[jamaksin]

Giddy Minds and Foreign Quarrels

(An Estimate of American Foreign Policy)

Charles A. Beard

The Macmillan Company, New York, NY, 1939

Pages 14-15,

"Peace societies, associations for the "study" of foreign affairs, councils, leagues, and committees for this and that, with millions of dollars at their disposal, are engaged in the same kind of propaganda, openly or under the guise of contemporary "scholarship."

In fact, advocacy of American interventionism and adventurism abroad has become a huge vested interest. The daily press and the radio, thriving on hourly sensations, do their best to inflame readers, listeners, and lookers with a passion for putting down the wicked abroad. Foreign propagandists, often well paid by American audiences, play the same game. And brash young tom-tom beaters in journalism, who know no history beyond a few days ago, write books on the "inside" of this or that, all directed profitably to the same end. How did we get this way? This is the fundamental question for all of us who are trying to take bearings. ..."

[Louis Foxwell]

We got that way when we decided we are smarter than God.
We ignore history because it is full of old people with old ideas.
We ignore logic and reason because they are used to set traps for true believers.
We reject morals because they prevent us from doing what feels good.
We follow leaders who promise to give us bright shiny things for our votes.
We hate anyone who makes us feel bad.
We do not believe in God because we are smart.

[Louis Foxwell]

We got that way when we decided we are smarter than God.
We ignore history because it is full of old people with old ideas.
We ignore logic and reason because they are used to set traps for true believers.
We reject morals because they prevent us from doing what feels good.
We follow leaders who promise to give us bright shiny things for our votes.
We hate anyone who makes us feel bad.
We do not believe in God because we are smart.

[a little elbow grease]

" .... advocacy of American interventionism and adventurism abroad has become a huge vested interest. The daily press and the radio, thriving on hourly sensations, do their best to inflame readers, listeners, and lookers with a passion for putting down the wicked abroad. Foreign propagandists, often well paid by American audiences, play the same game. And brash young tom-tom beaters in journalism, who know no history beyond a few days ago, write books on the "inside" of this or that, all directed profitably to the same end....

"HOW DID WE GET THIS WAY?"

_________________

LOL ...... I really think you know the answer to that question.

[Fiji Hill]

Although Charles Beard was a progressive, his anti-interventionist views landed him in the dog house with his fellow progressives.