knowing that it'd mean more if change was brought about internally, i still say bring in the outside help. please. any catalyst that may help "un-americanize" the sheeple in time to save more lives.

Today happens to be July 4 as always, marked by lofty rhetoric about the significance of this traditional American celebration of independence and democracy (and maybe a day at the beach). Reality is not so uplifting. Independence Day was designed by the first state propaganda agency, Woodrow Wilson's Committee on Public Information (CPI), created during World War I to whip a pacifist country into anti-German frenzy and, incidentally, to beat down the threat of labor which frightened respectable people after such events as the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) victory in the Lawrence, Mass., strike of 1912. The CPI's successes greatly impressed the business world; one of its members, Edward Bernays, became the leading figure in the vastly expanding public relations industry. Also much impressed was Adolf Hitler, who attributed Germany's failure in World War I to the ideological victories of the British and U.S. propaganda agencies, which overwhelmed Germany's efforts. Next time, Germany would be in the competition, he vowed. The influence of the great generalissimo on the propaganda front, as Wilson was described by political scientist Harold Lasswell, was not slight. Independence Day was one contribution.

This particular propaganda exercise began with business-government initiatives to Americanize immigrants, to inculcate loyalty and obedience and expel from their minds alien notions about the rights of working people. Such programs would turn immigrants into the natural foe of the IWW and other destructive forces that undermine the country's ideals and institutions, the CPI founding document read. At a major conference of civic organizations (organized labor excluded), government and private organizations of all kinds and creeds had pledged themselves to cooperate in carrying out Americanization as a national endeavor, the organizers reported, while issuing plans for a successful Americanization program for the coming Fourth of July. The CPI took up the cudgels, now using the wartime fanaticism it had helped engender as another weapon against pacifists, agitators and other anti-American groups, notably the hated Wobblies. The Generalissimo joined in with a May 1918 endorsement. The title of the indoctrination ceremonies was to be Americanization Day; on reflection, Independence Day seemed preferable.

--letter from noam chomsky to covert action quarterly

The CIA (Committee for Immigrants in America) also produced a brilliant propaganda strategy to involve every American in an annual ritual of national identification. This ritual would embed the cultural intolerance of the Americanization program within an indentification that was formally and officially sanctified. The CIA thereby launched its campaign for the fourth of July 1915 to be made a national Americanization Day, a day for 'a great nationalistic expression of unity and faith in America.' To ensure the success of this proposal it established a National Americanization Day Committee (NADC) comprised mainly of leading corporate executives and their wives. ... This new committee issued a pamplet written by [Frances] Kellor which argued the need for a domestic policy on the immigrant and 'stressed in particular the great role which American industrial organisations could assume in working out this policy'. The pamphlet welded together the various interests of the campaign into a single message. It emphasized that however well government, business and philanthropy might conceive and launch a national policy for the Americanization of the immigrant, the ultimate success of that policy would depend on how effectively the 'average American citizen' could be induced to bring the influence of his conservative views to bear on the immigrant. For 'such a citizen is the natural foe of the IWW and of the destructive forces that seek to direct unwisely the expressions fo the immigrant in his new country and upon him rest the hope and defence of the country's ideals and institutions'. Here we have a blatant industrial and partisan view fused with an intolerance of the immigrant and the values of national security, in a submission which would cement these interests and intolerances within the paraphernalia of the annual ritual of what became Independence Day. Such was the breadth and scope of this propaganda campaign.

For the fourth of July program the NADC managed to obtain the support of the Federal Commissioner of Immigration, who sent letters to the mayors of every city in the nation asking for support in observing the fourth of July as Americanization Day. A similar request was sent to school authorities nationwide. A vast amount of promotional material was widely distributed and displayed. This included a supporting article by ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, a message from President Wilson, suggestions for speech content for hundreds of speakers and 52,000 Americanization Day posters. On 4 July Americanization ceremonies covered the country:

At Pittsburg, more than 10,000 adults heard almost 1,000 school children sing patriotic airs as they formed a huge American flag. In Indianapolis, speeches in eleven different languages on the duties of American citizenship were given by newly made American citizens ... In many of the churches special Americanization Day sermons were preached.

The Americanization Day generated so much new activity and interest that the NADC decided to continue in operation to guide and direct this development. Changing its name to the National Americanization Committee (NAC), it set to work on a permanent campaign for the Americanization of the immigrant.


...

During 1918 the CPI set up fourteen foreign-language bureaus which were largely responsible for the petition presented to President Wilson on 21 May 1918, asking that the fourth of July be escpecially recognized as a day for the foreign-born to demonstrate their loyalty to their adopted country. Wilson agreed. With the President's stamp of approval the CPI set to work to plan an enthusiastic celebration for what was to be called Independence Day.

The amendment to 'Independence Day' rather than the 'Americanization Day' as originally proposed in 1915 by the NAC is an interesting change. It could be argued that the cultural and ethnic intolerances inherent in the term 'Americanization' were too obvious in 1918 to engender overwhelming public support for a national celebration. 'Independence Day', while less obviously ethnocentric, does, however, suffer from a certain ambiguity. Within its historical context 'Independence Day' refers to both an immigrant's separation from old cultural ties and the alienation from the new business-oriented American culture. Current Independence Day celebrations still contain the residual power and meaning of these historically dislocating circumstances, even though most people would think of the day as a celebration for national rather than ethnic independence.

--from alex carey's taking the risk out of democracy: corporate propaganda versus freedom and liberty

Posted by: b real | Jul 4, 2007 11:51:31 AM | 1

Thanks b real - interesting - I had no idea that this was "enforced"

Posted by: b | Jul 4, 2007 12:08:53 PM | 2

from an outside perspective (south american/european), north america's democracy seems to be inches away from falling apart...

these tyrants/fascists don't give a damn about it... does anyone doubts they can declare martial law? and achieve the super master executive power they desire?

who's gonna step in? mankind??
i don't think there's a species in the whole universe that's so fukdup in the mind as ours... our slogan: "if we can do it bad, why bother doing it right?"

maybe there's an approaching sequence of events with the magnitude of the great depression or the bolchevik revolution, that could change the course of history... right now, i donnow... whatever...

sight

Posted by: rudolf | Jul 4, 2007 1:17:14 PM | 3

In celebration of?...

Aristotle in America (PDF)
joseph lough reclaims a classic

Snip:On nearly every register—justice, domestic tranquilit common defense,
general welfare, and the blessings of liberty—our union is desperately, tragically, catastrophically flawed.

snip:
The question facing the founders was how to ensure that the private interest and private economy not infect and thereby destroy the public or common good.

snip:
The proclivity to mistake business acumen for
political acumen has plagued American politics almost since
the beginning.

snip:
Aristotle knew from experience that the elite would always find a way to turn radical democracy against the interests of the poor and use it to that elite’s own advantage—exactly as Pericles did.

snip:
Aristotle was free to ask the constitutional questions: What are the ideal aims of the republic? Who is best equipped to achieve them? Who is a citizen? What are the qualiications for citizenship?

snip:
In their “with very few exceptions” and their “acquired endowments,” Hamilton and his colleagues backed away from what might have been and should have been a very Aristotelian constitution.

Hot dogs, mom, apple pie and baseball Football.*
*Notice, please, that the only time the referee gets any serious notice is when he tries to keep the game honest.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 4, 2007 2:14:42 PM | 4

U$,

Speaking of American football, the entire European Football League has gone belly-up. The National Footbal League, which was subsidizing them in an attempt to expand their market into Europe, has decided that it was not gonna get out of the red, so they pulled the plug.

I guess we could just blame Bush for this one too, couldn't we? I mean, if he & Donald Rumsfeld hadn't made America so unfashionable among Old Europeans, football might've been more popular, and gone on to conquer stadiums from Budapest to Ulan Bator.

Or we can simply blame the NFL for being leftist liberalist weenies who don't have the nerve to stick it out until the job is done. They could've initiated a player surge and sent over Chinook loads of young college draftees to tackle those problem neighborhoods...

Posted by: ralphieboy | Jul 4, 2007 3:38:43 PM | 5

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

"Here comes George in control..."

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jul 4, 2007 4:17:22 PM | 6

July 3 - Bumper sticker on the car of a soldier from the local base. White letters on bright red field:
"Be nice to America, or we will bring democracy to your country."

It so fits this 4th, doesn't it? To think that, on the original 4th, 13 colonies of North America were expunging the empire from their midst. Can we do it again? Will we?

b - You could be right about young Americans. Car's driver was 25-30y.o. War has schooled at least one soldier in a robust sense of irony.

Posted by: small coke | Jul 5, 2007 2:28:40 AM | 7

It seems that "Independence Day" has been celebrated on or around 4th of July since the Declaration was first announced. How it was celebrated has varied with the times and places, though dining, toasting, and celebratory explosions seem to have been common throughout.

The act of Congress establishing Fourth of July as a holiday, but without pay, for federal employees and the District of Columbia occurred in 1870. . . . On June 29, 1938, by joint resolution of Congress (HJ resolution No. 551; pub. res. no. 127), the Fourth of July was legislated as a Federal holiday with pay for its employees . . . The first "official" state celebration of the Fourth as recognized under resolve of a legislature occurred in Massachusetts in 1781. . . . Alexander Martin of North Carolina was the first governor to issue a state order (in 1783) for celebrating the independence of the country on the Fourth of July. . .

The Britannica, from its Olympian vantage, summarizes the evolution of Independence Day celebrations, http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9042264/Independence-Day>arising out of a long Anglo-American tradition of celebrations of the King's birthday, as follows:

During the early years of the republic, Independence Day was commemorated with parades, oratory, and toasting, in ceremonies that celebrated the existence of the new nation. These rites played an equally important role in the evolving federal political system. With the rise of informal political parties, they provided venues for leaders and constituents to tie local and national contests to independence and the issues facing the national polity. By the mid-1790s, the two nascent political parties held separate, partisan Independence Day festivals in most larger towns. Perhaps for this reason, Independence Day became the model for a series of (often short-lived) celebrations that sometimes contained more explicit political resonance, such as Washington's birthday and the anniversary of Jefferson's inauguration while he served as president (1801–09).

The bombastic torrent of words that characterized Independence Day during the 19th century made it both a serious occasion and one sometimes open to ridicule—like the increasingly popular and democratic political process itself in that period. With the growth and diversification of American society, the Fourth of July commemoration became a patriotic tradition which many groups—not just political parties—sought to claim. Abolitionists, women's rights advocates, the temperance movement, and opponents of immigration (nativists) all seized the day and its observance, in the process often declaring that they could not celebrate with the entire community while an un-American perversion of their rights prevailed.

With the rise of leisure, the Fourth also emerged as a major midsummer holiday. . . . During the later 20th century, although it remained a national holiday marked by parades, concerts of patriotic music, and fireworks displays, Independence Day declined in importance as a venue for politics. It remains a potent symbol of national power and of specifically American qualities—even the freedom to stay at home and barbecue.

Certainly Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the 2nd and 3rd US Presidents, were always keenly aware of the date and its significance. Bitter political rivals, divided on partisan, ideological bases during the first decades of Constitutional government, they were reconciled and friends for the last 15 years of their lives. Both died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration.

Posted by: small coke | Jul 5, 2007 4:36:29 AM | 8

One of the arguments made to explain the collapse of the Soviet Union (which I personally don’t accord much credit to) is that the people were lied to for so long, about everything, that any kind of cohesion was lost and the collapse just followed thru apathy and lack of adhesion or trust. Gorby saw that, it is said, and looking at the money stuff, he just gave up, after the regular “corp” transparency etc. discourse.

For reasons of geography, hubris, assumed exceptionalism, that won’t happen in the US. Which is what frightens the whole world.

Posted by: Noirette | Jul 5, 2007 2:57:12 PM | 9