[Imc] Talk on the US military, etc.

[C. G. Estabrook]

John--

I'm not sure the minority is that tiny, in spite of the poll in the
morning's NYT.  Or rather it's potentially much larger, as the US
government (and the people it works for) knows and fears.  At least since
the Creel Commission in WWI, the USG has spent a great deal of effort and
money in the "manufacture of consent," in the phrase from Walter Lippmann
(a member of that Commission).

The ideological institutions in this country -- media, universities --
don't suppress information so much as teach people how to think about it.
The anti-war movement of the 1960s first had to overcome a generation (ca.
1940-65) of intense propaganda before it could begin to see what was going
on in Vietnam.  Ambrose Bierce said a century ago, "War is God's way of
teaching Americans geography" -- and history and politics as well.

The current anti-war movement again has to cast off a generation of
intense propagandizing in the wake of Vietnam (ca. 1975-present).  But our
elites know and fear that it can be done.  "...this will be the most
secret war ever ... secret from those our government fears most -- the US
public ... people are not fools.  As in Vietnam, when the American people
come to know what is being done in their name, they are horrified."

That's why, of course, what the IMC does is important.  Regards, Carl


On Tue, 30 Oct 2001, John Wason wrote:
> 
> This is a pretty cogent analysis, Carl.  Unfortunately, even though
> YOU have learned something from history, you're condemned to repeat it
> right along with all the other moronic, evil motherfuckers who either
> (a) learned nothing, or (b) learned the wrong things.  It's hell being
> prescient and in such a tiny minority, isn't it?
>