One Nation, Under Television
Every now and again I run into a news story about a poll that makes me wonder if I’m living on another planet, or if my countrymen are.
The most recent example is yet another poll that purports to show that one in three Americans believe Saddam Hussein was personally responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center six years ago. Thirty three percent. Over 40 percent believe that Iraq played some role, or helped Al Qaeda. Four people out of every ten. One political scientist quoted in the news story suggested “The Bush administration has been extremely clever in suggesting connections without being explicit.” They don’t even claim that there’s a connection, but each time Bush says “9-11” he also says “Saddam.” Each time he says “Iraq,” he says “Al Qaeda.” And as our old pal Hitler used to say, if you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes truth.
It’s probably been said before this is a nation of sheep, and you don’t have to look much further than our taste in television and tabloids to realize how true this is. We do what we’re told, then we’re congratulated being so clever. They tell us to smoke, we smoke. They tell us to buy Viagra and SUVs, and we do that. They tell us—no, they hint to us-- that the US invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein personally crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center, and we believe. Or 40 percent of us do. And because the average American has seen jets crashing into the World Trade Center 1500 times, that’s the most compelling, frightening image in our heads. The only image.
I’ve come to the conclusion that a third of Americans would follow Adolf Hitler if he had been born in the US (or if he had starred in “Terminator” movies), a third would oppose him because of his ridiculous mustache, and the rest would sway back and forth like the hula dancer on your dash board.
And that’s just the white people.
Our seemingly Democratic representatives refuse to impeach Bush and Cheney because they say it would divide us. Divide us? If half the population are dogs and the other half are cats, what’s to divide? If the dogs of earth don’t agree with the cats of a planet that circles Alpha Centauri, there are a few light years in between, and it would be extremely difficult to plop yourself in between and reconcile them. It’s not even a question of one group thinking Rush is right or another that Amy Goodman is right. . .we’re talking separate realities here. It’s not just Christ vs. Mohamed, it’s photosynthesis vs flesh-eating therapods.
With all these competing realities, how can one hope to get a consensus? We all need to watch more television, and start obeying it, like the 40 percent do.