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October 26, 2001
Rahul
Mahajan
Poisoning
the Well
Sen. Russ Feingold
Why I Opposed
the
Anti-Terrorism Bill
John Troyer
Put
the War to a Vote
Norman Madarasz
What It
Means to be
Against the War
Patrick
Cockburn
Northern
Alliance Attacks
US Bombing Strategy
Richard Lloyd Parry
Terrible Images
of a "Just" War
October 25, 2001
Ghassan
Andoni
Raid
on Bethlehem
N.D. Jayaprakash
From
Hiroshima to NYC
Evan Schultz
Memo
to Ashcroft:
Read Marbury
The Sunshine
Project
Assault
on the BioWeapons
Convention
Sarah
Turner
Cashing
In on Patriotism
Latin American Colloquium
on Systemology
The Meridia Manifesto
Noam Chomsky
The
New War on Terror
October 24, 2001
Michael
Colby
Radioactive
Mail?
Lori Allen
Life
in an Occupied Land
During Wartime
Peter
Swire
New
Anti-Terrorism Bill
Poses Old Risks
Irina
Malenko
A
Non-Western Voice
David
Vest
Welcome
to Web Hell
Patrick Cockburn
Battle
of Mazar Gets Nasty
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October 29,
2001
Terrorism: a Definitive
History
Lies, Sheep, Democracy
and Christianity
By Richard Manning
"Next the statesmen will invent
cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked,
and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities,
and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations
of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the
war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys
after this process of grotesque self-deception."
Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger, 1916, Ch.9
Thanks to Charles Buffalo, I just read this downloaded
book: an excellent allegory by Mark Twain. Read along with Voltaire's
"Candide" (1761), Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason"
(1794) and Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "The Little Prince"
(1943), one can drop Patricians, Philosophers, Poets, and Priests,
plus hang most Politicians -- whereby all Mother Earth's underprivileged
(outside America, of course), especially its children, can finally
be free to grow in real health under far less Phallic-obsessed,
aggressed and fearful Parents and Patriarchs (kudos to WC Fields'
1920s' satire).
Thereby, thanks to less institutionalized
subjugation to honorific, titled and capitalized men exercising
Patriotic Power over social nurturing, conformity and obedience,
not us but possibly our children will be blessed by egocentric
Paternalism being replaced by humane guides and honest friends.
The final result would be true freedom
for our race: thanks to less fears instilled by machismo Papas
inundating young minds with material and spiritual insecurities,
and more Platonic humanism determining mature actions.
I highly recommend Twain's short story.
Taking place, on the face of it, year 1590 in a Catholic village
in Austria. The main characters are three boys, two priests and
a bishop, an astrologer, a comely maiden and timid beau, all
watched over by a kindly old gypsy spirit, called Satan. Supported
by a lively cast of typical Western followers: the innocent and
naive, the guilty and malicious - all with fear in their hearts
of those elevated
Following is an iconoclast's terse theory,
reversing time on three Americans for a history lesson:
# 1
"Even in the midst of this tragedy,
the eternal lights of America's goodness and greatness have shown
through."
Written for Mr. Bush (by ????) as he
mouthed the words last weekend to the American Society of Anesthesiologists
in a speech taped earlier (NB: CIA terrorism experts are checking
connections from Bush Sr.'s "Points of Light", to Bush
Jr.'s. "Eternal Lights", to all those unsuspecting
lights blown away on Sept. 11th).
PLUS # 2
"The highest possible form of treason
is to say that Americans aren't loved wherever they go, whatever
they do."
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., written nearly four
decades ago, as he portrayed the problem of ignorance by putting
the above words into the mouth of a fictitious American ambassador
who had been fired for pessimism.
EQUALS 100%
PERCEPTION :
"I know your race. It is made up
of sheep. It is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities.
It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful
that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right,
sometimes wrong; but no matter, the crowd follows it. The vast
majority of the race, whether savage or civilized, are secretly
kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but in the presence
of the aggressive and pitiless minority they don't dare to assert
themselves. Think of it!"
op cit, Mark Twain, Ch. 9
To finalize connections into this definitive
history, we add two most astute analyses from Mark Twain:
1) his incisive historical wisdom explaining
institutional fear oppressing people in guise of democracy,
2) his courageous prescience in accurately predicting the most
competent of modern Terrorist killers.
1) "Monarchies, aristocracies, and
religions are all based upon that large defect in your race --
the individual's distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for
safety's or comfort's sake, to stand well in his neighbor's eye.
These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and
always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you
will always be and remain slaves of minorities."
2) "It is a remarkable progress.
In five or six thousand years five or six high civilizations
have risen, flourished, commanded the wonder of the world, then
faded out and disappeared; and not one of them except the latest
ever invented any sweeping and adequate way to kill people. They
all did their best -- to kill being the chiefest ambition of
the human race and the earliest incident in its history -- but
only the Christian civilization has scored a triumph to be proud
of. Two or three centuries from now it will be recognized that
all the competent killers are Christians; then the pagan world
will go to school to the Christian -- not to acquire his religion,
but his guns. The Turk and the Chinaman will buy those to kill
missionaries and converts with."
(op cit, ch. 9)
Richard Manning
lives in Antibes, France.
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