A foul-smelling reality hangs in the air.....

[Jade Fox]

This is long, but it's one of the best things I've read about Al Gore, the media, and Presidential campaigns.

Well Crafted Phoniness-Jeffrey Feldman
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-feldman/wellcrafted-phoniness_b_68331.html

The fate of Al Gore offers a window into our condition as a country and the future we are doomed to repeat--soon--if we do not wake up to this problem and fix it.

-snip-

Journalists play a crucial role in our political system, Herbert is telling us, and the fact that journalists by-and-large chose the 'barbecue companion' over 'intelligent, thoughtful, and talented'--and then did it again four years later--has had profound consequences in real terms: loss of life, collective wealth, and a general lack of peace and well-being that now poisons the entire world. Gore's Nobel Prize should lead everyone to wonder what kind of world we would be living in, today, if journalists had only showed the 'collective maturity' of 12-year-olds or, heaven forbid: educated adults.

-snip-

A foul-smelling reality that hangs in the air this week, most of us understand that even in a time of war, impeding economic collapse, inevitable health crises, and a global climate crisis already upon us--were Gore to step again into the Presidential ring, he would again be eviscerated into submission for how he speaks, dresses, and eats--issues of no significance to anyone.

Gore's Nobel Prize shines an unflattering light on America in general and our political culture in particular. It reveals a media-driven American politics driven that still prefers beating good ideas and leadership to death and rolling around in the mess than turning to the future with an interest in understanding what John Dewey once called the relationship between things.

-snip-

This country has developed the bad habit, Herbert reminds us, of choosing 'well-crafted phoniness' as Presidential instead of talented, informed talent. And that is a habit that we do not seem particularly determined to break:

[IndyOp]

1. Do you have any hope that we can wake up our fellow citizens in time

to avoid nomination of more "well-crafted phoniness"?

:(

[Jade Fox]

3. I'd love to say "yes".....

but a lot of Americans seem to be getting stupider and more unable to think for themselves. They seem to have little awareness of how the media makes up reality for them. And I just don't understand why so many people resent someone who is smart, and would rather have an idiot for president.

By the same token, many Americans are getting smarter in response to the disaster of the last 6 years.

I just don't know.

[Th1onein]

6. I think "hope" doesn't matter.

I think that, simply, that we must toil, each of us, on a daily basis, to enlighten our friends and family and neighbors. Everyday Americans need to stop fighting each other on the wedge issues and come together, somehow, on those things that we can agree on, for our country's sake.

[IndyOp]

9. Agreed. Someone asked Noam Chomsky once whether he felt despair or hope...

and he said it was irrelevant, something you might talk about with your wife and children, but it has no effect on what you do. Take action, then take action again...

:hi:

[eridani]

10. Yes indeed. I always think of aircraft black boxes

The pilots may have managed to land safely, or they might have headed straight into a mountain. Either way they will have done everything by the book according to their training.

[ShortnFiery]

2. A corporate "media-driven American politics" IMO says it all ... Corrupt beyond belief!

Oh boy, Timmy (Russert), Wolfie, and Howie (Kurtz) are constantly telling us HOW TO THINK about seemingly every damn candidate and every political issue. F**k these arrogant pseudo-journalistic WHORES for their *Military Industrial Complex RULES* Corporate Masters. :grr: :thumbsdown:

[IndyOp]

4. Very nice finish...

Herbert's observations help us understand that Gore is not just a prize winner. He has become a reminder that this country is standing on the edge of a cliff and that carbon emissions are just one small aspect of that dilemma.

As Herbert argues cogently, asking if Al Gore will decide to run for President again is "like asking someone who's recovered from a heart attack if he plans to resume smoking." I agree. It makes no sense. What does make sense is to look at Al Gore's Nobel Prize and demand that this country does not again choose the barbecue test over the leadership test--does not go for well-crafted phoniness over talent and intelligence.

Speaking to this very problem in his press conference, yesterday, Gore made the following statement that should have been repeated by every journalist in America:

There is an old African saying: "If you want to go quickly: go alone; if you want to go far: go together." We have to go far--quickly.

We must go together and quickly on so many levels. How insulted we should all be that so few journalists bothered to report this powerful insight by Gore, focusing instead--as they often do--on the well-crafted and phony reactions from the right-wing media.

Barbecue, indeed.

[whistle]

5. It is the smell of fascism and the corruption, decay and rot which it causes

[Summer93]

7. We The People

Hold the purse-strings in our own hands. We choose each time we make a purchase, to support one corporation or another. OR.....

Over the past several years I have been making the effort to purchase more locally. Produce is available locally during certain seasons and then I can put aside what I will need. Local business is interested in my business and treats me much better than those corporate headquarters off shore somewhere, where they choose not to participate in revenue of our country. Local artisans and repairmen are available for special projects.

I like to keep in my mind what I can do rather than dwell on the negativity that is dragging this country down. Let's show them what we want and who we will pay for it.

[KoKo]

8. Kick & Recommend....!!!!!!