Billmon:
The question on the table .. is whether anyone will do anything about it — or can do anything about it.
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September 18, 2006
WB: The American Disease
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Marketing is and can be at the center of everything for this crowd because above all, they are cowards. And in the litany of horrible truths we the American people are eventually going to have to face, that will be one of the most horrible of all to accept: that we’ve let ourselves be run to ruin not by an excess of courage or bravery or recklessness, but by simple cowardice.
The street in front of my apartment was closed today because Laura Bush was visiting the NY Public Library. Not just closed to vehicular traffic — completely shut down. As in, I was not allowed to leave the building to walk outside. As in, barricades blocked at least 6 intersections around the library and neighboring park and police would not allow anyone to pass in any direction. As in, 50 Suburbans with men with automatic weapons lined my street, in the middle of lunch hour, in the middle of one of the great cities of the liberal, free Western world. So that the First Lady could visit a library.
If the headlines in tomorrow’s New York papers do not read ‘Cowards, Go Home’, there is something wrong. If the nightly news does not feature helicopter shots of the city, from my block straight up the East side where concrete mountains and metal gates and wooden saw horses have turned the city into an unnavigable maze, and comment on the ridiculousness of the fear that could make the city erect such a mess, there is something wrong. If the people of this country can’t look on this and say, ‘This is not who we are, and it is not who we want to be, and we’ll not stand for chickenshit leaders who can only exist in a travelling bunker’, there is something wrong. But, then, of course there is something wrong.
From the top to the bottom, the administration is packed with those who were never willing to risk their lives for what they believed. And I’m sure as they watch from their windows the scurrying of those they charge with protecting themselves, they remain smug and confident they’ll never have to, giving themselves more time to work on selling the image of bravery to the public.
Posted by: mats | Sep 18 2006 17:17 utc | 1
The fearfulness of our leaders is something one can’t help wondering at, as they keep warning us to be afraid. The fear meme seems so potent to them.
It never seems to occur to them instead to inspire all of us to courage. They hype the imminent danger of the most far-fetched, unbaked terror scheme rather than shining some perspective on the actual number of attacks and deaths, as compared, say, to deaths of civilians in Iraq or US motorists. How is it we are persuaded to spend hours barefoot and thirsty just to board airplanes, yet most of us have the courage, nay regard it as our god-given right, to drive our cars anywhere everyday of the year?
What is it that our leaders fear so greatly that enables them so successfully to project their fear onto us? Yes, it’s a useful device for manipulation, but does anyone else sense that, at base, the leaders themselves are truly fearful? Of what? An unmasking such as Ya’alon and billmon seek? Something more?
@ alabama – what is the relationship between fear and sadism?
Posted by: small coke | Sep 18 2006 18:00 utc | 2
More marketing!
SECRETARY RUMSFELD: The fact of the matter is – if Saddam Hussein were still in power in Iraq, he would be rolling in petrol dollars. Think of the price of oil today. He would have so much money. And he would be seeing the Iranians interested in a nuclear program, he would be seeing the North Koreans developing a nuclear program, and he’d say well why shouldn’t he – and he would. So we’re fortunate that he’s gone.
Posted by: beq | Sep 18 2006 18:00 utc | 3
I’m guessing that most of our Founders would have privately bet that rule of law wouldn’t last.
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 18 2006 18:03 utc | 4
I’m guessing that most of our Founders would have privately bet that rule of law wouldn’t last.
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 18 2006 18:13 utc | 5
What happens when the K-Street project moves into the military? It’s called totalitarianism. Let those winds begin to blow, and no corporate power, or church power, or legal power can remain upright.
Posted by: Anonymous | Sep 18 2006 18:17 utc | 6
haaretz interview cited, in case anyone is interested in the context.
“The processes of cover-up and corruption are continuing. The prime minister’s examination commissions are an escape. Instead of proving that he is showing responsibility, the prime minister is fleeing from responsibility. In the IDF, too, it’s clear there will not be truthful investigations. Everyone is busy with his own personal survival. So without changing horses and without a state commission of inquiry that will expose the truth to everyone, there is no chance of starting the process of rehabilitating the IDF. This is because the IDF is not destroyed. It does not need organizational rehabilitation. What it needs is a rehabilitation of values. Without the replacement of the political leadership and the senior command, that kind of rehabilitation of values is impossible. It won’t happen.”
Posted by: annie | Sep 18 2006 18:24 utc | 7
SECRETARY RUMSFELD: The fact of the matter is – if Saddam Hussein were still in power in Iraq, he would be rolling in petrol dollars. Think of the price of oil today. He would have so much money. And he would be seeing the Iranians interested in a nuclear program, he would be seeing the North Koreans developing a nuclear program, and he’d say well why shouldn’t he – and he would. So we’re fortunate that he’s gone.
He sounds like the Jack Lemmon character in “Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross,” or “Gil” from the Simpsons.
Posted by: billmon | Sep 18 2006 18:30 utc | 8
Billmon’s link is Not to Haaretz Interview, but to WaPo art. on Baker’s ME mission.
Posted by: jj | Sep 18 2006 19:24 utc | 9
What do they fear?
The United States of Enron. The fluff of endless deficit spending.
The collapse of ‘Ivory towers’. The pyramid scheme failure of unregulated capitalism.
As a distraction, nothing beats fear.
Usually when something is wrong, you fix it you don’t shit your pants.
Republicans never fixed anything,..ever…Dirt slinging, smearing, destruction and demolition is their game and fear mongering is their number one ‘nukular’ weapon.
“Just tell them they are being attacked”…(Herrman Goering, Nueremburg. c. 1945)
Posted by: pb | Sep 18 2006 19:53 utc | 10
From Josh Marshall, discussing “the long-running and fast-galloping race between John Yoo’s moral bankruptcy and his historical illiteracy.”
[I]t occurs to me… that even at the relatively young age of 37, I and those my age are probably the last people who have any meaningful living memory of what the Cold War was like. . .
Terrorism is scary. More so if you live in a major city like New York. But life’s hard. And compared to nuclear holocaust it’s really pretty much a walk in the park, isn’t it?
Is there a rumbling against the fear-cons?
Posted by: small coke | Sep 18 2006 21:04 utc | 11
What pb said.
The powers that be have no plan B. Not only for Iraq, but everything. They have no idea what to do when global capitalism melts down–and the process is already starting. So they do more of what they are doing–more centralization, more aggressive marketing, greater profit taking, more scamming, more fear, and more war. Their own fear is real and they can easily project it (this is a standard acting technique) into the bogus fears they want the public to have.
Usually when something is wrong, you fix it you don’t shit your pants.
I can still remember when soiling the underwear was not Americans prefered response to trouble. But those days are gone. Not the turning point, but certainly the exemplar: 9/11 changed everything.
Posted by: Gaianne | Sep 18 2006 21:05 utc | 12
Amen to this — I also live in NYC, and the amount of “security” our fearless leaders seem to need from their own people is quite amazing.
East side shut down from the river to Madison Avenue just because Shrub is visiting the UN.
The Greek word for tyrant came from a phrase meaning “who goes with bodyguards.” Only a tyrant cannot go anywhere without his bodyguards.
what does that say about our President & First Lady?
Posted by: Diana | Sep 18 2006 22:49 utc | 13
Remember when President Clinton was pilloried in the press for disrupting air traffic for a couple of hours at LAX while he sat on the runway getting a haircut from a snooty barber? If today’s NYC act doesn’t get equal time….. I guess it will just confirm what we all already know about the press.
Posted by: Maxcrat | Sep 18 2006 23:36 utc | 14
@Gainne,PB, Diana,& Max:
Usually when something is wrong, you fix it you don’t shit your pants.
It’s truly amazing when the galloping juvenile dysentery takes center stage.
Posted by: Old Gringo | Sep 18 2006 23:49 utc | 15
small coke (post #2): I think fear is what sadists need to see in the object of their attentions. It’s a signal from their victims that they, the sadists, are in charge.
You will notice that Bush and his people never talk about being afraid. Nor do they talk about striking fear in other people. They only talk about other people’s desire to frighten them, the strong, the fearless, and the brave. It’s a process of projection and denial (projecting your own impulses on others, and thereby denying your role as the source of the affect).
We can see the distortion of our current rhetoric on the subject when it refers to suicide bombers as “terrorists,” which is utterly and completely absurd: suicide bombers don’t want to scare people, they want to kill them, putting an end to their own despair in the process. Torturers, by contrast, want to keep their victims alive, and stay alive themselves, for as long as it takes to see the terror in their victims’ eyes. These are the actual terrorists, of which Bush is an ordinary instance.
Posted by: alabama | Sep 19 2006 1:07 utc | 16
you’all impress me with how far you’ve got with all of this, why don,t you spread it around again so more of us can read it.I was thinking david corn’s blog specifically which could use a shot and must be widely read. I sense an awakening and there needs to be more of us when we have to finally meet in the streets. Help.
Posted by: chip | Sep 19 2006 1:49 utc | 17
“The question on the table .. is whether anyone will do anything about it — or can do anything about it.”
We haven’t had a good old desk thumping at the UN since the old Cold Warrior Nikita Kruschev. I wonder if anyone would be up to it on Wednesday. Like maybe Ahmanedinejad or Chavez. It would be interesting to hear what the media would have to say about it. Especially if all other delegates joined in.
Posted by: pb | Sep 19 2006 2:55 utc | 18