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Recent
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May
27, 2003
Kurt
Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli
Myths
Anthony
Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?
Patrick
Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad
John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character
Kathleen
Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
Jeffrey
Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap
Steve
Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands
May
26, 2003
Franklin
C. Spinney
Test Anxiety: Star Wars, Punctuated
Epistimology and the Triumph of Medievalism
Elaine
Cassel
Supreme Sacrifice
Sam
Hamod
When Trained Killers Return Home
Stew Albert
The Final Conflict
May
24 / 25, 2003
Gary
Leupp
The Philosopher Kings: Leo Strauss
and the Neo-Cons
Uri Avnery
The Hannibal Procedure
Diane
Christian
Who's the Real Enemy?
"Just Cause" or "Kill the Bastards"
Alexander
Cockburn
Derrida's Double Life
William
S. Lind
Is Saddam Really Out of the Game?
William
Cook
Road to Nowhere
David Krieger
Bush's War on the Poor: Economic Justice
Ilan
Pappe
Academic Freedom Under Assault in Israel
Wayne Madsen
American Idle
Noah
Leavitt
Slowing Sowing Justice in the Killing Fields
Walt Brasch
Americans are Liars
Lenni
Brenner
John Brown and Dutch Bill
Mickey
Z.
Hope, Crosby & Al Qaeda
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Grievous Harm Here and Abroad
Adam Engel
Towers of Babel
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Guthrie, Alam, Orloski
May
23, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Lifting the Sanctions: Who Benefits?
Ron
Jacobs
Long Live People's Park!
Michael
Greger, MD
Return of Mad Cow: US Beef Supply
at Risk
Elaine
Cassel
Tigar to Ashcroft: "Secrecy is the Enemy of Democratic Govt."
Sam
Hamod
The Shi'a of Iraq
Christopher
Greeder
After the Layoffs (poem)
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars Weblog 5/23
May
22, 2003
Mark
Gaffney
Christian in Name Only
Carl
Estabrook
Republic of Fear
Carl
Camacho, Jr.
Reason for Hope
Ben
Granby
What Rates a Headline from the Middle
East?
Vanessa
Jones
Terror Alerts in Australia
Mickey
Z.
Instant Understanding
Don
Monkerud
Snowballs in a Soggy Economy
Barry Lando
The Nether-Nether World of G.W. Bush
Steve
Perry
Total Information
Awareness: Secret Shadow Program?
May
21, 2003
Dave
Lindorff
Ari Fleischer Quits the Scene: The
Liar's Gone, the Enablers Remain
Chris
Floyd
How Blood Money Becomes Business Opportunity
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Graham's God and Bush's Pathology
Patrick
Cockburn
In Post War Iraq, the Signs of Breakdown
are Everywhere
Brian Cloughley
The Fatuous Braintrust: Newt, Rummy and Wolfowitz
Saul
Landau
Shopping, the End of the World and the Politics of Bush
Larry Kearney
Two Morning Poems, May 2003
Steve
Perry
Chaos in Iraq: Just What the US Wanted?
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft Justice Comes to Iraq
May
20, 2003
Tariq
Ali
The Empire Advances
Ahmad
Faruqui
Whither American Nationalism?
Ben Tripp
Dialysis with Osama
Linda
Heard
The Cage of Occupation
Cynthia
McKinney
Toward a Just and Peaceful World
Edward
Said
The Arab Condition
Mokhiber
and Weissman
Why Ari Should Have Resigned in Protest Long Ago
Stew
Albert
Yale Men
Steve Perry
The New Face of Al-Qaeda
May
19, 2003
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
A Letter to Kofi Annan on Powell's Missing
Evidence
CounterPunch
Wire
"Terror" Slut Steve Emerson
Eats Crow
John
Chuckman
Blair's Awkward Lies
Matt
Vidal
Corporate Media and the Myth of the Free Market
Michael
S. Ladah
The Fine Print to Bush's Road Map
Robert
Fisk
Bush's Eternal War Backfires
Elaine
Cassel
Clarence Thomas, Still Whining After All These Years
Jonathan
Freedland
Ann Coulter's Appalling Magic
Steve Perry
Play It Again, O-Sam-a
May
17 / 18, 2003
Uri
Avnery
The Children's Teeth
Peter
Linebaugh
An American Tribute to Christopher
Hill
Gary
Leupp
Nepal Today
Rock and
Rap Confidential
The Republican Plot Against the Dixie Chicks
Walter
Sommerfeld
Plundering Baghdad's Museums
Ron Jacobs
Condy Rice's Yipping Tirades
Thomas
P. Healy
Dubya Does Indy
Tarif Abboushi
Bush, Sharon and the Roadmap
Francis
Boyle
Debating US War Crimes in Iraq
Mark Davis
An Interview with Richard Butler
Richard
Lichtman
American Mourning
Michael
Ortiz Hill
Overcoming Terrorism
Adam
Engel
Uncle Sam is YOU!
Alan Maas
The Best News Show on TV
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Albert
Elaine
Cassel
Good Enough for an Alien
Website
of the Weekend
The 37 Americans Who Run Iraq
Song of
the Weekend
Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues
May
16, 2003
Leah
Wells
In Iraq Water and Oil Do Mix
Ben Tripp
Fear Itself
Sharon
Smith
The Resegregation of US Schools
Ramzy Baroud
Does Defeat Have to be So Humiliating?
Sam
Hamod
A Nation of Fear
Phil Reeves
Baghdad Pays the Price
Robert
McChesney
The FCC's Big Grab
Mark Engler
Those Who Don't Count
Steve
Perry
We're All
Extras in Bush's Movie
Website
of the Day
Iraq and Our
Energy Future
May
15, 2003
Ayesha
Iman and Sindi Medar-Gould
How
Not to Help Amina Lawal: The Hidden Dangers of Letter
Writing Campaigns
Julie
Hilden
Moussaoui and the Camp X-Ray Detainees:
Can He Get a Fair Trial?
Tanya
Reinhart
Bush's Roadmap: a Ticket to Failure
Laura Carlsen
Here We Go Again: NAFTA Plus or Minus?
Kenneth
Rapoza
The New Fakers: State Dept. Undercuts
New Yorker's Goldberg
Stew Albert
A Story I Will Tell
Steve
Perry
Bush's Little
Nukes
Website
of the Day
Strip-o-Rama
May
14, 2003
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Jason
Leopold
The Pentagon and Hallburton: a Secret
November Deal for Iraq's Oil
David
Lindorff
Fighting the Patriot Act: Now It's
Alaska
John
Chuckman
Giggling into Chaos
Jack
McCarthy
Twin Towers of Journalism: Racism
and Double Standards
Wayne
Madsen
Assassinating JFK Again
M.
Junaid Alam
The Longer View
Paul
de Rooij
The New Hydra's Head:
Propagandists and the Selling of the US/Iraq War
James
Reiss
What? Me Worry?
Steve Perry
More on Saudi Arabia Bombings
Website
of the Day
A Tribute to Ted Joans
May
13, 2003
Saul
Landau
Clear Channel Fogs the Airwaves
Michael
Neumann
Has Islam Failed? Not by Western
Standards
Uri
Avnery
My Meeting with Arafat
Steve Perry
The Saudi Arabia Bombing
Jacob
Levich
Democracy Comes to Iraq: Kick Their Ass and Grab Their Gas
William
Lind
The Hippo and the Mongoose: a Question of Military Theory
The
Black Commentator
Fraud at the Times: Blaming Blacks for White Folks' Mistakes
Stew Albert
Asylum
Hammond
Guthrie
An Illogical Reign
Website
of the Day
Sy Hersh: War and Intelligence
May
12, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Bush, Bin Laden, Bechtel, and Baghdad
Dave
Lindorff
America's Dirty Bombs
Sam
Hamod and Elaine Cassel
Resisting the Bush Administration's War on Liberty
Uzi
Benziman
Sharon and Sons, Inc.
Jason
Leopold
The Decline and Fall of Thomas White
Rich Procter
George Jumps the Shark
Federico
Moscogiuri
Going to Israel? Sign or Else
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/12
Book
of the Day
Fooling
Marty Peretz
Website
of the Day
T-Shirts to Protest In
Hot Stories
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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for More Stories.
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May
28, 2003
America's Dying
Arts
and Philosophy Hold the Cure
By JOHN STANTON
The wonderfully bizarre and philosophically fertile
novel Insatiability, written in 1927 by Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz,
describes a society in rancid decay faced with the external threat
of a "Sino-Mongolian" army with some very distinct
Soviet and Nazi characteristics. The armies of conformity are
on the border waiting to attack.
Meanwhile in Witkiewicz's society, religion,
philosophy, politics, art, literature and sex have become devoid
of transcendent qualities. They serve only to further the utilitarian
interests of racism, nationalism and patriotism. Sex is no longer
surrounded by love; instead, it is merely a means to produce
more workers, more soldiers, more taxpayers. Witkiewicz's nation
is frenetically engaged in an orgy of motion for motion's sake
which means that it is has extraordinarily high rates of productivity.
The people's days are full of activity whether it be producing
or manufacturing, reading the newspapers, visiting an art museum,
listening to music, or propagating the human species. The masses,
as Witkiewicz describes them, "all those dukes, counts,
farmers, peasants, workers, craftsmen, army" are vacuous
automatons who had long ago lost the ability to look beyond the
given image or word; that is, to think with depth.
The dying society that Witkiewicz portrays
can only be saved by the artists and the unblemished spiritualism
of religion freed from corporate structure. The writer, the philosopher,
the poet, the painter, the musician, and the religious leader
collectively  hold
the cure for a culture on its death bed. Why? As they have throughout
recording history, this merry band of refuseniks are constantly
exposing the brutality of reality and are continually challenging
institutions and the propaganda they spew forth. It is their
lot in life and their duty to ask the tough questions. No open
society can prosper for long without them. In Witkiewicz's world,
those with the cure have relinquished their responsibilities.
They no longer refuse-- they join, they are indoctrinated and
they conform. Indeed, it is far easier and more lucrative to
praise and promote the established order than it is to challenge
it. Such has been the choice of the Christopher Hitchens' of
the world. For others though, having taken that road, the sense
of guilt that going-along-to-get-along breeds haunts them. They
suffer no matter what they do.
But wait!
Murti-Bing Pills to
the Rescue
"A man who used these Murti-Bing
pills changed completely. The problems he had struggled with
until then suddenly appeared to be superficial and unimportant.
Those once tormented by philosophical insatiety now entered the
service of the new society [the new faith]. Instead of writing
the dissonant music of former days, they composed marches and
odes. Instead of painting abstractions as before, they turned
out socially useful pictures," according to Czeslaw Milosz,
in his forward to Insatiability. In the end, hooked on Murti-Bing,
Witkiewicz's characters have been, in essence, lobotomized. "Sturfan
wrote abominable things-novels without any 'heroes,' whose role
was now assumed by groups. Lilian continued to perform in theater.
He operated exclusively with the collective psyche, dispensing
entirely with dialogue. Art and literary criticism were at last
completely abolished."
Insatiability has many lessons in it
for Americans. As Milosz points out, Witkiewicz was describing
a Western society. One in which the quantity of material produced-be
it philosophy, art, literature, or even politicians-had no relation
to quality. The critics, whether literary or general culture,
knew very little about the subject matter they were assessing.
The critics were either employed by organizations who circumscribed
their views to preserve the bottom line, or they held a particularly
snobbish view of the changing world around them. "Because
of a spurious sense of social duty and a desire to instruct petty
people in petty virtues, whatever appears uncomfortable is either
glossed over in silence or else deliberately misconstrued and
misinterpreted. What can be expected of the public if the critics
themselves are below the average reader?"
Here in 21st Century America, Witkiewicz's
novel world has become a tragicomic reality. Critics take the
form homophobic Michael Savage, a savage intellect whose tirades
appeal to millions of predominantly white males who believe that
American history began with George Bush II. Another critic and
hustler like Rush Limbaugh, whose website urges boycotting France
and Germany--and encourages visitors to join The Presidential
Prayer Team--speaks volumes to the depth-free nature of the American
intellect. One wonders if the Savage and Limbaugh audiences know
that Baron de Montesquieu was the inspiration for the "checks
and balances" of the US government. Or that the French have
greatly influenced US military doctrine since at least 1776 (not
to mention salvaging the American revolution).The vaunted shock
and awe tactics used recently during the War in Iraq were set
in place long ago by Napoleon Bonaparte who revamped the French
army with doctrines that ensured speed, maintaining the offensive,
maneuverability and joint training. That revolution in military
affairs took place over 200 years ago. Immediately after World
War I, the US Army solicited German gun designers recognizing
the inferiority of US designs. Of course, without former Nazi
Werner Von Braun, the USA would have had far greater difficulty
getting its machines and warheads into space.
Bush Not the Problem
but the Symptom
The US is populated with thousands of
Savage's and Limbaugh's in corporate board rooms, the government
and military, universities, media outlets, sports and entertainment,
and the world of arts. These are the petty people to whom Witkiewicz
refers. The very ones whose "spurious sense of social duty
and petty virtue" has somehow landed them in positions of
power that allows them to comment, or critique, an entire society
and its culture and government. Yet their commentary is as staged
and hollow as George Bush's comedic Top Gun stunt on the aircraft
carrier Abraham Lincoln. And it's killing America. But that false
imagery and the language that goes with it finds a paying and
voting audience in the tens of millions-Witkiewicz's masses--who
either truly believe in the simplistic and erroneous notions
of American mythology, or who have auctioned off their transcendent
souls for the safe havens of profitability and conformity.
These vacuous people-senators and congressmen,
CEO's and generals, preachers and rockers, white collar and blue
collar alike--when confronted with the factual record of George
Bush II's record of being AWOL from the Texas National Guard
and his many business failings, or informed that every political
rally held by this president is a lesson in Hollywood production
101, simply deny that reality and opt for the fantasy. But Bush
is not the problem. It is what he has come to represent. And
that is the antithesis of what US citizens are taught to believe
it means to be American. It takes years of labor to purchase
and maintain a home, to stay on the payroll, to get an education,
to believe there is more than crass profit and loss, to tolerate
tax cuts for the rich, to raise a family, to worship ones god's,
to be honest and trusting.
That quaint American philosophy of life
has been beheaded. Now the "leaders" aren't even coy
about parsing the truth with the country. It's in-your-face lying
on a global scale. Full spectrum perception management via the
US government, incorporated, ensures that what was false remains
false, but you'll believe it to be true, just like you still
believe the New York Times. Where else are you to turn? You are
too busy being productive to believe otherwise and, besides,
you don't have the time to fight the system.
The modern day Murti-Bing pills--Paxil,
Zoloft, Xanax and prime time media-let you tolerate the madness
that is fed to you on a daily basis: Trillions in tax cuts for
the rich are good. $700 billion for defense and intelligence
is good. Outsourcing 850,000 government jobs is good. Cutting
highway funding to the states is good. Cutting social programs
is good. Eliminating pension plans and social security is good.
Don't criticize, we are at war. America: love it or leave it.
"Mission Accomplished". Ditching the United Nations
and international treaties is good. It's not about oil. We don't
need a commission on 911-trust us. Hussein was a threat to the
United States. Your safer now with Tom Ridge in charge. There
is an opposition party. The president's speeches and rally's
are spontaneous. Without the US military there would be no freedom.
Freedom means the ability to buy and sell. Media deregulation
is good. Guantanamo Bay is not a death camp. The War on Drugs
and the War on Terrorism are successful. The US Department of
Homeland Security does not have former KGB officers as consultants.
Missile defense works.
In this national psycho ward, you want
to do "something" to contribute because there's an
emptiness you just can't seem to shake. You want to be a refuseniks.
One day, you say to yourself, I'll do "something" about
it.
There's More to Life
"Perhaps sunlight, the smell of
the earth, little everyday pleasures and the forgetfulness that
work brings can ease somewhat the tensions created by this process.
But beneath the activity and bustle of daily life is the constant
awareness of an irrevocable choice to be made. One must either
die--physically or spiritually--or else one must be reborn according
to the prescribed method, namely, the taking of Murti-Bing pills.
People in the [USA] are often inclined to consider the lot of
converted countries in terms of might and coercion. That is wrong.
There is an internal longing for harmony and happiness that lies
deeper than the ordinary fear of the desire to escape misery
or physical destruction."
The people of America have difficult
decisions ahead. Their economy is awash in a sea of debt and
the unemployed. It's military adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq
are far from complete. It's corporate board rooms and halls of
government are indistinguishable. The invisible hand of censorship
is everywhere. Million's are afraid to speak in fear of the state's
security apparatus. The state has become god-like in its ability
to inculcate fear through constant "terrorist" alerts.
American's can easily choose to be "reborn"
and conform to a system which delivers the goods, as Herbert
Marcuse once said. Do they have any art, philosophy or spirituality
in them? What will they do? Stand and fight, or stand and help
deliver the goods. Mr. Witkiewicz's choice, however, is not recommended.
In 1939, recognizing that the Soviet's and Nazi's were on the
way into Poland, he committed suicide.
John Stanton
is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security
matters. He the author (along with Wayne Madsen) of America's
Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II. Reach him at
cioran123@yahoo.com
Today's
Features
Kurt
Nimmo
Condoleezza Rice: Huckstress for Israeli
Myths
Anthony
Gancarski
Hillary: a Dem the NeoCons Could Love?
Patrick
Cockburn
Terror, Bush and Joseph Conrad
John Chuckman
an Interpretation of Bush's Character
Kathleen
Christison
What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets
Jeffrey
Blankfort
AIPAC Hijacks the Roadmap
Steve
Perry
Trouble in the Hinterlands
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