> Bush is asserting the powers that accrued to Hitler
26 May 2006, 00:36
"Americans have forgotten the prerequisites for freedom, and those pursuing power have forgotten what it means when it falls into other hands. Americans are very close to losing their constitutional system and civil liberties. It is paradoxical that American democracy is the likely casualty of a ’war on terror’ that is being justified in the name of the expansion of democracy."
One important prerequisite for freedom is an educated and aware populace. For whatever reason, American society seems more driven by pleasure than by the goals of education, sacrifice, and deferred gratification. Give us more television, more shopping malls, more football, more music, more parties, bread and circuses. A polity whose members refuse to exercise self-control in their own lives will welcome with cheers, singing and applause the strongman ruler who will inevitably rise to force self control and discipline upon them.
On a different note, it is well and good and important to address America’s failings. There is no shortage of commentators doing so. Indeed, from this website and many others one would draw the conclusion that the focus of evil in today’s world is the U.S.A. No one less than Noam Chomsky has said as much on multiple occasions.
Yet, I ask myself if this is the result of clearsighted judgement and balanced perspective. Is it really true tha America has lost her moral bearings and descended to a level worse than that of any other nation on the planet? Does America deserve to be destroyed and rebuilt, with all the suffering that would entail? Does America have any external enemies who yearn to do the "destroying" part of that equation? Would they let the surviving Americans do the rebuilding, or would they take them for prison labor camps, or would they leave no prisoners?
A friend of mine put it this way: you know that the Military-Industrial Complex is always plotting to rob you of your wealth and your liberty, if not your very life. But Russia or China - why would they lie to us? What possible gain could they receive from misleading us? Are we wise to belive that the governments of the other superpowers have the best interests of Americans at heart?
"Americans have forgotten the prerequisites for freedom, and those pursuing power have forgotten what it means when it falls into other hands. Americans are very close to losing their constitutional system and civil liberties. It is paradoxical that American democracy is the likely casualty of a ’war on terror’ that is being justified in the name of the expansion of democracy."
One important prerequisite for freedom is an educated and aware populace. For whatever reason, American society seems more driven by pleasure than by the goals of education, sacrifice, and deferred gratification. Give us more television, more shopping malls, more football, more music, more parties, bread and circuses. A polity whose members refuse to exercise self-control in their own lives will welcome with cheers, singing and applause the strongman ruler who will inevitably rise to force self control and discipline upon them.
On a different note, it is well and good and important to address America’s failings. There is no shortage of commentators doing so. Indeed, from this website and many others one would draw the conclusion that the focus of evil in today’s world is the U.S.A. No one less than Noam Chomsky has said as much on multiple occasions.
Yet, I ask myself if this is the result of clearsighted judgement and balanced perspective. Is it really true tha America has lost her moral bearings and descended to a level worse than that of any other nation on the planet? Does America deserve to be destroyed and rebuilt, with all the suffering that would entail? Does America have any external enemies who yearn to do the "destroying" part of that equation? Would they let the surviving Americans do the rebuilding, or would they take them for prison labor camps, or would they leave no prisoners?
A friend of mine put it this way: you know that the Military-Industrial Complex is always plotting to rob you of your wealth and your liberty, if not your very life. But Russia or China - why would they lie to us? What possible gain could they receive from misleading us? Are we wise to belive that the governments of the other superpowers have the best interests of Americans at heart?