Every day the people of America are exposed to vehement and ceaseless exhortations to defeat the enemy -- to rally behind our military and by extension the forcible foreign policy that will brook no opposition. Never is there the word of caution that fanaticism is its own perdition. Not long ago, a similar fanaticism showed how "sure-footed" and "certain" was the victory of its political creed over all others, come what may. (Excerpts) An innocent rally toward faith? A call to defend freedom? A relentless cry for victory over the enemies of civilization? Consider the source: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/schul01.htm
Ask yourself, moreover, whether the real reason that the voices of anti-immigrants are so vociferous on the corporate-owned airwaves and on myriads of uncensored websites is a deep-seated fear of what nativists see as the dilution of their fanatical vision of a Reagan-style America? Some decades ago, a right-wing commentator said as follows: (Excerpt) Listening to the angry calls of radio callers and reading right-wing blogs about the immigrants of today, does this single-minded obsession with purity not sound familiar? Source: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/johann.htm
In English, please!! I mean, I understand what you're saying, but damn that's a tough way to go about sayin' it!
Most if not all patriotism that some figure at a podium or microphone has to stir up in you is false. Anyone who appeals to it for their little agenda can go fuck themselves.
Agreed. The problem is that, with the right-wing echo chamber blasting away on virtually every radio outlet, and particularly to a captive audience mired in rush-hour traffic, there is no escape from this demagoguery of the worst kind. Supremacism has replaced rationality. Aggrandizement has replaced consideration. Selfishness has replaced civility. Somehow, the Republic has survived, but will it in the future? America has never been as civilized as we like to think that it is. Following the French and Indian War, there were allegations that a young George Washington had willfully assassinated a foreign envoy. Guerilla tactics helped a young Continental Army destroy the more orderly ranks of the Redcoat opposition. The Civil War was, and remains, the war in which the most Americans died. The scourge of fanaticism and its cousin, violence, remains a specter whose bloody threads wend their way throughout history. It remains incumbent on the wise to counsel against its effects, which are rarely good, and in any event, always destructive of the existing order.
