This country needs a good dose of the truth.

[kentuck]

Too many people have lost faith in their government. The lies, the cover-ups, the obfuscations, the diversions, the divisions, the propaganda, they have all taken their toll. Everything is now held in secret. The people no longer have access to what their government is doing in their names.

Even the Congress seems impotent to do anything about it. Even though they have the power of the purse and the power to investigate, they have been unable to get to the bottom of anything. The lies and propaganda, perhaps even crimes, continue. The people are losing hope.

When all hope is lost, we no longer have a country worth fighting for. That is the direction we are headed. The elected representatives seem to think it is just not worth it. They don't want to challenge their opponents, who they know to be wrong. They don't wish to make waves that might somehow impact their next election. They seem more intent on maintaining power than in doing what is right or what might help the people reclaim our nation.

It is sad that we have reached this point. But one fact stands out like a sore thumb. Our press is not doing its job. They are not holding people accountable for their actions. They are not giving the people the truth. They are mostly interested in maintaining their market share. The corporate media is a big part, perhaps the major part, of the problems our nation now faces.

[groovedaddy]

1. Complacency and lack of experience in grassroots organizing

People know something should be and needs to be done, but don't quite know how to go about doing it.

[Mnemosyne]

13. "There's nothing I can do about it." Heard too often and total bs. We need

huge masses of betrayed Americans in the streets. That has been the main reason the country is going to hell in a hand basket.

Maybe when gas hits $6, $7, $10 per gallon.

[groovedaddy]

17. "There's nothing I can do about it" becomes self-fulfilling prophecy

People lack having the EXPERIENCE of making a difference. It's not something that is taught.

[Mnemosyne]

33. So true, groovedaddy, so true.

Most feel helpless and we are taught from gradeschool to react with obedience to "authority".

Where do we go from here?

I've no clue.

[groovedaddy]

34. Like Mother Jones said: Organize!

Those who lead on small actions may be in a position later to lead on larger actions.

[bdamomma]

24. people to protest in en masse will only get their attention.

we do have the power, we did in the past when people were out in streets then and only then will we see change.

[Mnemosyne]

32. The question is now, how do we get those masses

into the streets?

They have the SOH under their thumb.

They have avoided instating the draft to help keep the people from rising in mass numbers.

What else will get them off their butts? $12 per gal. gas?

I cannot wait that long.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. Unless there is a catalyst to action, then

we simply rot and moulder away, our rights slowly taken from us, with no one paying attention as long as they can have their TV shows and brews and snacks.

[izzie]

11. In our form of govt. I think this is an endless battle.

It is not that history repeats its self but it sort of does. We seem to go in a wave. I am not sure why but it does seem all of history shows us we do this. My guess it is where each generation is in the place in life and what he came from. Didn't Tolstoy write about this? I guess it has been in writing right back to the early days of writing.

[flashl]

3. There's been a segment of the American society that

arrived at this juncture long ago and opted-out of the election merry-go-round. These Americans were admonished for not 'participating' in democracy.

[ixion]

6. I guess I would be one of those... Carter was the last president I supported

It's gone downhill from there. I can't vote for candidates I don't support just because. I would vote for Kucinich, but he's the only one, with the possible exception of Richardson. But I won't vote for the status quo. No, sir. We've already got that, and it sucks.

[Mnemosyne]

14. First one I supported, first one I could vote for and the last one I didn't

have to hold my nose to vote for.

Pitiful, isn't it? :(

[ixion]

4. the core of the problem: the gov't doesn't care if we have no hope, nor future

because if we don't pay their salaries (in the form of taxes) they send the IRS to take what little we do have and throw us in the slammer. That's what you call the ultimate in job security. It goes like this: If you have a job, and your boss says he can't give you your paycheck, you send your thugs to take everything he has and lock him away. Now of course, most people don't have a band of powerful thugs to do their bidding, so they take it on the chin.

Our government doesn't fear us -- only insofar as they can control us. They have no respect, nor concern, nor empathy for our plight. We're simply the unwashed masses who fork over large chunks of our earning so that they can continue to live like royalty. As long as we continue to put status quo politicians in office, it will continue on this way.

[raccoon]

20. Sad, but true. "the gov't doesn't care if we have no hope, nor future"

They might care if something like this happened:


(President of Argentina) De la Rúa decided to resign from office. <3> The situation on Plaza de Mayo (right in front of the Casa Rosada, the Presidential Palace) was still too violent for De la Rúa to leave by car to his official residence at Olivos, thus the President's security detail decided to take him out of the Casa Rosada onboard an Air Force helicopter. The images of De la Rúa's "escape" by helicopter were broadcast throughout the country.

December 2001 riots (Argentina)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_2001_riots_(Argentina)


By the way, anybody remember seeing that on US news? I don't. But then it might have been on the cable stations.

[OzarkDem]

5. 73% think the US is headed in the wrong direction

according to Gallup. That's the highest percentage in the last 13 years.

IMHO, this is worse than the Nixon/Vietnam/Watergate years.

There are going to be some very angry voters at the ballot box next November and, unless they see a clear choice, they'll punish Dems as well as the GOP.

[Perry Logan]

7. You see DUers getting wiped out by the biased media every day.

[Echo In Light]

8. The delusion prevails that "voting" will change anything. We need non-violent civil disobedience

And strikes en masse.

[sam sarrha]

9. there has been a coordinated program of mind control ever since these very same people gave Reagan

a lobotomy and cut out the brain of William Cassy the head of the CIA, to keep them from testifying at the Iran contra hearings..where they might implicate Shrubs father in a scheme to sell stinger missiles to buy weapons from east Germany to trade for cocaine from terrorists to start a drug epidemic like no other to undermine not only our economy, realistate, banking, social strata, draconian prison systems..

trillion of dollars were made from the drug cartels, the drug lords are gust working fot the "Man'they are not the end of that pipr line.. there isn't anything really big and shinny to account for all the money... what the hell are they doing with it...

we are being controlled.. when i started meditating, after a couple of months i began to feel like i was watching a soap opera, it became really clear

[ixion]

10. yep, once you pull the blinders off, it is very easy to see

and you see it all around you. It happened to me in the 80's, and I've watched it, like a soap opera -- with disdain and dismay and more than a hint of incredulousness since then.

[flashl]

15. U.S.= Priates island

CIA, Drugs, and Wall Street

[Mnemosyne]

12. Cynicism often turns into a loss of Hope, next step can be apathy, the worst reaction of all..

Rage at betrayal could easily follow the apathy. Terrible situation all around and not likely to improve anytime soon. :(

Agree completely with your assessment, kentuck, completely.:hi:

[flashl]

16. Cynicism, is thats the reason no one in DU responds to a post like

People Power

[Mnemosyne]

22. Things move so quickly here anymore, maybe try a repost?

And that is a very good post/thread @ your link!

Thanks!

But it could be cynicism too..

:)

[ehrnst]

18. Time for a Truth Surge. Or Truth Escalation. Whichever term gets people itchy. nt

[kentuck]

19. We cannot continue to have our leaders hide the truth from us...

..and have our Representatives protect these same leaders behind vows of secrecy. We must open up the doors and let the truth escape. Only then will the people's faith in their government be restored. We need to start investigating everything. Everything. We need to take our government back. The President has no powers that are not granted by the people.

[Angela Shelley]

21. A definition please ...

what´s a truth surge?

[mqbush]

23. what to do?

groovedaddy responds: "People know something should be and needs to be done, but don't quite know how to go about doing it."

See mqbush's journal "Local Power"

[trof]

25. "You (we) can't HANDLE the truth!" - Col. Nathan R. Jessep

A fictional character played by Jack Nicholson in the movie "A Few Good Men".
And many (most?) Americans can't, or don't want to.

[Javaman]

29. 29% can't, the rest of us can. nt

[porphyrian]

26. Most people wouldn't believe the truth if they heard it today.

Too many people still believe the news that's been reported by the corporate media is basically true. Just look at how many "Can you believe what this newspaper/TV reporter/radio host just said?" threads come up almost daily here, and we tend to be more informed than the majority of the country. The truth is the opposite of many of the things we've been told to believe, and heads will explode when people are asked to accept it.

[kentuck]

28. Those "people" don't really care anyway...

They are ignorant of most everything except reality TV. The people that are losing faith are those that care enough about their country to be informed, people such as yourself. These are the ones that need to know their government's secrets are being watched closely and not hidden from the people or our Representatives - the Gang of Eight not included.

[porphyrian]

31. I'd love to see it, exploding heads and all. -n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. Is politics part of the solution or part of the problem?

Many of the citizens of this country have been lulled into believing that their civic responsibilities end at the ballot box. They dutifully cast their vote for the flavor of the month that had enough money provided by their corporate bosses, sold by the corporate media, and supported by the corporate middle-men - aka other politicians.

In order to attain office, or hold on to it, they must dance to the tune of the corporations.

For most citizens, they elect politicians who they hope won't do too much damage rather than for people who might do some good.

It is no wonder that many people are opting out of a corrupt process and acting on their own to do some good in the world.

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."
Thomas Paine

[warren pease]

30. That giant droning sound...

...is the sound of our brains being turned into Malto Meal by mass media mindlessness.

You mention that corporate media may be the worst problem of all and, despite an array of current crises so formidable that I'm not sure the republic can survive their cumulative destructive influence, I think the devolution of US mass media into infotainment purveyors and disinformation propagandists has absolutely destroyed this country's collective ability to recognize truth, even when it bites them in the ass. After all, John Stossel is a network star and Bill Moyers is on PBS. What else would you need to know?

Corporate America is in sole control of mass media’s singular ability to define and delimit the boundaries of acceptable opinion, which in this case means bringing the American political agenda into close alignment with the corporate wish list – no taxes, no unions, no governmental oversight by the SEC or FTC, no enforcement of regulations governing monopolistic practices, product safety, labor-management relations or toxic emissions.

TV is the most efficient and powerful indoctrination machine ever built. And because about 92 percent of Americans say TV is their sole or primary source of information, that's the medium where corporate America focuses most of its efforts to legitimize its agenda and take it mainstream. As a result, TV is where corporate values – summed up as "all for us, nothing for you" – are touted most lovingly and creatively, both in nightly entertainment programming and in what’s hilariously known as newscasts.

But here's the thing: I don't think corporate media is either for or against the GOP or the Democrats any longer. I think it's more in favor of the Norquist model, which is that all government is bad -- except for the Pentagon -- and must be muzzled if business, and capitalism in general, are to flourish. Therefore, it's dead set against the FDR model of an activist federal government using its influence and resources to actually help ordinary people.

So I think mass media has evolved beyond its initial biases and has transcended the GOP vs. Dem paradigm. I think mass media now stands for elimination of government -- at least the part that affects corporate America -- and that so far the GOP has been the better party to use to achieve that objective. But times are a'changin' and new political realities are upon us.

The GOP is toxic to most voters and a continuation of the policies that have enriched corporate America since January 2001 have fallen from public favor. It's fairly likely that Democrats will win the presidency and increase their majorities in the House and Senate.

Fortunately for corporate America, that no longer conveys the populist threat to their continued profitability it once did. Democrats have "evolved" and can be just as generous as the GOP when it comes to rewarding those who bribed them during their campaigns.

So there are enough corporatist candidates, wallowing in corporate money, running on the Democratic side -- who just happen to be the same ones mass media has anointed as front-runners -- that corporate America can play both sides of the chessboard and still come out with their position secure for another four years.

This is also why people like Kucinich, Edwards (now that he's on the populist stump), Gravel and Paul must be branded unelectable and (ahem) maybe just a little weird. Killing the messenger is vital because, when Americans are polled on the issues and not the candidates, Kucinich's message beats the hell out of the centrist garbage the "top-tier" candidates are selling.

But when his message is linked with him personally, those numbers go down as months of mass media programming kicks in and suddenly they're not looking at issues, but at a little guy with gnomish features and a mid-west twang who has been portrayed as a fringe figure and a loser.

Anyway, I have no evidence to support the thesis that corporate media no longer favors the GOP exclusively because they a) probably can't get elected to any position of power in 2008 (absent voting machine fraud, caging, felon lists, etc., of course), b) there are Democratic candidates who will stand by their corporations just as loyally as would the GOP candidates, so party affiliation is no longer of much use, and c) they may actually be concerned that some batshit crazy fundie loon like Huckabee, or an equally loony Romney, or a mobbed-up ghoul like the Saint of 9/11 could win the election and make Bush/Cheney look smart and sane by comparison.

So, is this possible, reasonable, probable? Or am I so full of it that it was nearly impossible to read this post all the way to... HERE.


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