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Friday, December 23, 2011

Male Answer Syndrome

Related image
"Male Answer Syndrome" 
by Jane Campell 
(the landmark Utne Reader article)
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~an4m/fun/men-tiles 
(Sadly, this reprint is poorly formatted.)

 "Male Answer Syndrome"
Jane Campbell
(Nicely formatted)
http://erichatheway.com/2016/07/01/male-answer-syndrome-2/

Alan: I am revisiting this 2011 post shortly after the release of Ken Burns' 18-hour-long documentary film, "The Vietnam War."

In literature, that calamitous "conflict" (never a "declared war") was captured by David Halberstam's prize-winning book "The Best And The Brightest." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_and_the_Brightest (In 2011, Time named "The Best And The Brightest" one of the 100 best English non-fiction books written since 1923.)

The essential revelation of Halberstam's study was that America's "best minds" (as least insofar as "the best and the brightest" were evaluated and promoted by The System) were inadequate to the task of preventing Uncle Sam from "blundering into" -- and then "persevering in" -- an epically idiocratic war, an exercise in belligerent fatuity which historians may look back on as The Linchpin of America's undoing. 

As one former soldier observes in Burn's documentary: "We were the last generation to believe our government would not lie to us." 

This blanket statement requires clarification. 

The American soldiers who actualy went to Vietnam did comprise the last generation of Americans to "buy" "the official story" (although Trumpistas suggest a resurrection in the making).

But American soldiers' contemporaries in the anti-War movement -- liberals, progressives and radicals who watched General Westmoreland lie shamelessly on nightly television -- were not deceived.  

Today, the devolution of Westmoreland's lineage is accurately depicted in the following GIF:

trump turd animated GIF

Compendium Of Pax Posts Concerning Trump's Habitual Lying

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Donald Trump Reverses His Position Within The Same Speech! 
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Best Trump Memes From "Pax On Both Houses"

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"Has America Lost Its Mind?" 1A's Brilliant Interview With "Fantasyland's" Kurt Andersen

Televangelist Jim Bakker Resurrected: If This Doesn't Scare The Bejesus Out Of You, Repent For Your End Is Near!


During the Vietnam "War," left-wing activists knew that the American government seldom told the truth (and if such activists had been validated by The System, they could have prevented the Vietnam "Conflict" and The Iraq War which, taken together, have brought America - and the world - to their knees.

I draw your attention to a recently-released recording of a conversation between Lyndon Johnson and a top-level advisor which reveals their agreement that a "victory" in Vietnam was no longer possible. 

Here is LBJ's last word on the matter: "Anything would be better than losing." 

It remains to be seen whether "the halls of power" will (can?) transcend obsessive monomania and the determination to hold power once seized.

Republican presidential candidate, Pat Buchanan, the living American who has served longest as a White House senior staff adviser, observed: “The Republican philosophy might be summarized thus: To hell with principle; what matters is power, and that we have it, and that they do not.” “Where the Right Went Wrong" http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2017/01/republican-presidential-candidate-pat.html

We will soon see whether the unprecedentedly widespread fusion of cynicism and insight-into-the-nature-of-power proves a viable foundation for the perpetuation of "The American Experiment."

The Question is this...

How can society function in a durable way when The System depends on The Twin Towers of "withholding truth" and "telling lies" whenever falsehood is convenient or pragmatically beneficial to those in power.

One plausible approach to tearing down The Twin Towers would be to make Burns' Vietnam documentary the cornerstone of a "civics course curriculum" that would be pre-requisite for high school graduation - from sea to shining sea.

But even if every "pro-war" think tank in America were to collaborate in creating their own 18 hour Vietnam documentary, and this second documentary were incorporated into the pre-requisite Civics Course mentioned above, "good Americans" -- ever eager to be lied to -- would likely scuttle any course that might acculturate informed citizens. 
Image result for pax on both houses, people want to be lied to
Why?

"Good Americans" will nix such courses because "the uneducated" understand (at least inchoately) that an enlightening curriculum would, in fact, be educational.

No matter how strident their seeming support for "good schools," a good education is NOT on their agenda.

Is Ortega y Gasset The Most Important Modern Philosopher? 
(Most Discerning Prophet?)

Jose Ortega Y Gasset's "Rebellion Of The Masses" And The Ascendancy Of Donald Trump



"About half the time, people talk most about what they lack most." 

And so, as night follows day, "the self-terrorized" want their children to be indoctrinated just as they were indoctrinated - to be flag-waving patriots, "my country right or wrong."

Above all, "the evil in the world" must be located "over there, far away." (Briefly, it seemed that Vietnam was the perfect place.)

Best Pax Posts On Psychological Projection And "The Shadow"

Only by identifying the essence of evil in "the other" can "real Americans" and "good Christians" be confident they are "exceptional people" whose salvation -- be it "sacred" or "secular" -- is absolutely assured.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... all good children go to heaven."

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