[Peace-discuss] One truth overrules all others…

[Morton K.Brussel]

A segment from article by Ira Chermus at:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0713-08.htm

...There is one supposed "truth" that overrules all others: the United 
States is under deadly threat, and all true-blue Americans must band 
together to defend the homeland against that threat. We must all rally 
around the flag and around the leaders who are carrying that flag for 
us.

  In times of national crisis, the prevailing wisdom insists, we can 
afford no internal dissension. Since the '40s, we have been in a 
permanent state of crisis, and there is no end in sight. So it scarcely 
matters whether the president, the CIA, or anyone else tells us the 
truth about Iraq or Al-Qaeda or WMD. Those are just secondary details.

  The only question that really matters is whether you are taking the 
strongest possible stand against the enemy (whoever the current enemy 
happens to be) and following the dictates of the ministry of truth. 
That is certainly a question most voters ask when Congressional 
elections roll around. Any candidate who looks "soft on defense" faces 
an uphill struggle at best.

  As long as our national life is founded on fear and the quest for 
"national security," there will be no real security. There will be only 
a quest for a more perfect security system, a quest that is doomed to 
fail, leaving us striving endlessly for security. As long our official 
history reinforces that quixotic quest, too many of us will depend on 
the government's ministry of truth, rather than checking out the facts 
for ourselves.

  The problem is not getting the facts. We have policy critics and 
alternative media effective enough to insure that accurate facts will 
always be readily available. The problem is breaking through the reign 
of fear.

  Ira Chernus is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of 
Colorado at Boulder. chernus at colorado.edu
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