Hollywood's
New Censors
Mr.
Pilger is certainly one of the best among Western artists and social critics.
This article on Hollywood censorship is another example of his acute thinking,
highlighted by personal experience and pervasive knowledge of his subject.
That said, I believe
he could have gone even further in his analysis. Certainly, Hollywood is a major
contributor to the myths that shape the American Empire and Western colonialism.
But, long before there was a Hollywood, there were dime novels about cowboys
and "Indians," there were penny newspapers in which literati like
Lafcadio Hearn wrote purely fictional accounts about the folly of the new immigrants.
There were children's books like Little Black Sambo, and so on. Indoctrination
begins early and is long-lasting.
Politics has played
a major – perhaps the major – role in the production and distribution
of American art and literature. Our dramas, fiction, poetry, nonfiction have
been altered, and generally vitiated, by political considerations. Great books
with political themes like The Grapes of Wrath, have occasionally bubbled
to the top out of the molten mass of mediocrity, but that was much more likely
to happen in an earlier age when educated lay persons actually read books. As
for our "establishment" of careerist critics, they know enough never
to rock the corporate boats that support their hauteur.
I have written
plays, novels, books of poems, edited anthologies, had a little success here
and there, but in every endeavor I have come up against the same kind of political
orthodoxy which Mr. Pilger lamentably finds in Hollywood. Those who expose that
orthodoxy – its censorship and hypocrisies – are taking a heroic stand. Mr.
Pilger has done so before, he has done so now, and no doubt he will do so again.
~ Gary Corseri
China:
The Next Big Enemy?
In
the 1990s, the neocons were also beating the war drums against China. Unfortunately,
so was Buchanan. My view is that they were all doing so because they were afraid
that the Reagan coalition, which was in part built on anti-Communism, would
collapse without an enemy to rally the country behind.
Never mind that
China is in many ways much more capitalistic than the U.S. The neocons needed
an enemy and they were it.
9/11 changed it
all. Bin Laden spared the Chinese from being the portrayed as the focus of evil
of in the world. Unfortunately for Beijing, the "war on terror" is
getting stale, so the neocons need to find a new enemy. We all know who is next
in line.
~ Eric Blankenburg,
PopulistVoice.com
The
WINEP-Weenies' Insane Iran Advice
I
get turned off after encountering words like motley crew, Grand Pooh-Bahs, insane
advice, etc.
Why can't the
opposition use more convincing language? Usually it's because they either have
a very one-sided outlook or cannot make a case.
In every respect,
if you want to convince the reading public, you don't use language like that.
~ Bill Howard
Gordon Prather
replies:
In
every one of the thousand or so columns I have posted over the past decade,
I first provide the context (via embedded links) for the remarks or actions
of some protagonist, then allow the protagonist to hoist himself by his own
words (verbatim) or deeds (as chronicled). In particular, you – dear reader
– either consider providing the Israelis whatever arms they need to enable
them to successfully attack and destroy a Russian-built nuclear power plant
in Iran, defended by a Russian-supplied air-defense system, insanity or you
don't.
[1] Motley crews
are, by definition, non-uniform and undisciplined as a group. They are characterized
by containing characters of conflicting personality, varying backgrounds, and,
usually to the benefit of the group, a wide array of methods for overcoming
adversity.
[2] Grand PoohBah,
by definition, is a mocking title for someone self-important or high-ranking,
who exhibits an inflated self-regard.
[3] There are
many people – frequently in government – who seem to go out of their
way to make life difficult for everyone else. Psychologists have developed a
term which is used to identify these people, they are called weenies.
Drug
War Tragedy in Mexico
I
found this very interesting, but I am sad to see Mr. Bock mocking the idea of
trying to control the flow of weapons. We are not talking about sporting goods
here. The U.S. Congress allowed the assault weapons ban to die in 2004 –
why? Virtually all of the weapons being used by the gunmen are coming from the
U.S. They are not buying pistols. Is it not possible to imagine trying to reduce
the arms flowing out of the U.S. to all points – and I'm including weapons
sales in general. Perhaps Mr. Bock might examine his own little hobby horse?
Perhaps it will
take the total bankruptcy of the U.S., which appears to be arriving, to stop the
policy of handing over taxpayer money to buy weapons for the military in Mexico,
while turning a blind eye to the hemorrhaging of weapons to the cartelistas.
In fact, we need to have the cartels get those arms so we can justify spending
more taxpayer dollars to buy weapons for the Mexican authorities.
And meantime we
continue our prohibition policies to ensure everything stays in place.
~ Marshall Carter-Tripp
The
American Empire: A Finale
I
am a regular reader of AntiWar.com columns, and I enjoyed all of "The American
Empire: A Finale" — except the part that suggests that "Christians"
in general "see our doom written in the stars" and "walk around
in a state of perpetual fear mixed with glee... cheered by the sight of the
world economy imploding."
While Mr. Raimondo
can't be faulted for having a narrow perception of what "Christians"
see and are cheered by, based on what must be a limited exposure to the various
eschatological schools of thought, I can assure him that not all Christians
fit his description. It happens to be primarily the dispensationalist, premillennialist
perspective that Mr. Raimondo is describing, and while that description surely
fits the majority of professing Christians in the U.S., I belong to a significant
minority of reformed postmillennialists, many of whom would find his broad-brush
description inconsiderate, if not perhaps offensive.
I was about to
share his column with several of my friends when I notice the paragraph mentioning
"Christians," and decided against it, since many of them would have
been put off by that characterization (or caricature) of their faith.
Otherwise, kudos
to AntiWar.com for everything you folks do!
~ Tim Wallace,
webmaster: DemocracyIsNotFreedom.com & TexasSecede.com
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