[Peace-discuss] Futility of 'truth' searches-I Meant Geraniums

[parenti susan rose]

My two cents: as long as the language of the Bush group constantly
affirms: WE ARE UNDER ATTACK, then Bush and company can switch story lines
and explanations and have us hunt for
Osama Bin Hussein WMD the Third, and people will accept all these twists
and turns, however inconsistent they may be. The message is FEAR, and
careful logic and consistency is unnecessary, with that message.
People are not thinking. To notice inconsistent reasoning requires
thinking. People are fearing, big time.

The strategy of 'strike first, qualify the reasons later' is the one the
Bush PR is using--successfully, it seems to me.

Even the current observation amongst many Americans that there is a
recession, reaffirms FEAR. It doesn't lead people to necessarily want to
vote out Bush.

Fear has its own logic, its own underground life(ask people who have
panic attacks about this). A panic over one's partner's bad health can
lead one to feel that terrorists are all over---one fear supports
another. WHAT is feared, doesn't have to connect.

If the present attempt to show how Bush lied can be a louder message than
FEAR, va bene. But that would require thinking observers.We don't have
that.

In traveling around, I keep hearing from people I respect(Jim Hightower,
Francis Moore Lappe) that we have to elicit another emotional base from
people than fear, otherwsie we're inadvertently beating the same drum
as the people we oppose.

Wilhelm Reich asserted that an explanation/analysis must also show a way
OUT of the problem it is explaining/analyzing, for it to be valid for him.
The analysis I've just given doesn't show a way out, so I'm temporarily
disapproving of myself.

But I do feel that a 'hunt for TRUTH' is futile in the current fearful,
non-thinking environment, and is only fodder for media blabber. We know
Bush lied, but truth doesn't matter---only what's said matters to
non-thinking people--and people who don't think are ruled by language.
My friend Herbert Brun, who would have been 85 yesterday, said that.
He also said, "Things are what's said about them, in the social world"
but that takes thinking to understand.

We have to be smarter than the people we oppose, not just more honest
and good. Media is winning, and not because it tells the truth.
That needs to be our point of departure, not the futile
emphasis on truth.

Susan
Thu, 10 Jul 2003, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> This is an excellent point.  It's easier to see now that the whole
> imminent threat scenario that the administration presented was a conscious
> lie, and that Bush, Blair & Co. (including our congressional
> representatives) have the blood of thousands on their hands.
>
>
> On Thu, 10 Jul 2003, Chas. 'Mark' Bee wrote:
>
> > Ken Urban wrote:
> >
> > >I hear the discourse changing from _having_ WMDs to _programs_ for WMDs.
> > > Soon it'll switch to _would like to have_ WMDs or _dreamt about_ WMDs.
> > >
> > >I thought I heard some silly gov't offical (or news lacky) say that
> > >Iraq hid/destroyed their WMDs right before the attack.
> > >
> >     Actually, that might have happened, even *during* the attack, to
> > whatever remnants they might still have had.  Of course, if true, it
> > wouldn't support BushCo's lies, but squander-the-troopsers all across
> > the country would crow like roosters that it did just that.
> >
> >     This is one of the PR 'nightmare scenarios' that could result from
> > acting like Iraq had absolutely no WMDs.  They had to have had
> > something or other sitting around from the Reaganauts, unless they are
> > more efficient than our government is, which seems unlikely.
> > Eventually - however small - it will turn up, which is why 'imminent
> > threat' needs to be made the test against which finds are measured in
> > the public eye, instead of 'no WMDs'.
> >
> >     Cries of "Iraq had no WMDs" need to sooner or later be changed to
> > "Iraq couldn't use WMDs" if this is a PR battle we want to stay won.
> > Bad drives out good, especially in the realm of public opinion.
> >
> >     Just my 1 cent, back to lurker mode...
> >
>
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