you're certainly welcome. I love propaganda. We do roll around in it like gophers in soft dirt don't we?
In the AP Euro course I teach we read extensively from the great writers and thinkers of the Western world. I wish my students and I had kept track of how many times in that broad but certainly incomplete survey of western thought, the notion that man is a sheep formed the basis of the writings. My favourites were from Hitler: "What luck for rulers that men do not think" and "The great masses of the people will fall more easily victim to the great lie rather than the small one" and Lenin's "A lie told often enough will become the truth". Of course there's always his "religion is the opiate of the masses".
And those are just from the obvious dictators. It was eye-opening to hear it from people like Locke and other great thinkers upon which we founded our system.
I'm also constantly amazed that in the nation that was constitutionally constructed, specifically (and anyone who is caught by surpise by the following, I recommend the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers) on the notion that government is not to be trusted; not ours. Not anyone's. Not anywhere or anywhen. Not any type. After all, Britain was the most democratic nation the world had ever seen with a lonnnng history of limiting the abuse of power and STILL look where it got them. Colonies in revolt. The entire Constitution is built the way it is precisely because those who built our nation understood human nature and the addictive aphrodisiac of power. Add to it the right of freedom of speech and press and there is a conclusive reality that our job is to maintain a healthy skepticism and disregard for the "virtue" of those we elect.
I'm constantly stunned by the number of people who apparently have NO idea where we actually came from, what the issues were and how they were resolved by the brilliance of our founders. But then, we're back to the sheep thing and this post gets circular and redundant. So...fare thee well. Ride safe
Tad
Patriotism: Supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it. M. Twain
