[Fwd: Swans' Release: August 2, 2004]

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.swans.com/
August 2, 2004 -- In this issue:

Note from the Editor: "My fellow Americans, this is the most important
election of our lifetime. The stakes are high. We are a nation at war -- 
a global war on terror against an enemy unlike we've ever known before," 
said Mr. Bush the other night in Crawford, Texas. What, what, what do 
you say? It was Mr. Kerry who uttered those words last Thursday in 
Boston, not Mr. Bush? Not Crawford? Are you sure? Oh well, we did not 
listen to Kerry's peroration as we were rejoicing upon our first day out 
of suburbia -- at long last, AT LONG LAST! (more on this another time. 
We have a house for sale though; if you are interested to live in Menlo 
Park in the Bay Area, rush to 545 Palmer Lane -- Beautifully renovated 
redwood/fir bungalow on almost one half of an acre of land...the 
American Dream, you know... Suburbia!) Anyway, seriously, these words 
could have originated from the mouth of our "great" war leader, could 
they not? And thinking of it, they could have come as well from another 
"great" war leader, Mr. Hitler, who, after reading the short report 
filed by Eli Beckerman on the street protests -- or better said, the
gagging of the protesters -- brings to mind the comment William Shirer 
made in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, "The Germans imposed the 
Nazi tyranny on themselves." A people has the government it deserves...

Here we are, in Boston, the First Amendment pretty much abrogated while 
a hypnotized crowd cheers another savior. Talk about mass 
psychosis...which Manuel García does quite eloquently as he examines how 
small groups of wealthy elites control larger populations, and looks 
into the psychological key, if any, that could open the American mind to 
a Green Socialist future. Then, if you still have any doubt about who 
calls the shots in Washington D.C., the mascot in the Oval Office or his 
corporate masters, Phil Rockstroh adds his 2 cents that will make you 
much richer, from a neuron perspective, mind you; and Philip Greenspan 
uses his bullshit detector to bring another of his reality checks to the 
fore without mincing words.

Buried by propaganda, getting their news from Jay Leno and Rush 
Limbaugh, the American people are marching, in the words of Marilynne 
Robinson (Harper's, August 2004, p. 17), "lockstep to enormity and 
disaster." She continues, "A successful autocracy rests on the universal 
failure of individual courage." The halls of power, as noted by Richard 
Macintosh, glitter by the dearth of cowardice, with the exception of a 
few lonely voices. And it must take some moral courage for new 
contributor, José Tirado, to plead, "stop urging us to vote for your 
party [Democratic]," and to state the obvious, "we can't get the system 
we want by voting for people who don't want our system." Duh! Whether 
it's courage or exile (Tirado lives in Iceland, like John Steppling 
lives in Poland -- perhaps Americans should travel more...) he sure
gets it. Michael Moore gets it too as Gerard Donnelly Smith avers (at 
least to a point...that should exclude his idiotic endorsement of Wesley 
Clark, the perfect embodiment of a war crimes criminal). Gerard reviews 
Farenheit 9/11 and its "objective" propaganda, in which Moore allows the 
players and events to speak for themselves -- no need for scripting and 
staging -- and you be the judge.

Milo Clark, a history buff, and an even-tempered mind, reminds us that 
the Rule of Law can be and has been upheld or restored by some faction 
of the elites "demanding and getting a piece of the action." So, yes, 
there is hope, even if faintly, that the Rule of Law will be restored 
(Americans think of FDR as a man of the people...when he was nothing 
more than the rescuer of capitalistic interests, forced by the masses to 
legislate compromises favorable to the workers -- compromises that, when 
implemented, have been chipped away ever since); but it remains that the 
laws are made by the elites themselves...to serve their own 
interests...and there is no mass movement in the U.S. of 2004 and JFK II 
is no FDR!

When a Moroccan Swede gets interested in Straussian and Wilsonian 
politics, the idealist/realist discourse in the U.S., you end up with a 
Clinton looking much like a Bush, and vise versa. Please welcome the 
scholarly work of Mohammed Ben Jelloun, another new contributor.

A poem on Gomorrah; the work of Louis Proyect still posted on the front
page (it was indeed a book review); and the Letters to the Editor 
conclude this issue. Enjoy it as much as we did pulling it off in the 
midst of boxes!

As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes)
know about Swans.

                                             *****

Here are the links to all the pieces:

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/elib018.html
I Will Not Be Herded
by Eli Beckerman

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/joset001.html
Damned If We Do? Damned 'Cause We Didn't!
by José M. Tirado

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/mgarci19.html
The Imprisoned American Mind
by Manuel García, Jr.

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/procks32.html
> From The Annals of Presidential Style: Do The Clothes Make The Mascot?
by Phil Rockstroh

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/pgreen47.html
Dubya's Elixir: Bigger And Brighter Same Old Crap
by Philip Greenspan

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/rmac26.html
Courage II
by Richard Macintosh

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/gsmith22.html
The Documentary As Propaganda
by Gerard Donnelly Smith

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/mgc134.html
Rebalancing Power
by Milo Clark

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/jelloun1.html
Wilsonian Or Straussian: Post-Cold War Idealism?
by Mohammed Ben Jelloun

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/jmarsh01.html
The Robots Of Gomorrah
Poem by John Marshall

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/lproy17.html
The Case for Nader-Camejo
by Louis Proyect

http://www.swans.com/library/art10/letter47.html
Letters to the Editor


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