American Complicity, By Timothy V. Gatto

[Echo In Light]

American Complicity
By Timothy V. Gatto 30 May, 2008
Countercurrents.org

The blame cannot be shifted solely onto the shoulders of our political leaders. The American people cannot claim that they were “misled” by their leaders and don’t know the truth. While they were indeed misled, the truth wasn’t long behind the lies. Whether it its the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, the food crisis, the loss of our civil liberties or the sinking of our economy, the American people have been informed and apprised of everything. We know who the people behind the curtain are. We know how they did the things that they did. There are no great secrets that the American people don’t have access to. Everything is in plain sight.

The mainstream media has failed in its responsibility to accurately report the truth, still, the American people have known of its duplicity for years now. The propaganda and outright distortion of the truth has been part and parcel of just about every major network in the United States. The majority of Americans realize that they have been lied to and deceived for a long time. I believe however, that most Americans know how to find the truth behind the lies. There are many independent news sources outside the MSM. The truth as I see it, is that most Americans don’t really want to hear or see the truth. The truth puts responsibility into the hands of the people. Responsibility for the actions of their leaders and the conduct of their government is not palatable to most Americans.

There are many writers and pundits that constantly compare the American people to sheep. Anyone that has read political articles on the internet or in magazines has heard of the word “sheeple”. The word implies that the American people are led around like sheep, and that they are blissfully unaware of their surroundings, and like sheep, being led to slaughter, goes along peaceably to their doom. This is a great comparison, but like many other broad comparisons, it’s far too simplistic and doesn’t even come close to actually describing the mindset of the American people. The truth is that Americans do know what time it is, they do know what is being done in their name and they are very much aware of the erosion of individual liberties, they just don’t want to acknowledge it.

http://www.countercurrents.org/gatto300508.htm

[BrklynLiberal]

1. They were too many fat, happy and complacent to want to spend any time and effort to find out any

painful truth.
I did not hear many people in my immediate world -except my politically aware close friends-complain about Bush and his outrageousness until it actually hit them in their pocketbooks. THEN, and only THEN, did they start to think that maybe something was wrong in this administration and in this country.
The rising price of gasoline upset them more than the thousands and thousands of deaths and maimings in Iraq.

SHEEPLE is the perfect word for all those who were led stupidly by Bushco...all those middle-class people who were led to believe that they would come out ahead if taxes were cut, and if the capital gains tax was eliminated, and if corporations were forced to pay their fair share of taxes to the govt, and if millionaires were allowed to leave money to their families with no taxes. The big corporations and their actual beneficiaries were laughing their asses off to watch the blue-collar workers yelling out slogans for them.

"The truth as I see it, is that most Americans don’t really want to hear or see the truth. The truth puts responsibility into the hands of the people. Responsibility for the actions of their leaders and the conduct of their government is not palatable to most Americans."

[melody]

2. This is simply untrue

Anyone who pays any real attention to the facts will only believe the election results of 2000 and 2004 because they wish to
since this conforms to their own biases.

Beyond that, this article amounts to a lot of knee-jerk assumptions and generalizations about our culture and our people.

[Echo In Light]

3. You may {strongly} disagree, but here's food for thought:

Official Culture in America: A Natural State of Psychopathy?
Laura Knight-Jadczyk

The subject of the extremely narrow point of view of most Americans as opposed to the majority of other peoples in the world came up in a conversation the other day. The people having the conversation were, as it happens, mostly American. One of them commented that Americans had been "programmed" to their point of view by mass media propaganda for a very long time and that it was simply a very normal part of American life and basically, always had been. She concluded, "Whoever denies it is either ignorant or has an agenda."

That may be so. It may be true that the "pied pipers" of denial have an agenda. But what, then, does one say or do about the ignorance of the vast majority of Americans? Why and how is it that the trap of Fascism is closing on them before their very eyes and no matter how many voices - the number is increasing every day - are raised to point out this danger, they simply do not seem to get it?

The conversation continued with a comment from another individual suggesting that one must take into account how effective the "official culture" actually is in the US. It isn't just a question of ignorance, but a question of the long-term thoroughness of the propagandizing that began in the early days of the last century. It was proposed that this propaganda is so complete that not only are most people in the US ignorant of what is taking place on the US political scene, and in the world as a direct result of US policy, they are ignorant of the fact that they are ignorant. They have been inculcated with the view that their view is the only "right" one" and, consequently, they really "don't know any better". In short: "What do you do if you don't know that you don't know something?"

http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/official_culture.htm

[melody]

4. I read that, too, and it's even more internally flawed and biased

If someone wrote an article called "Official Culture in France: A Natural State of Psychopathy", how would you feel?
I'd be indignant on their behalf because you simply cannot make sweeping assessments like that. Culture doesn't work
that way. It can have triggering effects that bring each person in an entirely different direction.

This is just more right-wing EU (or EU sponsored) spin. They hate us just like our right-wing nutjobs come up with crap like "freedom
fries". It's an alpha primate contest. The EU will benefit the most from our downfall.

[Echo In Light]

7. How would I "feel?" I don't have any emotional attachment to Americana

Social critiques usually encompass generalizations in order to better illustrate a point. In the case of either of these two articles, I don't perceive the author as being far off the mark, and most certainly not "right wing," which in my estimation is usually far more steeped in chauvinism a la "patriotism," and thus prone to "feelings" of "indignation" over unpleasant observations of country and {synthetic, corporate} culture.

[melody]

12. I do feel an emotional attachment to my people and my country

It's the only heritage I have.

I do perceive plenty of bias in this approach. There is bias in *every* journalist's work, but in this piece (and the other) especially.

[Echo In Light]

15. I'm not suggesting there isn't bias, only disagreeing w/you that the bias is "right wing."

It's anything but.

[melody]

16. "Right wing" in the sense of nationalism and xenophobia

What connotes "right wing" is a matter of opinion these days.

[Echo In Light]

17. I'm still not following you - neither of the articles stem from "nationalism" or "xenophobia"

Nor do either promote those properties. In fact, you're stated "indignation" over what you find to be inappropriate generalizations of America's indoctrination, indifference and depoliticization speaks more so to "nationalism" than either of these two authors do.

BTW, America tends to pervert standard political terminology that the rest of the world doesn't seem to have as many problems identifying {because of the enormous propaganda effort employed here to keep the ant colony running as elites want it to}, and "right wing" means now what it has meant for a long time; authoritarianism, republicanism, might makes right, belligerent patriotism, and so forth.

[melody]

18. If the tilt of the article is automatically anti-American

... and clearly it is, there is a reason behind it.

Some of the things that fuel reflexive anti-American thought include nationalism and xenophobia. This would be a
right-wing sentiment.

America doesn't "tend" to pervert anything. America is a metaphor that doesn't really exist except as a "placeholder"
for 300 million individuals. You won't find actual agreement among any two of said individuals. To insist that 300
million of them have the same ideas and tendencies is the equivalent of holding that all black people like watermelon
and that French people are rude. It's bias pure and simple from a jaundiced perspective. It's unwise to generalize in
any sense, especially about a given ethnicity (and "American" qualifies as an ethnicity).

[Echo In Light]

19. To reiterate, if you read both articles, neither represents what you're claiming

And yes, the terms of political discourse in America have been virtually deprived of meaning.

"America has one political party with two right wings." ~ Gore Vidal

Get it?

Beyond that, we see things through very different eyes, and will have to agree to disagree on this.

[melody]

20. I completely disagree with you on this topic

The slant is evident to me. We agree on many things -- this we definitely
do not agree on.

Namaste and all that.

[JohnyCanuck]

9. Watch "Century of the Self"

It's a documentary on the role played by Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, in launching the PR industry in the US and the role Bernays Played in assisting the US government in using the techniques of PR for spin and propaganda and hoodwinking the population.
Watch the documentary (in 3 parts) at the link below:

"To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?"

http://www.moviesfoundonline.com/century_of_the_self.php

Each episode above is about 1hr long. If you want a quick sample of the contents. Check out this 7 min snip (below) on how Bernays used his talents to keep Guatamela safe for United Fruit.

From Episode Two of the film series "The Century of the Self" by Adam Curtis. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays started his business life as a publicist. While still in his twenties, he was part of the propaganda effort that drove the United States into in World War I (WW I.)

He personally advised several US presidents starting with Woodrow Wilson and counseled numerous corporations and business associations. Hitler's propaganda chief and Nazi henchman Joseph Goebbels was a reader and fan of Bernay's writing in particular Bernay's book "Crystalizing Public Opinion."

In this short excerpt from Curtis's film we see one example of Bernays at work.

Bernays was one of the engineers of the Cold War. He perfected the technique of manufacturing a distant but ever-threatening enemy and then creating a constant state of fear by generating false news reports that endlessly re-stated and exagerated the threat.

The stated purpose of Bernay's methods was to give those in power greater control over what he called "the mass mind." It worked well in the 1950s and sadly, it appears to be working quite well today... but maybe not forever.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5647767105955314141&q=bernays&ei=irBCSIydGZGIrQLQ_NSBCQ

[Echo In Light]

10. I've watched some of this before. Thanks for posting!

:toast:

[JohnyCanuck]

11. You're welcome n/t

[melody]

13. Shall we discuss the distorted perspective some right-wingers have of Canada?

I mean, we can find someone who hates every nationality.

[wurzel]

5. Everyone must have known they were lying! It Made no sense!

And that includes every Democrat who voted for this war! We invaded Iraq with a full army just ten years before. We had satellites planes flying over 24/7. We had a full embargo. If Iraq had chemical weapons where was its Dupont? If they had nuclear weapons where was its Harwell and Oakridge? A child could not have been deceived by such rubbish!

[pretzel4gore]

6. no need to re-invent the chop stick....

as a 6 year old, i stole a chocolate bar from a store when the keeper was not looking. It was a delightful adventure, to escape and later share out the loot with a friend behind a house....yet that was a wrong, and as an old geezer i can recall it in a thousand contexts, all insignificant. If growing up in this society has taught anything it is that, essentially, our persons are formed by 'right and wrong' and the battle cannot be won, if only because one day we die, so we never rest as far as 'right and wrong' go. But no matter how confused and lost one was/is, when ronald regan was PUT into office by a scheming gang of thieves in 1980, it was vital to the american (jesus christ, that means everybody on earth, in effect) people to forget that it was only 6 years since nixon was FIRED, for doing wrong. And the wrong then somehow became the basis of right normal. A 6 year old can steal a chocolate bar and, 40 years later can be a better person for it, having understood the injustice, even if only 5 cents was involved, but ONLY 35 years after the Nuremberg trials, an obvious fake like regan could be proclaimed president of humanity's most powerful representative, ie 'free' democracy, and yet the fukking people(!!) ?....we are a living breathing thing, we humanity, and too many religious types are the worst when it comes to being stupid, close minded and seeking death for all...we're in a fight for life, ours and OUR environment, against their STUPIDITY! and ...and...well the song goes "Lord, it's so hard to be humble, when we're perfect in every way!"
>There's too many stupid people in the pigmedia, pandering to the stoops. Harass them, everyday. Harass the sponsors. Harass the staff....ph, email, make up 'hate radio lies and your kids will pay!' posters, or something....

[Octafish]

8. Whatever happened to 'We the People'?

Well, ever since Pruneface made it "known" that "Government isn't the solution -- it's the problem" Corporate McPravda has ingrained into the public that Uncle Sam can't fix any problem -- like poverty, homelessness, jobs, education, etc.



That way Pruneface's rich benefactors wouldn't have to pay taxes. If the Press Corpse actually did its job, We the People would've been informed as to what was happening.

[melody]

14. Exactly -- the right wing war against "government" was just a masked attack on our country

They wanted to weaken and destroy it. Little George just finished up what his grandfather started.