The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief." Jacques Ellul
By Cindy Sheehan
"The goal of modern propaganda is no longer to transform opinion but to arouse an active and mythical belief." Jacques Ellul
On Super Bowl Sunday, the reason that I wrote my new book: Myth
America: 20 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for
Revolution, literally hit home.
Since it was the Holy Day of
Obligation for our national religion of Football, I headed for my health
club because I have always been a heretic. I arrived there a little
before kick off, so the club was still occupied, but after kick-off it
was deserted.
After my water workout and swim in the pool that I had
all to myself, I headed to the hot tub which was occupied by another spa
patron-an older gentleman named Bill whom seems to come to the club
just to sit in the hot tub and chat. I get the feeling he is very
lonely, and this following exchange may be why:
Bill: I think what
you do disgraces your son, his memory and what he died for.
Cindy: Oh
really? Since he was killed in an illegal and immoral war, I think this
nation disgraced him.
Bill: But they attacked us on 9-11.
Cindy:
Who attacked us on 9-11?
Bill: Iraq and Saddam Hussein.
Cindy: Are
you serious? If you believe the official story, 16 Saudi Arabians
attacked us.
Bill: But Saddam killed his own people.
Cindy: We
have killed over one million of Saddam's "own people," (at this point
Cindy does "air quotes?).
Bill: But we didn't mean to.
Cindy:
(deep sigh), So what team are you rooting for this afternoon?
At
which point, Bill scrambled out of the hot tub and headed for the
showers.
My "friend" Bill has been thoroughly propagandized from the
right-there was no use sitting in the hot tub with the jets blasting and
trying to reason with a man who thinks that over one million people can
be killed "accidentally."
I didn't write Myth America for people
like Bill who wouldn't recognize a fact if it flew out of his TV box and
hit him on his bulbous nose. I wrote the book for our fellow citizens
who have even a tiny inkling that what is our actual shared experience
has very little to do with the Mythocracy that we live in.
I also
wrote Myth America for people who knew that the wars of aggression were
wrong when Bush was president, but magically transformed into born-again
warniks when Obama took the oath of office-these newby warniks had
begun to see through the propaganda over the last eight years, but
allowed one of the more insidious myths to take over-the myth that there
is a difference between an elected Democrat and an elected Republican.
These are the same people who came to my talks after The Obama came to
power to proclaim that the U.S. needs to stay in Afghanistan to "protect
the women."
During my campaign against House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi,
in 2008, it became so clear to me that the only relevant division in
this nation, indeed world, is a class division. I know I have been late
to this game and analysis, but remember less than six years ago my
entire world was my family and this suburban intellectually challenged
sinkhole.
During my campaign, I experienced the myths that
"Elections Matter" and that the U.S. has a "Free Press" as I struggled
in a fierce campaign to even achieve ballot status as an independent and
garner a few crumbs of media attention. Even the so-called "Liberal
media" abandoned me and when I did get media attention-even from the
papers that endorsed me-the punch line always was, "but she has no
chance."
I struggled with the working class to get labor to endorse
me, but in each and every case, members of my own class endorsed the
Queen of the Robber Class, Nancy Pelosi. Nancy has done nothing for
labor, except to operate her vineyards in wine country without unions,
support most "free" trade agreements and hire someone to iron her
fabulously wealthy husbands' shirts. So why did labor endorse Pelosi and
not a hard working member of their own class with a labor platform that
was hailed from all over this planet? Because she's a Democrat, that's
why. Labor cares more about access to politicians than access to sane
policies.
It was towards the end of my campaign when the infamous
"bankster bailout" happened. After the bill failed in the House, Pelosi
came out all haggard to whine about having to bailout the companies, but
pushed the stuffing out of her caucus to ram it through the second
time.
Democratic candidate and Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama,
called members of the House to browbeat them to change their votes and
my neighboring Congresswoman, Barbara Lee of Oakland, did a rare
about-face and betrayed her principles and her poor constituents-that's
when I finally woke up to what Robber Warren Buffet said: "It's class
warfare all right, and its my class, the rich class that's making war,
and we are winning." Well, in our Mythocracy, Buffet's class is really
the only class that knows we are at war. Most of the rest of us believe
that we live in a "Democracy" where even the lowest of us can attain
Robber Class status.
Well, in this Mythocracy, if there's a Robber
Class, then what's the other class? The one that over 99 percent of us
belong to? The Robbed Class-the class that must remain "Hope"notized by
those myths and divided amongst ourselves so we don't even realize that
just about everything we hold dear is being stolen from us, right out
from under our own noses with our apathetic acquiescence. It's the
age-old Robber Class strategy of "divide and conquer."
What is the
revolution that I write of?
First it's the very revolutionary idea of
recognizing that we do live in a Mythocracy and the lower one is on the
socio-economic ladder, the farther apart the reality and myth of this
country are.
Secondly, the myths must be exposed and dispelled-my new
PDF book is an addition to this conversation.
Thirdly, we must work
together across racial, political, religious, gender, and sexual
preference lines to build community and strength in our class to resist
the larcenies of the Robber Class.
Finally, I foresee this top heavy
Empire of cards toppling in the foreseeable future. My revolution will
create the necessary umbrella to be able to deflect some of the more
damaging rubble that will come crashing down.
The Robber Class knows
two things that we need to learn quickly...
That they need us far
more than we need them and there are far more of us then there are of
them.
This is a revolution that we can win.
Cindy Sheehan is the
mother of Casey Sheehan who was killed in Iraq on 04 April 2004. She is
the host of Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox Radio Show and the author of five
books, the latest is Myth America: 20 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class
and the Case for Revolution. (In PDF format). Cindy's favorite role is
being Gigi to her two grandchildren: Jonah and Jovie.
More info and
ordering info for Myth America can be found at Cindy's blog:
http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/2010/01/order-info-for-myth-america-ii.html
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