Informing the Citizenry: Churchill and the Newscaster

[Freedom_from_Chains]

Finally, someone who gets it.

Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Informing the Citizenry: Churchill and the Newscaster
By Rosemarie Jackowski

Thank you, Ward Churchill...for doing the impossible and opening up a national discussion about U.S. foreign policy.

Ward Churchill’s controversial essay has served a very important purpose for which the world should be eternally grateful. It has opened a national discussion about responsibility, guilt, and foreign policy. This discussion is long overdue. It is not about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It is about how many citizens must accept responsibility for the actions taken by their government in their names. Churchill’s essay is an essay about you and me.

Though guilt is often used as a religious term, the connection to religion is not a necessary one. An atheist might have an even greater appreciation for ethical or moral behavior than a religious person because the atheist would not hold the belief, common to most religions, that the afterlife would be the time for ultimate justice. Maybe an atheist would be more apt to work for justice in this life.

(con't) http://www.pressaction.com/news/weblog/full_article/jackowski02082005/

[bloom]

1. This might fit here as well...

The psychologists POV:

Misinterpreting Osama's Message
By Diane Perlman

AlterNet
November 21, 2002
 
While media experts were preoccupied with analyzing Osama bin Laden's voice, they failed to comprehend, or even read, his actual words. Speculation about hidden meanings and secret clues totally ignored the obvious intended message, which is so clear that it doesn't even need decoding.
 
Because of the intense hate and fear evoked by Osama, because we are so traumatized by him, we automatically block those dimensions of his communication that are not pure threats. We simplify and reduce complex messages, transforming them into plans to attack unconditionally.
 
We unconsciously refuse to perceive what he is actually saying, as if understanding this evil person is a betrayal to ourselves and is letting him win. Our dangerous assumptions can lead to self-fulfilling prophesies.
 
The image of the enemy universally generates a powerful emotional charge that distorts perception. Our narrow range of thinking, so deeply ingrained, is shaped by a homogenous media, with constant repetition of a simplistic worldview, characterized by black-and-white thinking, egocentrism and psychological ignorance. Our inability to receive meaning is tantamount to a collective cognitive disorder.

<snip>

We are steamrolling down a path toward endless escalation of global violence and retaliation. We need to explore possible ways out of this. Throughout history, like the Cuban Missile Crisis, wise leaders were aware of the need to provide the enemy with face-saving ways out.

http://www.thehandstand.org/archive/december2002/index.htm

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. Thank you for this excellent post

The good doctor here is correct on so many different levels that to respond could produce pages and pages of text.

But in short this is the kind of dialog that I have been hopeful would start coming forth as a result of Dr. Churchill’s paper. And while many are struggling, even on this site, with Dr. Churchill’s use of the "Little Eichmans" reference, the fact is that we are in such desperate straits to motivate Americans to take a hard look at ourselves that the baseball bat approach is about the only thing left that has any chance of success.

Again, thank you for your post.