Friday, November 24, 2006
Governments Lie
Call me wishy washy about my concern for politics, but considering that my most deeply involved interest in the subject was aroused by 9/11 you can readily call me a naive newbie at the age of 60, especially compared to some of the lifelong activists I have met through this blog. If anything went awry in Washington it meant no more to me than finding a pro football game was fixed. Well, that was just a little over five years ago during which the public creation of atrocities justified by lies to be atoned for by the Bush administration has far outreached the quantity and the heartlessness suspected of them by the 9/11 truth movement. So now, I still couldn’t care less about United States’ sportlike party politics, but I am truly concerned that the depth and breadth of the corruption of our basic system of governance serving the wealthy the people’s earnings, with no concern for their interests.
I feel a bit like I have found a new band that I love who put out a new song every day the way I have become addicted to Democracy Now, as the biggest window on the world from a nation with all the others boarded up, for the “good of the people”. I recommend listening to a talk by Howard Zinn entitled “Uses of History and the War on Terrorism”.
The two points of the many great ones he made that I come to the keyboard to type about are the increasing number of civilian casualties in war (WWi-1 civilian for every 10 military, WWii-50/50, Viet Nam-70%, Iraq-85%, so far) and the other was his quote of I. F. Stone when giving his advice to journalism students, “Just two words, ‘Governments Lie.’” and how the press has forgotten the primary purpose of journalism, becoming the hucksters for the new regime.
He also recalled the tale of an interview with Hermann Goerring while imprisoned awaiting trial in which he was asked how the Nazis ever got the good German people to go along with their coming to such horrific power to go to war. He replied,
Why would any poor slob on a farm want to go to war?
It is the leaders who determine policy.
It is very easy to get the people to go along;
just tell them they are being attacked and denounce pacifists for lack of patriotism.
… note he didn’t say any fascist country, he said ANY country.
Noam Chomsky points out that if mea culpa were qualification for 9/11 perpetrators every power system in the world exploited it for its own interests: the Russians in Chechnya, China against the Uighurs, Israel in the occupied territories, states exploited the opportunity to control their own populations more fully through "prevention of terrorism acts"; every power system in the world could be assigned responsibility for 9/11. The US was carrying out far more serious crimes, against Americans as well, before 9/11 -- crimes that literally threaten human survival and they may well resort to further crimes if activists here prefer not to deal with them and to focus their attention on enigma of 9/11.
It matters not whether responsibility for 9/11 or Iraq lies or unspeakable profits by crony reconstructors are the charges they get pinned with so long as the US takes a long hard examination of the relationship of the leaders to the people for and to whom they are responsible. I tell ya, folks, that citizens in solidarity with the indigenous people of America union sounds like just the thing to organize around without the taint of the present government leaders or protocols to interfere with its evolution as a think tank gestating for action.
ok thats it now my bubble is officialy busted and DONGGONEIT im want to act out like my shoe size a 7/1/2 mans but i want to be a very mad girl or woman .I have been carring around a busted bubble for a while and not you have to bust another one well pooy thanks .
Be safe walk in peace allways
Also please pick up the busted bubble pieces time to make tires lol
Well, pooy, your welcome!
But I am not against all bubbles! Like the fantasy I suggest of the working class of the world in solidarity with indigenous people of the world unified as a Citizens Union in the form of a council of tribes, to form an autonomous majority independent of politics as usual armed with the wisdom that Governments Lie. Seems like a bubble I'd like to see and would help stay afloat.
well there are some bubbles i have that have not busted yeat but a lot air been let out maybe helium is what i need to keep them afloat and all of us who can see beyond the rise.Maybe then we could pass them out hehe and the hotair bags who look so nice can bust and we could see all the bubbles in there special colors .Just need the big wind bags bubbles busted probly.
I like the internationalist aspect of this union, and doubt you would have much trouble raising a force to throw the bums out. The question is,what do we replace them with? We dont just want new crooks, we want a new system which doesnt allow them access to power.I like the council form, now we have to sell it to the underemployed, exploited, marginalized and excluded!
I don't see a Republican or a Democratic government, examing its relaship with the people, unless forced.
The council of tribes I suggest would never have more powerful a role than as a coordinator of intertribal relations, and then only when sought as arbitration by the concerned tribes. Most intertribal business would be handled directly by the nature of individuals to have overlapping tribal interests. And so long as the tribes themselves don't swell their numbers to the same ineffectiveness as nations, states and some cities do now. The formation of this system could well take place right under the noses of the present systems of governance with no conflict appearing until enacted on a scale that cannot be denied or even legitimately opposed.
Of course you would still have to pay taxes to their war machine (or resist) and you would still be unrepresented in the mainstream government (unless you wanted to play bourgeois politics)and you would have to divorce yourself from the main economy (or remain exploited)This is the downside and you would face repression.Power does not like "alternative" examples.
On the other hand,I agree with the concept of parallel,competing forms of social organization with the overall goal of emancipation for everyone. It could be pulled off in a wealthy country like theUS where people have resources to invest to get it up and going. Not everyone is so priveledged. We know what happened to the hippie commune movement, the Kibbutz movement, etc.
I think that reverting to a moneyless system of barter between such tribes as required for the sustainence of all would suffice for independence from taxes. ie. a tribal plumbing business services all the pipes in eleven tribes' homes in exchange for everything it does not supply for itself to be self sustaining … all on the barter books, never a penny mentioned. The number of people, all in small varied interest tribes, that could make this work in so many ways it would rival the internet for innovation and freedom of access if it weren't such a complimentary idea. The system of our government is a pusher, protestors are the addicts bitching about the supply and the tribal alternative is rehab.
On further thought about your last comment, Troutsky, it seems you see economic barriers to poorer countries, when what I am proposing is for everyone to use what they have as their contribution to whatever tribe they feel kinship with for the welfare of that tribe. Are those poor all so civilized in the western way that gardening or small farming are beyond reason to expect them to learn? Once your tribe can feed itself or barter for it the real poverty is beaten and the healing of the rest may begin. Just as Texas took vicims of Katrina under their wing in lieu of any coherent National competence, tribes can absorb the unfulfilled needs of fellow tribes on hard times, and new tribes could be formed of newly competent "trainees" in return. The whole idea is to model cell reproduction and evolution, with a mind to the welfare of the body.
In answer to your comment about, "We know what happened to the hippie commune movement, the Kibbutz movement, etc." I refer you to The Farmfor one of the exceptions of the cliché
