(crossposted from the frontpage of My Left Wing)
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
from John Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn
All ye know and all ye need to know. As my friend Major Danby might say, for a poetic truth that is a fine one. What makes it so? To me it cuts straight to the heart of the matter. Truth inspires trust and informs wisdom. Truth brings justice, fraternity, and community.
There is no room for untruths in science, untruths in art are suspect, and untruths in government are pure poison.
There are other schools of thought of course. Nicollo Machiavelli may have been the first proto-neocon to write of deception as a useful tool for imposing one’s will on others.
Another famous advocate of lying was the man who is no doubt Karl Rove’s favorite Nazi, Joseph Goebbels.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
Joseph Goebbels
Some people think it’s inflammatory or hyperbole to mention Nazis when discussing Bushco. I respectfully disagree. I say it’s a qualitatively accurate comparison, and I think it’s clear that Rove studied Goebbels.
"Intellectual activity is a danger to the building of character."
Goebbels
On the other hand he may have just picked it up from our next Duke of Deception, who we know damned well he studied, a rightwing religious nutcase named Leo Strauss who laid the philosophical foundation of the neocons.
Many neoconservatives like Paul Wolfowitz are disciples of a philosopher who believed that the elite should use deception, religious fervor and perpetual war to control the ignorant masses.
Source
It’s all about lying, obfuscation and concealing the truth. The preeminent French writer, Jerome a Paris sums it up nicely.
The right has perfected a very simple technique: repeat your lies on every occasion, dismiss any alternative position as partisan and extremist (or even treasonous), and cast yourself as moderate, balanced and in the mainstream. When caught in flat out lies, never admit to anything, just attack the source, attack your opponents of what you're criticized for, and change the topic.
from Jerome’s The Reality War
And the neocons aren’t the first or even the most important group to ever con the American people. They are just the latest manifestation (or should I say infestation) of the rightwing liars’ movement. But the movement itself goes back a ways.
I’ve written often of Eisenhower’s warnings to the nation about the Military-Industrial Complex. It is this cabal of war profiteers and enablers who are the power behind the sham.
In his farewell address to the nation on January 17, 1961, after eight years as President, Dwight David Eisenhower had this sobering advice for America.
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." Source
The military-industrial complex, perhaps more accurately referred to as the military-industrial congressional complex, is generally defined as a coalition of the military, Wall Street bankers, industrialists and those enablers (politicians) and hangers-on (the investor elite) who profit by manufacturing arms and selling them to governments around the world without regard for how they will be used or upon whom. Eisenhower points out that until World War II the United States did not even have an armaments industry. Even though "American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well," the United States could "no longer risk emergency improvisation" of the country's national defense.
So Eisenhower saw us as stuck with the need for a weapons industry but imperiled by its growing influence and power, and by its essential amorality. Few people have ever been so right about anything. The fact that we failed to adequately heed his warning will forever be seen as one of the great tragedies of our era, or as I have said many times, a pity beyond measure.
THIS is the beast that pulls the strings of our government. THIS is why we must be lied to and cannot be trusted with the truth. Because the truth is so horribly ugly that it could cause a spontaneous rebellion. If enough of the population were to ever ‘get it’, there would be rioting in the streets, politicians would be hung in the public square, the NY Stock Exchange would be razed to the ground, the mansions of the rich would be ransacked and their occupants slain. THIS is the reason for all the lies, all the twisting of reality, the subterfuge, obfuscation, and spin. THIS is why they have corrupted our government and usurped the power of a no longer existing free press.
The truth is anathema to these evil fucks. They will stop at nothing to perpetuate their lies.
There are two ways to deal with a reality like this, you can fight them or join them. Sadly, many of those to whom we would look to for leadership in changing this awful reality have chosen to join them instead of leading us in opposing their evil agenda of perpetual war for profit.
Some uniformed officers, too, said that the Clintons were more associated with a ’60s culture than a military one, and that only time would tell if Mrs. Clinton’s appreciation of the military would go beyond niceties and expressions of concern.
Donald L. Kerrick, a retired general and former deputy national security adviser to President Clinton, acknowledged that some people inside and outside the military were skeptical of Mrs. Clinton’s intentions and wary that she would shift federal dollars to domestic programs like health care.
NY Times
In response to that last paragraph, our friend Booman at the Booman Tribune had this to say:
Apparently, the only way to have good relations with the military and be tough enough to be commander in chief is to throw money at the Pentagon and not at cherished domestic programs or health care. Of course, no mention is made of what should be funded at the Pentagon. Do we want to raise a few more divisions? Do we want to improve our Veteran's hospitals? Do we want to build an orbiting ray-gun that can destroy underground laboratories? It doesn't seem to matter as long as we throw money at the Pentagon.
We have a lot of work to do in this country to provide a hospitable political climate for questioning the direction of the military-industrial-congressional complex.
from Booman’s Hillary and How the Media Drives the Military-Industrial Complex
No one is going to give us back our government. We are going to have to take it back, and we will have to do so without help of dishonest politicians. The first thing we have to do is purge our government of the influence of money with publicly financed campaigns and elections.
Then we have to purge our government of those who would continue to lie to us – ever - about anything. It’s time to shed the secrecy, pull back the blackout curtains, and let some light into our government. It’s time to stop living a lie. We deserve to know what our government is doing in every circumstance. We deserve a government that operates in plain sight and that tells us the truth. We should all be sick of being lied to. I know I am.
Until we face the truth that our country has been hijacked by war profiteers, we will not muster the enormous will required to change it. We desperately need to re-purpose the MICC and turn its genius and might to peaceful pursuits. Only then might we be able to save ourselves from global warming, the energy crisis, and all the other challenges that face us. If we continue to foolishly pour our treasure and blood down the black hole of war we are doomed. Our only hope is to face the truth.
I say down with the liars and down with a government that runs on lies. We need to demand the truth, for only the truth shall set us free.
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’
No more lies! No more lies! No more lies!