October 30, 2009 Have We Become A Nation Of Cowards?
When looking at any form of mass communication today related to current events, one would think us Americans have turned into a flock of chicken littles. I can't help but think so. Fear has become the primal motivator. Humans are moved by two basic drives when it comes to motivation; Love and fear. What we do during our waking hours, indeed every moment, is a decision between these two emotions. Having said that, I'm not going to talk like I'm writing a term paper or sound like Doctor Phil. My concern is how fear is being used to manipulate the masses. The latest issue being manipulated by fear? Health Care Reform. The Pharmaceuticals and Insurance Giants are now on a campaign to derail potential access to healthcare for those that cannot afford to play the game the way the big private companies would like.
The public option will make a major difference in the lives of people that can't get healthcare, and even in the lives of people that can. The public option will make the markets more competitive. We live in a society that advocates and waxes philosophically about free markets, yet, when we put this into practice there are companies that cry foul, lie and distort the facts in order to keep the markets favorable to them by muscling out the competition, both legally and by strong arm tactics, denying consumers a choice. We are seeing this trend in the markets today by the way the big box stores are choking out the independent merchants in groceries and retail.
'Scaring' the less informed by those that do not want change. This is done to make sure a statuesque remains in place that works for them. This is what's happening on the national stage right now. The anti-health care reformers claim there is too much government in our lives. Well, there is already government in our healthcare system in the form of Medicaid, and fortunately for me the Veteran's Administration.
Wal-Mart, a billion dollar business even gets support from you and me, the taxpayers to help cover the majority of their employees’ healthcare. This is assistance given to a corporation that does not need it. The nonsense about socialized medicine is just that - Nonsense. Socialism and capitalism cannot co-exist, because capitalism would have to be outlawed in order for socialism to take root. The reactionaries are using the socialism refrain to polarize Americans, protect and their wealth which helps to maintain the current system that is failing fifty million people. A system that denies certain people that stepping stone, that means to an end towards a better quality of life. The word 'socialism' is code for 'them' meaning anyone non-white, non-Christian, non-straight and anyone else that doesn't fit their image of what they perceive to be Americans. The anti-healthcare opponents do not have the nation's' best interest in mind. It is behavior that is, from my point of view truly un-patriotic.
The 'weather makers' aka the manipulators vested in big business understand the use of fear, and they're ramping up the rhetoric. Fear has been in use for decades. What we're seeing now in attempts to wreck this administration is nothing like we'll see in the coming months. The idea is to keep throwing wrenches into the democratic process so this administration will not win a second term. If the reactionaries are successful in dragging down this white house by saddling it with a string of failures and setbacks then the game the right wings you'll see playing will be 'see I told you so'. I'm hoping the proponents of health care and the progressives develop a stomach for a fight, we're going to need it.
What I'm finding even more unsettling is the lack of support from the progressives. Van Jones, administrator and activist selected by the President to help form a green coalition in Washington was coerced into resigning by a pack of lies broadcasted on FOX. Where were the liberals or progressives? Didn't see any coming to his defense. Not even the house speaker, or the secretary of state! I see the gay community falling short of carrying their load in this fight as well. Everyone's looking out for their own interests. I'm in support of 'don't ask don't tell', gay marriage, and equal rights, But you can't really do anything if you don't have good health. When a person is sick, he or she is knocked out of the game.
Nothing is happening in your life if you're ailing and don't have access to a doctor and health care. Now a few of the members here know how that is; to be chronically ill with your life on the pause button.
And what I'm also hearing now is the progressives and liberals criticizing this administration for not being more aggressive. Well guess what, this is a concerted effort. 'Action speaks louder than words'. Seems what I've been reading and hearing from the proponents of healthcare is for the President to throw a Hail Mary. If a Hail Mary is what you want, how about doing some running and blocking? Working where the rubber meets the road will get you tangible results instead of standing on the sidelines waiting for a messiah.
Meanwhile the reactionaries continue to spread fear, creating chaos and panic generated at their rallies and town hall meetings. It's important for them to have the shrill voices of the chicken littles broadcast across the airwaves. It's the perfect fit. Television network news prefers, and profits from dumbed down drama and anything that caters to the lowest common denominator. March screaming idiots across the screen, along with images of car wrecks, murder and mayhem and you keep the masses immobile, paralyzed with fear, quaking in their boots with their doors locked. Ever notice that there are more Ads on television promoting home alarm systems? Notice the kind of people acting in those Ads.
Attorney General Eric Holder hit a raw nerve when he called us a nation of cowards when it comes to discussing race. Sometimes I think hitting a raw nerve is what it takes to get people's attention. The wing nuts on the right are giving the public a steady diet of this verbal onslaught, 'without Novocain'. What the wing nuts really have on display is the daily paranoia they live with.
Most of us are aware of but will not discuss openly how fear tactics are used to distract us from talking about the real issues we need to work on. We don't discuss sexism, age discrimination, or the sub standard job the schools are doing to teach our future generation(s) and prepare them for the world as a happy, healthy, productive adult(s). Too many of us are living in denial about what the hell is going on in this nation. We have to get past the noise out there and give the calm voices of reasoning a platform.
But first, we as Americans must get some 'collective backbone' if we are to again make this country in the image it was that attracted people from all over to move here and build a life, and live the American dream.
BlkDawg (Originally posted by Denn (BlkDawg) in our forums on Sep 18, 2009)
“This is a deeply uncanny and very troubling development, it exists, and it wants to take us back. It wants to take us, I mean, way back. I mean sure, they want to go back before the 70’s and the 60’s to the 50’s, no doubt about that. They also want to go back before the New Deal to the 20’s, well they also want to go back before the Progressive Era to the Gilded Age. Well, not quite, they also want to go back before the Emancipation Proclamation to the days of slavery, not even, what they want to do is take us back to a moment prior to the Enlightenment; they want to take us back to a moment when faith registered more than reason. They want to take us back to an imaginary age of absolute moral clarity, when good was good and evil was evil and everyone could see the difference. They want to take us back to an imaginary Manichean age when you’re either with us or against us, which means you either are us or we’ll exterminate you because we can only tolerate ourselves, we can only tolerate those who share our values. If this movement were to be given a name, I think it would most appropriate to call it Christo Fascism, and if anyone objects to my using the word fascism, because it seems so redolent of the Axis powers, and after all we valiantly defeated fascism once, well understand this about fascism, when it arrives it never shows up in the discarded costume of some other country, and when fascism comes here, its not going to be wearing a toothbrush mustache with a luger in his belt and go goose-stepping around the mall, because that’s Germany. And its precisely characteristic of fascism, that it seems absolutely, totally expressive of the homeland, it seems completely familiar, it’s when 150% America puts a flag on it’s lapel and a cross around it’s neck and a real folksy way a talkin’, but just because it’s red, white and blue, doesn’t mean it’s American.”- A Patriot Act by Mark Crispin
“Understand that all battles are waged on an unconscious level before they are begun on the conscious one, and this battle is no different. The power structure wishes us to believe that the only options available are those which they present to us, we know this is simply not true, and therefore we must redefine the terrain of this conflict, and clearly, it is a conflict of worldviews and agendas.” - Teresa Stover
‘As the nights lengthen and the leaves take on their autumn colours, many of our cities prepare for a seasonal festival dominated by dark and fright...
