The Stoned Philosopher

Time for Action -- An AlterNet Editorial

Don Hazen, AlterNet November 2, 2001

As the country continues to reel from the attacks of September 11, evil and greed seems to have gained the upper hand under the smokescreen of patriotism. Decades of gains in social progress are threatened, fear is pervasive, and hypocrisy has taken center stage.
Many of us have been torn, concerned about terrorism and have giving our government the benefit of the doubt, as it struggled to responded to our biggest crisis in 60 years. But the opportunity for smart and humane leadership is being squandered.
It is time to draw the line and say not in our name. If we are not vigilant, democracy will be the victim, and many millions more people at home and across the globe will suffer. The biggest crisis of our lifetimes requires the largest organizing effort we have ever contemplated. It's time to push aside our confusion and pain, and rally the tens of millions of us who want a better and safer world, not one made more unstable and oppressive, not one turned into a profit opportunity for giant corporations and the most wealthy in the country.
At times like this, we look to leaders to step up and articulate in clear, fundamental ways what is happening and what is at stake. Call them our Paul Reveres warning of the dangers ahead, or our Tom Paines, insisting that dissent is American, or our Sojourner Truths, telling us what it takes to be free, or our Martin Luther Kings, speaking truth to power.
Many men and women are saying and writing extraordinary things at this crucial moment in history. Increasingly, citizens of America and the world are listening. One of those leaders is Bill Moyers, who has a special talent to frame the essence of powerful truths and have millions of Americans listen carefully.
On October 16, 2001 in Brainerd, Minnesota Bill Moyers gave the keynote address to the Environmental Grantmakers Association. In that speech he captured the moment at hand. Here are several excerpts from that lengthy and extraordinary presentation.

My friend, Thomas Hearne, the president of Wake Forest University, reminded me recently that while the clock and the calendar make it seem as if our lives unfold hour by hour, day by day, our passage is marked by events -- of celebration and crisis. We share those in common. They create the memories which make of us a history, and make of us a people, a nation.
Pearl Harbor was that event for my parents' generation. It changed their world, and it changed them. They never forgot the moment when the news reached them. For my generation it was the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, the dogs and fire hoses in Alabama. Those events broke our hearts. We healed, but scars remain.
For this generation, that moment will be September 11, 2001 -- the worst act of terrorism in our nation's history. It has changed the country. It has changed us.
That's what terrorists intend. Terrorists don't want to own our land, wealth, monuments, buildings, fields, or streams. They're not after tangible property. Sure, they aim to annihilate the targets they strike. But their real goal is to get inside our heads, our psyche, and to deprive us -- the survivors -- of peace of mind, of trust, of faith; they aim to prevent us from believing again in a world of mercy, justice, and love, or working to bring that better world to pass.
We have also been reminded that despite years of scandals and political corruption, despite the stream of stories of personal greed and pirates in Guccis scamming the treasury, despite the retreat from the public sphere and the turn toward private privilege, despite squalor for the poor and gated communities for the rich, we have been reminded that the great mass of Americans have not yet given up on the idea of "We, the People." And they have refused to accept the notion, promoted so diligently by our friends at the Heritage Foundation and by Grover Norquist and his right-wing ilk, that government -- the public service -- should be shrunk to a size where they can drown it in the bathtub (that's what Norquist said is their goal) ...
It didn't take long for the war time opportunists -- the mercenaries of Washington, the lobbyists, lawyers, and political fundraisers -- to crawl out of their offices on K street determined to grab what they can for their clients. While in New York we are still attending memorial services, while everywhere Americans' cheeks are still stained with tears, while the President calls for patriotism, prayers and piety, the predators of Washington are up to their old tricks in the pursuit of private plunder at public expense ...
This is their game: they are counting on your patriotism to distract you from their plunder. They are counting on you to be standing at attention with your hand over your heart, pledging allegiance to the flag, while they pick your pocket. If, in the name of the war on terrorism, President Bush hands the state over to the energy industry, it's every patriot's duty to join the loyal opposition.
The playwright Tony Kushner wrote more than a decade ago, "There are moments in history when the fabric of everyday life unravels, and there is this unstable dynamism that allows for incredible social change in short periods of time. People and the world they're living in can be utterly transformed, either for the good or the bad, or some mixture of the two."
He's right. This could go either way.
Let's face it: they present citizens with no options but to climb back in the ring. We are in what educators call "a teachable moment." And we'll lose it if we roll over and shut up. What's at stake is democracy. Democracy wasn't cancelled on the 11th of September, but democracy won't survive if citizens turn into lemmings.
I know you see the magnitude of the challenge. I know you see what we're up against. I know you get it -- the work that we must do. It's why you mustn't lose heart.
Your adversaries will call you unpatriotic for speaking the truth when conformity reigns. Ideologues will smear you for challenging the official view of reality. Mainstream media will ignore you, and those gasbags on cable TV and the radio talk shows will ridicule and vilify you. But I urge you to hold to these words: "In the course of fighting the present fire, we must not abandon our efforts to create fire-resistant structures of the future."
Those words were written by my friend Randy Kehler more than ten years ago, as America geared up to fight the Gulf War. They ring as true today. Those fire-resistant structures must include an electoral system that is no longer dominated by big money, where the voices and problems of average people are attended on a fair and equal basis. They must include an energy system that is more sustainable, and less dangerous. And they must include a media that takes its responsibility to inform us as seriously as its interest in entertaining us.

__________________
Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers
increase. This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary
ecosystem as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is
not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence
is possible for the who do survive.
- Frank Herbert

The Stoned Philosopher

Bongzilla

How true

I remember last year I said in philosophy class that everyone has or had good in them, adn of course people said 'what about Hitler?' 'what about terrorists?'

And I said... well Hitler was a known animal lover who passed many anti-cruelty laws in the 1930s, and terrorists fight for what they believe in.

Of course this will never mean they are GOOD PEOPLE or they are excused, I just made a point of looking at people and situations from every possible angle, no matter how radical it seems.

People got very offended (my school is all jewish) and I couldn't understand why.

We are taught to stand up for what we believe in, but the second we say something that is slightly different than the majority's belief it is turned around and we are branded as 'Racist' 'Sexist' 'Homophobic' or some other 'ist'.

Political Correctness is basically direct brainwashing from the government. First they tell me what I can say (it's mailman to me) and what is it next? A teacher told me not to call black people 'black' but call them 'African American', but what to call a white person?

Times are confusing now a days, why can't propaganda and brainwashing be more obvious? It's like that saying 'the worst thing the Devil ever did was convince people he doesn't exist' - although now the devil is government control.

The Stoned Philosopher

Because we been programed since day one thats why. They are even people on these boards that might be "brainwashed". And also the major contributing factor that leads to this is because the average american person is too comfortable with their corperate dominated surroundings and doesnt give a crap about anything that happens inthe outside world. TV plays a huge roll as well. Too much tv rots the brain mentally,it is a great brainwashing device (even though it wasnt planned as being a brainwashing device) thus the PR firms can more easily infulence the sheeple with TV and the media, the war on drugs continuing till now is proof of that.

HappyMan

Foolishness, utter and complete foolishness, you guys show zero historical perspective, zero and in doing so loose all credibility.

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The Stoned Philosopher

How are we being "utterly foolish" happyman? How have we displayed "zero historical prespective"? Please enlighten us.

dedbr

I don't believe I see your remark as it pertains to this thread.Sorry.

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Though my soul may set in darkness,
It will rise in perfect light.
I have loved the stars too fondly,
To be fearful of the night." Sarah Williams

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PsYcHoLoGiCaL

Damn man no more X-Files for you. Noone is trying to brainwash you lol everyone has a brain and they can think for them self and are able to create their own imformed oppion about certain issues.

What do you have against he coorperate setting? How is this coorperate setting brainwashing you or hurting you in any way? If it werent for coorperate America we wouldnt be the super power we are today, and you would have alot less. What do you want to do, turn into a third world country so that the coorperate world cant bother you?

No TV dosnt rot the brain, they said that when it 1st came out and has sence been prooven false, where have you been for the last 40 years?

And about tv brainwashing you. They dont even spread marijuana lies over the TV anymore. The only lies out there are on the net from the old days. Try fighting this war if TVs didnt exist, you will see TV will become a large part of the legaliztation movement soon enough.

psychological

suede

Lose is spelled with 1 "o". and where is all this coming from?PsychologiCaL,I don't understand why you're taking this point of view.I have been under a rock for 40 years, but I'm not now.You seem to be opposing with your own opinions,as much as the rest of us are....I only know from evidence I've witnessed with my own eyes.The television is a tool.In the right hands it can do wonderful things.In the wrong hands ,it can destroy the world.As for the rest of the media,it's all bias.b.s.

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End World Hunger

The Stoned Philosopher

Oh well, the main reason iam against corperate rule is because:
1. they kill the planet for the sake of profit
2. they undermine our democracy to their whims
3. they pretty much exploit people to their own whims (the drug war is an example of that)
4. and you pretty much f**k over people in order to live the way you are
I just want corperations on a shorter leash then they are now.
And there is some truth when i say tv "rots" your brain. What i was saying is that when you watch tv, you dont think.
In that kind of state you are more vunerable to manipluation. This is what PR frims know and exploit when they make tv aids. Yes you can avoid this by not watching tv or knowing proper propaganda anaylisis, but for most americans they dont know hardly anything about propaganda and they watch tv alot.
And about fighting the war on tv, guess what! easier said than done. Almost all the media is dominated by a handful of corperations including major new sources.
The reason why its so hard to get pro legalization spots on tv is because the same corperations who own the media support the drug war.

dedbr

said.."They don't even spread marijuana lies over the T.V. anymore." Quote.

They do around here,Old Son.