Really enjoyed your article. You really captured the inconsistencies and lies of our government. Americans cannot separate themselves from their government believing wrongly that the transient elected government is more important than the Constitution and our heritage of freedom and democracy. Our educational system is doing a substandard job in teaching the functions of the Constitution to reign in arrogant and abusive government. I remember my own high school education in history, it was truly negligent in focusing on the importance of our Constitution and its meaning!

There are a few journalists revealing the awesome truth about our government, but the mainstream media’s ( mainly TV news & major publications) self-censorship prohibits the American people from obtaining accurate information about their own government. Sometimes I wonder if self-censorship from publishers prevents stories like “Americans In Iran” from being published. Also there is a notion like concrete that anything American is almost above criticism, especially in foreign policy matters. Anyone critical is labelled a complainer. The time has come to call those who condemn critics of U.S. polices, foreign and domestic status quo appeasers or chronic appeasers to failure.

Henry Pelifian

http://uniskywriter.blogspot.com/

Amazing how moderate doses of good beer can help restore one’s faith in the American way.

I will keep whittling on this subject.

One of the best things my father ever taught me was that books are for marking up. To highlight key passages raises a book’s value - I get a kick out of picking up books I first read 30+ years ago and seeing what caught my fancy back when Jimmmy Carter was the liberal Great White Hope.

The reason is because cynicism itself has a bad name, and is therefore easily dismissed by many as mere biased negativity.

Cynicism, as I understand the meaning of the word, tends to alienate. It does not inspire people to think for themselves, or examine the facts. It doesn’t inspire confidence in being able to make a difference, or offer practical alternatives. It doesn’t stimulate self-awareness or personal empowerment.

Rather, it tends more often to function like a dark sticky goo that gets all over everybody and weighs people down. Also somewhat like a contagious disfiguring rash.. unappealing to be around.

Very good article.

You mentioned Carl Gershman and the National Endowment for Democracy. As an international observer of two elections in Nicaragua in the 1980s I saw the NED in action.

If there is one US (albeit technically private) organization that ought to be abolished it is the badly mis-named National Endowment for Democracy. In the wake of Iran-Contra, Congress almost ended it. Maybe this time.
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On the retroactive laws - -I never expected to see Congress retroactively decriminalize torture.

Just my youthful idealism leading me astray again…

People can “make [America] better if we will suspend our cynicism” about government and politicians, said President Clinton in early 1997, at a time when the seeds of many scandals were festering wonderfully.

You may be right that we have different connotations of the words.

Consider how people might respond to the latest Bush campaign speech on American successes in Iraq.

A skeptic might question whether our president is well-informed or if he is telling listeners all the pertinent facts.

A cynic assumes the rascal is lying through his teeth again, and mutters that his tools in the media are reporting his comments as if they were gospel truth.

I see no reason to be skeptical about Bush and Iraq.

And is there any reason for people to be merely “skeptical” about Cheney?

This is an interesting analogy particularly because as I was out on a walk I was thinking about the human body & the medical establishment, in light of this discussion.

I don’t know if this is a true story, but I read somewhere that during the bubonic plague in Europe, there was a whole factory of people who worked with medicinal herbs: they did not get sick, supposedly because of their contact with the herbs and their immune-boosting properties.

You know the human body has a brilliant immune system — which I think is probably more intelligent than the human mind. Much of what physicians do, unfortunately, undermines and even destroys the body’s own capacity to heal itself and maintain health. Ignorance of one’s own body & its needs often results in illness as well.

While those physicians you mention are preventing the plague, they also would be wise to educate, and treat the body with foods and medicines supportive of the immune system. This more than doubles the likelihood of overall wellness in the population.

Of course if the population became well, and empowered, it would put many physicians out of work. The big medical establishment would have to evolve, or it would atrophy. I think this is a good analogy for government. Health — and peace — must begin within each human being. That is the only way it can hold.

PS: Maybe we have a different interpretation of the word cynicism. I think of it as unhelpful and unneeded negativity. I don’t like it, I don’t like the way it feels or smells. Skepticism, on the other hand, I think is wholly healthy.

As for some antiwar and anti-Big Government people being “angry, divisive, and judgmental” - nobody ever promised that opposing Leviathan would make a person happy. Political activism per se is rarely uplifting.

Opposing Leviathan is not enough by itself for a good life…

There are doctors who specialize in preventing plagues. Just because a plague doesn’t occur doesn’t mean that the non-casualties will live contented lives. But they will at least have the chance to blossom if they are not Bubonic-ized.

Likewise, preventing politicians from destroying domestic tranquility (and breaking private heads) does not guarantee happy times. But…

Unfortunately, in the short term - in a time when Congress has now endorsed torture and dictatorship - curbing the evil comes first. ”

One effort does not exclude the other.

The positive traits can and often do flourish in an individual human being, regardless of the political evils.

Better politics and smaller government do not guarantee that such traits will flourish in individuals. Even in the most ‘free’ societies there is hopelessness, fear, meanness, cynicism.

Some of the most politically pro-active antiwar & anti-big government people I have known have also been some of the angriest, divisive, judgemental. These elements become the seeds of new wars, new corruptions… history proves it is so.

Vision is needed, and inspiration. Nourishment for the heart of humanity. Hope, not unfounded.