GORE: The Assault On Reason "What Has Happened To Our Country?"

[kpete]

A large and growing number of Americans are asking out loud: "What has happened to our country?" People are trying to figure out what has gone wrong in our democracy, and how we can fix it.



Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason
Wednesday, May. 16, 2007
By AL GORE Article

Not long before our nation launched the invasion of Iraq, our longest-serving Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor and said: "This chamber is, for the most part, silent—ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the United States Senate."

In describing the empty chamber the way he did, Byrd invited a specific version of the same general question millions of us have been asking: "Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?" The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive and well-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to have reached levels that were previously unimaginable.

............

It is too easy—and too partisan—to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us? Why has America's public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? Faith in the power of reason—the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power—remains the central premise of American democracy. This premise is now under assault.

.............

As a result, our democracy is in danger of being hollowed out. In order to reclaim our birthright, we Americans must resolve to repair the systemic decay of the public forum. We must create new ways to engage in a genuine and not manipulative conversation about our future. We must stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudo-studies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public's ability to discern the truth. Americans in both parties should insist on the re-establishment of respect for the rule of reason.

much more at:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1622015,00.html

[Ganja Ninja]

1. "Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a sharply ...

diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?"

Two words: "Corporate Media"

[wordpix]

2. add to that: bad schools, outsourcing & BushCo

[AikidoSoul]

24. Add to that the HUGE influence on schools by corporate $$. This is an extremely serious problem n/t

[Arugula Latte]

38. Add to that the direct assault on reason, science and logic by RELIGION

Religion is a HUGE reason we are in big trouble.

[IndyOp]

43. Could I suggest: By corporatists who want to use religion to control the masses...

Pat Robertson's religion is $$$ -- he preaches to the masses to get them to send him their money and to get them to accept their hard lot in life that God wants them to shoulder.

I am no fan of organized religion of any stripe and, still, I think it is important to remember that move the evil that "religion" does is done by corporatists/fascists who are all about the $$$.

[donco6]

49. I could use some corporate money. Where do I get that? n/t

[Tigress DEM]

57. Well, first you become a millionaire....

Then you buy a corporation as a tax write off, drive it into the ground and screw all the stock holders out of their money and go ask for more.... lather rinse repeat.

THEN when you're really rich you apply for corporate welfare and get on the billionaire waiting list.

[bdamomma]

3. that seems to be the question that all of us have to answer.

also it doesn't help having a administration that is eroding and chipping away at our Constitution, etc.

[katty]

36. yup, all of them!!

[pcmcgill]

15. 1-09-08

The end of an error ... Please run, and we'll take care of the rest by voting for you!!

[newyawker99]

16. Hi pcmcgill!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[rodeodance]

4. and Presidental candidates do NOT believe in evolution---scary indeed

[bdamomma]

7. those republicans candidates are scary?? do they want to

carry out Bush's sickening policies????? except for Ron Paul, who scored a few points at the last debate.

[LastDemocratInSC]

47. I don't BELIEVE in evolution either ...

I know that evolution is real and understand that natural selection is the best explanation for that fact.

Belief has no role in the issue for me.

[dalaigh lllama]

61. an excellent point of distinction

By framing the question to the repub candidates in that manner, it made it seem as if evolution wasn't a scientific theory but a matter of faith.

[tetedur]

5. I like Al. (n/t)

.

[Peregrine Took]

42. I love Al!

[malaise]

6. What frightens me is the extent to which Bushco

has infiltrated and infected every important institution. DOJ appears to be just the tip of this iceberg. I'd like to see what's going on in the schools, college and university systems.
I need to know how much tax payer money has been siphoned off into right wing fundie schools, colleges and universities and away from the public school system. How many of the Regency type graduates have infiltrated the public school system and colleges?

[jhain]

8. He has lost weight

'they' said if we saw him losing weight it would mean he would run.

Run, Al, Run!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[renate]

18. it does look like he has

Now (I love him, but I feel it must be said) he needs to stop slicking back his hair.

[opihimoimoi]

9. Its the result of home schooling, group pysops, bad movies, tv, and radio...

The dumbing down of America began in 47 when a group made Social Engineering their mission...it only took 50 years but it worked.

Now...its considered COOL to be macho/athletic/lolo.

The smart guys...they are geeks/nerds/meeks/etc

This allows for a mental takeover.....IE what else can explain Bush in office?

[lyonn]

35. The 60's and 70's were an era of the great awakening -

free thought, less prohibitions put on the people by churches. Religion seemed to be an experience rather than dogma, hope that's the right word. Women were beginning to realize their role went beyond the washing machine. Maybe they could control how many kids they would have. But no, the repubs took over at least by the late 70's and women were told to put their bras back on (just an example). It looked then like the separation of the races was over. Nope. Throw in separation of church and state, nope.

How sad is this? We are going backwards for heaven sakes. Soon Muslims will have nothing on us when it comes to morals and a womans' role. Sheesh, just had to rant.

[RestoreGore]

10. Yes, Mr. Gore, it is up to us. But it's hard for some to look in that mirror

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=906824&mesg_id=906824

[Nimrod2005]

11. My President!!!

[deutsey]

12. I've been wondering that since 2000

It's only gotten much worse since then.

:evilfrown:

[Odin2005]

13. The western world has been flooded with anti-intellectual BS for the last 40 years.

Postmodernism, Relativism, New Age woo, Christian Fundamentalism, Straussianism (the philosophical basis of Neo-Conservatism) and Romanticist Ludditism have all contributed to all the irrational BS going around, it needs to stop.

[dave_p]

14. Yes, we must narrow "the marketplace of ideas".

I'm sure that's what Al really meant, he was just groping for the words.

So which ideas should be left? Did it ever occur to you that the crushing blandness of the intellectual mainstream and its inability to engage with heresy beyond its safe margin of debate may have helped to create all this stuff?

[Odin2005]

32. No, I just want RATIONALITY, not woo, not anti-rationalist PoMo nonsense...

...Not biblical literalism, not Straussian "noble lies," not misanthropic luddite crap. I want REASON, REASON, REASON!

[dave_p]

60. Reason must exchange

The advance of reason depends on being able to think the unthinkable: that's what's really been missing from the "legitimate" marketplace. I think Gore misses academia's own contribution to the narrowing of exchange when he attributes our woes to the media (though they're a huge part of the problem). I think much goes back to Cold War pursuit of a monolithic "we" - something that stifled Soviet academic progress and legitimized the absurdities of Strauss & co. The intellectual space has to be open to contentious ideas if it's to disprove them (or sometimes embrace them) and thereby move forward. By failing in that, we empower the forces of exclusion and intolerance that have lately done so much to harm our world.

[roamer65]

17. This man needs to be our next president!!!

We need someone with his logic, expertise and fortitude.

[Mabus]

19. Thank you for the internet Al!

Thank you for helping to raise our consciousness.

Now, as I see it, the best way to save our country and our planet is for you to run for president. Please help usher us back into an Era of Enlightenment.

[roamer65]

20. Your time is now, Al.

Even though it may not seem so right now, the people of the world do look to America as a beacon of hope. If you take your rightful place as our president, you will help to relight that "beacon of hope" for us and the world. Once we relight that beacon, the stars are the limit. America and the world need to "dream" again. If we do not, we have very dark days ahead of us.

[ms liberty]

21. Thanks for posting, kpete! K&R n/t

[CJCRANE]

22. I always think of

Al Gore as being the Conscience of America

and GW Bush is the American Id.

[DemGa]

23. Al Gore 2008

Gore/Obama 2008

The outpouring for this ticket would be incredible.

[stubtoe]

40. Absolutely unstoppable. n/t

[AikidoSoul]

25. Nothing would make me happier than to see Al Gore run.... and win. n/t

[Art_from_Ark]

45. Run... and win

I would party for weeks if that were to happen. :party:

[MzNov]

26. GORE44

:bounce: :bounce:


:woohoo: :woohoo:

[dogday]

27. 2000 election is what happened to this country

Once we stood down for that, all this other shit has followed... We allowed it to happen, it is the people who must protest like in Mexico...

[Wiley50]

28. Absolutely! As Molly said, " in the streets banging pots and pans"

K&R

[some guy]

29. with all due respect he is wrong.

" We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. "

WE do not have any of these things. They have all been hijacked/bought/stolen by corporatism.

" Have they all failed us? Why has America's public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? "

Yes, because it benefits corporatism's ability to gain and hold power to have a less focused, less reasoning populace.

As he notes, it isn't simply the policies of GW Bush. Corporate overthrow of the US started long before he was even born. Look to 1886 - Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific Railroad, where corporate "personhood" first (apparently fraudulently) was allowed to take root to find the beginnings of the corporate rise to power over the people of the US.

[Odin2005]

34. But those problems have deeper, philosophical, underpinings.

Since the 1970s there as been an assault on reason on this country by people of various political persuasions (both Left and Right) and thiss assult is what lead to the Corporatist takeover.

[some guy]

37. The only deeper, philosophical underpinning

is the same old 'might makes right' argument that wealth and power has always used to maintain their position over the majority - in any society.

You say the 1970s; the corporatist takeover was probably 90% complete by 1970. The only thing they had missed was media control. That was corrected in 1986 with the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine.

[Selatius]

44. Corporatists, from what I study, have extremely long memories and very long-term plans

A notch here, a notch there. In any given year, it may not seem like much, but if you reset the time frame to encompass several decades of American history, you can see power becoming ever more consolidated and concentrated in the hands of a few people, with public discourse suffering and the general level of education of the population degrading as news becomes more tabloid and less substance.

[some guy]

53. True n/t

[lildreamer316]

46. Actually, you are both right..and wrong.

I challenge you to go even deeper than that.

Politics is all about perception. One cannot be in the public arena without spin of some sort; not necessarily lying; but an honorable person in government must put the emphasis on certain things when speaking to certain people; or groups of people. See "Mr Smith Goes To Washington" for a good lesson in this idea, as well as many episodes of the West Wing.
It's not that Gore doesn't know these things you said, about the corporations' power, to be true-it's that this is the best way to get the ball rolling, as it were. When the public knows what it wants; and has a goal and a set of ideals to head toward; then the momentum builds to get the real work done-to rein the corporations in.
One couldn't simply present all of the evidence to the people about the great damage done to this country and democracy by corporate personhood and expect the populace to be able to effect any sort of change by themselves at the moment. This must be done legislatively. Those with the kind of power that the corps have must be taken down in a big way--by Congress. THAT movement is built on the shoulders of the one he is trying to start.
Yes, it's business. Fire with fire and all that. What we have is a government that is a business. Gore gives us something else to aim for here, in this book. Something the founding fathers had in mind all along.
I think it is brilliant, and well thought out.
To unfortunately paraphrase an asshole, you go to war with what you have.
THEN, you build what you want. (That's the part the asshole and his employers forgot...)

[some guy]

51. Okay

I went a little deeper, and read the whole linked book excerpt, instead of just the snips in the OP. :)

I will agree that moving toward more reasoned discourse is necessary, and that checking the corporate power to limit net neutrality is an important first step to both checking overall corporate power, and reviving (or maintaining a new open space for) reasoned debate and discussion.

I'll have to consider reading the whole book to see what else he has to say.

Thanks for challenging me. :hug:

[lildreamer316]

59. Back atcha!

Thanks for challenging me to attempt to make myself clear.
Sometimes that's a bit hard for me.
:hug:

[some guy]

62. heh

I can understand the difficulty in trying to make one's point clear.

I started replying to this thread (linked) when there were no other poll responses, and no replies to it. Almost twenty minutes it took me to get my short little post written. :)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x916483

[tomp]

52. that's right , and al gore of all people should know....

....that we do NOT have an independent judiciary (see bush v gore).

[lyonn]

30. It's one thing to have reasonable people disagree but,

since george has been in office there has been no discussion. My way or the highway mentality abounds. Look at Gonzo!? His whole administration is a pack of lying wolves. They have destroyed all the safeguards that the masses relied on to protect them from the rich and powerful. Never has the quote, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely", been more important.

When our country becomes so meek that it follows the leader that shouts that we are in terrible danger and that anyone that disagrees with his policies is a traitor, and the people go for this nonsense, then I become truly afraid. Not of terrorist but our citizens that stopped being rational.

[babydollhead]

31. kick

[mnhtnbb]

33. Here's a companion book that might offer some reasons

for what has happened to our country:

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America (Hardcover)
by Chris Hedges

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743284437/102-9807312-8490543

I have bought it to read along with Gore's new book.

[Aviation Pro]

39. Well said, Mr. President....

...well, said.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

41. Democratic Party is the Truth Party, Repubs the Power Party. D's are starting to understand power.

It has been my thesis for some time that rather than, or in addition to, the Nanny party / Daddy party model, there is the model that the Democratic party is the Truth party, more reasoned and more honest, while the Republican party is the Power party, more dedicated to power, whatever the cost. "The Truth will out", as the saying goes, and the election of 2006 has provided some evidence. People like Pelosi understand power better than many in the Democratic party and the party needs to pay more attention to how to gain and exercise power for a better balance, which it is doing with more success, and thankfully is not neglecting Truth in the process. The Republicans are still in denial on the Truth of the pre-War intelligence manipulation, the election fiddling, the BushCo-Cheney corruption, and a host of other issues like Evolution and Global Heating (to use a more truthful name for climate change / warming).

[deacon]

48. Run Al! Gore/Obama is a landslide waiting to happen

Gore/Clark works too.

[Straight Shooter]

50. "We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes."

I agree, Al. See my sig line.

(However, please note that I am part of the Democratic avalanche, not the Repub one. :) )

[HowHasItComeToThis]

54. THE MEDIA IS THE MONSTER

[lvx35]

55. doesn't he know power == intelligence?

I mean, if others are so smart why don't THEY have the power? Like those losers at Virginia Tech. If they are such "good students" and Cho was so "unbalanced" why didn't THEY have the presence of mind to bring guns to school that day to defend themselves against Cho?

:sarcasm:

(Sorry for that outburst, Its just I have actually heard the power == intelligence reasoning from these guys and it drives me nuts!)

[Erika]

56. W has destroyed the very moral fibre of this country n/t

[Golden Raisin]

58. Yes, they have all failed us.

"We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us?"

We no longer have any of the above, or they are hanging on to a cliff by their fingernails.