The President couldn't possibly have any unpatriotic motives
as always, great value added over at glenn greenwald's place, unclaimed territory, this time from hume's ghost, entitled democratic totalitarianism...
aye, and therein lies the rub...
americans have been propagandized to the extent that we simply cannot accept that our government would act from other than the purest of motives... we have been told from the womb that the united states is at the apex of civilized nationhood with a unique place in history, blessed by god, founded on the highest ethical, moral, and, yes, religious principles, with a special responsibility to serve as a shining example to the world... while all of that has truth to it, it does not preclude our leaders from being prey to the same flaws and foibles as other governments and maybe more so BECAUSE of the unique place the united states occupies in today's world...
when you visit other countries, one of the first things you notice is the degree of resigned cynicism people have about their governments... they EXPECT chicanery and corruption and aren't surprised when they see it... as i wrote in a post a few weeks ago, i find that a taxi driver in skopje, macedonia, is more aware of cheney's war profiteering via halliburton than the average american citizen... as a nation, we desperately need to wake up and smell the coffee... Submit To Propeller
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"... there is now a widespread tendency to argue that one can only defend democracy by totalitarian methods ... These people don’t see that if you encourage totalitarian methods, the time may come when they will be used against you instead of for you. Make a habit of imprisoning Fascists without trial, and perhaps the process won’t stop at Fascists."
- George Orwell, The Freedom of the Press
[T]he Bush administration, acting on radical legal theory developed by John Yoo, has claimed for itself unlimited executive power to prosecute an indefinite "war on terror."
[...]
Yet, despite this being, frankly, clear as day, there are still many who just don't see a problem with it. These are the people who believe in democracy in principle, but in practice, not so much. They are able to rationalize the administration's totalitarian methods of prosecuting the "war on terror" for two reasons: 1) they lack sympathy for anyone designated a terrorist target and 2) they fail to see the use of totalitarian tactics as a threat to themselves, they see it as a kind of benign, virtuous act necessary to defend democracy.
[...]
[T]he President couldn't possibly have any unpatriotic motives in authorizing the NSA surveillance.
aye, and therein lies the rub...
americans have been propagandized to the extent that we simply cannot accept that our government would act from other than the purest of motives... we have been told from the womb that the united states is at the apex of civilized nationhood with a unique place in history, blessed by god, founded on the highest ethical, moral, and, yes, religious principles, with a special responsibility to serve as a shining example to the world... while all of that has truth to it, it does not preclude our leaders from being prey to the same flaws and foibles as other governments and maybe more so BECAUSE of the unique place the united states occupies in today's world...
when you visit other countries, one of the first things you notice is the degree of resigned cynicism people have about their governments... they EXPECT chicanery and corruption and aren't surprised when they see it... as i wrote in a post a few weeks ago, i find that a taxi driver in skopje, macedonia, is more aware of cheney's war profiteering via halliburton than the average american citizen... as a nation, we desperately need to wake up and smell the coffee... Submit To Propeller
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posted by profmarcus at
6/15/2006
