I think I can take this.
I'm a poli-sci guy, and a student of history and all that stuff. To me, no book rings as true as "They Thought They Were Free, the Germans 193_ to 1945" by Milton Mayer. You can get chunks of it off of the web with google, and usually you find the best chunks. And when Naomi Wolf speaks of her experiences with fascism and how perilously close we are, I understand and agree.
And when the cute little Spanish interpreter we use in our courtroom says that she lived in Spain under Franco and that this is what America is quickly becoming, I get it. And when my clients facing deportation back to Mexico say that they don't mind so much since although Mexico is desperately poor, it is a freer nation than the US, I get that too. When I read that we have more people in prison in the US than any other nation in the world, it no longer surprises me. When I hear our news media repeating the same meaningless stories again and again while only a few brave voices give words to the dread I feel, I understand.
Wars of aggression, torture, extraordinary renditions, the burning of stacks of CDs, the vast fraud that is our two party electoral system where on the fundamental contempt for liberty all acceptable candidates agree ... this I understand. These things no longer surprise me. Oh, they did! Once they did. Once when I believed in a myth called "America is special and free". Then my cognitive dissonance was at its epitome.
But now? Now I know that we are nothing special, and that in our collapse we would rather save our baubles than our children, our phony abstract money being worth more than our vanishing abstract liberty. ...
The hardest thing to take is the destruction of all of the myths of America I held dear as I was born here and grew up here. The myth of American love of freedom; the myth of American courage in adversity; the myth of American tolerance; even the myth of American kindness. To watch these myths die will be the hardest thing to take. I've made no provisions for this death in my soul and heart like I've made provision for my wealth, safety and family. ...
And when the cute little Spanish interpreter we use in our courtroom says that she lived in Spain under Franco and that this is what America is quickly becoming, I get it. And when my clients facing deportation back to Mexico say that they don't mind so much since although Mexico is desperately poor, it is a freer nation than the US, I get that too. When I read that we have more people in prison in the US than any other nation in the world, it no longer surprises me. When I hear our news media repeating the same meaningless stories again and again while only a few brave voices give words to the dread I feel, I understand.
Wars of aggression, torture, extraordinary renditions, the burning of stacks of CDs, the vast fraud that is our two party electoral system where on the fundamental contempt for liberty all acceptable candidates agree ... this I understand. These things no longer surprise me. Oh, they did! Once they did. Once when I believed in a myth called "America is special and free". Then my cognitive dissonance was at its epitome.
But now? Now I know that we are nothing special, and that in our collapse we would rather save our baubles than our children, our phony abstract money being worth more than our vanishing abstract liberty. ...
The hardest thing to take is the destruction of all of the myths of America I held dear as I was born here and grew up here. The myth of American love of freedom; the myth of American courage in adversity; the myth of American tolerance; even the myth of American kindness. To watch these myths die will be the hardest thing to take. I've made no provisions for this death in my soul and heart like I've made provision for my wealth, safety and family. ...
posted by 911truthnc at 8:01 PM
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