Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
What we're up against (lessons from Guatemala)
Great article, MZ. I wonder if some lessons could have any relevancy for Venezuela, or Nicaragua for that matter.
But then, we must make a distinction between the lessons you speak of, which we ought to have learned, and the “lessons” the victims in the events you speak of were supposed to have learned, but which, much to their credit, they have rejected.
I trust the worthy citizens of the Expendable Nation are well and in good spirits.
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei, Taiwan 12/06 at 07:28 AMmorning all
nice article.
on the subject of being taught a lesson, i found this an absolute joy to watch...particularly as the guy exits the stage with his career fallin down around his ears…
http://tinyurl.com/yybmqrPosted by michael on from exile 12/06 at 08:26 AMGood morning michael, Jeremy, and all...I am in a rush and trying to catch up from last night’s comments but this one from Mickey needs repeating. I would only add that it is humans who must be held accountable. All too often, we the people blame the government and forget that we ARE the government.
“...Peace and war are not forces of nature. They are the outcome of human decisions...”
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 12/06 at 08:49 AMGood morning Expendables, I too am trying to catch up on my lurking.
WE are indeed the government and we must somehow ensure that our collective will is being excercised; since we’re labelled as CONSUMERS rather than CITIZENS so often today - perhaps CONSUMING responsibly is the way to good government? Hardly ideal, but if corporations control the govt. policies in many respects, we might be more effective than we can be by voting. Otherwise why on earth would it be ‘illegal’ for US companies to support any boycott of Israeli products - just for example.
And Thoreau’s got it right - live one’s conscience, I say.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 12/06 at 09:25 AMThis is what that 52 year overthrow indirectly led to…
Posted by sk on from 12/06 at 09:52 AMHello my fellow Expendables....from a chilly NYC.
Jeremy: Welcome back. The distinction you make (re” lessons) is germane. Thanks for adding that coda.
Michael: I’ll really date myself here but I saw the Amazing Randi live when he served as warm-up act to Frank Zappa in 1975...on Halloween night.
RMJ: As Chomsky sez: “We are responsible for the predictable consequences of our actions.”
Empress: Maybe they should sell “responsibility” at the supermarket, huh? Talk about a clean-up in Aisle 5…
SK: That is an amazing link. Thanks.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/06 at 10:04 AMmickey - that was the amazing randi having his career ruined by an old dude that i have more time for every time i see him. he has a made a career out of disproving what types like “randi” get up to
Posted by michael on from exile 12/06 at 10:08 AMGood AM, Expendables. It’s a cold and clear morning in MA.
Regarding human agency and atrocities, there’s a fly in the ointment: corporations. What other species has created an invisible pal to justify or carry out all manner of destruction? Amelopsis’ comment touches on this, but by this point in human history, corporations outstrip governments in power and control. In the documentary “The Corporation,” the most telling moment was when a former insider descibed a high-level corporate meeting: it contained national security, military, banking, political, and business elites.(And Harvey, Inc., the invisible rabbit in a pinstripe suit.)
My only point is that it’s hard to fight a ghost. Part of me believes this imaginary legal person which has been the basis of so much damage (from United Fruit to seafood companies emptying the seas) is not only a political travesty but likely part of our evolutionary dead end.
William Blum’s “Killing Hope” belongs on everyone’s bookshelf.
Posted by Zenprole on from Urth 12/06 at 10:46 AM“Killing Hope” changed my life.
Really, quite literally. It opened my eyes to a world I’d never known before.
Posted by Jeremy on from Taipei, Taiwan 12/06 at 12:20 PMAgreed.
I often get e-mails from folks looking to get started in learning the “other side” of what they’ve been taught. I tell them to start with two books:
A People’s History of the United States
Killing Hope(Once they’ve read those two, I’d follow-up with Derrick Jensen’s Endgame)
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/06 at 12:26 PMOn life-changing books I’d like to add Thoreau’s On the Duty of Civil Disobedience and (yeah I’ve mentioned it here before) Camus’ The Rebel.
I think if we’re looking for lessons learned from the tragedy of Guatemala we should keep our eyes glued to Bolivia. I’m no expert on these things, but the US (and its proxies) don’t need much more of a pretext now that unused land has been taken from big landholders to give to poor indigenous. What an outrage!
Posted by Keir on from The Gray Hague 12/06 at 12:42 PMHumans are scum:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6169742.stm?lsPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/06 at 05:26 PMLuscious December expendable units.
Recommending books to the masses for dissemination of the true nature of the world is a righteous endeavour.
All the Expendable kids here seem to be booky monsters who have taken the often disconcerting and saddening journey of literary enhancement offered by history’s more ardent citizens and wise commentators.
What about recommending something of a shall we say more remedial nature?
“A socio-political awakening guide for dummies“.Something to be slipped into the I. V. bags of pop-culture effluent that hang over the lives of so many otherwise promising people.
I supposed the term “dumbed down” might apply to what I am enquiring after but not always as the discounting of simplification is often the ruin of us all.Recommendations for such a book or books?
Oh and as to Michael’s interesting “psychic debunker” videos I am reminded that Uri Gellar just claimed somewhere in the media that he could bring the rotting husk of war criminal Ariel Sharon out of his fat and evil induced coma.What an asshole.
Posted by Youngfox on from nugget 12/06 at 05:27 PMI’m not sure, Youngfox. Maybe a novel?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 12/06 at 09:07 PM
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