I wanted to take a moment today away from a serious fact-based analysis of various issues and just rant for a minute. As I've watched the various post-debate discussions, I've repeatedly heard an assertion which has gone unchallenged, and it's really starting to frost me.
Commentators, campaign managers and even Senator Kerry have said that before we went to war in Iraq, that they believed that the evidence of weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq -- we all did [emphasis mine].
Not ALL of us did. I didn't. The tens of leaks coming out of the CIA on a weekly basis to the contrary indicate that there were intelligence people who didn't. The diligent op-ed columnists who questioned the sudden "drum-beat" for war in Iraq didn't. Obviously, Valerie Plame's husband had questions. The UN inspectors hadn't yet called the game, but were arguing for more time--an indicator that they weren't persuaded either.
So, I challenge those who are examining the issue of whether Iraq is a mistake to stop letting this remark pass as accepted gospel, and to stop letting Kerry and other take themselves off the hook by making it sound as if nobody could have walked away from these discussions with another position on the issue.
Whether the questioners and dissenters were simply a minority, or just a group without an effective channel to communicate their concerns, they still deserve to be acknowledged, not rhetorically "disappeared" after the fact. Those that truly believe that "we all did" were not paying attention. As a nation, we should be mortified that this conversation did not take place before the war, and we should be ashamed that we still cannot have it afterwards.
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Saturday, October 09, 2004
The Truman Show, the Sequel
In the 1998 Peter Weir film, The Truman Show, we were treated to an idealistic vision in which Truman Burbank's human spirit somehow intuitively understood the truth beyond a completely artificial universe concocted solely for him. His soulful yearning helped him conquer an implanted phobia, avoid meddling friends and family and ultimately find the door to what was real.
Here in 2004, I worry that life is imitating art in the comfy cocoon that is being erected around President Bush. More importantly, I worry that life will not imitate art enough to protect the electorate.
In a carefully stage-managed media bubble that rivals the carefully stage-managed town that was erected for Truman, our President gets to wander the highways and by-ways of this country fully convinced of the absolute righteousness of his regime, and the certainty that everyone agrees with him.
One would want to believe that it is all about the image he is projecting for the the rest of us, and an attempt to keep "on message", but more and more I'm coming to believe that, like the producers of the fictional Truman show, Bush's media managers are needing to remake reality internally for W, so that the finished product will look as they want it to.
The extraordinary measures being taken resemble more the kind of censorship and oppression found in totalitarian regimes: loyalty oaths, pre-screening of rally attendees, the segregation (and imprisonment) of dissenters and willful disregard of international protests. All seemed designed to keep W insulated from that pesky "real world" that might ruin his good mood, and all resemble those endlessly circling bicycles, cars and people in the film that dictated the rhythms of Truman's life.
W, too, has a father-related phobia implanted in him early in his political life, which is being used to keep him inside the well-defined borders of his pseudo-world. Like Truman's fear of water that keeps him isolated on his little island, Bush lives in fear of repeating what he views as his father's political failures, and leaving office without a legacy. This fear has led to a stubbornness that will take him over the edge of a cliff, rather than admit he'd misread the map.
What remains to be seen, is whether W will be human like Truman--whether his inner sense will push him to reach beyond the illusion and find out what's on the other side.
Here in 2004, I worry that life is imitating art in the comfy cocoon that is being erected around President Bush. More importantly, I worry that life will not imitate art enough to protect the electorate.
In a carefully stage-managed media bubble that rivals the carefully stage-managed town that was erected for Truman, our President gets to wander the highways and by-ways of this country fully convinced of the absolute righteousness of his regime, and the certainty that everyone agrees with him.
One would want to believe that it is all about the image he is projecting for the the rest of us, and an attempt to keep "on message", but more and more I'm coming to believe that, like the producers of the fictional Truman show, Bush's media managers are needing to remake reality internally for W, so that the finished product will look as they want it to.
The extraordinary measures being taken resemble more the kind of censorship and oppression found in totalitarian regimes: loyalty oaths, pre-screening of rally attendees, the segregation (and imprisonment) of dissenters and willful disregard of international protests. All seemed designed to keep W insulated from that pesky "real world" that might ruin his good mood, and all resemble those endlessly circling bicycles, cars and people in the film that dictated the rhythms of Truman's life.
W, too, has a father-related phobia implanted in him early in his political life, which is being used to keep him inside the well-defined borders of his pseudo-world. Like Truman's fear of water that keeps him isolated on his little island, Bush lives in fear of repeating what he views as his father's political failures, and leaving office without a legacy. This fear has led to a stubbornness that will take him over the edge of a cliff, rather than admit he'd misread the map.
What remains to be seen, is whether W will be human like Truman--whether his inner sense will push him to reach beyond the illusion and find out what's on the other side.
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