Yesterday at work the following comments were related in the breakroom.
Reacting to the headlining article in our local about a young man from a nearby community who was killed when his bulldozer flipped over into the Euphrates while on duty in Fallujah, a workmate sighed and said, “Isn’t that sad, he must have been building something.”
And piercing the glee of the Bushie patrol who were celebrating Arafat’s death, as if it will be the answer to all of Sharon’s and Israel’s problems, came this question from someone who supports both the occupation of Palestinians and Iraqis, but would prefer the total eradication of same; “Arafat, now is he a good guy or a bad one?”
Americans are worse than sheltered, they are propagandised, and always have been. But it’s frightening that even when the bombs and mortars are flying that most don’t possess the remotest interest in investigating these issues for themselves. Entirely comfortable allowing others to kill in their name, oblivious to its human, economic, and historical relevance, Americans are now fully anesthetised to death. It’s just another show.
NPR‘s Michele Norris interviewed Bill Couturié on All Things Considered yesterday, you can hear the programme, and read some of the letters here.
He’s the producer/director of Last Letters Home, a documentary which features the family members of soldiers killed in Iraq, and films them reading the last letter they received from their loved ones.
It aired for the first time last night on HBO. A decision had been made not to show it before the election.
This is a film the families wanted to be made because they feel that America doesn’t take their grief seriously. Who can argue that?
The attitude of the Bush supporting types reminds me of the way people in North Korea behave, emoting on cue, believing in a whole system of delusion. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. Nothing worthwhile can be built on religiosity and mass hysteria.
The Democrats can be nearly as cultish when one of theirs is in office, but I don’t think they’d ever take it to this extreme. Then again, I don’t see any mass movement forming on the left to bring this horror show to an end. The lunatics are in control and no one is stopping it.