Take any number of issues. Perhaps it's ABC's airing of the movie "Path to 9/11" -- a docudrama (not documentary) that combines fact and fiction in a made-for-tv movie. How can this be appropriate at any point in time, let alone at a time when the effects of 9/11 are continuing to cost life after life after life after life?
It's particularly appalling precisely because we know the impact of distortion of truth in America. American people by and large are ignorant of what the country is really all about. I was. And still am to a great extent... I have a lot to learn no doubt. But when THE MAJOR reason that the truth about global warming is not reaching the American public is because the federal government is taking time to edit scientific reports before they are published -- and not edit for the scientific content but rather to make language as vague as possible or as least-damning as possible?
Folks, we've been duped. Many of us know that history as it's taught in the public schools is not what actually happened. Ok - it's one perspective on what actually happened. As Howard Zinn describes it, it's history as told by the doers... when it would really be nice to see history written by the done-tos.
I've started looking more and more into American foreign policy / foreign involvement over the years. It makes me sick.
Without a doubt, the US has done some very good things for the world over the last 230 years. Please don't think that I'm not willing to acknowledge, celebrate, and be thankful for those actions and efforts, and the men and women who served the country at great sacrifice. It is perhaps because of that very model of sacrifice that I feel compelled to try and improve our current situation rather than bail out and do something crazy like marry a Swede.
The US is also the most free country in the world; that level of freedom provides incredible opportunity to all who pursue it. Certainly there are great benefits to being a citizen of such a nation. That is particularly why I have such an issue with so much of what is going on -- because we are neglecting our responsibility as citizens of this great nation. Yes - we have the freedom. For now. But at what cost - and are we willing to pay that cost to continue as we have been?
Mind you, these good things are also the things that are drilled into our heads and hearts... the relentless drumbeat of American history as we know it... the annual celebrations, the parades, the playing of out national anthem before every sporting event. These are the partial-truths that permeate the American landscape which we all call home. These are partial-truths that ring very clearly as a reminder of other partial-truth governments from around the world that we have declared as evil and communistic. And yet we don't see it when it's happening here, so close to home.
Unfortunately, we've also been quite content to sit in our safety and comfort and not pay attention to what goes on in the world around us. Blame the government for doing it or the media for not making the government's actions known... we've had that excuse for the last many years. But now, as the world becomes smaller, we can not claim that ignorance of the real events -- the real actions of our government -- we can not claim that ignorance is our shield.
It's time that we overcome our bias; it's time that we overcome our baby-like status that finds us content to sit in the safety of our homes and be spoon-fed edited "scientific" reports and newsfeeds and fictionalized movies based on loose facts.
It's time to create a new framework for America. A framework provides a way for thinking about a complex system... we're using frameworks in my class now to talk about the incredible complexity of the system that supports life on earth. Our professor is fond of saying that groups of 5 or more people are incredibly dumb... that you put any 5 people together in a room and give them a problem to work on, and invariably they, collectively, come up with a very dumb solution. Individually they may be very intelligent, capable people... but as a group they are dumb. But provide a framework from which they can share an understanding of the problem... and they can build on the intelligence of each individual so that the solution derived by the group is greater than any one of them could have derived alone.
So it's time for a new framework for America. The "make money at all costs" or - as our current administration likes to say it "if it is not better for our economy than for anyone else's, we're not going to do it" -- framework has to end. We've got to come up with a framework that puts the reality of the world that we live in into perspective. I can't describe exactly what that framework might look like, but I can assure you that it wouldn't promote something as stupid as putting money in the bank today, while the very process of earning that money risks the existence of that bank tomorrow.
Shit. Just realized it sounds like I'm running for office. I'm not.
Please don't write to me and say that really nothing is new in the US -- that the country was founded by people that killed other people in order to carve out a little place for themselves... then continued killing and carving... and that really the trend is just continuing. Please don't remind me of that, and ask me why I'm surprised as I learn more... I'm not in the mood.
And don't write me saying that I sound as though I'm advocating communism. Maybe I am and maybe I'm not. But maybe we should think about communion and community and other ways in which we celebrate, embrace, and joyously partake in activities that begin with "comm" -- and then learn the factual differences between each instead of reacting in strong emotion rooted both in truth and propaganda. I, for one, can't of the top of my head tell you what's good or bad about communism with a degree of certainty -- nor can I tell you the differences between republics and democracies with a comfortable level of confidence. But I'm willing to admit that I don't know and then take action to learn... so check back in a few days.
Do write and tell me about the things that you're doing -- whether it's striving to be more informed by alternative media sources ( try the Christian Science Monitor www.csmonitor.com)
Yes, yes... I'm a little off the topic of sustainabilty today. Actually, though - it's very directly related, because if we aren't able to communicate through the mass media honestly about the facts of global warming or other equally as pressing sustainability issues... we'll never reach a tipping point at which we'll actually be able to do something about it. So maybe there IS a reason for exploring Mars...
Ignorance is bliss, but not very fulfilling.
Ok. So what do I have to do to convince you?
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