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CounterPunch
September
17, 2002
Paranoid Americans
by Linda S. Heard
The Americans are being slowly indoctrinated into
believing that they are citizens of a nation under siege, beset
by evil forces both within and without. Inspired by the Bible-thumping
rhetoric of their beloved right-wing Christian leader, they
see themselves as freedom's champions.
Indeed, America was attacked on September
11, 2001 and on its own soil. Yet, however horrendous that was
in terms of the loss of innocent human life, it should be put
into perspective.
In reality the U.S. was attacked on a
single day by extremist ideologues; crazed criminals, who unleashed
their fury over America's foreign policies onto U.S. symbols
of capitalism and power.
Rather than put 9-11 into its proper
context, the Bush administration has fostered a new siege mentality
onto the American people by repeating at every opportunity over
and over again like a mantra "they are jealous of our freedoms"
or "they hate democracy". The truth must not be exposed.
Anyone outside the influence of this
pernicious campaign against individual thought, would be disposed
to ask: How can those who hate democracy be envious of people
enjoying freedom? But, sadly, the Americans who ask these kinds
of questions are in the minority.
Instead, the American public has fallen
victim to a gigantic propaganda/indoctrination campaign, organised
by its own government. The U.S. government and its subservient
media make a great team.
September 11, 2002 was a perfect example
of this Orwellian-type mind-control on the part of the powers
that be in the U.S. On that day the American government pulled
out all the stops. Just minutes before the president's speech
at the Pentagon, Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Defence Minister,
said: "We came here today to rededicate ourselves to the
cause of human liberty".
Staff Sergeant Steve Cramer sang A Hero
for Today, providing the emotional component to the heavily
charged proceedings.
Even this beautifully-rendered seemingly
innocent song featured the words: When you stand for freedom
you sometimes stand alone. Which ditty could have been more
appropriate to motivate the U.S. military in case of a unilateral
invasion of Iraq?
Over at Ground Zero, New York's Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg read out an excerpt from Franklin D. Roosevelt's
1941 speech The Four Freedoms, and said that 2,800 people lost
their lives because "some people found our freedom threatening".
The nostalgic day came to a close with
the American President standing with the backdrop of the Statue
of Liberty and announcing that America would never be at the
mercy of any foreign power. End of a genuinely sad, yet perfect
politically-orchestrated occasion.
The previous day had witnessed Americans
being reminded of the dangers which they perceive as constantly
surrounding them since 9-11, when Attorney General John Ashcroft
announced that the U.S. was on high alert for terrorist attacks.
This ominous code-orange warning was
illustrated by the sight of missile launchers, scattered around
Washington, fighter jets patrolling the skies and metal detectors
outside significant buildings.
Totalitarian
I'll bet there were few in America last
week whose thoughts dwelt on the eroded economy or corporate
scandals. This combination of fear and nationalism is a way
to control the masses and one often used by leaders of totalitarian
states on the principle of "who controls thoughts, controls
the world".
Such a leader would explain the past
by blaming scapegoats; justify the current "struggle for
good over evil" and all with the promise of a golden future...
"for our children, or our children's children". Sound
familiar?
Subliminal messages are put out by such
leaders, using the repetition of key-words, or sound-bites,
which an unsuspecting public finds almost impossible to ignore.
Phrases like "freedom itself was attacked by a faceless
coward and freedom will be defended" for example.
Constant visual reminders of enemy influences
(crumbling buildings, perhaps?) are flashed with unwavering
regularity into their homes, lest they should forget.
As these suggestions permeate the public
psyche, individuals may struggle against them on a conscious
level, but eventually they seep into the realms of the subconscious
until they re-emerge as the individual's own ideas.
Such walking indoctrinated would be outraged
by any notion that their strings were being pulled and they
were not as free as they thought they were.
Is this a process which the American
people are undergoing these days? Are they being played like
a tune on a fiddle, while remaining blissfully unaware? This
question deserves to be asked. How were the American people
persuaded to willingly offer up their privacy and civil liberties
on the altar of protecting their own freedoms?
The very people who believe that theirs
is the world's only free society are seemingly uncomplaining
about the fact that their emails can be scrutinised by the FBI
or the CIA, and their phone calls monitored - all sanctioned
by the Patriot Act.
Where were the street protests when the
new TIPS scheme was announced? In many cases such fear-led paranoia
has impinged heavily upon the freedoms of people, like the three
Arab-born Americans who were taken into custody by police last
weekend and held for 72-hours just because while eating out,
a nosy (and obviously deaf) co-diner thought that she heard
them plotting terrorist attacks.
Then there was the aircraft, which was
turned back to its departure point all because a passenger took
out a comb, which an overly paranoid individual believed to
be a lethal weapon.
Of course, the U.S. has every right and
duty to protect itself from any further attack - but without
scaring its citizens and attempting to make them believe they
are on a sacred mission to rid the world of nameless, faceless
perpetrators of evil.
When it comes to the leaders of other
countries, such manipulative techniques have little effect,
and this is why Bush's speech before the United Nations General
Assembly had a down to earth quality, devoid of his usual Crusader-type
rhetoric.
The carefully-worded, much-anticipated
speech was nothing but hype, delivered as a sop to the collective
egos of member states, smarting at being ignored by the superpower
regarding its intentions towards Iraq. In reality, Bush could
have read verses from Hiawatha for all the substance that was
in that speech.
It merely reiterated everything which
we all knew about Iraq without providing any new evidence that
Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction or that he threatens
the world.
The American President should be congratulated
on his ability to keep a straight face when complaining about
Iraqi aggression during the Iran/Iraq war, as he did in his
speech before the UN Assembly.
We all know that Saddam was at that time
a favourite son of the U.S., and the beneficiary of American
weapons and military assistance. When it came to the baloney
about the way in which the Bush administration is supposed to
care about the Iraqi people and wishes to free them from the
oppression of that dreadful dictator, I almost choked.
This is the same Iraqi people which American-led
sanctions has deprived of food, medicine and clean water, and
which, if Bush has his way, will be slaughtered in their thousands
by U.S. bombs in any upcoming strike.
Speeches which contain tugs at the heartstrings
and calls to patriotism are strictly a diet of schmaltz fed
to the public. The leaders of UN member states are largely
unimpressed by rhetoric. Their tear-filled eyes are unlikely
to gaze adoringly upon Bush in full flourish on the podium.
They are far more interested in tangible benefits. For them
it's the bottom line which counts.
We can only speculate on the various
enticements, which the other permanent members of the Security
Council are likely to be proffered for not using their veto
against the terms of the next UN resolution concerning Iraq.
Already the UN itself has been bestowed
with the "gift" of America's membership of Unesco,
whose head office just happens to be in Paris.
As a result of U.S. machinations, manipulations
and mass-hypnosis, after 11 long years, Saddam has been moulded
into the personification of all that is bad with Bush the reincarnated
Richard Coeur de Lion. And as my wise, great-aunt would have
said in the British vernacular: "Pull the other one, deary.
It's got bells on it".
Linda S Heard
is a writer, editor and Arabist, who has lived and worked for
most of her life in the Middle East.
She can be reached at: freenewsreport@yahoo.com
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