Just how much do we lie to ourselves?

[GuvWurld]

RE-POST BY REQUEST OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF A LONGER THREAD


I have repeatedly been amazed at threads like this. What does not compute for me is how bright and dedicated people continue to find themselves surprised and disgusted at absolutely routine behavior.

I don't think this is about what we don't understand about the political game. I think this is much more about being ruthlessly honest with ourselves. Someone on DU recently labeled this attitude smug. That's fine. At least I'm going out of my way to stop lying to myself. It is a human nature tendency that nobody should take blame for. But at the same time it is a shortcoming we can each begin to address only once we first acknowledge it.

If we want to coordinate a really useful self-help effort it should be helping each other find the chasms between what we say we believe and the way we act on the same information. We must accept that there is no number of e-mails, calls or letters that will suddenly make a Senator give up a career of ignoring and/or systematically distorting the truth. And we should stop acting surprised when people or networks act as they always do.

Organize in your community. Ask your City Council to protect your town. Show them that the federal government is compelling them to take action damaging to their constituents. Cite your town's budget problems and connect it to the war (see Arcata's Municipal Response to Federal Lawlessness resolution). Talk about No Child Left Behind, which is widely despised by teachers and school administrators. Point out HAVA requirements ensuring future elections will continue to deliver inconclusive results. Go with ten of your friends and say that you want them to pass the Voter Confidence Resolution.

The most common definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a different result. We must stop wasting our time trying to communicate with a Congress that is not interested in what we have to say. They are not only failing to account for the Consent of the Governed, they are not even seeking this Consent. They are completely unaccountable and we don't have a way to change that in a single step. Thus the better strategy is to create intermediate steps that are actually doable. City Councilmembers are accessible and accountable. Get their cooperation and we can start making some progress toward healing our divides. Creating unity in this way is essential to establish effective resistance to fascism.

[chlamor]

1. Excellent Post

Some think the MSM is doing a bad job or the DINO's are spineless etc. while in fact they are deeply integrated components of the Empire.

You nailed it. There is so much naivete to be found all around with DU being no exception.

" ... the United States, for generations, has sustained two parallel but opposed states of mind about military atrocities and human rights: one of U.S. benevolence, generally held by the public, and the other of ends-justify-the-means brutality sponsored by counterinsurgency specialists. Normally the specialists carry out their actions in remote locations with little notice in the national press. That allows the public to sustain its faith in a just America, while hard-nosed security and economic interests are still protected in secret. ": Robert Parry, investigative reporter and author

Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule – and both commonly succeed, and are right.

– H.L. Mencken

[GuvWurld]

2. Thanks. Kick. EOM.

[BillyDoc]

3. The US is Fascist, pure and simple.

It has been Fascist for years now. We stopped being a democracy more than 50 years ago! The Dems and the Repugs keep up the theater of conflict to pacify the masses, but whenever it comes down to any real issue they all ALWAYS unify and vote Fascist. The Dems and the Repugs are just branches of the same party.

If you accept this fact then you have a chance of actually doing something constructive about it. Otherwise, everything you do will just be whistling in the wind. Or to use a more accurate metaphore: pissing upwind against a very strong breeze.

[Vektor]

4. Great post - makes a lot of sense. n/t

[lonestarnot]

5. I still make the futile effort as I was taught at the University, they do

pay attention when they get enough contact... and maybe at least they will lose sleep wondering whether or not they will have the votes next time out.

[tavalon]

7. I fear

that they no longer lose sleep over that one. Well, at least the rethugs don't.

[lonestarnot]

8. Well I get an answer everytime I write to any of them... may not be the

answer I want, but I must admit, I do get an answer. So somebody read what I wrote. Maybe I'll change their mind.

[Pooka Fey]

6. Great post. Kicked and Nominated. n/t

[Fire Walk With Me]

9. Do you smoke?

That's a good one. You'll fall ill and probably die.

Goes to "why do we support, with government funds and tax breaks, those who create a deadly substance?"

The insanity of the repubs is most striking. It's not about repeating behaviours and expecting a different result, it's about repeating the same behaviours in the hope of wearing down your opponents. When we're all trying to live together, that's insanity.

When it reaches the point of money before life and standards of living...

Responsibility, what a can of worms. Thanks for the post/thread.

[morgan2]

10. I agree with your assesment of the problem

but I disagree you can't affect the media. Shame them into reporting the truth. Do everything you can to let people know of their distortions and lies. Organizined actions against media works, the republicans have mastered it. If someone can organize a way to pick specific issues, and a few thousand peoples time it can be done. Threaten advertizers with boycotts, and follow through on them. Media is corrupt because being cozy with those in power makes them money. Its costly to them to harm those in power than those not in power. That has to be changed. No one group should have the power to "punish" a media organization more then they would be punished for compromising the principles of journalism.

[GuvWurld]

12. that is a contradiction

If you think we can make the media all of a sudden stop acting in their own interest, as they've done for so long, and begin to be neutral and objective conveyors of information, than it would seem you do not agree with my assessment of the problem at all. It would seem you are an example of it - unwittingly deceiving yourself. I say this with all due respect. Like I mentioned above, this is human nature and it is happening to all of us. This is the result of living in an Orwellian society where contradictions and paradoxes are intentionally perpetuated. This thread is about making a conscious effort to help each other break out of the impossible loops of logic.

When 11/2/04 caused people to demand recounts, this, to me, was another great example. Many of the recount supporters weren't just saying there were funky numbers or alleging fraud. Many people understood that even before the "election" the conditions were installed to ensure an inconclusive outcome. This is what the Voter Confidence Resolution is about. It made no sense for these people to demand a re-count when they knew full well there was no legitimate first count.

What is the official policy in Iraq? U.S. forces are training Iraqi police and military to fight Iraqi so-called insurgents. The only reason I ever hear given for not being able to pull the troops out of Iraq is that it will lead to civil war. So on the one hand we are encouraging Iraqis fighting Iraqis and on the other it is the thing we are supposedly trying to avoid.

I'd love to see this thread become about providing other examples. I'm serious about us having to help each other break out of these mental traps. It will also help us develop more useful messaging for the overall cause of peaceful revolution - a phrase that needs constant repeating to de-stigmatize and legitimize. I want to know what it will take to make the phrase "peaceful revolution" socially acceptable?

[IrateCitizen]

16. You actually delude yourself that we have influence over the media???

We don't. The line is often put forward that the media does what it does in response to "popular demand" or "market forces". That's pure bollocks.

The media does what it does because as soon as it became a mass-medium, it fell under the control of capital. And if you think it's true purpose is to inform, guess again. The true purpose of mass media in our society is to buttress and reinforce the status quo in an authoritative manner. It is meant to make people think that there really is no alternative to the way that things are, so therefore they should support things the way they are.

Expecting the media to change its tune if you apply enough pressure is like expecting a turtle to fly if you throw it in the air a few times. All that happens is that you end up worn out from trying, without any change in the situation as it was previously (except in the latter case, you end up with a pretty shook-up turtle as well).

[GuvWurld]

17. Kick (eom)

[understandinglife]

11. "The most common definition of insanity is repeating the same ...

... action and expecting a different result."

True.

Thus, my advice to stop expecting BU$H to apologize or ever be accountable.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3669484&mesg_id=3669484

Thus, my advice to stop pretending that anyone other than BU$H is the root evil and stop with all the "he's dumb, he's stupid, he's a chimp, .......... ."

The guy is monomaniacally focused on what he wants, when he wants it, and he is doing just fine paving anyone or anything that gets in his way.

Olbermann, tonight, spoke truth to power. So did Congresswoman Slaughter. We can prevail, but only by supporting those who evidence in their actions that they get it.

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[Karenina]

13. Kick!

:kick:

[GuvWurld]

14. Kick (eom)

[GuvWurld]

15. KICK (EOM)