006, set at $7,200
in revolving debt (largely due to credit cards) and
$21,000 in accumulated debt (source:
Debtors Search for Discipline via
Blogs - New York Times); nor the total US
debt, much of which is held by Japan and
China, currently poised at $48 trillion and soaring
(source:
www.financialsense.com/editorials/hodges/2007/0315.html).
However, it's not easy to give up comfortable delusions
that all is going great in "the land of the free, home
of the brave." As such, it's hard for many people
to admit that US military incursions are shameful,
tragic and abominable while much in the rest of our
collective life revolves around inordinate and perilous
overspending for much that we do not really want, nor
need.
All the same, there might exist a vague growing sense
that all is not well in America. Although with a
convenient whipping boy (immigrants) posed as the
biggest immediate US problem, a convenient focus
to redirect attention off of the warring can be
fomented. (Exemplary of this is the assembled data in:
Click
here: Illegal Immigration Counters - Home Page;
N.B., The extent of funds that the immigrants send
abroad is a mere pittance compared to the amount that
our government deliberately squanders.)
In addition, there exists increasing discouragement
amongst some Americans about the ceaseless
expansion of a US military presence despite that not
much is being done to end our assaults from
spreading through Africa and elsewhere across the globe.
Nonetheless, this unease is shaping into various related
opinions:
For example, 68% do believe that America is less
respected by the rest of the world due to invasion of
Iraq. 56% conclude that a stable democratic Iraqi
government will not be formed -- the same number that
believe that the money spent in this war has resulted in
less money being spent to guard the US from further
terrorist attacks at home. Indeed, 61% consider the US
invasion and occupation of Iraq as a prime motivator in
further Islamic terrorists attacks against America while
58% do not deem the invasion as helpful in reducing
additional terrorist attacks against the US. (This
information is, also, from the Harris Poll.)
Meanwhile, what would happen if our troops were,
gradually, brought home to help with some of our most
urgent homeland difficulties (the reconstruction that
still needs to be done in the aftermath of Katrina,
work in development of programs to take care of homeless
Americans such as the 80,000 that exist in LA alone and
of whom a large proportion are mentally impaired, and
many other problem areas of serious import)? What if
they were, likewise, used to help with projects required
in other countries? Providing support in areas of need,
rather than warring to obtain whatever one wants, goes a
long way in getting those goods (such as oil) in return.
At the same time, they can, boost economies both here
and abroad.
Yet, this is not the pattern in place. There seems
simply not enough interest on the part of most Americans
to push for these sorts of positive changes. In short,
they appear, for the most part, largely passive and
indifferent to whatever US troops are doing (or not
doing), the location of US military incursions, the
nature of US prison torture techniques, increasing
limits in Constitutional rights at home, most national
events (except sports related ones), and global affairs
in general.
Instead, the here and now in daily personal
affairs seems the overriding concern for many Americans
such that, if the little that they know about Iraq
comprises mendacious lies, what do they care as long as
they have their small transitory pleasures in everyday
life. All the same, a few do adamantly care.
So if you're a stewardess on a jet, please spare us from
having to listen to platitudinous fibs. We don't like
them and just as you wouldn't, necessarily, want to be
subjected to our opinions, we don't wish to hear yours.
In short, please just keep them to yourself instead of
trying to create the perception that yours is a
patriotic, pro-American airline in an effort to drum up
future business. I don't want such rubbish and neither
should you.
Instead please keep in mind: "For those who stubbornly
seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to
come to understand the mechanisms and practices of
indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the
totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of
'brainwashing under freedom' to which we are subjected
and in which all too often we serve as unwilling
instruments." - Noam Chomsky
