In American domestic and foreign politics, lies abound. Their function is to gain, enhance, or secure power for the purveyors or their supporters.
The list of such lies—Bush lied, 9/11 was an inside job, the CIA and Vice President Johnson murdered Kennedy, America is an imperialist power, Israel has brutally suppressed the Palestinians, there is global warming, CO2 is causing global warming, only nationalization of the economy will cure the present economic crises, our health crisis demands nationalization of health—is endless. When these lies are imbedded in a structure of falsehoods and half-truths, and repeated often enough with conviction by the information/news gate-keepers in the major media, the public will believe them. Thus, lies become a source of power for the highest offices, for legislation, for court cases, for regulations, and for laws to control the American people.
This is how the power game is played. It was through incessant lies that fascism took root in Italy, Japan, and China (the Nationalist regime), Nazism in Germany, Communism in Russia, and China, all of one sort of socialism or another, and all tyrannies. Of course, we should not forget the American fascist tyranny under President Wilson, especially during WWI. (Surprised? Read your American history.)
These lies must be challenged with the truth, also repeated and repeated beyond count, by those who know it. Unless lies are shown for what they are, democracy itself is threatened again. For the power that such lies enable (increasingly obvious in the United States), can lead to a one-party state, a tyranny, where attempting to expose the lies can mean a heavy fine, ostracism, or even a prison sentence. This happened under Wilson and happens under all socialist governments. Punishment for telling the truth almost applies now to global warming, where journalists and scientists can be fired from their jobs for questioning this false claim.
This is now where we are headed. Republicans and conservatives are failing in their duty to protect democracy from socialist and progressive lies. They should be shouting the truth from the roof tops and out their windows. Perhaps a new party that will is timely and appropriate.
I've never read a bad word about Wilson on your site. What made you change your mind about him? From your post, I would presume it's because he lied to the American public during World War I. However, so did the British government of the day, which fabricated claims of German atrocities in Belgium for a war that was really designed to postpone a general election. There were few true democracies at this time in history. Democratic peace would not have been an option back then.
ReplyDeleteWilson was a die-hard racist though, who considered the lynchings of the day to be "the natural, inevitable ascendancy of the whites."
On President Wilson, World War I, and American fascism, see Jonah Goldberg's LIBERAL FASCISM. That the U.S. was a fascist country during this period does not mean that it was undemocratic. It remained an electoral democracy, although not a liberal one.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I'll give that book a look.
ReplyDelete