If I were asked to choose one of Noam Chomsky's major contributions to the world, it would be the fact that he has unmasked the ugly, manipulative, ruthless universe that exists behind that beautiful, sunny word "freedom". He has done this rationally and empirically. The mass of evidence he has marshaled to construct his case is formidable. Terrifying, actually. The starting premise of Chomsky's method is not ideological, but it is intensely political. He embarks on his course of inquiry with an anarchist's instinctive mistrust of power. He takes us on a tour through the bog of the U.S. establishment, and leads us through the dizzying maze of corridors that connects the government, big business, and the business of managing public opinion.Chomsky shows us how phrases like "free speech", the "free market", and the "free world" have little, if anything, to do with freedom. He shows us that, among the myriad freedoms claimed by the U.S. government are the freedom to murder, annihilate, and dominate other people. The freedom to finance and sponsor despots and dictators across the world. The freedom to train, arm, and shelter terrorists. The freedom to topple democratically elected governments. The freedom to amass and use weapons of mass destruction — chemical, biological, and nuclear. The freedom to go to war against any country whose government it disagrees with. And, most terrible of all, the freedom to commit these crimes against humanity in the name of "justice", in the name of "righteousness", in the name of "freedom". Arundathi Roy in The loneliness of Noam Chomsky.
The "Freedom" meme has crept northwards into Canada. All political parties, whether liberal or conservative, in-between or neither, sooner or later refer to "Freedom" in one way or another, some more than others. Whether it is the "Good Freedom" or the "Bad Freedom" is obviously subject to each person’s frame of reference. One website in particular is interesting. It is a "grassroots" conservative website but well-worth visiting by progressives for what it may teach them about "Freedom" and on ways to promote their own version of it.
This site has power. The look is indeed "grassroots" but the technology is very advanced. It promotes its ideas and ideology naturally but its power resides in the ways that it entices individual participation in the political process, satisfaction guaranteed, at the click of a button!
Hence you too can "beecome" (sic: something about "Society" being a "Beehive", I guess) a "Freedom Adcovate" via this group that presents itself thus:
We are a faith-based, non-partisan, multi-partisan, grassroots political lobby, legal services, consulting, and communications organization.It has been said that those who choose to not participate in the political process are destined to be ruled by those who do participate.
DO YOU WANT TO CONTINUE TO BE ENSLAVED AND MANIPULATED BY "THEM"? (emphasis theirs)
Strategically speaking, one must admit that that website’s one-per-issue "Click Here" feature at the very top is truly awesome! Republican strategists now admit that the 2004 campaign began the day Bush moved to the White House in 2000. The campaign for our next election here in Canada has already started as far as conservatives are concerned. That "grassroots" website is very telling. As more and more such conservative websites are constructed over the coming months and with such capability, the impact of the conservative voice on the political scene will indeed be something to be reckoned with. If Canadian progressives, "grassroots" or otherwise, have not yet learned how to do that on their websites, they certainly should … and one would guess sooner rather than later if they don’t want to be overcome (and overwhelmed) by that particular brand of "Freedom"!
Stumble It!
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RickW
<a href="http://www.lyingliar.com/">http://www.lyingliar.com/</a><p>---<br>RickW
problem with calling itself grassroots, can't very well put up stories from Mainstream media to support its case, now can they? but they do. Then there's the hooey about a bunch of 'faith based' news, why? when its common knowledge the evangelical religions have been politizied by the warmongoring military/industrial complex and Zionists.
the web is littered with this type of PR trash, put out by people with 6 figure salaries, living in million dollar mansions surrounded by high tech cameras and gated driveways.
Here is how freedom works today: You have the freedom to 'watch tv' eat 'junk food' and submit yourself to controlling religions, etc. You also have the freedom to put out disinformation on the web.
yah, and the swiftboat veterens were not out to smear Kerry.
The rightwing gets more out of touch with reality by the minute.
The great problem as I see it now is the absolute
one-sidedness of all mainstream media in this country, and the willingness of that dominent side to supress, frustrate, devalue and attack anyone, anywhere, attempting to express an opinion at variance with their own. That most certainly is NOT freedom, and it absolutely MUST change.
Those of us who consider ourselves "progressive" must work much harder to bring that change about. Calling the other side scumballs, even if they are, will not achieve anything positive. And the other commentator is right on the money when he or she says that we should be working and organizing every single hour of every day. Nothing very substantive can be accomplished in a few weeks or months immediately prior to an election. Lets get on the job!
You mean discussion? The left has always been eager to choke this off in the interest of some higher good.
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RickW