A friend of mine directed me to the following quote this evening:
...it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.
The particular political pundit that first uttered these words was none other than Hermann Göring, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, President of the Reichstag, Prime Minister of Prussia and, as Hitler's designated successor, the second man in the Third Reich.
George Bush knows the truth of these words, even if he did have to be spoon-fed this wisdom by his more intelligent and even more cynical advisors. In the climate of fear that is the USA, it's very easy to lead people by the nose. All you need to do is distract the populace by making them afraid, even if what they are supposed to fear is an intangible entity, with no face, no defined beginning or end. All it needs is a name, so that the media can make sensationalistic use of it to strike terror into the hearts of all those who can't even locate a European country on a map of the world.
Of course, this cynical ploy has the added benefit of allowing its perpetrators to wage a war without end, since nobody is able to quantify when victory has or has not been achieved. Having ill-defined objectives can yield big dividends when your so-called political opposition shows typical bipartisan complicity and your populace has been numbed over time to the point that they can no longer even perceive scandal.
And how they buy into the myth in droves, petrified as they are that the enemies of peace from far away places and even further away cultures are just itching to deprive them of their petrol-guzzling four-wheel drive vehicles, their all-American burger and fries and their daily cathode ray fix.
And people wonder why I'm sick of this fucking place. "It's not that bad, right?" Fuck, yes, it is.