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I joined DU, probably in 2003, at a time when I was coming to realize that most of what I thought to be true about the USA and our "democracy" was absolute bogus. I watched the complete boycott of truth across our corporate media and watched BOTH political parties join in. Something smelled rotten. No, at the time *everything* smelled rotten. I found DU as part of a quest to reassure myself that I was not alone, I was not crazy, and there are still some thinking people out there somewhere who have not lost their minds.
Though I was educated a conservative (grew up in rural Wisconsin and earned an MBA), my re-education probably started around the time I found DU. DU got me through countless frustrating and lonely times. Through the sharing of ideas and wisdom, we were all able to raise our collective perspectives. I know that a lot of you feel the same way about this place.
Through the years, DU saved my political soul. Through DU, I was educated on not just current events, but in a way of thinking. I began reading Chomsky, David C. Korten, Michael Moore, etc. What I came to realize is that the core problem ...the source of all the other problems, is the CORPORATE RULE of not just our government, but of the world (through the WTO, etc.). You could have told me that in 2001, but I couldn't have heard it or seen its truth without the long and painful re-education process.
And now the elections brings a flood of newbies. We old-timers (funny to say, as I'm only 33 years old) are frustrated to watch the mainstreaming of our beloved DU by so many eager and naive newcomers. It's true that most of them are naive. To watch these voices eagerly take over the discourse with their conventional wisdom and optimism about things is to make some of us feel that all of our efforts over the years have been in vain. But what else could be possibly expect? We forget that, in each of our cases, it takes time.
Yes, it's frustrating, but the larger point is that a huge number of new people are now hooked on DU. Right now, they don't know what they don't know. But the thing about DU is that you can't avoid ideas, and the right ideas tend to stick with you. And when those ideas stick with you, your perspective of the world changes. You watch the same things you always have, but that idea serves as a new lens. After DU, the political world is, indeed, seen through a different lens...and what once may have seemed like a radical and absurd idea slowly reveals itself as plain reality.
But the process is slow and there can be no shortcuts. Telling the truth about things is a thankless job...for the simple reason that re-education takes time, takes heartbreak, and takes mistakes. But the good news is that there are thousands of new people who have begun this process...and we old-timers just need to keep plugging away as often as we feel like it, and let things play out as they will.
Oh, and welcome to all the political new-comers. ;-)
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