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americanre
Greetings! - Subscribe
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Hello, world! I'm Realist. I have blogged for several years about topics I consider important to the future of America. Some have agreed with my views, some not. Either way, I hope that what I write stimulates you to think, for to not think leaves you defenseless to those who do. I'm currently allowing comments even though I have had problems with trolls and spam in the past. Should it become necessary, I will have to limit comments to email. Let's hope that isn't necessary. My first topical post will immediately follow. I hope you enjoy. Free Blog Hosting |
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americanre
And What Do You Think, Linda? May 26th, 2007 9:28:06 pm - Subscribe
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Mrs. Montag: "I've got a part in The Family." [All quotes, here and at the conclusion, are from the script for the François Truffaut movie Fahrenheit 451, which is largely based on the Ray Bradbury novel. This particular scene is not part of the book.] Most of us today aren't so naive as to believe that a teleplay actually hinges upon our immediate and direct input (phoning in or "voting" over the Internet doesn't apply to my purpose). And yet, one has to wonder if this soon isn't what we are expected to believe, based on a report published this week in The New York Times: TV titans are planning changes to please advertisers that include integrating the actors and actresses from the programming into the ads, as well as simultaneously showing more ads with the programming. The goal, one marketing executive said proudly, "is to blur the line between content and advertising message." Would it be too much of a stretch to "blur the line between fantasy and reality" if this method were to prove successful? Pasadena, CA psychotherapist Peter Michaelson writes that these proposed changes are already in place in Desperate Housewives , The Sopranos , and various reality shows are promoting "the idea that life is primarily a dumping-ground for relationships and an uneven playing field of winners and losers." In addition, one is expected not to notice that Big Media and Power-Hungry Government Are Turning America into a Dictatorship. As Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher of BuzzFlash.com, puts it:
Profit was behind the White House ignoring intelligence agency assessments of the planned invasion of Iraq, an act which was described by these agencies as providing Iran and al Qaeda new opportunities to expand their influence. This information is contained in a Senate committee report currently being declassified. The public version is expected to be released next week, but you'll be too worried about how The Sopranos final episode will play out if the TV and advertising execs have their way. You also aren't expected to pay any attention to that man Steven Clemons of the New America Foundation, who wrote in Japan's Daily Yomiuri that It's Time for Bush to Turn Realist. In his article, Clemons explains the reality: [Y]ears after the start of the war in Iraq, new battle lines between these factions are surfacing inside the Bush White House... The new breed of strident, hypernationalist neoconservativism is advocating an aggressive, military-dominated strategy in dealing with Iran. Even though Clemons wrote this article in March 2006, that battle among the various factions within the White House continues up to this week, when The Washington Note reported on Cheney's attempts to "Constrain" Bush's Iran options: Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney's national security team has been meeting with policy hands of the American Enterprise Institute, one other think tank, and more than one national security consulting house and explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not support President Bush's tack towards Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously. This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an "end run strategy" around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument. The way I read this is that Cheney isn't content any longer to hide behind the curtain with his hand up Bush's tail. His plans are too vital to allow for any delay in their implementation. The Washington Note provides the evidence backing my thoughts: The zinger of this information is the admission by this Cheney aide that Cheney himself is frustrated with President Bush... Cheney believes that Bush can not be counted on to make the "right decision" when it comes to dealing with Iran and thus Cheney believes that he must tie the President's hands. What ever happened to Executive Privilege??? The idea that NO ONE can inhibit the exercise of power by the Chief Executive - which Dick Cheney clearly is not? Is this not an expression of a fomenting coup d'etat - and act of treason??? any more than the Congressional Democrats have. Shortly after a Soviet-style purge of "unreliable" senior Navy commanders - 6 Navy Commanders Sacked in 6 Weeks - Bush White House ally Australia's news services exposed: A bristling US armada led by two aircraft carriers steamed into waters near Iran for exercises, hours before UN watchdogs said Iran was expanding its uranium enrichment program in defiance of international sanctions... The carriers USS John Stennis and USS Nimitz sailed through the Strait of Hormuz into the Gulf along with a helicopter carrier and amphibious assault ships carrying an estimated 2200 marines. It certainly is significant, especially if Raw Story's report that Cheney is seeking to initiate a casus belli for nuclear attack against Iran is true. Unfortunately for Dr. StrangeDick, television isn't the only choice for the American people. Thanks to the Internet, it really is possible to discover what is really going on within our borders - no thanks to the collective 13 who control America's media. Thanks to the Internet, we can peruse the news from sources immune from White House blandishments of higher profits for cooperation and vast right-wing conspiratorial hostility for not cooperating. But such a situation isn't without cost, for it does require that the American people stop meekly accepting the crap that is handed to them and begin to look for their own news based on what the so-called liberal media presents. Many of my own posts are initiated by researching the lies presented by the SCLM to discover what the real truth is, and the accessibility to foreign sources is vital to that effort Jeffrey Abelson of Apathy Busters has taken up the cause and challenges us bloggers, to borrow a phrase, to be all that we need to be: We need to be encouraged to accept the fact that 21st century citizenship requires a dedication to keeping oneself fully informed, and to conscientiously monitoring the performance of those elected to manage our collective affairs. In a recent speech at Occidental College, Bill Moyers remarked that when Woodrow Wilson spoke of democracy releasing the energies of every human being, "he was declaring that we cannot leave our destiny to politicians, elites, and experts; either we take democracy into our own hands, or others will take democracy from us." I strongly agree, Jeffrey. It's why I got into blogging in the first place. Long ago, I could see what was happening to the American people through the abuse of television. At every gathering I attended, all the conversation would stop when the TV was turned on. Even the most opinionated and erudite would settle into a trance with the introduction of the video raster monster. As a result, I'm a bit put off by Abelson's proposal to use YouTube, for it could lead to the Internet supplanting television as the trance-inducing, electronic drug that created the current situation ripe for exploitation by advertisers to create, in Peter Michaelson's view, "a no-man's parking lot of impulses, sensations, and compulsions without a sense of interdependence or belonging." I return to François Truffaut for a presentation of the sorry alternative desired by the titans of (mis)communication, that "no-man's parking lot of impulses, sensations, and compulsions without a sense of interdependence or belonging" which succumbs to the slightest (and cheapest) intimation of both: The Family actor #1: "I don't see any problem there at all. What do you think, Linda?" Won't that feel good, to know that you, Linda, solved their problem for them? What would they have done without you? Tune in again tomorrow. We'll do it again! |