Adbusters + People's History of America = Bummer

[maxsolomon]

I know i should have read this book before i turned 40, but whatryugonadu.

I'm halfway through Zinn's People's History - up to the part where they kill all the Wobblies & Socialists, and its really making me pessimistic.

The run ups to the Mexican & Spanish Wars, and their motivations, are strikingly similar to our current folly in Iraq. Vietnam taught us nothing. The class struggle, and the divisive tactics used by Capital, are still depressingly familiar.

Add on top of that the monthly Adubster's message: that America & Americans are blithely destroying the planet with their gluttony, and I'm realy really BUMMED OUT.

Someone give me something to cling to! Tell me its not going to continue like this for the rest of my life.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Reality is a bitch, huh?

Too late to take the blue pill.....!

[maxsolomon]

2. i took the red pill back in 72

when i was 8. ma n pa took me to vietnam war protests, and i thought -'well, this will be the end of this war stuff'.

then they voted for reagan. twice. and bush. twice.

dumb little kid.

[Qutzupalotl]

3. It will start to look a lot better

November 3.

[maxsolomon]

4. I don't think Zinn or Adbusters would agree

A democratic presidency is not a cure all.

I will feel better for a while, but unless the BFEE is utterly repudiated & humiliated, they won't go away. Jeb will run in 2008, Noelle or Jenna in 2016, etc.

And we're still going to be hooked on the Sauds no matter what Kerry does/tries. His energy initiative better recognize that we're in DEEP SHIT.

[Lefty_the_Right]

5. Keep reading the book

He admits that it seems bleak, but that you have to keep it in persepective.

200 years ago, it seemed impossible that we would be where we are today.

That the history of the United States is one of progress.
It is like a flashlight, that starts at a single point when only land holding white men could vote.

There were some that wanted to go further at the time, but they never would have gotten enough signatures to pass the first Congress.

But even though the conservatives try and drag us backwards, we keep making strides towards true personal freedom and equality.


For example.
The protests PRIOR to this debacle in Iraq are completely and totally unprecedented in human history.

We may not have been able to prevent THIS war, but I think we have improved our chances for the next one.

[maxsolomon]

6. i hope you're right

reading chomsky is a similar feeling - overwhelmingly bad, then at the end, he says 'keep fighting!' the bandage isn't big enough to cover the wound.

those pre-war protests happened everywhere else but the country that invaded - we (well, THEY) were too busy waving the flag & shouting down the pacifists. i think we'll eventually STOP this war, but preventing the next? that's optimism i don't see reason for. beating down the psuedo-con right & prying the evangelicals out of their propaganda grip is going to take 20 more years.