As the acts, overt and covert, emerge from the warped minds of Bush and his cronies, I sat wondering why we see a lack of outrgae on the part of ordinary citizens.Even the tarring of a honorable veteran like John Murtha has failed to provoke any outrage, while the staged weeping of Alito’s wife has provoked staged outrage from the paid propagandists of the right.
Here is my diagnosis.As our lives continue to get coarser and coarser,under the assaults of global corporations and making ends meet becomes a struggle, almost a war of all against all,one needs all one’s wits just to survive.We have, as a result, become a nation of improvisers;we invent new tales of ourselves to sell ourselves to the marketplace.This is why a patently absurd con man like Bush is recognizable to all of us.We have indeed met the enemy and it is us.
I have even heard the rationale from a wise old friend of mine that Bush is trying to survive with what little resources he has.Do I laugh or cry?
Here is my haiku to describe our current zeitgeist:
A President who is a fake
A Congress on the take
A nation of con men on the make.
No, sorry, not buying. That’s unfair to at least half the population, including everybody on this site.
But I agree that it is MADDENING that the majority of the population, the majority of the Congress, and 95 percent of the national media, are not outraged over Bush’s dictatorial power grabs. I find this so disturbing, and so contrary to my entire life experience and reading of history, that I keep thinking it must have some deep mysterious spiritual basis (like Bush being the Antichrist). But I guess a “deep spiritual basis” for such self-damaging apathy could lead back to an idea like yours . . .
I arrived at this by the ease with which many congressmen were bought by the Abramoff-Norquist-Reed gang members.And the willing suspension of disbelief on the part of our press in matters involving Bush-Cheney and Rumsfeld.
Is Bin Laden the same guy as Admiral Poindexter?
But I agree that it is MADDENING that the majority of the population, the majority of the Congress, and 95 percent of the national media, are not outraged over Bush’s dictatorial power grabs.
It has been a subtle, creeping encroachment on our civil liberties. Each step was somehow justified in the thinking of a majority of Americans.
What has been your personal demand for proof or credible evidence of the claims made by the government concerning the GWoT?
The outrage won’t show up on the tv or in the papers until it turns violent. As for the apathetic, they might well ask why we are so worked up. We can only try to accept that there are many whys that will never be answered.
People are not paying attention. This may be deliberate, or because one needs to really work at it these days to find out what is going on in the world.
There is no news anymore on TV or radio. The readership of major newspapers is down and almost non-existent among the young.
Try an informal poll with your acquaintances or co-workers. Ask any type of current events question, like the name of your local elected officials, congressman, senators, and the same for the state. The names of any of the major cabinet officials. Try the name of the Vice President. Try, “who is Jack Abramoff, or Lewis Libby?”
Now ask who (your favorite female movie star here) is currently having an affair with, or latest movie.
Although the U.S. is surely not lacking in Con Men, I think many have given up on the system entirely. All of those guys in Washington are crooks, right? OR they watch/read the news and believe that they are well informed. (talk about an act of faith!) The bottom lines are still the same. Too many of us don’t know/don’t care what is going on. Taking back our government sure isn’t going to be easy, is it?
The repubs/gwb are playing mind games. The bullies (gwb and repubs) are casting the dems into the role of the aggressor while whining, “See it is all their fault…if only the dems would cooperate, things would be better.” Playing for sympathy/on emotions, as opposed to making decisions/dealing with facts. Plus, they’ve got people buffaloed by the constant appeal to patriotism re: Iraq and that bullshit that civil liberties violations are nescessary to make this country safer–fearmongering?
The crying by Assholeto’s wife just reinforces the “dems are bullies” nonsense. Plus, there are all of the brainwashed so-called Christians to contend w/….
I think that having nothing but propaganda on television and most print is mostly to blame, and also fear and wanting to settle safely in the midst of the crowd. We’re told that the vast majority of the country loves the war, worships Bush and cheers torture on. Every day and every night the same thing is repeated endlessly. And I think a good number of people decide that if so many other people feel that way that they should too. It’s safer and easier and besides, they’re told over and over that to oppose the administration is to be a traitor, to hate America, to be on the side of terrorists. Terrorists who get disappeared and tortured. Not a comfortable place to stand. I notice not so much apathy as an uneasy silence on politics, people sneak up to me now and then and mutter that they agree with me, that things are horrible, that they are ashamed of their country. Then they ask me not to tell anyone and sidle off again.(I’m in a fairly conservative area, obviously.)