Reply #10: I can't get behind that perspective.

[WilliamPitt]

The new book I am (kinda sorta almost) writing nowadays would take time to explain I don't have right now (airport trip to pick up girlfriend), but one big theme will be this:

"In America, it isn't the lies that are killing us; it is the myths that are killing us."

Expose a lie for someone, and they'll usually be grateful to you. Expose or deflate one of the myths that serves to define their world and comfort their doubts? You'll have made an enemy for life.

The myth of needing SO MUCH DEFENSE (WAR) SPENDING so America stays strong is how they have stolen a lot of our future right from under our noses.

The myth of THE ENEMIES WHO SURROUND US that are GOING TO DESTROY AMERICA ANY MINUTE UNLESS...fill in the blank, this one takes all comers and has been the law of political gravity for more than 60 years.

The myth that CAPITALISM IS GOD'S FAVORITE ECONOMIC PARADIGM is another good one that has done unimaginable damage.

The point?

Sorry, yeah, the point is that history needs to be rehashed, retaught, sometimes in startling fashion. The myths are what give our foes their power, the myths give them cover, the myths have greased the skids for decades upon decades. Pop the myths, and all sorts of eyes will start seeing differently, brows will furrow, and that'll be something of a beginning.

Yeah, sometimes it seems like self-flagellation, but we won't ever make one bit of difference unless the myths we sleep by get stripped off the bed. The T-day garbage exposure is a good example.

mho.