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Played For Fools
excerpts from a column by Charles Sullivan. August 29, 2005
My entire family is being played for fools by the power brokers in Washington; and they don't even have a clue about how they are being manipulated. I am embarrassed for them.
Their government is murdering millions of innocent people all around the planet, torturing people and toppling both democratic and progressive governments; it is committing acts of terror against the world's working poor; it is plundering their homelands and stealing their wealth.
How can any person of conscience remain indifferent toward these acts? How can we wave our flags and support our troops when this is what they are doing?
While this is going on they are concerned only about shopping, mindless consumption, and watching American Idol. As citizens, they have been rendered totally useless. Fascism flourishes where citizens are inactive and uninformed. Where there is apathy there is fascism.
When will the people learn that the interests of big business and multinational corporations -- the interests of the ruling class -- are not our interests?
When an American president talks about protecting American interests, he means interests of the ruling class: the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Murdochs, the Cheneys and the Bushes. He means the interest of General Electric, Halliburton, Bechtel, Boeing, Wal-mart, Northrup-Grumman; Raytheon, Exxon-Mobil; Shell Oil and Texaco.
These are not my interests. Nor are they the interests of ninety-nine percent of the populace.
And they certainly are not noble causes to fight and die for.
You have been reading excerpts from "Nation of Fools" by Charles Sullivan. You can read the entire piece here: tinyurl.com/abak7. Thanks to counterpunch.org.
excerpts from a column by Charles Sullivan. August 29, 2005
My entire family is being played for fools by the power brokers in Washington; and they don't even have a clue about how they are being manipulated. I am embarrassed for them.
Their government is murdering millions of innocent people all around the planet, torturing people and toppling both democratic and progressive governments; it is committing acts of terror against the world's working poor; it is plundering their homelands and stealing their wealth.
How can any person of conscience remain indifferent toward these acts? How can we wave our flags and support our troops when this is what they are doing?
While this is going on they are concerned only about shopping, mindless consumption, and watching American Idol. As citizens, they have been rendered totally useless. Fascism flourishes where citizens are inactive and uninformed. Where there is apathy there is fascism.
When will the people learn that the interests of big business and multinational corporations -- the interests of the ruling class -- are not our interests?
When an American president talks about protecting American interests, he means interests of the ruling class: the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Murdochs, the Cheneys and the Bushes. He means the interest of General Electric, Halliburton, Bechtel, Boeing, Wal-mart, Northrup-Grumman; Raytheon, Exxon-Mobil; Shell Oil and Texaco.
These are not my interests. Nor are they the interests of ninety-nine percent of the populace.
And they certainly are not noble causes to fight and die for.
You have been reading excerpts from "Nation of Fools" by Charles Sullivan. You can read the entire piece here: tinyurl.com/abak7. Thanks to counterpunch.org.
