At 14:41 26.6.03 +0800, btws549 wrote:
One question about all the alleged cowardly behaviours of the Congress and
the Media in the states, since the US is the democracy it is, why can't
they speak up? Is it because of nationalism, or is it because all the
financial strings and political powers are vested in this Presidency?
it comes naturally.
consider that the entire history of America, how it has expanded, is by
provoking conflict with weaker peoples.
America is built on two pillars - ethnic cleansing on the right hand and
hypocrisy on the left.
As for nationalism, they drill the "pledge of allegiance to the flag" into
their 3 - year olds. Any other countries do that?
Partly due to their geographic isolation, Americans are tribalistic,
meaning they subconciously define themselves as the human race -
while overtly believing they are the "nice guys" who support the rest of
the world by foreign aid (LOL) and exporting their "civilization." it's a
very dangerous mixture of blind self-righteousness and great power.
add corporatism, deep-seated in their psychology and media,
and you have a perfect basis for fascism, militarism, and imperialism,
as long as the regime bears the colors and trappings of "freedom" (LOL) and
"democracy."
America Inc. knows how to package fascism. dissent is allowed on the fringes,
giving parochial cretins cause to crow against critics,
"you couldn't get away with that kind of freedom of speech anywhere else."
Ergo, it's ok to bomb the hell out of the rest of the world to liberate it.
these monolingual stay-at-homes haven't a clue that most of the world has
more functional freedom of speech than they do. example: corporatized
american businessmen are allowed to discuss only 3 topics at lunch: work,
sports and weather. At a French business lunch one can and does talk about
anything: religion, politics, culture.
america's slavery is outwardly voluntary conformism, invisible, not
politically mandated. speech is as standardized as the products. a table of
yankee tourists overheard in a cafe in europe. what were they talking
about, the sights and history surrounding the glass bubble of their
macdonalds? no. the great theme (yawn) was the marketing battles of pepsi
and coke. like little kids reciting commercial jingles, corporatism is so
deep in their heads that this was the only topic they came up with. with
hobbled brains, who needs chains.
since americans operate their cage themselves, they can pretend it's not a
cage.
that much more difficult to try to get them out.
Nationalism is quite a hard argument to subsantiate, as the corporatist
culture with the migrant society in the US would make it difficult to
really develop such strong nationalist characteristics. Political power in
the Executive can, in theory, be curbed by the Congress, despite its
limitations. But what we're seeing are the most outright violations ever
known, at least to me, by any American administration, and the Congress is
so helpless about it! Vested interests in going along the lines of the
administration? Or just plain cowardice in challenging a wartime President?
Main question is, are they really cowed in because of these, or are there
any other reasons? I find it hard to understand their behaviour.
Justin