@ Ed Harges, December 7 at 9:43 am;

I agree, but with an exception: You say..“a greedy, bullying, land-grabbing, irresponsible cowboy cleptocracy, peopled by a proudly ignorant and jingoistic rabble, at least from the time of the Mexican War and the Spanish-American war.”
Didn’t that behavior start the minute we set foot on the continent?

I love the Movie Why We Fight, and have shown it to thousands of students and propagated it all over the net.

I would also like to mention a new book endorsed by Daniel Ellsberg and JFK insider Marcus Raskin JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and WHy It Matters.

This book convinced Ellsberg to change his mind and agree with the authors argument that the Assassination was a CIA plot.

Yet, it is not a book about the Assassination.

It is a book about Cold War foreign and domestic policy and the last imagined “fork in the road”.  It is so imporatant right now because we need to know NOW if a president really controlls foreign policy and can he end a war if he wants to.

I differ with the “fat Elvis” metaphor.

America’s arc is not one from young beacon of goodness to decadent old bully.

What I see is a country that became a greedy, bullying, land-grabbing, irresponsible cowboy cleptocracy, peopled by a proudly ignorant and jingoistic rabble, at least from the time of the Mexican War and the Spanish-American war.

Then the US began to try to become something better, in fits and starts, during the decades after the Great Depression.

Now the US is simply reverting to type and going back to being its old nasty self, but made more ridiculous because of our economic ruin and the persistence of our “Shining City on a Hill” pretensions.

Gurfinkle, Folktruther; Well put. So it seems that soon there will be an awakening. The sweet dreams and dilusions will fade fast. Push WILL come to shove. Jarecki speaks of Civic Action. When this resolves there will be an interrelation between that and the Trilateral Commission. One that requires great attention to detail and constitution. One that requires a spirit, as Jarecki says, that has been dormant for about 200 years.

” War is the ” fly swatter ” of the Illuminati and you are the fly on the their dinner table.”

War is generally the result of inner conflicts in the individual,  which cause confusion in themselves and society.

Power and prosperity, come— when these conflicts— are resolved by a truthful acceptance of reality.

And the reality of the world is that “non violence”  is the most powerful force in the universe.

As soon as man accepts this basic fundamental truth of our humanity; then peace will be in the world.

I agreewith Allen that it is better to deal with reality, no matter how unpleasant.  Nevertheless, it is quite true that in regard to the issues, the American population is far to the left of the power structure.

The problem is that people want to be on the side of power, the winning side in an election.  It validates a person: ‘I’m a winner.’  This power need joins with the inherited party allegiance and personality appear to swamp issues.  Which in any case, since both candidates are supported by the power struture, do not vary much.

The winning side is the side that gains the most media, money and management, all of these power reources largely controlled by the power struture.  To gain the feeling of being a winner, to being powerful, consequently requires the person to identify with his own oppression. 

He identifies with political leaders who are bought and paid for by the power struture, who maintain the deceptive posture that they will promote the interests of the population.  What provides emotional gratification leads to intellectual bondage.  The population is emotionally tricked into identifying with power rather than the population ruled by power.

This need to identify with power is a biological-cultural force inculcated in childhood.  It is responsible for the identification with the power delusions that the powerful instill to legitimate their power.  These religious, politial and scientific delusions are manipulated by the powerful to keep the population subjugated, devided, and deceived.

What is necessary, therefore, is to make the populations issues and values emotionally powerful.  And this must be done when the entire learned and mass media is largely controlled by the powerful.  This consequently requires an historical period to complete.