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March, 2002


 nexus of arrogance
by Frank Scott

“Whether it is a democracy, a  dictatorship, or a parliament...the
people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders... All you
have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the
peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.
It works the same in any country."
Herman Goerring


Adolph Hitler’s propaganda minister would have been at home in the USA.
He’d probably be heading our new Department of Distortion and Dementia.
While our fifth grade  president declares  war on kindergarten nations
helpless to defend themselves , our pitiful opposition  tries to
simultaneously  wring its hands while waving a flag . It is helpless to
do anything about the   wretched state of a world in which hatred and
fear of us  increases almost daily.

We are unquestionably the most formidable military power on the planet,
but while pundits  wax poetic about our  domination , the rest of the
world grows  tired of our arrogance and  fearful of what a power-crazed
lunatic with an axe might do , until someone  disarms him.

The axe in this case is high tech weaponry that wreaks devastation on
people far away, while seemingly leaving the devastators free from
retaliation.  Have we already forgotten the tragedy of 911, except for
manipulation purposes suggested by Goerring?

Nothing would ever be the same, we were endlessly told by our mind
managers, but what has changed? The military buildup and foreign killing
isn’t really new; it’s just more frenzied than at any time since the
Viet Nam war. And the dangerously stupid moves to curtail liberties in
the name of fighting terrorism are not far from the anti-communist
idiocy of the postwar years. Then, gullible citizens finked on their
neighbors after swallowing fairy tales about a commie monster lurking
under every other bed in the nation. Is anything about the present
madness really new?

Well, the fact that someone struck back at the empire  was new ,
especially since no high-tech weaponry was used to kill thousands in the
911 tragedy. Except for the hijacked airliners, the weapons were  as
crude as those of our cave dwelling ancestors . It took an incredible
failure of our multi-billion dollar  un-intelligence system to let it
happen , but it was box-cutters, along with methodical  planning  and
suicidal dedication that brought horror to a nation previously able to
inflict such horror on others. And this while most of its people were
being distracted by the consumption of mental garbage on TV,  or
physical garbage at the mall.

Have we  learned that we’re no longer safe? When our rulers move with
murderous arrogance against anyone and everyone, interpreting this as
benign dedication to helping the world achieve free market democracy?
Maybe not completely, but we’re asking more questions than before. And
Americans need to find answers , or the rest of the world will do  it
for us.

We have made the United Nations a footstool which may yet become an
international body that works for the betterment of humanity, but only
when it breaks from our control. At that point, there may well be global
unity, but it will be tragic if that unity is achieved only to counter
the disrespectful dominance of our nation. But that is what we face.

If we  cannot take control of our country away from the financial and
corporate interests that are bringing  us closer to disaster, others may
have to exercise that control. We are building a new movement among
questioning citizens, but a unifying national leadership in opposition
to power does not yet exist. It is desperately needed, because what we
have is a disgrace.

The unending war against anybody our rulers depict as evil  is
supported by the same political clan that once called these rulers
criminals who had stolen our democracy. The same “progressives” who
bemoaned the destruction of our electoral process by a twisted vote
count are some of the most righteous in support of the American jihad
against  all who would dare to think, instead of kill.

Our comic book president, with his idiotic grin and schoolyard rhetoric,
has become a fearsome and popular leader, according to the frightened
minds and  quivering spines of this shameful opposition. He must be
obeyed in his bloody foreign policy moves, at cost of slipping in the
polls. This disgraceful  situation is supposed to represent democracy,
but the majority of Americans seem to understand that this democracy is
a hype: they rarely vote and more rarely think of themselves as part of
a nation, except in times of flag-waving war support, and that mainly
due to being mentally bludgeoned by endless propaganda, in the spirit of
the Nazi  quoted above. We have to combat the consciousness controlling
techniques employed by capital that make us work against our own
interests.


In the rebellious 1960s, many political activists were justifiably
suspicious of leaders, but that anarchic spirit  lacked  the substance
to achieve long term change. The bloodletting of the empire never
stopped. Capital demonstrates  by exercising its bloody power over
people and nations. It will take more than decentralized democracy and
collegial pep rallies to contest that kind of power.

If Americans are to have real democracy , they are going to have to be
organized as never before; in communities,  workplaces, even at the
mall. But  politics aren’t worth much if the “grass roots” are only deep
enough to sustain  a march against one outrage, until the next march
against another outrage.

To end the outrage of life under corporate domination , we need a
national alternative  to the centralized power of its political
establishment. The status quo is well represented by its national party
with two names, but one owner: corporate capital. We need an alternative
national  party with one name , but many owners: the rest of us.


Copyright (c) 2002 by Frank Scott. All rights reserved.

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frank scott
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225 laurel place, san rafael ca. 94901
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