Chris Hedges‘ 4/19/10 article, titled: Noam Chomsky Has Never Seen Anything Like This, opens with the following statement, which is significant for all who seriously seek social change and a better future:
“Noam Chomsky is America’s greatest intellectual. His massive body of work, which includes nearly 100 books, has for decades deflated and exposed the lies of the power elite and the myths they perpetrate.”
Since its inception, our social system, Capitalism, has ruined billions of lives and now threatens to destroy the planet. Change is more than urgently needed. It is now a question of collective life or death.
Noam Chomsky’s comment on the following statement by Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci:
“A main obstacle to change is the reproduction by the dominating forces of elements of their hegemonic ideology. It’s an important and urgent task to develop alternative interpretations of reality”
is:
“I respect Gramsci a lot, but I think it’s possible to paraphrase that comment, namely: Just tell the truth … try to find out the truth and tell the truth. Does that say anything different? It’s something any one of us can do.”
History has shown over and over again that telling the truth is the most dangerous and powerful act as well as the most feared by oppressors in all times. Those who dare proclaim and defend Truth to liberate humanity from oppression want to restore a commonwealth of the people governed by the people for the people. That indeed is change we must all support and that is the change that will give birth to a different world.
Noam Chomsky is the foremost representative of that human hope for real civilization.
View these talks by Noam Chomsky:
Noam Chomsky begins speaking in this video at 8:00:
Conversations with History:
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By Shamus Cooke
01 July, 2009 “Information Clearing House” — There should be no doubts about the U.S.’ decisive role behind the now-crumbling military coup in Honduras. As commander and chief of the U.S. armed forces, the blame for this intervention lies solely on President Obama.
The White House, however, would like you to believe that they “attempted to convince the Honduran military not to intervene.”
Rubbish.
When it comes to the Honduran military, the U.S. government needn’t ask permission for anything. The decades long relationship between the two institutions is one of dependence — Honduras’ military has long been financed and trained by the U.S. The New York Times explains:
“The two nations have long had a close military relationship, with an American military task force stationed at a Honduran air base about 50 miles northwest of Tegucigalpa. The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces, counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America.” (June 28, 2009)
And from Latin American expert Eva Gollinger:
“The US Military Group in Honduras trains around 300 Honduran soldiers every year, provides more than $500,000 annually to the Honduran Armed Forces and additionally provides $1.4 million for a military education and exchange program for around 300 more Honduran soldiers every year.”
This year U.S. aide to Honduras was $43 million.
It is utterly unimaginable that the Honduran military would act against the wishes of the hemisphere’s military and economic superpower.
In fact, the chief military leader of the Honduran coup — Joint Chief of Staff Romeo Orlando Vasquez Velasquez — lived and was trained at the notorious School of Americas (SOA), a U.S. military base that trains Latin American military officers to act in the best interests of United State’s corporations. It is no coincidence that another coup leader — Air Force head Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo — is also an SOA graduate.
When Honduran President Manuel Zelaya realized that Vasquez was acting against him, he was fired — the rest of the military chiefs resigned in protest; and the coup was on.
The highly conservative Honduran Supreme Court then gave the military the “legal” cover it needed to pursue the coup, a fact the U.S. media uses to justify the events.
The reason for the coup lies in President Zelaya’s recent foreign policy shift — away from the United States towards Venezuela and the rest of Latin America. This turn was the result of the United States largely ignoring Honduras, after a long lasting, villainous relationship had ended: the U.S. had, for years, funneled large amounts of cash and arms to the Honduran government to kill the regions political leftists, the high point being the regions turbulent 1980’s.
After Zelaya was elected in 2006 (he still has one year left in his term), he promised to shift Honduras’ politics toward helping the poorer layers. He realized that he could not achieve any of his promises with the scant amount of aide from the U.S. and looked instead to the Latin American trade association, ALBA. Zelaya explained:
“I have been looking for projects from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, Europe and I have received very moderate offers … that forces us to find other forms of financing like ALBA.” ( Reuters, April 26,2008 )
The U.S. government did not like this move, since it prefers U.S. banks to dominate the economies of Latin American countries. The New York Times confirms:
“…[Washington’s] relations with Mr. Zelaya…had recently turned colder because of the inclusion of Honduras in the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, a leftist political alliance led by Venezuela.” (June 28, 2009)
Nearly all of the U.S. media’s writing about the Honduran coup is littered with negative references to Hugo Chavez, the “socialist project,” and other buzzwords meant to influence the reader toward acceptance of the coup.
For example:
“…[Zelaya] has the support of labor unions and the poor. But the middle class and the wealthy business community fear he wants to introduce Mr. Chávez’s brand of socialist populism into the country, one of Latin America’s poorest.” (New York Times, June 28, 2009)
Obama himself does nothing to condemn the coup. Yes, he is “deeply concerned” about the events in Honduras, but his vague comments about “dialogue” and respecting “legal procedures” is full of loopholes — big enough for a coup to squeeze through.
If Obama immediately refused to recognize the newly installed coup government in Honduras, while threatening to withdraw U.S. military and financial aide — along with the U.S. ambassador — the coup would dissolve in seconds. Strong actions like these, however, were completely absent.
Eva Gollinger comments:
“I think a clear coup d’etat against a democratic government that also happens to be a major dependent on U.S. economic and political aid should provoke a more firm and concise statement by the US Government.”
Such a statement did come not only from the General Assembly of the United Nations, but from the formerly U.S.-dominated Organization of American States (OAS). Both organizations are refusing to recognize the new coup government in Honduras and are demanding the return of Zelaya. This is a big blow to Washington, who in better times could rely on the OAS and U.N. to turn a blind eye to a U.S.-sponsored coup, such as the one in Haiti in 2004.
Now, however, the OAS has largely broken from the U.S. stranglehold, emboldened by the independent path taken by numerous Latin American countries, though especially Venezuela.
And this is the broader motive for the coup. The U.S. banks and other corporations that once dominated Latin America are being quickly pushed aside, so that governments may use their country’s wealth for social services and real economic development — not foreign for-profit plunder.
The U.S. coup attempt in Honduras is thus a sign of desperation. It was also a huge gamble. Obama had hoped that the U.N. and OAS would let this one slide. It was also hoped that the Honduran people would be intimidated by martial law and a communications blackout. Neither was the case.
Huge protests have defied the military-ordered curfew. Latin American countries have united in defiance of a tyrannical U.S. policy. It is reported that these happenings are causing splits in the Honduran military, while also a general strike was being prepared by the nation’s trade unions.
In consequence, the coup is likely to crumble, and Obama’s first attempt to re-tame Latin America will have failed. The actions of the U.N. and OAS are striking examples of the shrinking international influence of the U.S., meaning that future interventions — both military and economic — are likely to be more direct to restore U.S. hegemony. Obama’s more-subtle attempts to uphold U.S. “influence” in the world will ultimately require blunter, Bush-like tactics.
If the Honduran coup fails, Obama will eloquently discuss how pleased he is that “democracy was restored” — while refusing to admit that he tried to kill it.
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Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org). He can be reached at shamuscook@yahoo.com.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Luminous Compass has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Luminous Compass endorsed or sponsored by the originator.
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Insurance lizards slobbering poisonous saliva and feeding money to rotten prostitutes in Congress (except a noble few) dare debate with disgusting aplomb whether insurance-pig-snakes’ bank accounts are more important than the lives of thousands of men, women, and children dying every year for lack of healthcare.
Our Congress bordello of lunatics – made up mostly of fat Christianoids (aka: humanoids masquerading as Christians) with other cults fanatics (invoking different brands of divinities) – are at it again! Merry Christmas congressional bastards! Happy Hanukkah, torture aficionados! May the fleas of a thousand camels invade your armpits!
Here is a partial list of bribes paid to our representative whores and Senaturds.
SENATE
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) $150,999
Thomas R. Carper (D-Del) $125,000
Tom Coburn (R-Okla) $15,000
Michael D. Crapo (R-Idaho) $16,879
Judd Gregg (R-N.H) $575,000
Kay Hagan (D-N.C) $875,000
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) $60,000
Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) $15,000
Johnny Isakson (R-Ga) $467,002
John F. Kerry (D-Mass) $9.8 million
Jon Kyl (R-Ariz) $121,000
Jack Reed (D-R.I) $15,000
HOUSE
Dave Camp (R-Mich) $490,000
Eric Cantor (R-Va) $92,000
Lloyd Doggett (D-Tex) $265,000
Jim McDermott (D-Was) $41,961
Allyson Y Schwartz (D-Pa) $15,000
John Tanner** (D-Tex) $15,000
Mike Thompson** (D-Calif) $95,000
John Yarmuth (D-KY) $5 million (Stock held in brother’s HC company)
Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif) $180,000
John D. Dingell (D-Mich) $80,000
Jane Harman** (D-Calif) $7.7 million (owns stock in 30 HC companies)
Charlie Melancon** (D-La) $17,000
Fred Upton (R-Mich) $525,000
Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y) $30,000
Peter Welch (D-VT) $15,000
Edward Whitfield (R-KY) $80,000
(”Financial Disclosures,” LegiStorm, WaPo, 06/13/2009)
Their PACs also get huge campaign financial contributions from the industry.
America’s useless, poisonous, and vicious insurance gangsters are financing mobs of brainless but armed neo-brown-shirts to threaten citizens engaged in discussing why America – (not for long anymore) the richest country on earth – has millions of human souls without healthcare, without shelter, and without enough healthy food.
The rabid and greedy right wing cockroach mobsters scream in terror of socialist tyranny control of medicine, when for years the best kept medical programs have been government programs: Medicare and Medicaid. There is no hope for a fake democracy on the brink of catastrophe when it has 50% of its voters dumbed down and kept ignorant by the deliberate lowering of education to serve a capitalist regime armed with the lies of its corporate main sewer media bordellos.
Fidel Castro could not resist slamming the ridiculous corporate-owned government of fat capitalist America for abandoning its poor and dispossessed when Cuba, a country that has been blockaded for 50 years, has the best medicine in all the Americas and exports thousands of excellent doctors to countries in need.
Let’s see now if Obama has the cojones to at last deliver some of his famous “Change we can MAKE BELIEVE in” and if Americans have the guts to kick out the oppressors.
Wake up, land of the cowards and home of the slaves!
Below, for the benefit of sleeping beauties, an excerpt from Tolstoy, proving that our Planet of Assholes has not changed since his times.
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From: The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy
It is easy to understand that the landowner prefers to believe that the existing order is inevitable and immutable, because this existing order secures him an income from his hundreds and thousands of acres, by means of which he can lead his habitual indolent and luxurious life.
It is easy to understand that the judge readily believes in the necessity of an order of things through which he receives a wage fifty times as great as the most industrious laborer can earn, and the same applies to all the higher officials. It is only under the existing regime that as governor, prosecutor, senator, members of the various councils, they can receive their several thousands of rubles a year, without which they and their families would at once sink into ruin, since if it were not for the position they occupy they would never by their own abilities, industry, or acquirements get a thousandth part of their salaries.
The minister, the Tzar, and all the higher authorities are in the same position. The only distinction is that the higher and the more exceptional their position, the more necessary it is for them to believe that the existing order is the only possible order of things.
For without it they would not only be unable to gain an equal position, but would be found to fall lower than all other people. A man who has of his own free will entered the police force at a wage of ten rubles, which he could easily earn in any other position, is hardly dependent on the preservation of the existing regime, and so he may not believe in its immutability. But a king or an emperor, who receives millions for his post, and knows that there are thousands of people round him who would like to dethrone him and take his place, who knows that he will never receive such a revenue or so much honor in any other position, who knows, in most cases through his more or less despotic rule, that if he were dethroned he would have to answer for all his abuse of power – he cannot but believe in the necessity and even sacredness of the existing order.
The higher and the more profitable a man’s position, the more unstable it becomes, and the more terrible and dangerous a fall from it for him, the more firmly the man believes in the existing order, and therefore with the more ease of conscience can such a man perpetrate cruel and wicked acts, as though they were not in his own interest, but for the maintenance of that order.
This is the case with all men in authority, who occupy positions more profitable than they could occupy except for the present regime, from the lowest police officer to the Tzar. All of them are more or less convinced that the existing order is immutable, because – the chief consideration – it is to their advantage. But the peasants, the soldiers, who are at the bottom of the social scale, who have no kind of advantage from the existing order, who are in the very lowest position of subjection and humiliation, what forces them to believe that the existing order in which they are in their humble and disadvantageous position is the order which ought to exist, and which they ought to support even at the cost of evil actions contrary to their conscience?
What forces these men to the false reasoning that the existing order is unchanging, and that therefore they ought to support it, when it is so obvious, on the contrary, that it is only unchanging because they themselves support it?
What forces these peasants, taken only yesterday from the plow and dressed in ugly and unseemly costumes with blue collars and gilt buttons, to go with guns and sabers and murder their famishing fathers and brothers?
They gain no kind of advantage and can be in no fear of losing the position they occupy, because it is worse than that from which they have been taken.
The persons in authority of the higher orders – land owners, merchants, judges, senators, governors, ministers, tzars, and officers – take part in such doings because the existing order is to their advantage. In other respects they are often good and kind-hearted men, and they are more able to take part in such doings because their share in them is limited to suggestions, decisions, and orders. These persons in authority never do themselves what they suggest, decide, or command to be done. For the most part they do not even see how all the atrocious deeds they have suggested and authorized are carried out. But the unfortunate men of the lower orders, who gain no kind of advantage from the existing regime, but, on the contrary, are treated with the utmost contempt, support it even by dragging people with their own hands from their families, handcuffing them, throwing them in prison, guarding them, shooting them.
Why do they do it? What forces them to believe that the existing order is unchanging and they must support it?
All violence rests, we know, on those who do the beating, the handcuffing, the imprisoning, and the killing with their own hands. If there were no soldiers or armed policemen, ready to kill or outrage anyone as they are ordered, not one of those people who sign sentences of death, imprisonment, or galley-slavery for life would make up his mind to hang, imprison, or torture a thousandth part of those whom, quietly sitting in his study, he now orders to be tortured in all kinds of ways, simply because he does not see it nor do it himself, but only gets it done at a distance by these servile tools.
All the acts of injustice and cruelty which are committed in the ordinary course of daily life have only become habitual because there are these men always ready to carry out such acts of injustice and cruelty. If it were not for them, far from anyone using violence against the immense masses who are now ill-treated, those who now command their punishment would not venture to sentence them, would not even dare to dream of the sentences they decree with such easy confidence at present.
And if it were not for these men, ready to kill or torture anyone at their commander’s will, no one would dare to claim, as all the idle landowners claim with such assurance, that a piece of land, surrounded by peasants, who are in wretchedness from want of land, is the property of a man who does not cultivate it, or that stores of corn taken by swindling from the peasants ought to remain untouched in the midst of a population dying of hunger because the merchants must make their profit. If it were not for these servile instruments at the disposal of the authorities, it could never have entered the head of the landowner to rob the peasants of the forest they had tended, nor of the officials to think they are entitled to their salaries, taken from the famishing people, the price of their oppression; least of all could anyone dream of killing or exiling men for exposing falsehood and telling the truth.
All this can only be done because the authorities are confidently assured that they have always these servile tools at hand, ready to carry all their demands into effect by means of torture and murder.
All the deeds of violence of tyrants from Napoleon to the lowest commander of a company who fires upon a crowd, can only be explained by the intoxicating effect of their absolute power over these slaves. All force, therefore, rests on these men, who carry out the deeds of violence with their own hands, the men who serve in the police or the army, especially the army, for the police only venture to do their work because the army is at their back.
What, then, has brought these masses of honest men, on whom the whole thing depends, who gain nothing by it, and who have to do these atrocious deeds with their own hands, what has brought them to accept the amazing delusion that the existing order, unprofitable, ruinous, and fatal as it is for them, is the order which ought to exist?
Who has led them into this amazing delusion?
They can never have persuaded themselves that they ought to do what is against their conscience, and also the source of misery and ruin for themselves, and all their class, who make up nine-tenths of the population.
“How can you kill people, when it is written in God’s commandment: ‘Thou shalt not kill’?” I have often inquired of different soldiers. And I always drove them to embarrassment and confusion by reminding them of what they did not want to think about.
They knew they were bound by the law of God, “Thou shalt not kill,” and knew too that they were bound by their duty as soldiers, but had never reflected on the contradiction between these duties.
The drift of the timid answers I received to this question was always approximately this: that killing in war and executing criminals by command of the government are not included in the general prohibition of murder. But when I said this distinction was not made in the law of God, and reminded them of the Christian duty of fraternity, forgiveness of injuries, and love, which could not be reconciled with murder, the peasants usually agreed, but in their turn began to ask me questions. “How does it happen,” they inquired, “that the government [which according to their ideas cannot do wrong] sends the army to war and orders criminals to be executed.” When I answered that the government does wrong in giving such orders, the peasants fell into still greater confusion, and either broke off the conversation or else got angry with me.
“They must have found a law for it. The archbishops know as much about it as we do, I should hope,” a Russian soldier once observed to me. And in saying his the soldier obviously set his mind at rest, in the full conviction that his spiritual guides had found a law which authorized his ancestors, and the tzars and their descendants, and millions of men, to serve as he was doing himself, and that the question I had put him was a kind of hoax or conundrum on my part.
Everyone in our Christian society knows, either by tradition or by revelation or by the voice of conscience, that murder is one of the most fearful crimes a man can commit, as the Gospel tells us, and that the sin of murder cannot be limited to certain persons, that is, murder cannot be a sin for some and not a sin for others.
Everyone knows that if murder is a sin, it is always a sin, whoever are the victims murdered, just like the sin of adultery, theft, or any other. At the same time from their childhood up men see that murder is not only permitted, but even sanctioned by the blessing of those whom they are accustomed to regard as their divinely appointed spiritual guides, and see their secular leaders with calm assurance organizing murder, proud to wear murderous arms, and demanding of others in the name of the laws of the country, and even of God, that they should take part in murder. Men see that there is some inconsistency here, but not being able to analyze it, involuntarily assume that this apparent inconsistency is only the result of their ignorance. The very grossness and obviousness of the inconsistency confirms them in this conviction.
They cannot imagine that the leaders of civilization, the educated classes, could so confidently preach two such opposed principles as the law of Christ and murder.
A simple uncorrupted youth cannot imagine that those who stand so high in his opinion, whom he regards as holy or learned men, could for any object whatever mislead him so shamefully. But this is just what has always been and always is done to him.
It is done (1) by instilling, by example and direct instruction, from childhood up, into the working people, who have not time to study moral and religious questions for themselves, the idea that torture and murder are compatible with Christianity, and that for certain objects of state, torture and murder are not only admissible, but ought to be employed; and (2) by instilling into certain of the people, who have either voluntarily enlisted or been taken by compulsion into the army, the idea that the perpetration of murder and torture with their own hands is a sacred duty, and even a glorious exploit, worthy of praise and reward.
The general delusion is diffused among all people by means of the catechisms or books, which nowadays replace them, in use for the compulsory education of children. In them it is stated that violence, that is, imprisonment and execution, as well as murder in civil or foreign war in the defense and maintenance of the existing state organization (whatever that may be, absolute or limited monarchy, convention, consulate, empire of this or that Napoleon or Boulanger, constitutional monarchy, commune or republic) is absolutely lawful and not opposed to morality and Christianity.
This is stated in all catechisms or books used in schools. And men are so thoroughly persuaded of it that they grow up, live and die in that conviction without once entertaining a doubt about it.
This is one form of deception, the general deception instilled into everyone, but there is another special deception practiced upon the soldiers or police who are picked out by one means or another to do the torturing and murdering necessary to defend and maintain the existing regime.
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A burst of voices and laughter heralds recess. Kids bullet out of the classroom to find their favorite spot on the playground. Katie, Allie, and Sam like the sandbox, but so does Gunner and that’s always a problem. Gunner is territorial, piles up the toys on “his side,” tells Katie, Allie, and Sam what to do, and gets aggressive if they don’t play his game. When he starts throwing sand, the others protest but he keeps at it. Eventually they call the teacher. Now imagine the teacher supporting and even encouraging Gunner. Guest post by Viktoria Vidali.
A Simple Analogy
As simple as it is, this analogy explains in part what is happening on the world arena. A few have taken control of what should be shared with everyone. The distorted values of this minority elite are protected by governments, powerful corporations, and to a large degree sanctioned by religion. This minority owns big media that saturates the population 24/7 with the presumptive rightness of its ideologies, like competitiveness (which discourages people from working together and gaining strength to upset the status quo), materialism (which encourages people to work harder so that they can buy more things and also locks in the false connection between self worth and money), and the law of attraction (which abrogates responsibility).
It [the law of attraction] argues that we attract those things in life, whether it is money, relationships or employment, which we focus on. Suddenly, abused and battered wives or children, the unemployed, the depressed and mentally ill, the illiterate, the lonely, those grieving for lost loved ones, those crushed by poverty, the terminally ill, those fighting with addictions, those suffering from trauma, those trapped in menial and poorly paid jobs, those whose homes are in foreclosure or who are filing for bankruptcy because they cannot pay their medical bills, are to blame for their negativity. The ideology justifies the cruelty of unfettered capitalism, shifting the blame from the power elite to those they oppress. And many of us have internalized this pernicious message, which in times of difficulty leads to personal despair, passivity and disillusionment … The message that we can have everything we want if we dig deep enough inside ourselves, if we truly believe we are exceptional, is pumped out daily over the airwaves in advertisements, through the plot and story lines of television programs and films, and bolstered by the sickeningly cheerful and upbeat banter of well-groomed television hosts. This is the twisted ideological lens through which we view the world. ~ Chris Hedges’ Happiness Consultants Won’t Stop a Depression.
As a result, great numbers of people think and act against their own best interests and wonder why they rarely have the freedom and peace of mind to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Even when they “get the whole picture,” they are often so distracted or overworked that they lack the energy and will to bring about fundamental change.
What’s Fair
Since the World Social Forum came upon the supranational stage in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001, alternatives to a failed system that deprives too many of a decent life have been proposed and in places implemented by the swelling ranks of the poor and marginalized and by all those who understand that there is plenty to go around. What exactly is being demanded? The right to honest work, a living wage, food, clean water, a home, a healthy environment, an education, health care, a responsive self-government, and peace.
They’re demanding what’s fair!
Social movements to actualize these human rights are gaining momentum one by one across South America – Venezuela,* Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Brazil, and Paraguay. They are bringing hope of a better life and renewal to their citizens. At the same time the world’s people are largely getting poorer, we see the biggest concentration of wealth and income in the fewest numbers.** Gunner has demanded and received more of the sandbox and governments are saying this is perfectly fine. Go right ahead, Gunner! You deserve it!
A Personal Question
Many of us are only now seeing the immensity of these global problems and how they affect all of us and are asking ourselves:
Can we personally be truly happy knowing that so many are suffering?
While we should be grateful for the gifts we have received, we must learn to give our energy and resources to work for a better world where every person’s rights are respected. How can we do this? The answer is to act, because we each have something valuable to give. By giving, we renew our vital connection to all members of the human family. The kind of action we initiate and sustain in solidarity with others is open to our own creative imaginations.
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* For more on Venezuela’s participative democracy, VenezuelaAnalysis.com.
** Confer Political Economics Professor Jack Rasmus’ book: The Trillion Dollar Income Shift – Essays on Income Inequality in America. If you liked this, you might also like: From Global Financial Crisis to Global Recession and a Cross Currents radio interview with Dr. Rasmus.
]]>The Honduran coup is a scandal of unmitigated hypocrisy. Obama can end the coup with simple legal action, such as closing all access to money and ordering the closing of the U.S. military base in that country. But this takes clarity and true love of Freedom and Justice. We as a people are not there yet. We have no control of the dishonest corporate government that has usurped our nation and turned Democracy into a criminal plutocracy.
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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the world’s most tragic and long-lasting conflicts and a major source of world’s instability. Knowing the facts may save us all from catastrophe.
The U.S. government is directly involved in this conflict. The American People are increasingly imperiled by its actions and corporate media’s misinformation sponsored by special interests.
Here at last are the facts in a powerful, irrefutable documentary further supported by extensive data and research assembled for easy access: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
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Posted on May 30th, 2009 on Blogger News
Movie Review: Deflating The Elephant – Framed Messages Behind Conservative Dialogue by Nathaniel Jonet
See The Lighthouse for film clip
The political world is full of messages and it seems as though people are able to say whatever they want without every having to prove a thing. What does “pal around with terrorists” even really mean? If Obama truly is a socialist, then why is minimum wage not $15 an hour and why are we saving the very capitalist machines that keep the means of production out of the workers’ hands? Doesn’t the death penalty stop a beating heart too? Intelligent people are able to shake off these lies, but what most don’t realize is that repetition of an idea and the way it is framed creates a framework of untruth which most people will simply take for granted. Now you can bring home a film which will help you to see and dismantle that framework that prevents the free flow of truth.
Starting this May 19th, now available on DVD from Uneco Productions and Cinema Libre Studio comes a fantastic and essential tool to understand the concept of framing and the true power of language and cultural repetition. Deflating The Elephant – Framed Messages Behind Conservative Dialogue is ready to show you how to understand so much of what Conservatives have been saying lately and combat it with the truth. The Left has sat silent for far too long and allowed the Ultra-Right to control the messages in society. Bring home this groundbreaking documentary and instructional film to learn how to take back the truth that belongs left of the center.
Starring UC Berkley professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science and author, George Lakoff, and Academy Award winning actor, Sean Penn, this movie is all about language. Sean Penn provides introductions and short vignettes which serve a purpose I’m still not quite aware of, but the star of this documentary is George Lakoff. In this head-on style, where he’s looking right out of the screen at you, you will learn more about language than you ever thought was possible. Language isn’t just words, words also carry meanings which are often subconscious. It is a phenomenon known as “framing.” How it works is that when something is repeated often enough in a cultural setting, simply hearing those words brings to mind the specific framework that the sayers have been intending to transmit. Lakoff contends that through billion dollar marketing campaigns and the far reach of the right-wing think tanks, the conservatives have created a great deal of framing which has trapped a nation of independent thinkers into a false set of suppositions. Some of Lakoff’s example of this include the phrases “free market,” “common sense approach,” “tort reform,” “tax relief” and “war on terror.” He also says that much of what is taken for granted as being good arguments against a liberal government are falsehoods that everyone has taken to be true because they are repeated so often. With information spreading as quickly as it does now, people just use soundbites and don’t need to offer proof. Lakoff says that it is time for liberals to fight back and dismantle these horrid and repressive frameworks.
This disc doesn’t have any special features and it is so enthralling that it doesn’t need any. I know, that sounds strange, but it’s completely true. The film didn’t look that interesting when I got it, so I just popped it in before I went to bed, thinking I would watch for a few minutes and then shut it off. I watched the whole two hours all the way through and never looked away from the television once. It is fascinating and a completely incredibly documentary.
I was very impressed with this documentary and it made a lot of sense. I had never read anything that Lakoff had written, but I had read some Wittgenstein and some Derrida, both of whom dealt with the meanings behind language and the meaning inherent in language itself. Whether you think framing is a good or bad thing, this movie will convince you that it is a real phenomenon, something I was shocked by. I’m certainly left of center myself, but I thought this was a pile of rubbish when I was reading the PR treatment of th documentary. But as I watched it and Lakoff asked question after question about some of our biggest assumptions, I was forced to admit, quite against my will, this he was correct in nearly all he was saying. We have become a nation which is afraid to think for itself and we need to start making up our own minds. In calling for a return to that, Lakoff is a modern prophet in the style of Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman.
You don’t want to miss Deflating The Elephant. This DVD is available from Cinema Libre Studios.
]]>What security does the U.S. gain by killing thousand of civilians in Afghanistan? Our corrupt government is creating many desperates seeking vengeance by suicide terror for the U.S. killing of their families. To pretend that we are spending billions and slaughtering thousands only to stop the Taliban from oppressing the Afghan people is outrageous bullshit. To claim we are spending billions for defense to protect the American people is ridiculous bullshit. The last invasion of the U.S. was a border crossing raid by Pancho Villa 100 years ago. Stop your pathetic bullshit! Stop military terrorist wars for satanic capitalist profits. Return to sanity and peace!
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June 1st 2009, by Hugo Chávez Frías
It is amazing how deep our father Bolivar stirred around in the search of the revolutionary essence; just as he said in “the finding of the mysterious unknown of the free man.” In this huge task he put forward his thoughts before those of the great intellectuals and philosophers of the last two centuries. It is truly amazing how his most advanced ideas form a great slope, whose waters empty into that wonderful river called socialism.
This is exactly what happens with the equality issue. Let’s take a tour of two hundred years to confirm it.
Brazilian thinker Theotonio Dos Santos, in his book Concepto de clases sociales (Concept of social classes, printed by El Perro y la Rana editorial), says:
The representation of bourgeois society as a basic group of individuals who can differentiate into groups must be part of bourgeois ideology (…) This representation expresses exactly the essential interest of the bourgeoisie to hide the class nature of its society and postulate its society as offering equal opportunities to all individuals.
Equality of opportunity, true, but increasingly based on the growing inequality of economic and legal power, as well as material privileges that excessively reproduce the inequality of conditions.
One hundred and twenty years ago, Karl Marx said it in the Critique of the Gotha Program, written in 1875:
Paradoxically, what appears as the end of socialism is, precisely, the integral development of unequalness among men, unequalness of their aspirations and capacities, the unequalness of their personalities. But this personal unequalness will no longer mean a difference of economic power or inequality of material rights or privileges. It can only be extended in an atmosphere of material and economic equality.
And our Bolívar, fifty six years before Marx, pointed out with meridian clearness in Angostura, in 1819:
In my opinion, Legislators, the fundamental principle of our system depends immediately and exclusively on equality established and exercised in Venezuela. (…)Nature makes men unequal in terms of their genius, temperament, force, and characters. Laws correct this difference by giving man a place in society so that education, industry, service, virtue may give him a fictitious equality, properly called political and social equality. The bringing together of all classes in a State is an eminently beneficial inspiration, where diversity multiples in proportion to the propagation of the species. By this single step, cruel discord has been torn out by the roots. How much jealousy, rivalry and hatred have been thus avoided!
These are the reasons why, the more we study the history of ideas, the more we deepen and understand the great thinkers of and for humanity, starting from (Jesus) Christ up to Fidel. This is why, every day, with more strength and obligation, our revolution is more Bolivarian than ever!
Christ, as I have said, was a true socialist thinker. And even more important, he was a consistent socialist fighter up to his last song:
Everything is consummated.
From an old encyclopaedia that I carry with me since my days as lieutenant of the Armoured Batallion Bravos de Apure, during those days when a small group of young patriotic officers of the Army (including myself) started to create the first cells of the Bolivarian Movement, I draw out the following passage:
In times of great internal and external severity, in view of the growing misery of the poor people and the greatest concentration of wealth in few hands, the great prophets appeared and urged the revision of this situation. In 765 BC, Amos, the most ancient and probably the greatest of those prophets, appeared and launched on behalf of Jehovah his curse against the rich people: But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem… because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes; that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek, (Amós, 2, 5/7).
Afterwards it reads as follows:
We have found identical tones in Oseas and, especially in Isaiah: ‘Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! (Is., 5, 8 )
And the Jesus arrived to condemn the rich people. Here you have the Sermon of the Mount:
Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. (Luke, 6, 20-25).
For you compatriot, man, woman, youth, who read my Sunday lines, the last day of May I tell you: Let he who has eyes see, and he who has ears, hear!
Capitalism proclaims to the four winds the non-existence of classes nor inequality; since there is an alleged equality of opportunity that guarantees all the enjoyment, privileges, and rights to all the persons on earth, when we know that all its perversity is precisely based on breaking every possible balance between legality and justice. In crisis times, even more, when masks fall, disclosing many capitalists as true mafia bosses. An expensive propaganda campaign has been launched by all the media outlets in order to make believe that our Bolivarian Revolution will deprive you of your car, your apartment, warehouse, arepera [1] and everything you own thanks to your effort and work.
But the truth is that, those who proclaim it are the same ones who have literally hoarded vehicles and speculate barefacedly with the sale and rent of real state. If during the last ten years these oligarchs living in our country have dared to attempt against the sacred right of our people to food, education, and health; it is not surprising that they will likewise attempt against Venezuelans’ right to have property. While we struggle for pulling out the cruel conflict, as Bolívar said, the media outlets at the service of the empire and the most corrupted oligarchical sector of the country promote it in order to, precisely, hide their felonies.
This is why I urge people to be on the revolutionary alert and watchfulness, even those compatriots who – even not being part of our Revolution – suffer because of the overflowing perversity of those who boast about being their defenders and representatives. It is up to us to keep working to establish and practice equality, getting it under the following principle: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” a Christian principle that sinks its roots in the most distant but alive primitive Christianity.
Time and the passing of history have demonstrated that there is a maturation process of the people; that the current political, organizational, and ideological maturity is not the same as ten years ago. Today, there is a common, popular, and Venezuelan sense that never existed before; as well as an eternal solidarity and a way of organizing and understanding their street, their parish, their barrio, and their history.
Events in the midst of development, as Walter Martinez would say, show that governments must always adapt themselves to the maturity and level of the people they work for. Learning is permanent, and we have had hard but valuable lessons. Venezuela has constructed a history of dignity and struggle, in spite of so many difficulties. And facts have demonstrated the mature degree of this people; the maturity to rule and decide in the name of the people. We are confirming that the creative powers that the great Aquiles Nazoa recognized in us.
It’s time to give substance, strength, and movement to the communal democracy, the democracy communard of Kléber Ramírez. The new phase starts now in Venezuela, developing a strategy focused on “producing food, science, and dignity” and strengthening the dynamism of the participative and socialist democracy.
The time for the community to start its movement towards the full exercise of its power and its political responsibility has come. We have walked far, but there is still path left to walk, let’s go on creating, as Mészaros would say in The Challenge and the Burden of Historical Time:
The creation of a truly equal society demands the radical downfall of the exploitative structural hierarchies that were established during thousands of years.
But the communal model must be ours; it must emerge from popular wisdom, from the clear understanding of their territory; of their connection with their history and country. From everything that causes us to be called Venezuelan people.
We must speed up the structure of the communal councils, the technical tables, increasing their participative power and transforming the community into a reason of state; this is the path; always together with Simón Rodríguez and Bolívar.
“If we do not learn a dynamic lesson from history, there is no reason to suppose that we will find it in another place,” says the great master and Bolivarian August Mijares: it is all about raising people’s consciousness, “the affirmative Venezuelan aspect.”
In history, we have great examples that must be useful as objective references. The Commune of Paris, the experience of the agrarian commune in China; the indigenous Venezuelan, Colombian, Paraguayan communards are all models that offer keys for us to do what we have to; being original, as the socialist Master of America, Simón Rodríguez, who proposed an original Toparquía (small dominion) for our America. But one thing is certain and Lenin said so in a short article called, “In Memory of the Commune”: “The cause of the Commune is the cause of the social revolution; it is the cause of the complete political and economical emancipation of workers; it is the cause of the world proletariat. And in this sense it is immortal.”
Bolivarian and socialist communards: let’s continue clearing up “The Mysterious Unknown…”
With Christ, with Bolívar, with Fidel:
¡We will win!
Hugo Chávez Frías
Note: [1] Arepera: sort of restaurant where you can buy Arepra. The word “arepa” may originate from the language of the Caracas natives (north coast of Venezuela) that means “maize.” An arepa is a bread made of corn originating from the northern Andes in South America, and which has now spread to other areas in Latin America.
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