Some InfoWeapons for the New Year
Hi, all:
We're going to a Bosnian restaurant (owned by, some dishes are Bosnian -- mostly Mediterranean) in Boston with some friends tonight; should be a blast!
I hope everyone had a good 2006 and will have a happy 2007!
These sources help set the stage for where we are now: still in full reaction against the expansion of rights and freedom that took place in the 50's-70's. Knowledge is power -- at least I'd like to think so. Anyway, some of you may be familiar with these; some not; some by name only; some may have read/seen all of it or some of it; whatever. It's being posted as an FYI by a non-expert; that's all!
Or: "Why Ford Is Being Hailed By Cheney For Pardoning Nixon."
So, for your reading pleasure, and to show how much info is out there:
This is a mass of stuff; inexhaustible, really. I haven't read/seen all of it, by a long shot. But I've been reading/viewing/writing about this stuff for years. A quick dip in will give you an idea. :) Clearly a "biased sample," but not what you tend to get in mainstream media. The first three qualify for that shaky category, "primary sources."
Feel free to reciprocate with your own list, of course, linked or not.
And, yes, part of the problem is having the time = money to make a study of such things. It's required for citizenship, but nearly impossible for anyone not lucky, fairly well off, free from consumerist "needs," with the educational and intellectual curiosity, etc. It's a sacrifice, no question. I obviously don't have an answer to the problem because there isn't one beyond individual decisions on how to allocate time in our limited stay on this planet.
I'd rather be playing drums or reading novels or hanging out with my wife and friends, etc. -- when not working, obviously. We're talking about free time, here.
This problem is discussed by Chomsky and many others continually, and is well-known and well-controlled by those want to remain unknown while controlling "the masses."
Anyway, Happy New Year!
Dug
PS: Feel free to forward.
We're going to a Bosnian restaurant (owned by, some dishes are Bosnian -- mostly Mediterranean) in Boston with some friends tonight; should be a blast!
I hope everyone had a good 2006 and will have a happy 2007!
These sources help set the stage for where we are now: still in full reaction against the expansion of rights and freedom that took place in the 50's-70's. Knowledge is power -- at least I'd like to think so. Anyway, some of you may be familiar with these; some not; some by name only; some may have read/seen all of it or some of it; whatever. It's being posted as an FYI by a non-expert; that's all!
Or: "Why Ford Is Being Hailed By Cheney For Pardoning Nixon."
So, for your reading pleasure, and to show how much info is out there:
- Pentagon Papers.
- Church Committee on COINTELPRO (I have a 14-meg PDF of this if you want).
- Trilateral Commission report, The Crisis of Democracy, 1975. Dig Huntington's piece, and dig who was on the commission.
- Two views of Watergate, from '73/'74: Chomsky, and A. Cockburn of Counterpunch and The Nation (in first comment).
- Manufacturing Consent, Chomsky/Herman, or, why few of us ever heard of or read about 1-4 and much else, or, how propaganda works in a relatively open society. I'd get the full book out of the library; amazing. The strength is in the case studies.
- You might like the Chomsky blog on Znet. There is a "sustainers" pay site (dirt cheap) in which he actually answers questions. Zinn, Ehrenreich, Michael Albert, and others have their own sites; all of it is being redone. But the public "blog" is good.
- Less time-consuming, in a sense: Vidal on YouTube and Google Video; reverse chronological order of posting. Ditto Chomsky: YT and G (soon to be "Goo-Tube," and the "cleanup" has already begun).
This is a mass of stuff; inexhaustible, really. I haven't read/seen all of it, by a long shot. But I've been reading/viewing/writing about this stuff for years. A quick dip in will give you an idea. :) Clearly a "biased sample," but not what you tend to get in mainstream media. The first three qualify for that shaky category, "primary sources."
Feel free to reciprocate with your own list, of course, linked or not.
And, yes, part of the problem is having the time = money to make a study of such things. It's required for citizenship, but nearly impossible for anyone not lucky, fairly well off, free from consumerist "needs," with the educational and intellectual curiosity, etc. It's a sacrifice, no question. I obviously don't have an answer to the problem because there isn't one beyond individual decisions on how to allocate time in our limited stay on this planet.
I'd rather be playing drums or reading novels or hanging out with my wife and friends, etc. -- when not working, obviously. We're talking about free time, here.
This problem is discussed by Chomsky and many others continually, and is well-known and well-controlled by those want to remain unknown while controlling "the masses."
Anyway, Happy New Year!
Dug
PS: Feel free to forward.