Sunday, September 12, 2004

The Other September 11: Regime Change Then and Now

By Mickey Z.

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Posted 09/12 | Add a Comment

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  1. Well, yes. We all know this. It’s so comfortable going over old ground--aside from the new details--but it gets us nowhere...especially thinking. Your last paragraph should have been the beginning point to a good discussion, good article about how we look at things, need to look at things.
    You mention, in your opening paragraph, the “wary public.” Mickey...the public is not wary. The public is mindless. They’ll accept what they’re told, they’ll do what they’re told--they’ve been properly schooled into oblivion (and have no complaints).
    Whenever anyone comes along to question the thought, the underpinnings of action of the mainstream, the right, the left they are ignored because they are uncomfortable and people don’t like their comfortable ways disturbed. This happened with--to take my favorite old artists--Euripides and Aristophanes. Euripides questioned and did not do well; Aristophanese prophesied and no one listened (he was right). Cassandras all.

    Posted by secor from  on  09/12  at  04:46 PM

  2. “We all know this,” he says...followed by: “The public is mindless. They’ll accept what they’re told, they’ll do what they’re told--they’ve been properly schooled into oblivion (and have no complaints).”

    Posted by Mickey Z. from  on  09/12  at  05:48 PM

  3. I hope you’re wrong about going over old ground not getting us anywhere.  I’m a history major.

    Posted by Justin Felux from San Antonio, TX  on  09/13  at  01:28 AM

  4. Wrong reading Justin. In what was said, there was nothing new and nothing leading toward thought about what’s going on. It was comfortable. Nothing we need get upset about because we’re already upset. So, it’s hashing over old ground when we don’t need this old ground gone over.
    As to history proper...most of America is kind of short on history. What happened 4 years ago is about all there is. America has no sense of itself in history, as, say, China or Japan or India where their history influences the present and, thence, the future. But that’s a different topic from the above.

    Posted by secor from  on  09/13  at  05:43 AM

  5. This piece was originally written as an op-ed that I submitted to some mainstream publications in the hope of reaching a wider audience. No luck...so I sent it around elsewhere to get it read.

    I’m not overly concerned over what a handful of readers see as redundant or “comfortable.” They are part of a minority almost too small to calculate. If the material is familiar, fine (although I haven’t seen anyone else making the point about tactics being more overt now). If it teaches you nothing, instead of dismissing it, why not send it along to someone who still thinks the media is liberal, America is benevolent, and there’s a difference between Republicans and Democrats? There are a lot more of them than us.

    “We all know this.
    “We don’t need this old ground gone over.”
    “The public is mindless.”

    This sounds like we’ll be replacing the dictatorship of the dollar with the dictatorship of the vanguard. Since only a select few “get it” and there’s no time to bother with the rest, that select few seems a little too “select” for my blood. No one’s actions or intentions is good enough for them and, the logic follows, we’d be better off deferring to their superior understanding of this human fiasco.

    I’ve said enough. Thanks.

    Posted by Mickey Z from  on  09/13  at  11:25 AM

  6. To Secor,

    I can tell you that in Japan, a country which does have many noble historical attributes (eg., flower arranging and Ninjas!), the understanding of history is of course very selective. Of major concern is the whitewashing of WWII, not only Japan’s role but the US role: The US is allowed to stay here and occupy the hell out of the place because most people are kept ignorant of the horrendous atrocities they committed (LeMay’s delightful targeted fire bombings of civilians which killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, literally fried them to death). Not to mention the occupation. The US propped up the yakuza organized crime syndicates (who are now a bunch of assholes who think they run the country) and went around during the1950s telling everyone that eating rice is bad for your brain, thus importing US wheat to bake bread gained sway (true). These horrors and dirty tricks are not part of official history.

    In another example, the Seagraves document how Japan stole priceless treasures from all across Asia, especially from Korea whose treasures still sit in rich people’s vaults in Tokyo.

    Just a side note: in the spirit of Mick’s critical historical pedagogy, my paper on US militarism (http://www.wisehat.com) was translated into Japanese and is now being circulated on the internet here to a small audience. I’m not bragging but just proud to be a part of the tradition of dissident educational rabble rousers!

    Posted by Rhino Rick from Tokyo, Japan  on  09/13  at  07:18 PM

    7. Next entry: Too Many Cameras and Not Enough Truth: John Kerry Dodges the Press

    Previous entry: How to Argue with a Kerry Supporter

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