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How Can We Stop The Machine?

by Open-Publishing - Thursday 11 August 2005
10 comments

Wars and conflicts Religions-Beliefs USA

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/0...

How Can We Stop The Machine?
J. Russell Tyldesley
August 05, 2005

Mr. Chuckman’s article, "Hitler’s Shadow and the Coming Storm," is broad in scope. The analogies to Hitler’s Germany are insightful and, I believe, are far more numerous than those mentioned. What worries me the most is the inability or unwillingness of the American people to stop the Bush machine in its tracks. This was the fatal mistake of the Germans, although many tried and many saw the coming threat.

One of the reasons that this is becoming more and more difficult is that the system is evolving towards an ever-stronger executive in a sort of positive feedback loop. Congress is ceding more and more power to the executive and will allow the Supreme Court to become more and more tilted to the right, thereby ensuring interpretations that will uphold the rightward imbalance. Republican Congresspeople feel they owe their office to the President and cannot risk losing his support.

There has always been an element of this, but Big Money politics has greatly exaggerated its importance. It was chilling to me to hear the DLC proclaim (no doubt in preparation for the 2008 campaign) that they were assuredly not liberal and would also claim to be the party of war. It is the old “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”—we have come to a pretty serious crossroads when the opposition party cannot distinguish itself on the most important issues of war and peace. Of course, the DLC does not speak for all Democrats, but leading contenders for the presidential nomination seem to be firmly oriented towards the DLC agenda. I don’t know if this is the end of the Democratic Party, or if the recent breakup of the AFL-CIO presages the death of the labor movement, but they are linked and we had better take heed.

If ever a third party was needed, it is now. I think there is a constituency for a strong progressive movement if progressive Democrats will give up the notion that they can save the party from itself. They will hardly be able to influence it; let alone save it, and, I believe, the only way they will find influence is through a third party movement. Both major parties are beholden to the large corporations and have shown that they can be bought for the right price. The number of Congresspeople of real integrity is shrinking all the time—the CAFTA vote is a good example; the final vote was the result of threats and bribes. There is no way that treaty can be rationalized with democratic principles. Only the multi-national corporations will gain—everyone else will lose. There is not a single good element in it. The whole thing has been sold on the basis of the mantra “Free Trade,” as if that denotes the highest commandment from a higher power. The devil is certainly in the details.

Back to Mr. Chuckman:

The use of Christianity to justify all sorts of despicable acts is nothing new—starting, approximately, with the Crusades. The Bible and the rhetorical appeals to the almighty have been used to tame the “savages,” the ignorant, and, lately, the barbarians, throughout our history. I would say that the problem is not with Christianity per se, although a strong case can be made for the problem being “organized” religion. The Old Testament is the biggest part of the problem. It is an epic of the Jewish nations and should be read entirely as myth of some historical interest rather than as sacred writings. Likewise, the divinity of Christ was a contested issue that arose long after his death, and—ever since—more and more arcane mythology has been appended to the story in an attempt with florid writing to emphasize to the reader the extent of the impression Jesus made which defied superlatives when reduced to written stories.

The problem today is the literalists who will take what they want from the biblical texts and find words to support their simple-minded prejudices. They will insist that the Bible is the literal “Word of God,” never stopping to consider what “God” might mean, and that no two people are likely to have exactly the same conception. Every word of these ancient texts can be contested by biblical scholars and the historical reasons can be found for the evolutionary changes throughout early Jewish and Greek acculturation. There is no credible case to made for the homophobia engendered among the born-again literalists, for instance. The neo-cons and the war party can only make a biblical case for their doctrines from the Old Testament, which is a very poor model for how to live a life of charity and humility. Jesus proposed a completely new way of living and, to this day, there are very few people calling themselves Christian who come remotely close to it.

Jesus came to liberate people from their self-centered, self-protective ways. He asked them to abandon their anxieties about security. He even urged them to love not only their neighbor but their enemy. The profound truth in his message has still not penetrated the analytical, goal-oriented, dualistic worldview of modern man, in general. The trouble with the Bush crowd is that they may think they are right in line with the man from Galilee’s thinking. Most people who could even remotely claim to be followers of the Biblical Jesus would surely express their feelings of shame for how far they have fallen short of Christ’s vision of the sanctified life in harmony with nature and our fellow humans.

In conclusion, the war party currently in charge is nothing more than a bunch of jingoistic partisans, raging in patriotic, nationalistic, fervid nonsense that mature thinking citizens, even remotely acquainted with history, should find most hilarious—except for the chance that these people may believe their own babble. If they are only slick salesmen finding ever—new ways to sell snake oil, then we can understand them. The other possibility is the scary one.

Forum posts

  • this is a little bit melodramatic don’t you think? no one gets arrested for disagreeing with the president of the usa. we don’t make lampshades or bars of soap out of people from the left. you are either very delusional or you are milking the protest cow a little too much here.

    • "No one gets arrested for disagreeing.." ??? Do you not read newspapers, magazines, listen to TV other than FOX NEWS? There are several thousand people in "detention" mainly because they "disagree" with Bush. You have evidently not watched the riot squads when people want peacefully to express disagreement. You have evidently not seen people turned away from any Bush function because the Bush protective wall has turned them away. Sometime try to get into a Bush function wearing a sweat shirt with some sort of message critical of Bush on it. What the F... have you been watching? Evidently you are among the mass of True Believer supporters that really believe Bush has been chosen by your God to be your savior by killing Muslims. You probably BELIEVE that there were WMD’s, that Saddam was about to nuke the good people of Crawford, Texas, and that he sent Osama to fly planes into the 9/11 disaster. You probably BELIEVE the Bush did something heroic during the 9/11 which entitles him to refer to the disaster a thousand times, and reflect in glory about his cowardly actions in seeking refuge in bunkers with the Vice President. So, again, I ask, what the F... are you talking about??????

    • that’s right. NO ONE gets arrest for disagreeing with the president of the united states of america

      i don’t know where you’re coming from with the turning away protesters stuff. as far as i know it is not acceptable to picket too close to the private residence of any citizen of the us.

      now, if your brand of disagreement is an attempt to blow yourself up at the local bus stop or train depot then you can pretty much assume that we want to drop you where you stand. should you conspire to fly planes into buildings so as to kill, mame, and terrorize the free thinking world then you can expect that we would like to detain you and "flush your diagram for the destruction of western civilization" down a gitmo crapper.

      should you as an american, create cut and paste movies and write felonious books full of false accusations about your fellow americans, then you can pretty much expect a lump of conservative dung in your stocking.

      that’s what the "f" i’m talking about... dipwad.

    • Please call 911 for emergency medical assistance now.
      Psychiatrists are expensive, but they can prescribe medication, which sometimes helps.
      If you are unable to affort these services, psychologist are cheaper.
      Regardless of your choice, it appears your mental condition, if not in a critical state, may be terminal.
      No doubt you’ve heard the expression, "Where ignorance is bliss, tis folly to be wise", in you case you may end up being, DEAD RIGHT.
      So pilgrim, in the meantime enjoy your bliss, while the rest of us, keep working to keep you from waking up one day in jail, wondering what happened, and yelling "But I innocent.....and you may well be, but by then, it will TOO late.

  • Sadly, this kind of naive faith in our administration is exactly what the article refers to. A recent article in the "Independent" (Durham, NC) described the experience of a man who was visited at his home by two men who identified themselves as FBI agents, questioning him about an anti-Bush op-ed piece he had been reading in a coffee shop some days earlier. Don’t for one moment think that this gang of power-drunk elitists would be unable to concoct some sort of cover story to excuse the detention of any dissident who made them uncomfortable. These are the masters of spin, and there is no conscience behind the retaliation.

    • you have a sort of naive faith of your own. assuming the worst seems to be a popular train of thought among most leftward leaning socialites.

    • Talkings about faith and being naive, I’ve actually experienced interrogation (with hostile and angy public servants) and temporary confinment for expressing my rights. I have been fingerprinted, photographed, phone tapped, and followed for years in three different countries, but never charged with anything I am not unique but I refuse to be intimidated or silenced.
      I haven’t been bothered for decades now (as far as I know) but if one or two strangers arrived unannounced shoving badges in my face..no surprise...curosity for sure, about what I might have done to attract such attention.
      Being such an insignificant person I might even get a brief ego rush.
      At my age you get used to little people especially those wearing uniforms, badges and guns. It kinda does some strange to them....

    • Do you have a problem with the English language I’m not taking about abuse or disturbing the peace, take the pills you’ll feel better soon

    • going to the trolls this site. probly thanks to the "cia" expose that names this site, designed to discredit it amongs its own readership. and then come the rightwingers to yell everyone else down with abuse, without having soaked in a single point of the articles.

      from very serious experience over the last 10 years online with left forums, i would close off posting comments right now, cos its all downhill if u dont. seriously.

    • BTW someone who doesnt know the difference between "socialites" and "socialists" can hardly be taken seriously.