Cloe Axelson in a WBUR Cognoscenti article tells us, “The kids have something to say, and we should listen.” And she’s right.
Axelson’s article focuses on student activists who survived last February’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 died.
Parkland was not the first example of a mass school shooting in this country; given that the United States has become a nation in which nearly 100 people die daily from guns, it is unlikely to be the last. [I hope you are as horrified to read these words as I am to write them and are thinking of ways to fight the NRA’s deadly work for the arms industry.]
One of the highlights of Axelson’s article is her reminiscence about another young student, Mary Beth Tinker, who was suspended from her middle school in Iowa in the 1960s for wearing a black arm band to school to protest the Vietnam War. The ACLU took her case on behalf of student rights to free speech all the way to the Supreme Court, where she won her case in a 7-2 decision.
I have same hypotheses about the child-rearing Mary Beth and other student activists experienced. I believe that in general, they were not bullied and beaten by their parents. They were not sent off to military schools to straighten them out. They were not told to shut their traps, mind their own beeswax, watch out or they’d get what was coming to them, obey…or else.
More likely, young activists like these are allowed to ask questions, wonder about injustices, read widely, educate themselves about society’s ills, and even speak out about problems they see in their communities and beyond—nurtured rather than suppressed, taught to love rather than to hate, urged to strive for a better society rather than become bullies themselves.
“Beating the devil” out of kids is not a path to a better world. Corporal punishment can beat out a lot of potential for developing a universal ethic and sense of justice—and perhaps destroy our only hope for survival of the planet. If you want to stop violence in and to the world, work to end violence in the home.
And inspire yourself! Hear Mary Beth today in this brief video.
To get to the truth of a war story, find the square root of
an absolute, then multiply by maybe.
That’s Tim Obrien’s formula for guessing the veracity of any tale told
by Rat Kiley. Kiley was a platoon buddy
during the Vietnam War. O’Brien declares:
“It wasn’t a question of deceit. Just
the opposite: he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you
would feel exactly what he felt.”
Admirable; and understandable.
“This isn’t civilization. This is
Nam,” says O’Brien. “The thing about
remembering is that you don’t forget.”
These are quotes from O’Brien’s celebrated memoir, The Things They Carried. Here’s another: “The land was haunted. We were fighting forces that did not obey the laws of twentieth-century science.” And another: “I’d pulled enough night guard to know how the fear factor gets multiplied as you sit there hour after hour, nobody to talk to, nothing to do but stare into the big black hole at the center of your own sorry soul.”
O’Brien has a way with words. Like the best of writers, he makes writing
seem easy, even though it’s not. I
recall a poet saying: “It’s easy to write.
Just stare at a blank sheet of paper until droplets of blood form on
your forehead.”
As with T. S. Eliot’s mixture of memory and desire in “The Wasteland,” O’Brien’s stories heat to a sizzle, then reach from the page to scorch your eyes. Sometimes I think he channels Dylan. For example: “You’re never more alive than when you’re almost dead.”
It’s been said that in war, the first casualty is truth. But there is a truth that can be said. It is this: War is the ultimate obscenity. It ranks right up there with slavery and rape.
What too often goes unnoticed, though, is that soldiers are almost always slaves to the stories they’ve been told by the spin-meisters of profit and power. Such soldiers rape – and slash, burn, maim and kill – because their capacity for reason and conscience has been sucked into a vortex of patriotic idolatry. Unaware they’ll be brutalized by their own brutality, they are sent to the killing fields by what Eliot calls the “hollow men” who rule from the heights of hubris.
Stefan Schindler is the co-founder of The National Registry
for Conscientious Objection; a Board Member of The Life Experience School and
Peace Abbey; and author of America’s
Indochina Holocaust: The History and Global Matrix of The Vietnam War. His forthcoming book is entitled Buddha’s Political Philosophy.
Odysseus is tempted by the swirling Sirens in Homer’s The Odyssey.
by Roy Eidelson
“Citizens of the democratic societies
should undertake a course of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves
from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for more meaningful
democracy.” — Noam Chomsky, 1989 (Necessary Illusions: Thought Control
in Democratic Societies)
My copy of Homer’s The Odyssey, a remnant of high
school Latin days,has been gathering dust on a shelf for decades
now. But I’ve been thinking more about the book in recent years, especially as
my writing has increasingly turned to the psychology of propaganda. In that
context, one of the epic poem’s most provocative passages chronicles the brief
encounter between Ulysses and the Sirens during his ten-year voyage home from
the Trojan War.
The two Sirens—peculiar creatures, part human and part
animal—sit in a meadow where they warble songs that are, quite simply, lethal.
Even the most disciplined sailors are drawn to the shore by the irresistible
sounds, and they never depart. As Homer describes it, “There is a great heap of
dead men’s bones lying all around, with the flesh still rotting off them.”
But Ulysses and his crew escape this fate, thanks to guidance
from the goddess Circe. Her advice is clear and effective. Upon approaching the
Sirens’ island, the crew should put wax in their ears and then bind Ulysses
securely to the ship’s mast. In this way, he alone can safely listen to the
enchanting songs, which purport to bestow wisdom and foretell the future.
So why consider this 3,000-year-old story now? Because for many
Americans hoping to help steer our beleaguered country toward greater justice
and equality, a pair of modern-day—albeit figurative—Sirens are seemingly
always poised to draw us off course. Indeed, their beguiling appeals and
promises will only grow louder and more persistent as we move ever closer to
Election Day 2020.
Not surprisingly, the first—and more ruthless—of the two is
Donald Trump, with full-throated support from the Republican Party leadership.
His repetitive refrain of fearmongering and racist dog-whistling—all under the
guise of “Making America Great Again”—lures not only the intolerant but also
some who are insecure and despairing. By contrast, the second can be found
within the establishment wing of the Democratic Party. Sadly, its own chorus
promotes skepticism toward any progressive proposal—for example, a Green New
Deal or Medicare for All—that could disrupt a status quo very favorable to the
super-rich and powerful.
These two Sirens certainly don’t sing identical songs. But both
rely on the same choir directors for their music: namely, the behemoths of
corporate America, including Wall Street, the oil and gas industry, military
contractors, health insurers, Big Pharma, and media conglomerates. That’s why
we’re serenaded with “only a huge defense budget can keep us safe;” “higher
taxes on the wealthy will cripple our economy;” “a single-payer healthcare
system can never work here;” “climate change disaster can be averted with small
steps;” “minimum wage hikes will force mass layoffs;” and other similar claims.
All are broadcast far and wide, even though they lack substance and run counter
to the common good.
Defenders of the billionaire class, from both sides of the
aisle, also have prepared verses to advance the prospects of their
don’t-rock-the-boat candidates. So we can expect to hear much of the following
in the months ahead: dismissive critiques aimed at progressive leaders—young
and old—whose vision and fearlessness threaten the existing order; angry
condemnation of those who note troubling inconsistencies in the words and
actions of so-called mainstream politicians; duplicitous efforts to label
leftist reformers as out-of-touch “extremists” whose dangerous ideas won’t sell
in Middle America; and overblown tributes focusing on “civility” and
“bipartisanship” rather than the unflinching pursuit of justice and the public
interest.
An abundant supply of wax and sturdy rope isn’t the answer for
resisting the collective confusion and destruction wrought by today’s Sirens.
That’s because we can’t afford to close our ears to their self-serving messages
that mislead so many, nor can we afford to listen to their lies and distortions
without responding. Unlike the challenge faced by Ulysses and his crew, these
are voices that must be defeated, not merely escaped.
A contemporary Circe might therefore offer a different
recommendation for our circumstances: what psychologists call “attitude
inoculation.” The basic idea comes from the familiar public health approach
used to prevent contracting and spreading a contagious virus. Consider the flu
vaccine. When you get a flu shot, you receive a modest dose of the actual
influenza virus. Your body responds by building up the antibodies necessary to
fight off the full-blown virus if it later attacks as you go about your daily
life. A flu shot doesn’t always work, but it improves your odds.
The favorite mantras of today’s corporate-backed politicians are
much like a virus that infects the public with false and harmful beliefs about
what’s happening, what’s right, and what’s possible. So here too, inoculation
is essential. Knowing that these hazardous appeals are heading our way, we must
be vigilant and prepare in advance for the onslaught by learning to recognize
deceitful claims and by developing cogent counterarguments to them. Once we’ve
personally acquired this psychological “immunity,” then we’re ready to be first
responders when it comes to inoculating others.
To be clear, the Sirens I’ve described are far from the only
obstacles to a brighter collective future, one in which hardship, mistreatment,
and crushed aspirations are no longer a routine part of so many lives. But
their manipulative pleas and cautionary tales, contrived to divert and divide,
are undeniable threats to progress on the urgent journey before us.
********
Roy Eidelson, PhD, is the former executive director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict, and a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility. He is the author of Political Mind Games: How the 1% Manipulate Our Understanding of What’s Happening, What’s Right, and What’s Possible.
San Francisco protesters of the U.S. immigration ban hold signs reading “Imagine All The People” and “People For Peace”. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Pax Ahimsa Gethen
Part Two: BREAKING THE CHAINS OF ILLUSION
by Stefan Schindler
Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
How do wars start? Politicians lie to journalists, then believe what they read.
Karl Kraus
The battles of the Sixties may someday come to seem merely an early skirmish in a conflict whose dimensions we have yet to grasp.
Mike Marqusee
President Donald Trump makes a
telling point when he refers to the mainstream news media as “fake news.” There’s a lot of truth in his accusation, the
dimensions of which ought to be honestly explored. Behold: those dimensions have indeed been
explored, with awesome authenticity and shocking revelations, by Michael
Parenti, Howard Zinn, Gore Vidal, Lewis Lapham, and Noam Chomsky, all of whom
ought to have won a Nobel Peace Prize and a Pulitzer Prize for Literature. They have long been denied such
recognition. Had their insights been
widely discussed in the U.S. “marketplace of ideas,” Nixon, Reagan, Cheney-Bush
and Trump would never have risen to the heights of power.
The elephantiastical lies of the
Republican Party – for example: American-trained death squads in Central
America are “freedom fighters;” Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons; global
warming is a “liberal hoax;” mega-tax-breaks for the mega-rich will make
everybody happy and secure – such lies too often succeed thanks to a criminally
complicit Democratic Party, a mainstream news media owned by a handful of
Republican oligarchs, an historically illiterate citizen population who (in
Noam Chomsky’s astute observation) “don’t know they don’t know,” and an
educational system designed primarily to ignorate, manipulate, stupefy and
confuse.
When President Trump slings his
accusation of “fake news” at American journalists – usually exempting the Fox
News Network owned by right-wing Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch, and
championed by Newt Gingrich – he only does so in order to lie about his lies.
And why not? It worked for Ronald Reagan, who turned
“liberal” into a dirty word, perpetuating the myth of America’s “liberal
media.”
That Gingrich and Murdoch succeeded
in turning American political discourse into a poisonous swamp is largely the
fault of the traditional American mainstream news media, which perpetuates the
ignoration that is the primary function of American education.
Thomas Jefferson recognized the
problem, noting: “A country cannot long remain ignorant and free.” American citizens have lost more freedoms
than they know, thanks to the most unpatriotic act in American history: the
post-9/11 Congressional passing of the unread 340 pages of the Cheney-Bush “USA
Patriot Act.”
Democracy cannot survive the
shredding of civil rights, nor can it long endure sophistry and deception. It might be worthwhile, then, to pause a
moment to reflect upon the words truth
and trust. In his book On the Meaning of Human Being, Richard Oxenberg notes:
The English word ‘truth’ is related
to the Middle English ‘troth,’ whose principal meaning is ‘trust’ (to be-troth someone … is to enter into a
relation of trust ….) A truthful
account, then, is one that is maximally trustworthy. … That Plato had [such an] understanding of
truth is evident from his association of the true and the good. [The true is good – has maximal value – because it is worth our trust.]
To restore truth and trust in
American social discourse and electoral politics, it is necessary to oppose the
Weapons of Mass Dysfunction – deception, distortion, distraction – employed by
the National Security State to bind its citizens with chains of illusion.
Let us give profound thanks that progress toward honesty and enlightenment is now being made. Although fraught with danger, and subject to abuse, the internet has nevertheless become a major instrument for awakening, as evidenced by websites like Common Dreams, Political Animal Magazine, and Engaging Peace.
This is a timely breakthrough in
communication, enhancing solidarity among peacemakers and justice-seekers in
the present conflict-ridden crucible of history.
John Le Carre provides context:
In
our supposed ideological rectitude, we sacrificed our compassion to the great
god of indifference. We protected the
strong against the weak, and we perfected the art of the public lie. We made enemies of decent reformers and
friends of the most disgusting potentates.
And we scarcely paused to ask ourselves how much longer we could defend
our society by these means and remain a society worth defending.
Having been betrayed by a corrupt
political system, we are now in the early stages of America’s third Civil
War. The second Civil War was embodied
in The Spirit of The Sixties, when the civil rights and anti-war movements –
quietly but greatly aided by Harry Belafonte and Marlon Brando – coalesced into
an anti-establishment revolution, emphasizing peace, justice, gender rights,
Earth Day, holistic health, nuclear disarmament, egalitarian economics, and
authentically edifying education.
The Reagan counter-revolution
succeeded in crushing that national outburst of activism, hope, and pragmatic
idealism. It was aided in doing so by
the pseudo-liberal wing of the Democratic Party, embodied in the Trilateral
Commission, which in 1975 published The
Crisis of Democracy. The
crisis? Citizen activism in the body
politic, hoping to influence a government supposedly “of, by, and for the
people.” Citizen participation in the
functioning of democracy was, and still is, considered outrageous by what C.
Wright Mills called “the power elite.”
Yet citizen activism was the origin
and impetus for the American Revolution; for the anti-slavery “abolitionist”
movement; for the women’s-right-to-vote “suffragette” movement; and for the
1960s and 1970s anti-war and civil rights movements. Today, with an echo of Thomas Paine’s “these
are the times that try men’s souls,” citizen insistence on a just society
remains our only hope for democracy, peace, and ecological sanity.
To engage or not to engage in self-education, global citizenship, and active resistance to the forces of mega-wealth and tyranny – that is the question which every citizen now faces, and upon which the future of our children and grandchildren depends.
Stefan Schindler is the co-founder of The National Registry
for Conscientious Objection; a Board Member of The Life Experience School and
Peace Abbey; and author of America’s
Indochina Holocaust: The History and Global Matrix of The Vietnam War. His forthcoming book is entitled Buddha’s Political Philosophy.
