SADDAM
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Posted on 01/14/2003 12:34:40 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Edited on 04/23/2004 12:05:08 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
AT WAR 'Bomb Texas'
The psychological roots of anti-Americanism.
Monday, January 13, 2003 12:01 a.m.
With this past autumn's discussion in Washington over what to do about Iraq there arrived also the season of protests. They were everywhere. In the national newspapers, Common Cause published a full-page letter, backed by "7,000 signatories," demanding (as if it had been outlawed) a "full and open debate" before any American action against Iraq. More radical cries emanated from Not in Our Name, a nationwide "project" spearheaded by Noam Chomsky and affiliates, which likewise ran full-page advertisements in the major papers decrying America's "war without limit," organized "Days of Resistance" in New York and elsewhere, and in general made known its feeling that the United States rather than Iraq poses the real threat to world peace. At one late-October march in Washington, there were signs proclaiming "I Love Iraq, Bomb Texas," and depicting President Bush wearing a Hitler mustache and giving the Nazi salute.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
It would be too easy to damn this fool to hell. That a human could be this ignorant causes one to contemplate tears before a more fitting punishment.
That a human could stoop to make such a statement, casts a large shadow on the founding fathers and the wisdom of the first ammendment. How could such speech be protected? The answer is something that Mailer will never comprehend. So much more the tragic nature of his mindless existance.
Our society is an amazing thing to behold. Even at the risk of it's own existence it protects the likes of Mailer, a man who in the house of reason, woudl be a parkinsonian syphlitic lepper and eunuch.
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"Earlier Romans knew what it was to be Roman, why it was at least better than the alternative, and why their culture had to be defended. Later in ignorance they forgot what they knew, in pride mocked who they were, and in consequence disappeared."
Of course the message is that, in time, Earlier Americans knew what it was to be American. ... Later in ignorance they forgot what they knew, in pride mocked who they were, and in consequence disappeared.
I find it interesting that many to the "right" (ideologically speaking) in this country seem to revel in the ignorance of thinking America is the Alpha and Omega of human experience.
Our culture, will in time, just as many great civilizations before, one day be a mere foot note in the history of humankind. I am only mildly curious as to how, in 2000 years from now, the historians of that time will report our current events and cultural devolution.
Fewer and fewer "fighters" these days.
And again, only based upon a study of history, do I "think" that eventually America will end up as the "great civilizations" that preceeded her. The "rot" from within has been in progress for quite some time now.
As in the medieval church or among Soviet apparatchiks, the pull of groupspeak is always strong among compliant and opportunistic elites. For today's intellectuals, professors and artists, being on the team pays real dividends when it comes to tenure, promotion, publication, reviews, lecture invitations, social acceptance and psychic reassurance. And the dividends are compound: One is a lockstep member of one's crowd and one enjoys the frisson of dissidence, of being at variance, but always so comfortably at variance, with one's benighted fellow citizens.
. . . and what is a celebrity good for, if not to be at variance with others? Groupspeak is a cheap substitute for wisdom, so it naturally comes out of the mouth of anyone who is a celebrity for reasons other than expertise in whatever is under discussion.
The example of Rome, in short, is an apt one, but in a way unintended by critics who use passing contemporary events as occasions for venting a permanent, irrational and often visceral distrust of their own society. Their creed is really a malady, and it cries out to be confronted and exposed.
Our "betters" are rich in public-relations power. But if they need recourse against an actual threat, they need Marines just like the rest of us. Their pride does not admit that; hence as Rush pointed out yesterday Joe Lieberman announced that he would run for president to protect Americans' values and attend to their--not our but "their"--security.
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