Thursday, February 09, 2006
Pacifica Commentary for February 8, 2006
Yes People
Where do the people who surround George Bush come from? They are actually a very conventional breed. Many of these folks learned how to respect authority at an early age.
1. Give the teacher the answer the teacher wants.
2. Agree with whatever the authority figure says.
3. Consider any intelligent question to be negative, indeed, to be a threat.
4. Consider compliance with all commands to be positive.
5. Just ask where the power is and yield to that power.
At a certain age this attitude petrifies and you have the perfect company person. This person now has no identity except to the company, to the firm, or to the political administration. Unfortunately this kind of formation leaves the individual with no moral compass.
Take the Attorney General for example, after observing his conduct under questioning it seems like he had this kind of formation. I think he just might conform to any opportunity without losing his smirk. "We have no king but Caesar." And if another king comes along, we will have no king but that one.
The only variable therefore depends on who is in power. The soul then belongs wherever power resides. And such is the sadness of an unconscious life.
Exactly what place does authority have in framing a logical decision? Centuries of study in the field of Logic have given us a clear consensus. Authority has no part at all in framing a logical decision. The argument from authority has long been regarded as a classic fallacy. Authority can threaten to punish with a club; that is called an argumentum ad baculum. Yes, authority can punish and even torture, but authority is never a valid step in sound reasoning.
This is why studying the behavior of military commanders is a study in sheer madness. General Westmoreland believed that he could have marched on to victory in Vietnam if he just had 750,000 troops on the ground. This in spite of the fact that most of the Vietnamese and most of our troops knew that the war was definitively lost.
And last night we heard our Vice Commander in Chief, Dick Cheney speak of victory in Iraq. Now do we understand that military intelligence is an oxymoron?
Friends, to have a human life rather than the life of a cog in a machine we must question authority and when necessary we must defy authority. The phrase. "I'm in charge here," has never meant that I am correct.
Pacifica Commentary for February 1, 2006
Why We Can't Wait
Why were we out in the streets last night? Because the man giving the speech and the realities of 2006 had little or nothing in common. The state of the Union was a clap fest for the wealthy. It was not real.
Why can't we wait for this regime to depart? Because those of us who teach can't accept material from our students if the White House is cited as a source. Why? Because the White House is currently not a credible source.
Why can't we wait? Because the president and his cabal of ideological cronies have led our young people to the death in an unnecessary war.
He actually restarted a war begun by his father, continued by Bill Clinton and escalated once again by flat out lies. The war is now in its fifteenth year of terror on the people of Iraq.
Why can't we wait for the Bush regime to depart? Because they have approved of torture and then denied it. Torture has no place in a civilized society. We do not currently have a civilized administration. Members of the military who have tortured their victims to death now have virtual impunity from prosecution. In order to avoid embarrassment they have rendered some victims to foreign countries to be tortured.
Why can't we wait for the Bush regime to depart? Because they have disappeared people living in the United States. They have abolished the great writ of habeas corpus. What due process of law has been used for prisoners illegally held at Guantanamo?
What due process of law has been administered to the prisoners at Abu Graib? In some cases they have punished the lowest level of enlisted personnel and ignored the high ranking individuals who gave the orders, Mr. Rumsfeld for example.
Why can't we wait? Because the administration is now sending pilotless planes to bomb probable suspects in foreign countries as they randomly kill scores of innocent civilians in the process. Threats of slaughter are delivered to Iran, Syria, North Korea and Palestine.
Why can't we wait? Because the administration has approved the rampant terror of invading civilian homes, killing and torturing the civilian occupants, destroying whole cities like Falluja in illegal acts of collective punishment while using illegal weapons such as cluster bombs, white phosphorus and depleted uranium.
This out-of-control militarism has created international resistance and is recklessly endangering the people of the United States.
The man who spoke so eloquently last night apparently does not have a clue about how he has trashed our country as he trashed our purported enemies.
The most noble act of Mr. Nixon's political career was his resignation from the presidency. Mr. Bush, we respectfully ask you to follow this excellent example.
Where do the people who surround George Bush come from? They are actually a very conventional breed. Many of these folks learned how to respect authority at an early age.
1. Give the teacher the answer the teacher wants.
2. Agree with whatever the authority figure says.
3. Consider any intelligent question to be negative, indeed, to be a threat.
4. Consider compliance with all commands to be positive.
5. Just ask where the power is and yield to that power.
At a certain age this attitude petrifies and you have the perfect company person. This person now has no identity except to the company, to the firm, or to the political administration. Unfortunately this kind of formation leaves the individual with no moral compass.
Take the Attorney General for example, after observing his conduct under questioning it seems like he had this kind of formation. I think he just might conform to any opportunity without losing his smirk. "We have no king but Caesar." And if another king comes along, we will have no king but that one.
The only variable therefore depends on who is in power. The soul then belongs wherever power resides. And such is the sadness of an unconscious life.
Exactly what place does authority have in framing a logical decision? Centuries of study in the field of Logic have given us a clear consensus. Authority has no part at all in framing a logical decision. The argument from authority has long been regarded as a classic fallacy. Authority can threaten to punish with a club; that is called an argumentum ad baculum. Yes, authority can punish and even torture, but authority is never a valid step in sound reasoning.
This is why studying the behavior of military commanders is a study in sheer madness. General Westmoreland believed that he could have marched on to victory in Vietnam if he just had 750,000 troops on the ground. This in spite of the fact that most of the Vietnamese and most of our troops knew that the war was definitively lost.
And last night we heard our Vice Commander in Chief, Dick Cheney speak of victory in Iraq. Now do we understand that military intelligence is an oxymoron?
Friends, to have a human life rather than the life of a cog in a machine we must question authority and when necessary we must defy authority. The phrase. "I'm in charge here," has never meant that I am correct.
Pacifica Commentary for February 1, 2006
Why We Can't Wait
Why were we out in the streets last night? Because the man giving the speech and the realities of 2006 had little or nothing in common. The state of the Union was a clap fest for the wealthy. It was not real.
Why can't we wait for this regime to depart? Because those of us who teach can't accept material from our students if the White House is cited as a source. Why? Because the White House is currently not a credible source.
Why can't we wait? Because the president and his cabal of ideological cronies have led our young people to the death in an unnecessary war.
He actually restarted a war begun by his father, continued by Bill Clinton and escalated once again by flat out lies. The war is now in its fifteenth year of terror on the people of Iraq.
Why can't we wait for the Bush regime to depart? Because they have approved of torture and then denied it. Torture has no place in a civilized society. We do not currently have a civilized administration. Members of the military who have tortured their victims to death now have virtual impunity from prosecution. In order to avoid embarrassment they have rendered some victims to foreign countries to be tortured.
Why can't we wait for the Bush regime to depart? Because they have disappeared people living in the United States. They have abolished the great writ of habeas corpus. What due process of law has been used for prisoners illegally held at Guantanamo?
What due process of law has been administered to the prisoners at Abu Graib? In some cases they have punished the lowest level of enlisted personnel and ignored the high ranking individuals who gave the orders, Mr. Rumsfeld for example.
Why can't we wait? Because the administration is now sending pilotless planes to bomb probable suspects in foreign countries as they randomly kill scores of innocent civilians in the process. Threats of slaughter are delivered to Iran, Syria, North Korea and Palestine.
Why can't we wait? Because the administration has approved the rampant terror of invading civilian homes, killing and torturing the civilian occupants, destroying whole cities like Falluja in illegal acts of collective punishment while using illegal weapons such as cluster bombs, white phosphorus and depleted uranium.
This out-of-control militarism has created international resistance and is recklessly endangering the people of the United States.
The man who spoke so eloquently last night apparently does not have a clue about how he has trashed our country as he trashed our purported enemies.
The most noble act of Mr. Nixon's political career was his resignation from the presidency. Mr. Bush, we respectfully ask you to follow this excellent example.
