More timeless wisdom from the great Howard Zinn: America’s Blinders

[marmar]

from The Progressive:



America’s Blinders
By Howard Zinn, April 2006 Issue


Now that most Americans no longer believe in the war, now that they no longer trust Bush and his Administration, now that the evidence of deception has become overwhelming (so overwhelming that even the major media, always late, have begun to register indignation), we might ask: How come so many people were so easily fooled?

The question is important because it might help us understand why Americans—members of the media as well as the ordinary citizen—rushed to declare their support as the President was sending troops halfway around the world to Iraq.

A small example of the innocence (or obsequiousness, to be more exact) of the press is the way it reacted to Colin Powell’s presentation in February 2003 to the Security Council, a month before the invasion, a speech which may have set a record for the number of falsehoods told in one talk. In it, Powell confidently rattled off his “evidence”: satellite photographs, audio records, reports from informants, with precise statistics on how many gallons of this and that existed for chemical warfare. The New York Times was breathless with admiration. The Washington Post editorial was titled “Irrefutable” and declared that after Powell’s talk “it is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction.”

It seems to me there are two reasons, which go deep into our national culture, and which help explain the vulnerability of the press and of the citizenry to outrageous lies whose consequences bring death to tens of thousands of people. If we can understand those reasons, we can guard ourselves better against being deceived.

One is in the dimension of time, that is, an absence of historical perspective. The other is in the dimension of space, that is, an inability to think outside the boundaries of nationalism. We are penned in by the arrogant idea that this country is the center of the universe, exceptionally virtuous, admirable, superior.

If we don’t know history, then we are ready meat for carnivorous politicians and the intellectuals and journalists who supply the carving knives. I am not speaking of the history we learned in school, a history subservient to our political leaders, from the much-admired Founding Fathers to the Presidents of recent years. I mean a history which is honest about the past. If we don’t know that history, then any President can stand up to the battery of microphones, declare that we must go to war, and we will have no basis for challenging him. He will say that the nation is in danger, that democracy and liberty are at stake, and that we must therefore send ships and planes to destroy our new enemy, and we will have no reason to disbelieve him. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.progressive.org/mag_zinn0406

[ismnotwasm]

1. Howard Zinn rocks

Thank you for posting

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. The Americans who spit on those of us who protested the war

at the local courthouse in 2003 called us vile names. They told us Bush was the Second Coming of Christ and implied that since Iraq was full of brown skinned "heathens" we had every right to go and take their oil. So personally, I think the mentality of some Americans who supported the war was based upon their own prejudices.

[blues90]

3. You are right .

I feel alot of the reason many americans bought this attack on Iraq was long time prejudice that was brought to a boil by Powell lying to the UN with those fake drawings and a vial of white powder he kept picking up and shaking .

I do know the people where I worked were more concerned about their prejudice than an actual threat to their safety , they wanted to turn the entire ME into glass .

I protested that attack on Iraq and the end result , I got fired right before the 2004 elections . My wife is convinced this was why I was fired after 12 years working there .

I hated the cars and SUV's riding along with those cheap chinses made american flags and at one intersection there were protestors on my ride home and a bill board with addicted to war .com and I ordered two of these paper books and let one rotate through the work place just to make people think a bit .

Americans are the only people I know of that are so in love with their cars and SUV's , I see few SUV's in Europe or the UK or any where else in any footage shown of these parts of the world . also PU trucks are the american dream as are huge homes and gated communities .

I may very well be wrong , however this is the impression I get and I have been around the block a few times .