What planet is Friedman living on, or should I ask, what reality is he deconstructing and referring to now?
In this op-ed piece he states:
“What is happening right now in Iraq, Israel and Palestine is a new Churchillian moment. The contours and contents of these core Middle East regions are up for grabs, only this time these contours are not being redrawn by an imperial pen from above – and will not be.”
Only Bible-thumpers and otherwise self-involved victims of hysteria would describe U.S. actions in Iraq and Israel as something other than imperialism writ large. It’s truly been astonishing to witness the metamorphosis that has taken place since 9/11, in this strip-mall wasteland erectionally and so-euphorically deferred to as America, the beatification, if you will, of a fevered nationalism rivaled by none.
Friedman goes on to say:
“Like the recent tsunami, this sort of tectonic movement of geopolitical plates happens only once a century. This is a remarkable political moment that you don’t want to miss or see go badly. But that’s what’s scary; when borders and states emerge from volcanic activity, anything can happen. What all three of these cases have in common is that they pit theocratic, fascist and messianic forces on one side, claiming to be acting on the will of God or in the name of the primordial aspirations of “the nation,” against more moderate, tolerant, democratizing majorities.”
This supplanting of sovereignty by corporate America in Iraq would not have been possible without the tent-revivalism of pit-bullish, millionaires-are-us theocrats, of the fascist torturers and death squad advocates, and Crusade-like, messianic underpinning utilised by these duplicitous maniacs to shore-the-big-lie-up against the assault of its detractors.
I’ve spent the past four days in Waukegan, Illinois, and I have never been so convinced that Americans aren’t as dumbed down as they are medicated and numbed. Freedom, apparently, is being served a meal with portions so large they would feed a family of four for a week, travelling from point A to B in energy-guzzling, electronically-enhanced transports because walking is not an option, and observing communities designed to keep humans from interacting with little more than other consumers and their franchised vendors.
The zombies are plentifull. And sad to find Amtrak in such disrepair.