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April 03, 2006

One Great Evil

In light of our earlier discussion about the "evil genius" who wants to see 90% of the world's population decimated by the ebola virus, I have been pondering the evil (it's a useful descriptor and I'm sticking with it) that prevents us from saving the world by non-violent means and wondering how we can overcome it before it is too late.

In that context, I felt my heart rate quicken when I came across an editorial by Charles Sullivan, particularly in light of the CREW complaint recently filed against perennial money-launderer Grover Norquist (who, for reasons that will soon be obvious, will never be convicted of anything, no matter how blatant). Sullivan writes:

Relatively few Americans are aware of the extent to which the corporate media played in putting George Bush in power, or the pandering of propaganda and outright lies that keep him there. They are unaware that under the guidance of ultra conservative Grover Norquist, a group of eighty of the nation’s wealthiest people gathers in the nation’s capital every week. This gathering, as one might expect, is not innocuous or benign. Its purpose is to create the talking points that will be purveyed each week in the commercial media to further their agenda. In essence, this group defines the news for the week and the manner in which it will be presented for public consumption. Their reach is enormous and their sole motivation is profit and power for the elite. Not only does Norquist’s group literally write the scripts followed by Rush Limbaugh and his robotic drones, it provides the content that defines the evening news and the daily newspapers. Every mainstream televised and audio program should be preceded by a Surgeon General’s Warning: Use of this product may be hazardous to your health!

Thus every television and radio network incessantly preaches the same propaganda from the individual pulpits of class privilege. The key talking points are the same whether on Fox, CNN, CBS or ABC; or the nation’s newspapers. Likewise, conservative talk radio receives its marching orders directly from Norquist’s intimate group of billionaires. This is not benign advocacy for a particular point of view—it is blatant propaganda and outright lies packaged and sold as news. Without the aide of the corporate media and Norquist’s billionaires, we would not have invaded Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people would still be alive. We might even have taken global warming seriously and done something about it before it was too late. Truth and integrity might still mean something.

Little by little the minds of the people have been poisoned by propaganda and it is called nourishment. As a result the more noble traits of our culture are incrementally dying. Through the judicious use of lies and distortions the people are deceived into supporting the atrocities of war and conquest that are committed in their name. Historical context reveals the unmistakable patterns that make these behaviors readily visible and renders them understandable to the present moment. The lack of historical perspective leaves one vulnerable to the lies and distortions that have always characterized our government. Of course, this historical context is not taught in our schools for reasons that should be obvious.

By shamelessly touting the transparent lies of the Bush cabal as fact the corporate media is generating enormous wealth for the upper echelon, while our sons and daughters make the blood sacrifice. Encouraging patriotism (really jingoism), keeps the uninformed masses in a frenzy and in mortal fear of phantom enemies. It keeps them from recognizing the real enemies of peace and democracy that misuse government for the creation of privatized wealth for the privileged. By content and by omission the corporate media decides what Americans will be told and thus how they will behave.

The purveyance of such powerful propaganda is keeping the coffers of the nation’s defense contractors and the oil companies running over, while also keeping the people dumbed down. Like bloated ticks fed on blood sucked from the public teat, the Carlyle Group and Halliburton are raking in billions. Such obscene wealth is generated at the expense of working class people who have no health insurance because their tax dollars support war profiteering and welfare for the rich.

Norquist's so-called Wednesday Group is the beating heart of the "vast right wing conspiracy" and is the source of the cancerous culture of dishonesty that is eating the heart out of the Republican Party. Unfortunately, the mind-numbed ditto-heads, as good a people as they are (and I mean that sincerely), will not listen to the truth. It is simply too comfortable to remain as they are - cocksure of their lifelong belief system - and too difficult to give up their clear definition of the enemy: liberalism. They enable evil to maintain its stranglehold on this country, mercilessly driving us toward worldwide Armageddon.

Posted by Becky at April 3, 2006 02:06 PM