[Austin-ghetto-list] new yorker - ??

[Wayne Johnson]

If one was to think "extremely paranoid conspiracy" thoughts, one might be
lead to ponder how beautifully this atrocity would fit in with a  "Bush
Plan" for turning the US into a semi-military state.  Sandra Day O'Connor
says this is a "miliatary" not a "judicial" problem.  Ashcroft is nibbling
away at the first ten amendments like a demented lemming, absolutely
everyone is "standing tall" behind the Prez in their best John Wayne
imitations...notably hard for Barbara Boxer.   Soon we will have "ID" cards,
just like the USSR/et al used to do.   We will have the army guarding major
buildings.  People who "look strange" will be held for indefinite periods of
time.   Anti-aircraft weaponry...and those what man/person them...at nuclear
plants.  ANY kind of privacy will be a thing of the past and one may soon be
considered un-American for even wanting same.

This can be the turning point in this country's slow slide into the
Industrial-Military-Imperial Presidency (neo-Facist) morass.  Real
"democratic" participation in our government, perhaps in our own lives, will
become more of a fiction than it already is.   With a continued emphasis on
"testing" our schools will SORT and not EDUCATE.  Perhaps I should say they
will become even worse at this than they already are.  Creative expression
may become a sign of "dissatisfaction" and this "liberal" approach to life
will be suppressed.  People will be assigned a number at birth, their
"files=lives" fully available to anyone (read:business/government)
interested, the movements tracked across time and space, enormous data banks
brimming with credit history, school records, job records, dental records,
sunday school attendance records and anything else anyone might
want...weight, height, sexual orientation, voting history, "attitude" and on
and on.

We saw this kind of crap happening while Hoover was in charge of the FBI,
virtually EVERYONE in the entertainment industry had a file/dossier.  (He
was much more interested in Frank Sinatra's sex life then investigating the
assissination of JFK.)  So...we know this can happen.  Multiply this by,
say, a factor of ten and see what you get.   This couldn't have happened at
a better time...if this is what you think some people...like the
famous/infamous Bohemian Grove crowd...want to help them "manage" this
country/the world.

The covert manipulation of the American consciousness as well as the actual
leadership has just been given an enormous boost.  We have found a "new
enemy" in keeping with the Republican Party's basic need for something to
whine about.   Well, I guess it is better to have Ben Laden...the CIA
trained and supported operative in our "Holy War against Communism" to kick
around than, say, American gays, lesbians, atheists, druids, jews, artists,
intellectuals and so forth.

No, one wouldn't want to be considered a Mad Conspiracy Nut for thinking the
Utterly Unthinkable: this is not an accident, but part of an overall
plan...beginning with JFK, MLK, Bobby, Evars murders.  Notice how only the
"liberals" get killed.  Notice how quickly these get "resolved"?  How
"simple" the explanations are?   How "evidence" can disappear and records be
buried and/or lost? (Incidentally, what nationality is Sirhan Sirhan?  If
Lebanese, he was most likely a hired gun, possibly hired by the same cabal
that killed his brother.)  What are these people afraid of?  Democracy?

But since I surely don't want to be considered an MCN or even think of
challenging others for the Most Cynical Seat in the Ghetto Hall of Worries,
these thoughts must be considered...speculation.

Wayne

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Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 6:51 PM
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Subject: [Austin-ghetto-list] new yorker


The New Yorker, September 24, 2001
The Talk of the Town:  (Susan Sontag)

The disconnect between last Tuesday's monstrous dose of reality and the
self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public
figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The voices licensed to
follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize
the public. Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a "cowardly"
attack on "civilization" or "liberty" or "humanity" or "the free world" but
an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a
consequence of specific American alliances and actions? How many citizens
are aware of the ongoing American bombing of Iraq? And if the word
"cowardly" is to be used, it might be more aptly applied to those who kill
from beyond the range of retaliation, high in the sky, than to those willing
to die themselves in order to kill others. In the matter of courage (a
morally neutral virtue): whatever may be said of the perpetrators of
Tuesday's slaughter, they were not cowards.

Our leaders are bent on convincing us that everything is O.K. America
is not afraid. Our spirit is unbroken, although this was a day that will
live in infamy and America is now at war. But everything is not O.K. And
this was not Pearl Harbor. We have a robotic President who assures us that
America still stands tall. A wide spectrum of public figures, in and out of
office, who are strongly opposed to the policies being pursued abroad by
this Administration apparently feel free to say nothing more than that they
stand united behind President Bush. A lot of thinking needs to be done, and
perhaps is being done in Washington and elsewhere, about the ineptitude of
American intelligence and counter-intelligence, about options available to
American foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, and about what
constitutes a smart program of military defense. But the public is not being
asked to bear much of the burden of reality. The unanimously applauded,
self-congratulatory bromides of a Soviet Party Congress seemed contemptible.
The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by
American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well,
unworthy of a mature democracy.

Those in public office have let us know that they consider their task
to be a manipulative one: confidence-building and grief management.
Politics, the politics of a democracy -- which entails disagreement, which
promotes candor -- has been replaced by psychotherapy. Let's by all means
grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of
historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and
what may continue to happen. "Our country is strong," we are told again and
again. I for one don't find this entirely consoling. Who doubts that America
is strong? But that's not all America has to be.

-Susan Sontag