Jan 27, 2008

A Haunted House of Mirrors.

This is interesting. On a recent news piece on Barack Obama winning in South Carolina and Hillary Clinton winning in Nevada, I read this comment on Al Jazeera English regarding the US elections slash democracy slash victory-effects-on-the-globe.

To the non US residents reading this. Please understand the antiwar movement and other efforts at change here are being squelched and subverted. There are some of us trying to change this insanity but what can you do when you're trying to peacefully spread a message from a 'free speech zone'. The dissidents of this country have no forum for discussion really except for the internet. The press and news don't cover anything important and their the ones with all the power to disperse crucial information. I look around and see my country turning into Nazi Germany all around me and so few care. One is considered unpatriotic or a 'terrorist' just for expressing critical opinion. The self censorship here is depressing. The economy is dying and no one wants to loose their job because of personal views. The democracy here is long dead. We're trying but need international help.

This sounds .. so hauntingly familiar.

Could it be?

That behind the 'smokes and the mirrors' lie people are just as frustrated with democracy and Western imperialism in the United States as ... we are?

For those who visit this page, read the entire debate that is going on between the critical, the patriotic and the mixtures of the two. You'll find some questions that you've often considered yourself. But if you'd said them out loud - you'd be considered a true believer of the "pro-fundamentalist, anti-American" dogma.

On the other hand. It seems faintly reassuring and starkly deja-vu-ish when Wayne, Ron and Brian say it here...

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