by Doc Cuddy, Editor
In which our doughty editor makes a modest contribution
to the improvement of American doublethink.
Recall that in the present-day United States, few have any problem with a war-making
apparatus named "the department of defence," any more than we have saying
"department of justice" with a straight face, despite well-documented abuses of
human and constitutional rights by its most formidable arm, the FBI. Our nominally free
news media are required to present "balanced" coverage, in which every
"truth" is immediately neutered by an equal and opposite one. Every day public
opinion is the target of rewritten history, official amnesia and outright lying, all of
which is benevolently termed "spin," as if it were no more harmful than a ride
on a merry-go-round. We know better than what they tell us, yet hope otherwise. We believe
and doubt at the same time - it seems a condition of political thought in a modern
superstate to be permanently of at least two minds on most issues. Needless to say, this
is of inestimable use to those in power who wish to remain there, preferably forever.
--Thomas
Pynchon, The
Guardian, May 3, 2003,
from his introduction to a new edition of George Orwell's 1984.
Magellan’s Log is declaring this month the "Days of Denial"
Month. American citizens who wish to continue to be productive contributors to the
present, rather unusual manifestation of American democracy, in which illusion has
replaced reality, are urged to print the following table of daily reminders, and repeat
each silently many times on the given day.
If the purpose behind this therapeutic exercise in New Patriotism is not apparent, see
the explanation following the table.
| May 1. Every day in every way the present leaders of
the United States of America are becoming more concerned full stomachs, healthy bodies,
and safe children, and less concerned about power and wealth. |
| May 2. Donald Rumsfeld never said, "Freedom is
untidy." |
| May 3. George W. Bush never said, "If you are not
with us, you are against us." |
| May 4. Franklin Graham never said, "Islam is an
evil religion." |
| May 5. Rich Santorum never said homosexuals are no
different from bigamists or those who commit incest. |
| May 6. The United States of America has never
perpetrated a pre-emptive war. |
| May 7. Dick Cheney never headed Halliburton. |
| May 8. The Museum of Archeology in Baghdad was never
looted. |
| May 9. I never enjoyed watching the invasion of Iraq
on television. |
| May 10. Iraqi children never lost limbs because of
American bombs. |
| May 11. Neither the Republican-controlled House nor
the Republican-controlled Senate has passed a tax cut favoring the rich. |
| May 12. Even after the Republican-controlled House and
the Republican-controlled Senate have passed enabling legislation, no oil company will
dream of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. |
| May 13. John Ashcroft never backed passage of the
Patriot Act allowing police to invade and search your home without a warrant. |
| May 14. George W. Bush never gave a speech at Bob
Jones University. |
| May 15. George W. Bush never governed as if he had
received a huge majority of the popular vote in 2000. |
| May 16. Dick Cheney has never backed any legislation
that would deprive his lesbian daughter of her civil rights. |
| May 17. Tom DeLay has never played golf with, or
accepted rides on the airplanes of, millionaires. |
| May 18. The TV networks never broadcast only the
Pentagon’s version of the invasion of Iraq to the exclusion of other sides of the
story. |
| May 19. The Bush administration never opposed the
Kyoto Accords on the environment. |
| May 20. Kinky Friedman was never an overnight guest in
the Bush White House. |
| May 21. After 9-11 the Bush administration never
opposed the idea of an on-going national town meeting to figure out why the Muslim world
hates America. |
| May 22. The Bush administration from its first day in
office never resisted finding a way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so the
Israeli forces can be removed from the occupied territories. |
| May 23. Gail Norton never cared more about the
landowners than about the environment. |
| May 24. The entire Bush family never failed to embrace
private instruction from the Dalai Lama on Buddhism. |
| May 25. George Bush the Elder never dismissed the idea
of donating the Kennebunkport compound to the state of Maine as a bird sanctuary. |
| May 26. Laura Bush never invited an endless succession
of country singers to perform in the White House.. |
| May 27. Trent Lott never dismissed the errant thought
of resigning from the senate and volunteering as an intern for the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference. |
| May 28. George Bush the Elder never denied the
distance voice of conscience telling him to sell all his holdings in the Carlyle Group and
donate the proceeds to the National Abortion Rights Action League. |
| May 29. Ari Fleischer never resisted the temptation to
start a small marijuana patch in one corner of the White House rose garden. |
| May 30. Donald Rumsfeld remembered and acted on a
dream in which Jesus told him to recommend a 75% budget cut for the Department of Defense. |
| May 31. George W. Bush never resisted the suggestion
emailed to the White House by a million Americans that that he in a nationally televised
speech, and with the approval of Congress, declare September 11 to be henceforth known as
Peace Day, with public meetings in every public school in America to discuss and act on
local, national, and global ways of lessening human violence. |
Explanation:
A friend who came to America 14 years ago from China has lately been
in despair. He talks constantly about how the governmental lying and bullying that he
thought he was escaping now marks the behavior of the present American administration.
As in China, American leaders say one thing loudly and often, then do another,
and you have to learn to read between the lines to figure out what’s really going on:
 We invaded Iraq because of its
allegedly huge stockpiles of weapons of
mass destruction.
The so-called Patriot Act and its
offspring, Patriot Act II, coming this
summer, dismantle large sections of the
Bill of Rights.
The Environmental Protection Agency
is anything but.
And so on.
Yet the government and its leaders and its policies continue to enjoy high poll
approval. Clearly, as American democracy becomes an illusion, a two-dimensional false
front stage flat, a good portion of the apathetic American electorate is hiding behind a
sham of pretext of reason.
What kind of rationality supports such bogus patriotism? It is unreason wrapped
in the cloak of reason, the triumph of denial.
In mental health circles, such a disjunct between belief and reality is generally
diagnosed as psychosis.
But given the well-financed control this administration has over American reality, it
seems likely that the illusion of sham democracy will continue for some time.
The successful citizen in such a nation is one who is skilled at simultaneously
believing that which is blatantly false while denying the reality of that which is
obviously true. Patriotism becomes unthinking acceptance of what the government
says. Skepticism, the questioning of government edicts, becomes not reason but treason.
Through the frequent recitation of our daily reminders above, Americans can easily
condition themselves to the pervasive governmental fantasies of present-day life in these
United States.
View this as a cortical exercise. Teach your frontal lobes how to switch easily and
happily into the mode where reality is interpreted as fantasy and fantasy is interpreted
as the New Patriotic Reality.
Happy is the American who can simultaneously celebrate making third-world nations safe
for alleged freedom of speech while himself being subject to secret investigation and
possible detention without due process for trying to exercise such a right at home.
END
For a refresher course in Basic Doublethink:
"1984"
takes you to amazon.com.
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do you encounter on the Internet?
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