During the build up to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Bush administration insisted that an American-led war to “remove” Iraq from Kuwait was not inevitable. This, despite the obvious events constituting an unmistakable prelude to war—troops, equipment shipped across the world, cabinet officials traveling overseas to meet with various world leaders. All of this did not, according to the president, mean that the US would soon go to war.
There should be no “linkage” of these events, Bush insisted ad naseum.
At the same time, the late historian Howard Zinn was speaking out eloquently against a US war machine that was revving up again in high-gear after overcoming the so-called “Vietnam Syndrome.” Zinn spoke out against the contempt with which the administration seem to hold the American public in insisting that nothing was what it seemed.
“I always thought that things were linked,” Zinn mused, “that people were linked, that issues were linked, and that even the countries in the Middle East were somehow linked.”
With biting wit, Zinn offered a brilliant evaluation of American imperialism and the ways the Persian Gulf War, American corporate interests, and the “liberation” of Kuwait were linked.
“Linkage,” it turns out, can be dangerous to power. It is precisely what government and corporations attempt to avoid. And today, more than ever, corporate and government powers work overtime to ensure that their own personal gains and interests are shrouded in lies. The public should not be allowed to make obvious connections among events.
They should remain ignorant. Isolated. Powerless.
Wars and occupations have no effect on the US financial system. Chemicals do not lead to disease. Corporations do not “own” US government officials. Elections are never rigged in the US. The US does not torture. Nuclear power is safe and efficient.
But often one tragic event is so devastating that it shocks us into making a connection. It forces us to link things together.
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other areas, the "linkage" was unavoidable. The US government was spending billions of dollars occupying other countries in order to bring “democracy” overseas, but could not help save its own citizens as they held on for dear life to their own rooftops. Foreign occupation and disaster. Linked.
Now, as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico enters its third month almost nothing has been done to take control by demanding that the disaster no longer be “managed” by the very corporation responsible for it.
Corporate power and Corporate-controlled government. Linked.
The corporations making a fortune out of selling oil are also linked to US occupations in oil-rich countries.
War and oil. Linked.
“War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape,” Congressman Alan Grayson recently asserted, “so much so that no one notices it anymore.”
But I think we do.
Especially when war’s effects are lying wasted on our very shores. As we watch the effects of our American empire washing ashore in wreckage, waste, destruction, we can’t help but link one event with another and see through the lies that we hear from those who want more than anything for us not to see beyond what we are told.
This reminds me of a Richard Pryor joke about a wife catching her husband in bed with another woman. The husband lies next to the other woman, blatantly denying he’s done anything wrong.
“Who are you going to believe?” he asks his wife. “Me? Or your lying eyes?”
Who will we believe?
There should be no “linkage” of these events, Bush insisted ad naseum.
At the same time, the late historian Howard Zinn was speaking out eloquently against a US war machine that was revving up again in high-gear after overcoming the so-called “Vietnam Syndrome.” Zinn spoke out against the contempt with which the administration seem to hold the American public in insisting that nothing was what it seemed.
“I always thought that things were linked,” Zinn mused, “that people were linked, that issues were linked, and that even the countries in the Middle East were somehow linked.”
With biting wit, Zinn offered a brilliant evaluation of American imperialism and the ways the Persian Gulf War, American corporate interests, and the “liberation” of Kuwait were linked.
“Linkage,” it turns out, can be dangerous to power. It is precisely what government and corporations attempt to avoid. And today, more than ever, corporate and government powers work overtime to ensure that their own personal gains and interests are shrouded in lies. The public should not be allowed to make obvious connections among events.
They should remain ignorant. Isolated. Powerless.
Wars and occupations have no effect on the US financial system. Chemicals do not lead to disease. Corporations do not “own” US government officials. Elections are never rigged in the US. The US does not torture. Nuclear power is safe and efficient.
But often one tragic event is so devastating that it shocks us into making a connection. It forces us to link things together.
When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other areas, the "linkage" was unavoidable. The US government was spending billions of dollars occupying other countries in order to bring “democracy” overseas, but could not help save its own citizens as they held on for dear life to their own rooftops. Foreign occupation and disaster. Linked.
Now, as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico enters its third month almost nothing has been done to take control by demanding that the disaster no longer be “managed” by the very corporation responsible for it.
Corporate power and Corporate-controlled government. Linked.
The corporations making a fortune out of selling oil are also linked to US occupations in oil-rich countries.
War and oil. Linked.
“War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape,” Congressman Alan Grayson recently asserted, “so much so that no one notices it anymore.”
But I think we do.
Especially when war’s effects are lying wasted on our very shores. As we watch the effects of our American empire washing ashore in wreckage, waste, destruction, we can’t help but link one event with another and see through the lies that we hear from those who want more than anything for us not to see beyond what we are told.
This reminds me of a Richard Pryor joke about a wife catching her husband in bed with another woman. The husband lies next to the other woman, blatantly denying he’s done anything wrong.
“Who are you going to believe?” he asks his wife. “Me? Or your lying eyes?”
Who will we believe?