Old Guy with a Story to Tell. (And suggestion, at the end.) [View all]

[mojowork_n]

THE RACKET OF WAR

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/10/18/the-racket-of-war/

My name is Sanford Kelson. I was born in 1944, graduated high school in 1962 and am now 68 years old. I am a lawyer and I also teach in a special program for gifted and talented public school students.

When I was growing up my education caused me to believe certain things. Education is not just what you learn in school. It’s what you learn at home, from TV, newspapers, the movies, from music, art, etc. I got a consistent message from all these sources. I learned that we Americans were special. We were better than others. Our form of government was the best; our economic system was the best; our leaders were more intelligent and just; we were more honest, smarter, more trustworthy and brave. God was on our side. And I learned that there were bad people in the world. Communist were bad back then. We wore the white hats and people in bad countries wore black hats. And there were weak countries that, like us, wanted peace and freedom. We had to protect them from the bad guys. A nice and simple picture to understand the world was painted for us. Good versus evil.

So, in 1963, young and patriotic, I enlisted in the US Army for a three year tour of duty – a chance to kill commies for God and country.......

Edit to add links:

For further reading. Only mentioned parenthetically, but worth a longer look if you've got any interest in the history of ideas:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Information

And from the bottom of that article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays