by Don Hynes
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| Vantage Point | Culture and Politics by Don Hynes |
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"No man is prejudiced in favor of a thing, knowing it to be wrong.
He is attached to it on the belief of its being right; and when he sees it is not so,
the prejudice will be gone." - Tom Paine
March 22, 2006 Our grandchildren flooded the early morning house with their excitement, their interest in everything, their requests to be seen, their plans and preparations for the coming day. We danced an excited movement in the first hours as we elders still shaved and stood before the mirror in our old habit, taking an unconscionable time from the youthful parade that filled our bedroom with noise and activity. Suddenly on this day, the boy, a usually reserved and thoughtful five year old, burst back into the room and called out in dramatic fashion: “Grandma, grandpa, come quick! Something terrible has happened in the world!” We put down hair brush and razor and followed the little town crier into the living room. He had flicked on the television with its morning “news” and pointing to the screen he exclaimed with real concern and indignation: “President Bush was far away (in South America) and now he’s coming back!” The return of w. was a horror to the young boy, although my wife and I both cracked up in his discovery and reaction. We don’t discuss politics in front of the children, for as William Stafford once brilliantly observed “things get so bad that describing them is an act of obscenity.” Our grandson had created his own political position about the current president through personal observation. Traveling with his parents he had watched CNN or some broadcast on one of those ubiquitous airport monitors where he learned of the President’s budget stripping money from PBS and Big Bird, an iconic hero and ally for the boy. Whoever was hurting Big Bird was not his friend and now that “bad person” (not a usual descriptor for the boy I assure you) was returning to America, a cause for high alarm and agitation. What I marveled at was the uncanny ability of the five year old to identify with a target group in the republican crosshairs and to penetrate the mask to the mean spirited core of this presidency more swiftly and accurately than the national media and US Congress, who continue to shill for the crisis de jour, advocate crony appointments and rationalize the mind boggling assortment of failed administrative ventures from the Louisiana Gulf Coast to Iraq. Why the acuity of one so young and the apparent obliqueness of those with public voice and power? Before the advent of depth psychology the fairy tale was the means to explore archetypal motivation and process. In The Emperor’s New Clothes the Emperor’s obsession with his own image created weakness and vulnerability to the “weavers,” hired to spin clothing that can only be seen by the “intelligent and virtuous.” With those social constructs in place the weavers clothe the emperor with imaginary trappings and the court all bow before the “perceived” raiment, while the weavers make off with the royal gold. The populace participated in the false projection until the emperor’s pretense was unmasked by an innocent child unbeguiled by the weaver’s sorcery, the emperor’s vanity and the inauthentic display of power. “The Emperor realized that the people were right but could not admit to that. He though it better to continue the procession under the illusion that anyone who couldn't see his clothes was either stupid or incompetent.” The vanity of our current emperor is shielded by articulate and highly paid “spinners” while the majority of congressional and corporate leadership proclaim support for his inept leadership and corrupt policies. The poison of this condition extends far beyond our “kingdom,” however, and infects the Middle East in our imperial chaos. The pretense of w.’s sovereignty has horribly weakened whatever genuine value or authority we possess as a nation throughout South America, Europe and in the collective council of the UN. My little grandson may have been projecting, placing his sense of wrongdoing and injustice onto the figure he believes undermining his world of sympathetic magic, but at least he is unabashed and innocent enough to voice the naked truth behind the collective cultural madness. Perhaps it is more accurate at this time to say that the clothes have no emperor, for all the trappings are in place with no one of real substance behind the front, but whatever the descriptor we must remove our collective projections from this destructive illusion. The pretender, along with the hubris and exceptionalism that accompany his every move, need to be seen as the masks they are over the horror of our imperialistic militarism and unparalleled greed. (North America with 5% of the world’s population has 56% of the world’s wealth, consumes 40% of the world’s resources and contributes 24% of the total annual CO2 pollutants, key to global warming.) The environmental crisis continues to proceed exponentially despite the double speak of government and industry sponsored fake science, as glacial ice sheets of the Arctic and Antarctic melt in the leading edge of growing climate change. The emperor’s delusion and the sham of empire have been evident for some time. Reclaiming our individual and collective sovereignty from the artifice of the empty suit is critical to our individual and collective healing and for the reality of a promising future to be regained. You would be right to ask, what is this reclamation to be? I say it is something green and luminous, not violated by a price tag, and sounding like a poem: The Light is New (for Carlitos) Peace Asmaa' Allah El-Husna - 99 Names of God Connecting Women for Peace Environment & Energy Seas turn acidic as they absorb global pollution Climate change 'irreversible' as Arctic sea ice fails to re-form Britain Surrenders Energy Sovereignty $1.1-Billion Plan Is on Table to Restore Puget Salmon NASA Climatologist Speaks out about Administration's Attempts to Silence Him Oil Gushes into Arctic Ocean from BP Pipeline Across the frozen North Slope of Alaska, the region's largest oil accident on record has been sending hundreds of thousands of litres of crude pouring into the Arctic Ocean during the past week after a badly corroded BPO pipeline ruptured. Employees claim that they repeatedly warned that money-saving cutbacks in routine maintenance and inspection had dramatically increased the chances of accidents or spills. "For years we've been warning the company about cutting back on maintenance," Marc Kovac, a union official told the New York Times. "We know that this could have been prevented." New Orleans Another Mardi Gras, after the Deluge by Andrei Codrescu If New Orleans were Dry by Michael Ventura It takes a lot of muscle and legalized theft for 5% of Earth's population to gobble 50% of its resources. Our way of life is a criminal enterprise, and it takes criminals to run it. For more than a century we've depended upon thinly veiled criminality for our good fortune, and we damn well are implicated. Wardens yank dogs from Katrina zone New this trip were thousands of rats, which are thriving in the wreckage. "The city has literally become a giant rat factory. They were all over these homes," he said. "Big rats. They weren't pretty ones." Levee fixes falling short, experts warn Washington Scandals Donald Rumsfeld Makes $5 Million Killing on Bird Flu Drug White House Linked to Mitch Wade Iran Group See Dick Loot Agent blames FBI for blocking investigation before Sept. 11 (See also Crossing the Rubicon under 9-11) Promisgate: World's longest spy scandal still glossed over The history of this world-famous computer software goes back a quarter of a century, and its applications by intelligence, organized crime and terrorist organizations began almost from the start. The software helped the United States win the Cold War against the Soviet Union, but it also served the Russian mafia, Saddam Hussein’s regime, Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda, and an unspecified number of foreign spies and criminals. As far back as 1985, when the late British media tycoon and top [Israeli] Mossad spy, Robert Maxwell, revealed the software’s "trap door" secret to Chinese Military Intelligence (PLA-2), while selling them a copy of PROMIS for $ 9 million, the powerful software was turned against the United States. Iraq Bush Marks Anniversary, Never Says 'War' Bush did not mention the insurgent attacks, the car bombs or the mounting Iraqi deaths in a two-minute statement to reporters outside the White House after returning from a weekend at Camp David. Avoiding the word "war," he called the day "the third anniversary of the beginning of the liberation of Iraq." Bush's Fantasy of 'Progress' in Iraq Iraqis say US raid on home killed 11 family members Children of Abraham: Death in the Desert Claims and Facts: The War in Iraq by Congressman Murtha Pentagon: No Iraqi battalions able to fight insurgency alone The number of Iraqi army battalions judged by their American trainers to be capable of fighting the insurgency without U.S. help has slipped from one to none since September, Pentagon officials said Friday. Iraq's Construction Minister: Iraq shrine bombing was specialist job Mental Strain of War • 35% of Iraq veterans have already sought mental health services. • Almost 20% of Iraq veterans report a mental health problem, while 11% of Afghanistan veterans report a problem. The Precipice, the Brink, the Abyss And Other Images from a No-Name War VP: The Orwellian manipulation of the American mind is a largely un-discussed and yet crucial topic in this age of corporately controlled mass media, with an exception in this fine essay by Tom Engelhardt. Secret U.S. Torture Site in Iraq Iran US general says no proof Iran behind Iraq arms The top U.S. military officer said on Tuesday the United States does not have proof that Iran's government is responsible for Iranians smuggling weapons and military personnel into Iraq. President George W. Bush said on Monday components from Iran were being used in powerful roadside bombs used in Iraq, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week that Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel had been inside Iraq. Asked whether the United States has proof that Iran's government was behind these developments, Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon briefing, "I do not, sir." IAEA says no evidence of Iranian n-weapons plan International UN Foundation President Wirth Statement on New Human Rights Council The Bolton Archipelago A complete American isolationist may congratulate the Bush Administration and United Nations Ambassador John Bolton on his grandstanding vote Wednesday against the establishment of the UN Human Rights Council. Nobody else would. Global credit ocean dries up UAE turns back on dollar in foreign reserves shake-up Credit derivatives rocked by loss at GM finance arm Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, warned in a recent speech that the $300,000 billion derivatives market had raced ahead of the infrastructure needed to support it. He said the plethora of new instruments may have led to a more dangerous concentration of risk. "They have not ended the tendency of markets to occasional periods of mania and panic. They have not eliminated the possibility of failure of a major financial intermediary. And they cannot fully insulate the broader financial community from the effects of such a failure." National Bush's New Defense Budget “I estimate that the government’s total military-related outlays in fiscal year 2006 will be in the neighborhood of $840 bilion—or, approximately a third of the total budget.” Robert Higgs, political economist. “Unsmiling, the economist presents the budget needed for defense. We smile: that sum is the whole cost of what we defend.” - William Stafford Retired Supreme Court Justice hits attacks on courts and warns of dictatorship Georgetown Law Students Protest Gonzales Bush Bombs in Cleveland 9/11 VP: A reader inquired about my view of 9-11. I’ve avoided making statements, although I’ve linked to a plethora of sites that explore the unanswered questions and untenable government “explanations.” On September 11, 2001 over 2500 people were murdered in New York City. Within weeks all the forensic evidence had been removed from the site with no investigation of the evidence or of the crime. Does one have to be a “conspiracy nut” to find that questionable? Steven E Jones, PhD, Professor of Physics at BYU, whose peer reviewed research is yet to be scientifically challenged, describes the events in this way: “All 3 towers, including WTC 7 which was NOT struck by a plane, all fell in the same way, STRAIGHT DOWN at FREE FALL VELOCITY, INTO THEIR FOOTPRINTS. The only way to achieve this kind of collapse is with precisely synchronized detonation of carefully placed explosives, i.e. controlled demolition. Explosions were heard and felt by many people at the WTC. Experts in controlled demolition, who have seen the videos of the collapses, say they could only have been caused by controlled demolition." Check into any and all of the links below and you’ll be far ahead of the 9-11 Commission in understanding and truth. Scholars for 9-11 Truth Steven Jones - Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse? Loose Change (video) 9-11 Research 9-11 Fairy Tale From the Wilderness – Crossing the Rubicon Oil Empire Essays The Case for Impeachment by Lewis Lapham Enough of the D.C. Dems by Molly Ivins Orville Schell on Journalism under Siege in Baghdad Neocons jump ship by Justin Raimondo Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Prison Profits: Part I Woolsey in Sheep's Clothing The Singularity *** |
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