Rip Van Winkle Wakes Up In the Middle of Night of the Living Dead
I wrote this quite some time ago while recovering from what I call a near fatal case of the “Magnet mind melt.”
An exert from Al Gore's new book reminded me of it again so I reprint it here. Mr. Gore should acknowledge that he spent many years helping feed the corporate domination the globe is now experiencing.
My debilitating mental paralysis was the result of reading President Bush’s second favorite book – and the source for “the text for George Bush’s doctrine of ‘compassionate conservatism’” - Myron Magnet’s, The Dream and the Nightmare: The Sixties’ Legacy to the Underclass.
I never thought that these words would come out of my mouth, but I’m nearly convinced that this book should be banned.
The pernicious attitudes expressed in its pages have clearly infected and emboldened (for lack of a better word) the ignoranuses, in control of America and the current government of the global corporation, by the global corporation, and for the global corporation.
One might ask how a politically homeless person stumbled across the Magnet book. On occasion, I feel like one of the few remaining members of an endangered American species – those who still believe that: reasonable people can disagree…
At one time, it was not uncommon to hear people say things like – “I like to hear both sides of an argument before I make up my mind.” This general sentiment was very American and part of our democratic tradition. On the surface, it appeared to be what Jefferson once termed “a self-evident truth.” The United States were founded during the Age of Enlightenment when human beings turned to reason and science to develop an understanding of nature and natural law. Thomas Jefferson went so far as to admonish his ward and nephew, Peter Carr with this charge:
“I repeat that you must lay aside all prejudices on both sides, and neither believe nor reject any thing because any other person, or description of persons have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable not for the rightness but uprightness of the decision.”
It was David Brock’s book - The Republican Noise Machine - that sent me off on the path where I became exposed to the “magnet.”
Brock describes himself as defecting from the Republican Party and this is his second insider expose about his role in helping the far Right Wing come to power and control of both politics and the major media. His experiences included writing for Reverend Moon’s Washington Times, a “research” fellow at the Heritage Foundation, “investigative” writing for The American Spectator, and authoring two right wing books – The Real Anita Hill and The Seduction of Hillary Rodham.
To quote Brock – “I forwarded the right-wing agenda not as an open political operative or advocate but under the guise of journalism and punditry, fueled by huge sums of money from right wing billionaires, foundations, and self-interested corporations.” Brock documents the progress of the media takeover, starting with a 1971 memorandum written by Lewis F. Powell for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Powell “argued that the American system of free enterprise was under attack by the four institutions that shaped American public opinion: the academy, the media, the political establishment, and the courts. Business needed to ‘stop suffering in impotent silence, and launch a counter-attack,’ harnessing its ‘wisdom, ingenuity and resources’ against ‘those who would destroy it.” Later Powell was appointed to the Supreme Court by Richard Nixon.
Brock’s second Chapter is titled “Nixon’s Revenge.” Ironically, one of Brock’s references (Buying A Movement – Right Wing Foundations and American Politics) specifically mentions him in his earlier incarnation as a right wing propagandist.
At one time Senator Feingold laid out the reasons for Congress to censure President Bush for violating constitutional protections proscribed for citizens. It was all very logical and reasonable. One could easily move from his speech and ask: What are the arguments on the other side? What are the reasons for not censuring the President?
But this is where the real disconnect comes – the false assumption is that we are dealing with reasonable people.
And this brings us to Magnet. In a nutshell…
His book contends that virtually every New Deal and Great Society program were mistaken undertakings that ultimately worsened the plight of the economically disadvantaged and undermined society as a whole. Mistakes included the “War on Poverty, welfare benefit increases, court ordered school busing, more public housing projects, affirmative action, job-training programs,” among others. In later chapters he adds the protections provided by Miranda to the list of mistakes.
Magnet finds errors in Thomas Paine’s thinking (pg. 153); disparages Ken Kesey’s book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (pg. 87-89); ties Christianity to prosperity “the cultural values and aspirations that individuals and groups hold go a long way to determining their economic condition. The sociologist Max Weber explained how the Protestant ethic powerfully promotes success in a free economy, given Protestantism’s emphasis on the individual and his works rather than his faith, along with the Protestant willingness to see in worldly prosperity a sign of inner grace” (p. 26); and justifies imperialism through literature “…Roman imperialism that brought the techniques of civilized life to barbarian Britain” (pg. 201).
According to Magnet (pg. 196) “…ever since early-Victorian geologists began finding fossil evidence that the biblical story of creation in seven days wasn’t true – ever since Darwin theorized an entirely different account of the origin of species and the descent of man from the scriptural account – the religious understanding of the world has inexorably crumbled, and a secular one has taken its place. In our century, religious certitude about divine authority has ceased to be the principal foundation of our beliefs, values, and morality.”
And with that statement the rest of us should observe that – reason has left the building!
More recently, to quote Bob Jones III, letter to President Bush:
“In your re-election, God has graciously granted America- though she doesn’t deserve it – a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.
“Don’t equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you and your Christ.”
Whoa!
Seen in this light, seems like Senator Feingold’s reasonably simple call for censure of a fallible human being in the form of our president has now taken on a new meaning where liberal pagans are questioning divine authority.
Fellow citizens, we have departed from the Age of Enlightenment into a New World of Darkness again represented by divine authority and those appointed or anointed to interpret it for us.
I’ve emphasized that reason has vacated the premises, but this is not just a friendly absence.
“Every Wednesday morning in Norquist’s Washington offices, the leadership of more than 80 conservative organizations – including major right wing media outlets and top Bush White House aides – convene to set movement priorities, plan strategy, and adopt talking points. Norquist seems a cross between a Communist Party boss and a Mafia don as he presides over these strategy sessions of his self-styled “Leave Us Alone Coalition,” a catchy anti-government organizing principle that was something of a misnomer in that many of its members wished to impose their ideology through government action or were seeking government favors of one sort or another.
What really united the coalition was savage partisanship and antiliberalism – a desire to roll back the economic and social gains made in the country since the New Deal. ‘Our goal is to cut government in half as a percentage of the economy over twenty-five years, so that we can get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub,’ Norquist has said. He has compared the estate tax to the ‘morality of the Holocaust.’ ‘Our goal is to inflict pain,’ Norquist told National Journal in 2003. ‘It is not good enough to win; it has to be a painful and devastating defeat. We’re sending a message here. It is like when the king would take his opponent’s head and spike it on a pole for everyone to see’” (Brock, p. 50).
In this scenario – anyone who attempts to reason can consider themselves collateral damage.
An exert from Al Gore's new book reminded me of it again so I reprint it here. Mr. Gore should acknowledge that he spent many years helping feed the corporate domination the globe is now experiencing.
My debilitating mental paralysis was the result of reading President Bush’s second favorite book – and the source for “the text for George Bush’s doctrine of ‘compassionate conservatism’” - Myron Magnet’s, The Dream and the Nightmare: The Sixties’ Legacy to the Underclass.
I never thought that these words would come out of my mouth, but I’m nearly convinced that this book should be banned.
The pernicious attitudes expressed in its pages have clearly infected and emboldened (for lack of a better word) the ignoranuses, in control of America and the current government of the global corporation, by the global corporation, and for the global corporation.
One might ask how a politically homeless person stumbled across the Magnet book. On occasion, I feel like one of the few remaining members of an endangered American species – those who still believe that: reasonable people can disagree…
At one time, it was not uncommon to hear people say things like – “I like to hear both sides of an argument before I make up my mind.” This general sentiment was very American and part of our democratic tradition. On the surface, it appeared to be what Jefferson once termed “a self-evident truth.” The United States were founded during the Age of Enlightenment when human beings turned to reason and science to develop an understanding of nature and natural law. Thomas Jefferson went so far as to admonish his ward and nephew, Peter Carr with this charge:
“I repeat that you must lay aside all prejudices on both sides, and neither believe nor reject any thing because any other person, or description of persons have rejected or believed it. Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable not for the rightness but uprightness of the decision.”
It was David Brock’s book - The Republican Noise Machine - that sent me off on the path where I became exposed to the “magnet.”
Brock describes himself as defecting from the Republican Party and this is his second insider expose about his role in helping the far Right Wing come to power and control of both politics and the major media. His experiences included writing for Reverend Moon’s Washington Times, a “research” fellow at the Heritage Foundation, “investigative” writing for The American Spectator, and authoring two right wing books – The Real Anita Hill and The Seduction of Hillary Rodham.
To quote Brock – “I forwarded the right-wing agenda not as an open political operative or advocate but under the guise of journalism and punditry, fueled by huge sums of money from right wing billionaires, foundations, and self-interested corporations.” Brock documents the progress of the media takeover, starting with a 1971 memorandum written by Lewis F. Powell for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Powell “argued that the American system of free enterprise was under attack by the four institutions that shaped American public opinion: the academy, the media, the political establishment, and the courts. Business needed to ‘stop suffering in impotent silence, and launch a counter-attack,’ harnessing its ‘wisdom, ingenuity and resources’ against ‘those who would destroy it.” Later Powell was appointed to the Supreme Court by Richard Nixon.
Brock’s second Chapter is titled “Nixon’s Revenge.” Ironically, one of Brock’s references (Buying A Movement – Right Wing Foundations and American Politics) specifically mentions him in his earlier incarnation as a right wing propagandist.
At one time Senator Feingold laid out the reasons for Congress to censure President Bush for violating constitutional protections proscribed for citizens. It was all very logical and reasonable. One could easily move from his speech and ask: What are the arguments on the other side? What are the reasons for not censuring the President?
But this is where the real disconnect comes – the false assumption is that we are dealing with reasonable people.
And this brings us to Magnet. In a nutshell…
His book contends that virtually every New Deal and Great Society program were mistaken undertakings that ultimately worsened the plight of the economically disadvantaged and undermined society as a whole. Mistakes included the “War on Poverty, welfare benefit increases, court ordered school busing, more public housing projects, affirmative action, job-training programs,” among others. In later chapters he adds the protections provided by Miranda to the list of mistakes.
Magnet finds errors in Thomas Paine’s thinking (pg. 153); disparages Ken Kesey’s book “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (pg. 87-89); ties Christianity to prosperity “the cultural values and aspirations that individuals and groups hold go a long way to determining their economic condition. The sociologist Max Weber explained how the Protestant ethic powerfully promotes success in a free economy, given Protestantism’s emphasis on the individual and his works rather than his faith, along with the Protestant willingness to see in worldly prosperity a sign of inner grace” (p. 26); and justifies imperialism through literature “…Roman imperialism that brought the techniques of civilized life to barbarian Britain” (pg. 201).
According to Magnet (pg. 196) “…ever since early-Victorian geologists began finding fossil evidence that the biblical story of creation in seven days wasn’t true – ever since Darwin theorized an entirely different account of the origin of species and the descent of man from the scriptural account – the religious understanding of the world has inexorably crumbled, and a secular one has taken its place. In our century, religious certitude about divine authority has ceased to be the principal foundation of our beliefs, values, and morality.”
And with that statement the rest of us should observe that – reason has left the building!
More recently, to quote Bob Jones III, letter to President Bush:
“In your re-election, God has graciously granted America- though she doesn’t deserve it – a reprieve from the agenda of paganism. You have been given a mandate. We the people expect your voice to be like the clear and certain sound of a trumpet. Because you seek the Lord daily, we who know the Lord will follow that kind of voice eagerly.
“Don’t equivocate. Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you and your Christ.”
Whoa!
Seen in this light, seems like Senator Feingold’s reasonably simple call for censure of a fallible human being in the form of our president has now taken on a new meaning where liberal pagans are questioning divine authority.
Fellow citizens, we have departed from the Age of Enlightenment into a New World of Darkness again represented by divine authority and those appointed or anointed to interpret it for us.
I’ve emphasized that reason has vacated the premises, but this is not just a friendly absence.
“Every Wednesday morning in Norquist’s Washington offices, the leadership of more than 80 conservative organizations – including major right wing media outlets and top Bush White House aides – convene to set movement priorities, plan strategy, and adopt talking points. Norquist seems a cross between a Communist Party boss and a Mafia don as he presides over these strategy sessions of his self-styled “Leave Us Alone Coalition,” a catchy anti-government organizing principle that was something of a misnomer in that many of its members wished to impose their ideology through government action or were seeking government favors of one sort or another.
What really united the coalition was savage partisanship and antiliberalism – a desire to roll back the economic and social gains made in the country since the New Deal. ‘Our goal is to cut government in half as a percentage of the economy over twenty-five years, so that we can get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub,’ Norquist has said. He has compared the estate tax to the ‘morality of the Holocaust.’ ‘Our goal is to inflict pain,’ Norquist told National Journal in 2003. ‘It is not good enough to win; it has to be a painful and devastating defeat. We’re sending a message here. It is like when the king would take his opponent’s head and spike it on a pole for everyone to see’” (Brock, p. 50).
In this scenario – anyone who attempts to reason can consider themselves collateral damage.
posted by Mark Sherman at 12:18 PM
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