December 10, 2001
"In order to achieve a reasonable result, we have to formulate a reasonable question; a question which is in conformity with the world around us and which satisfies the demands of our logic." Scott Nearing suggests that blowing up the battleship Maine (1898) in Havana harbor ended the American republic and began the empire. One hundred and a couple years later, we get the WTC and Pentagon explosions. What comes after empire? In October 1938, in Paris, a seventeen year old German Jew of Polish descent, Hershl Grynzpan, shot Ernst vom Rath, third secretary of the German embassy. Grynzpan said he was avenging his parents and the tens of thousands of Polish Jews recently deported to Poland from Germany. Perhaps the only European nation with a worse record handling Jews than Nazi Germany was Poland, followed closely, perhaps, by Russia. Look up Pogrom in your encyclopedia. In response, November 9th-10th 1938 becomes Kristallnacht (Broken Glass), a word spin by Goebbels to disguise pogrom (it worked). Hitler unleashed the brownshirts and accelerated his war on Jews. The thin facade of German civil governance collapsed. Ten months later Nazi troops marched into Poland. By then few of those deported Jews survived. Those who did soon didn't. Look up the events in the Warsaw Ghetto when the Soviets held off while the Nazis killed off the few Jews remaining. What will Kristallnacht look like here? Who are today's Jews? When did the lies begin? Right now, as Swans attests, although still with considerable restraint, the web is redolent with spectral allegations tinged with some appreciation of history as process organized around a barbarity of lies. Once-upon-a-time, when there was pretense of ethical standards, journalists claimed obedience to a higher standard. Information was ascribed as to quality. Reports were founded in actual experience gained on foot and off butt. Perspective was stated. Some months ago, I wrote about perspectives. Another time, I sought reports, for example, written from perspectives available within 'enemy' ranks, say in Vietnam. I found none at that time. Correspondents such as Peter Arnett (whose work I have covered in these pages). Arnett spent long years in Vietnam and Asia. He filed stories pointing out that official American reports differed considerably from what was available on site, on foot outside Saigon. During the American years in Vietnam, reporting was almost exclusively from the American side of events — and that was damning enough even when propagandized into 'news'. During the Soviet years in Afghanistan (1979-1989), western reporters flooded the camps of the opposition 'freedom fighters'. For those with no memories or data from that time, rightly or wrongly, the 'Communist' regime in Kabul opened schools and professions to women. The 'freedom fighters' of that time included bin Laden. Those 'freedom fighters' then were determined to close the schools and professions to women. They didn't care so much about fighting Communists as imposing Islamci views, closing up women again. These are the folks, allegedly absent bin Laden and Taliban, who are now our allies renamed as The Northern Alliance, now shortening to The Alliance. Reports and books from the Soviet years are abundant. In mass and in context, they provide perspectives on the current events there. Again, you may reference some of my previous essays which include bibliographies. Not very comforting to those driven to believe. As belief is rarely based in knowing or on verifiable data, propagandists in journalists' clothing are unleashed and believed. Or are they? Pollsters declare they are. In the buildups to Desert Storm, Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, plus all those special forces interventions about which we know nothing, press controls were perfected and implemented. Media consolidation assured conformity. Little or nothing got through or now gets through administration or Pentagon spinners. In Baghdad, Peter Arnett, then with upstart CNN, stayed through the bombardments with cameras running and satellite connections in place. Annoying. CNN's current boss, transplanted from that paragon of integrity, Time Magazine, now openly grovels before administration spinmeisters begging for snippets. Momentarily, an upstart TV operation based in Qatar, of all places, does the CNN trick in today's Afghanistan, runs footage from inside, from in-country. An allegedly errant missile took out that annoyance recently. Let's be clear: there are lots of not very agreeable folks out there. Nobody I am likely to want to demand a beard on me or a burka on my wife. However, let's not forget that there are lots of not very agreeable folks working hard at the moment right here to close down America, lock the gates and throw away the keys. These Taliban call themselves Republicans and patriots. Some of them blow up abortion clinics rather than New York and Washington buildings. Others push gas and oil interests. Some are just as adamant about their religious correctness as any fundamentalist Islamci. Still others simply want power assured for themselves. Some well-placed folks see a grand gravy train coming for them. No need to run this thread any further. When did the lies begin? * The Inner Structure of the I Ching, The Book of Transformations, Lama Anagarika Govinda, Weatherhill, New York and Tokyo, 1981, p. 11 (back) Milo Clark, a founding member of Swans, had it all: Harvard MBA, big house, three-car garage, top management... Yet, once he had seemingly achieved the famed American dream he felt something was missing somewhere. As any good executive he decided to investigate. Since then, he has become a curmudgeon and, after living in Berkeley, California, where he was growing bamboos, making water gardens, listening to muses, writing, cogitating and pondering, he has moved on to the Big Island in Hawaii where he creates thought forms about sunshine. Milo can be reached at Swans. Please, DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work without the expressed written authorization of Swans, which will seek permission from the author. This material is copyrighted, © Milo G. Clark 2001. All rights reserved. |
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This Week's Internal Links
Un-American, Fly-Shit Melody - by Gilles d'Aymery
Le Déserteur (The Deserter) - by Boris Vian
This War Is a Fraud - by Stephen Gowans
Decentralized Intelligence - by Michael W. Stowell
Depleted Uranium or Depleted Conscience? - by Jeff Lindemyer
We May Have Waited Too Long - by Deck Deckert
A Power Game Made in Serbia - by Mile N. Tankosic
Support Christ and Your Local Library - by Matthew J. Barry
Freedom - by Ambrose Bierce
Milo Clark on Swans
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