Power of Nightmares
I normally avoid talking about politics here because I don’t do it well, but the events of today have left me baffled and depressed. I know that I’m not a US citizen, and so have no right to have a say in who becomes President, but when this particular US President has such a huge and largely deleterious effect on world events, I think everyone has a right to express their opinion. Yes, it’s good that turn-out was so high (unlike most UK elections), and assuming that the ballot was fairly conducted, it’s good that there was actually a majority this time. But given what Iâand many other peopleâthink about George Bush, that forces me to conclude that I have no possible way of understanding the mentality of the majority of US citizens. They might as well be aliens. The minority who didn’t vote for Bush (and I know some of you personally) have my utmost sympathy. We only have to suffer the side-effects here, but you guys have to live in the country.
I’ve been watching the documentary series The Power of Nightmares, which would be hilarious if the implications weren’t so grave. The series tracks the parallel rise of the neo-conservatives and the radical Islamists. The ironic thing is that both seemed to have started with very similar aims: to halt the perceived decline in morals and the rise of individualism, and return to ‘traditional values’. To that end, the neo-conservatives tried to unite the country by building up a terrifying threat to society; in the beginning, this was the Soviet threat, but when the Cold War ended, it became Islamic terrorists (ironically, the former allies of the US in neutralising the Soviets).
Various neo-con commentators interviewed on the programme were very open about the fact that hard evidence didn’t much matterâit was just a means to an end, and they had the people’s best interests and democracy at heart. I don’t think it’s very democratic if the people are making their decisions on the basis of lies (or at least absent evidence), but there you go. At one point, they discussed a theory that emerged (I think during the early Regan era) among the neo-cons that all the terrorist organisationsâIRA, ETA et al.âwere actually secretly controlled by the Soviet Union. The head of the CIA was asked to prove that this was the case (note the wording), and relayed this to his agents. They looked a bit baffled and said, “Well, I can tell you right now that it’s not true, because we in the CIA planted the rumour as black propaganda.” These facts didn’t seem to matter, and they still had to ‘prove’ that it was true. Does this ring any WMD bells? Remind you of any comments about the ‘reality-based community’? As a scientist, this disregard for proof, evidence and empirical data makes me shake my head in disbelief. It’s just wrong.
I’m going to have a beer.
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Yes, it just seems beyond belief that Dubya won the popular vote this time. I've contemplated emigrating from the UK after some previous elections here - but how do you emigrate from the world? Then I realised it's a coward's way out to give in to despair or self-pity when I remembered Frank.
by tony @ 03/11/2004 9:11 pm • Permalink •
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I'm an American citizen and my friends and I in Minnesota who all voted for Kerry are as baffled as you are. We don't know how we'll be able to make it through another four years. I hope we do.----- I think that the advantage for the neo-cons is that people aren't just "making their decisions on the basis of lies (or at least absent evidence)" - 9/11 was in fact very real, as was the World Trade Center bombing, the Madrid train bombings, the embassy in Nairobi (?), etc. All those deaths means something. It's all 'hard evidence', in fact - hard evidence for what, though?
Sadly, the neo-cons have used 9/11 etc as hard evidence for whatever they've wanted to do according to their own agenda (Iraq...), and that's the problem. 9/11 gave them a concrete excuse and enabled them to continue their advancement of 'nightmares'. It also made it quite hard to criticise them, as since 9/11 especially they've been able to use it as their tool.
As soon as you say they have no evidence, they can point to 9/11, and all the lives lost then. I don't think we can over-estimate the impact that 9/11 will continue to have on American politics for quite some time.
by David (TEFL Smiler) @ 03/11/2004 9:11 pm • Permalink •
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Stephanie: Againâmy sympathies. You must feel like strangers in your own country.
David: In full ranting modeâI said I wasn't good at politicsâI failed to be precise enough in my language. Of course 9/11 and the other terrorist bombings were horrifyingly real, and thousands of innocent people lost their lives. The lack of evidence is that they formed part of 'global terrorist network' that would justify invading another country (without any real evidence that the country had anything to do with the attacks) and suppressing personal freedoms in your own country. I've just watched the last part of The Power of Nightmares, and the evidence for a 'global terrorist network' is even more flimsy than I thought. In reality, we're facing what we've all (particularly in Europe) faced for many decades: small terrorist organisations who have their own warped, bloody and insane individual agendas. Of course we have to try to stop them, but building them up to be more threatening than they are is totally counter-productiveâif anything, it just gives the terrorists ideas above their station.
tony: Quite. It's hard, but we have to hang on in there and hope that at some point, the rest of the world will wake up from the nightmare.
by bsag @ 03/11/2004 11:12 pm • Permalink •
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After getting depressed about the US elections, I ended up somehow learning about the forthcoming horror of UK identity cards at http://www.no2id.net/. It hasn't been a good day!
by pete @ 04/11/2004 12:11 am • Permalink •
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AAAUUUUUGH!
...
Ok, I'm done now. Gotten my frustration out (or at least as much as I'm going to on someone else's blog).
p.s. I didn't vote for him...
by David Smith @ 04/11/2004 1:12 am • Permalink •
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The last time it ran like this, I moved to Europe and worked in Germany until Ray-gun was out of office. I am just baffled and gobsmacked and feeling tremendous despair. I live in Boulder Colorado. We at least got one new democrat senator. I honestly don't think we've ever had an all single party house, senate and presidency. I feel fearful. There will be no checks and balances. Our children will have their future sold away and their margin of safety gone. And unlike Bush, I am a proud combat veteran (Somalia as a Peacekeeper in 1993.)
I just feel so depressed by this madman. We have so few rights left because of the patriot act. All we'll have left is the right to bear arms (or arm bears as he is likely to say.)
I am afraid for the future. God bless us all, Tiny Tim.
by Penny @ 04/11/2004 2:12 am • Permalink •
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Wow.
Today, some of the most apolitical people I know came out of the closet, so to speak -- and strongly. In hindsight, I think that hopes and fears for this election were running ridiculously high, both sides riding an apocalyptic momentum that nobody thought to control. Give us a day to wake up and realize that the world is not over; we took four, and we can take four more. And 48% is a minority that I'll take any day.
by Aaron @ 04/11/2004 4:11 am • Permalink •
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This was the first US election I've followed closely, and so the first time I've had a close look at how their electoral system works. I was astounded - the first past the post, the system of electoral votes (win the state, you win all the votes - the inequality in the way the electoral votes are distributed). And now I'm going to work in Washington DC for 6 months!
by Megan @ 04/11/2004 7:11 am • Permalink •
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re Bush's landslide comment.
294,674,730 million Americans. The US census bureau declares roughly 25.7% of the population is under 18, so lets rough it out and pretend we have a nice even number like 200 million voters or roughly 30% are under 18 .
Sorry, he took 1.5% of the voting popular vote (over Kerry.) Say three million til the cows come home but its still only 1.5%!!!!! If I go by the Census numbers we're looking at something like 1.2%!!!
We're talking 1.5% here, hardly a landslide nor is it a mandate from the people. He's as bad at math as he with English.
Even my other half, a life-long replublican, voted for Kerry. (I was a republican and changed after the Patriot Act passed.. sorry but I didn't serve my country in the army to watch paranoid meglomaniacs strip the Bill of Rights bare. You want horror? Go read the fine print of the act itself.) I'd love to see the figures on how many other Republicans that have jumped the fence to Democrat since he was first coughnotcough elected.
by Penny @ 04/11/2004 7:12 am • Permalink •
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First bsag what a brilliant article. I am already registered at the NYT site but if any of you are not it is worth it for this piece alone. I was also gripped by "The Power of Nightmares" - a fantastic 3 part polemic. For those who missed it, there is a good precis at the Guardian and further thoughts on the way propaganda is central to the ideology of the Bush administration <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/15935<here</a<.
My own view is that the US is in the grip of a collective hysteria very similar to the one that possessed it during the McCarthy era, and that the "global terror network" is a modern version of the equally ficticious "worldwide communist conspiracy" that people believed in then. I also believe that this hysteria has sometime to run, whoever was elected, but that it will end sooner with GWB as president as the illusions fostered by his last term begin to crumble and there is no one else to blame, and he is forced to confront the appalling mess both domestic and foreign he has created. If Kerry was elected, in addition to Republican black propaganda, those problems would have made him unpopular however he chose to deal with them, and I believe it would have been extremely hard to gain a second term, and this evil ideology would be back again in 4 years. So I think that like the '92 election here, that it may in hindsight be seen as a good election to lose, and may have a similar effect on the now all conquering Republican party, as that one had on the then invincible Conservative party.
by ThoughtBadger @ 04/11/2004 1:12 pm • Permalink •
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Just one comment, although there are several US citizens who've comment here on the votes, only one (Penny) seems to have commented on internal politics. I presume as seems to be the case in the countries I've lived in in Europe, that people vote for internal politics rather than external. As the response to those idiotic letter writers from the Guardian showed! Although I must admit that I agree with various friends who wish the rest of the world had some say in the presidency...
by Tim @ 04/11/2004 5:12 pm • Permalink •
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I have to say I agree with the ThoughtBadger. The Bush administration has had a very McCarthy feeling to it on a lot of fronts. It would appear that he (GWB) feels most comfortable polarising complex issues into a framework of 'with us' or 'against us', and heaven forbid that you should be against us.
Now that I've got that sensationalist rhetoric of my chest, I thought some of you might be interested in a BBC radio show that ran last year, but which is still available online. The History of Folly is a often humorous investigation into folly through the ages, touching on the topic of group mania, which is where I loosely tie this into the topic at hand : )
by Nick @ 04/11/2004 5:12 pm • Permalink •
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I'm not sure it's like McCarthy. It seems more like rhetoric in Germany in the 30s. Kinder und Kirche. Orcinus seems to be getting this. There are jokes going around that the West and Northeast should secede and join Canada, but why would they have us?
We're hoping for a republican implosion but that's a lot of damage that can be done in the next four years: expect drilling to start in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge next Tuesday...
by Pica @ 04/11/2004 7:11 pm • Permalink •
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I read the paper this morning. Apparently the mid-western states didn't vote in issues, rhetoric, fiscal black holes... no, 80% on exit polls said they voted based on morality.
I think one element is how jingoistic and xenophobic the USA is now.. I honestly wonder if a major unvoiced issues here was that Kerry's wife is foreign-born?
Re McCarthism. It's funny but we were taking about this over dinner last night. I know the US culture swings on a broad pendulumn from conservative to liberal.. at least it seems that way if you look that the given culture expressed in each decade since WWI. I know we're on a conservative swing right now. It's a striking metaphor (and warning for those that can hear.)
Who wants to bet on how soon the draft/conscription starts? I am thinking about 11 months.
by Penny @ 04/11/2004 8:11 pm • Permalink •
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pete: I know, it's a bit grim, isn't it?
David Smith: There ought to be a badge or something...
Penny: I wish you well. Looking at the map of the way voting went, it seems ridiculously clear that the US needs to split into 2 different countries: one comprised of the Pacific states and those in the North-East, and one that's everything else in the middle. It would have to be an amicable split thoughâcivil wars are even worse than 'ordinary' wars.
Megan: I still don't think I understand how the whole Electoral College thing works.
ThoughtBadger: You, sir, are a wonderful optimist, and I salute you for it. I hadn't thought of that angle, and it has cheered me up somewhat!
Tim: True, but from what I understand, Bush has made a mess of internal affairs too, so I still find it inexplicable.
Pica: Canadians are lovely peopleâI'm sure that they would have you.
by bsag @ 04/11/2004 8:12 pm • Permalink •
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Hrm... are comments working now?
by Aaron @ 05/11/2004 4:11 am • Permalink •
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Yay! Okay...
"True, but from what I understand, Bush has made a mess of internal affairs too"
Only if by "made a mess of internal affairs" you mean "weakened pollution controls and lied about it" or "tried to write same-sex marriage out of the Constitution" or "ran up a budget deficit that may or may not be bad news depending on whether crowing-out is in fashion among economists right now."
Frankly, though, I'm more worried for you guys outside the U.S. I mean, the only possible reason for developing these things is that we intend to use them... and I don't think we intend to use them on ourselves.
by Aaron @ 05/11/2004 4:12 am • Permalink •
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The way the world is going and the part that bush america is choosing to play in it has so filled this expat with genuine fear and despair that I absentee voted for the first time in my life. Just the names "Patriot Act" and "homeland land security" are names of such sciencefiction evil that the visions of that america cause me cold sweats. The truest long term danger to the world is the erosion of america through republican doublethink final solutions like Guatanamo. These deliberate injustices and perversion are what destroy a societies ability to reverse and correct idiotic and cruel mistakes such as the war in Iraq. I voted, we lost, and now I´m hunkering down and hoping that perhaps it won`t be so bad, that the good things that were created and implemented in america will survive and allow us to readjust after this time of ignorant and banal white bread evil.
by john @ 05/11/2004 6:12 am • Permalink •
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I'm an American, and I even live in one of the states that just passed a constitutional amendment denying gay marriage (Michigan - and though I opposed the ban, I happen to be straight, married, and Christian). Thankfully our electoral votes went for Kerry, but I'm in shock as much as everyone else.
There are 55.4 million of us that voted for Kerry... I hope the rest of the world realizes that roughly 1 in 2 Americans didn't want Bush to have a second term, either.
This message at The Progressive, "A Letter to Incredulous Friends Around the World" does a nice job trying to explain ourselves to the rest of the world.
It's going to be a tough four years, and I'm really thankful that I live only a couple hours from the Canadian border. It's nice to leave the country for a weekend trip when my wife & I feel the need to be with a more civilized people.
by Jim Collison @ 05/11/2004 7:11 am • Permalink •
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A quick off-topic message: In order to try to stem the flow of egregious comment spam, I have now set WP up to put comments containing 2 or more URLs into an approval queue. All spam contains more than 2 URLs, but obviously many legitimate comments do to. Just to reassure you that your comments won't get deleted if they are not spam, but if you comment in the middle of my night, it may take a while before I get to approving it!
I'll try to think of a better solution, and/or flag up this change more clearly. Flippin' spammers...
by bsag @ 05/11/2004 7:12 am • Permalink •
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On a related topic I spent some a week or so ago checking out the right wing web, forums, blogs, news web sites etc. to see if there were more thoughtful arguments for GWB. Mission accomplished - not! But it was interesting to see the sophisticated way they deployed the web as a propaganda tool, maximising its potential for spreading rumours fear and slurs. There are a number of these propaganda sites, and I present a couple to you for your edification.
Jihad Watch whose purpose is to make the radical Islamist movement seem much larger than it is, and to imply that it is mainstream Islamic thinking. Let's have an all out war against the whole Islamic world everybody!
wintersoldier.com has a dual purpose, to slur Kerry's Vietnam record, and rewrite history to show that the US was not defeated by the Viet Cong, but by the anti war protesters at home. I can't think why they find Vietnam such an awkward corner of history for these guys.
The true power of these sites lies in the way, that the right wing news sites, which often look very authoritative refer to them as legitimate sources, and you should note how the sites themselves consist mainly of legitimate news items albeit often from a skewed perspective, with the rumours such as how Malmo in Sweden is being taken over by Islamists mixed in. Then it all gets swirled around in the forums and blogs until they have all convinced each other as to the truth of what they are saying. The conspiracy theorist side of one's brain does wonder how much of it is centrally co-ordinated but I think mostly its just the sheer power of stupidity.
But there is an interesting study there, or maybe a story
by ThoughtBadger @ 05/11/2004 11:11 am • Permalink •
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24 hrs late but i lost my comments yesterday due to PC wobbles.
Anyhow, excellent piece bsag.
I too watched the show and as some people mentioned on the BBC website, why did they only put it on BBC2 and against the show British Isles which loads of people watched instead?
That aside isn't it great how much bull we take and put up with in our names. Of course they powers that be used worldwide events to clean up lots of "other" terrorist organizations, but the fact that not a single Islamic terror group in e.g. the UK has been hauled up is somewhat telling.
And whilst there is no taking away from the terror, horror and dreadful loss of life on 9/11 and in Bali and the embassy bombs, I've yet to see conclusive evidence of "a grand plan".
This taken together with the US election results makes for a really depressing week!
I suppose the best thing to do is to look forward to the fact that Bush can't stand again, that it'll probably be Hilary Clinton for the democrats next time and hopefully the US as an entity won't have alienated too many people by then!
I've lived and worked out in the US for 2 years in the 90's and whilst they were/are lovely friendly people in general, I've never met such a narrow minded cross section of people in all my life - and thatâs including many visits to i.e. South Africa.
Keep up the good work bsag - great blog.
by Dave @ 05/11/2004 11:12 am • Permalink •
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Hey, a fellow Michiganian! Hi, Jim! Down with Prop 2! Well, a little late for that, I guess...
by Aaron @ 06/11/2004 4:11 am • Permalink •
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Oooh... I'm sorry. I thought that the disapperaing comments were just being filtered out -- i didn't realize I was dumping them on you to read by hand! :(
by Aaron @ 06/11/2004 4:11 am • Permalink •
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Dave: Thanks! I'm also disappointed that the programme wasn't flagged up better. It was a real eye-opener. Even the BBC seems to fall into the trap of falling for the whole 'war on terror' thing in its news broadcasts, talking about 'dirty bombs' as if they would spread radiation over a huge area (they can't), and discussing al-Quaida 'cells'.
ThoughtBadger: It's difficult to know how to counteract that kind of mis-information. I suspect thatâfor a minority of peopleâshowing them a film like The Power of Nightmares would have no effect at all. They have already made up their minds, and no amount of evidence is going to turn the supertanker of their thoughts around. Plus, if they aren't part of the 'reality-based community' evidence doesn't mean very much.
Aaron: No problemâI should have flagged up the change!
by bsag @ 07/11/2004 3:11 pm • Permalink •
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