TRUTHS THAT – IN AMERICA – MUST NEVER BE SPOKEN
In what has become a daily thing, I find myself being reminded of the numerous topics that must never be spoken of or, if mentioned at all, must be deftly danced around.
Particularly taboo are those about what America has really become – as opposed to the illusions to which we cling. Desperately.
And this awareness too often manifests itself in my yelling at the TV, or even at my copy of the New York Times, rudely asking why this or that columnist or talking-head doesn’t take the argument to that next, so-obvious (to me anyway) level.
I know the answer, or the theory at least: In a complex society such as ours, certain truths must never be faced nor articulated because [presumably] to do so would open up areas and realities that might make too many people uncomfortable-if-not-downright angry/rebellious. Or – simply boggled.
As in – deeply depressed.
And occasionally, when these in-my-face realities pop into my head, and I speak of them in situations more public than one-on-ones, they can be depended upon to create awkward-if-not-downright-hostile moments. These perhaps exacerbated by my notably limited capacity for suffering fools.
All of which was driven home to me when I recently sat on an authors’ panel facing an audience of about 70 adults, in which the discussion somehow (I’ve forgotten the lead-up) provoked a not-out-of-context attempt by me to present an example of my belief that America is the World Capital of Denial. I did so by mentioning the wall in Washington, DC bearing the names of the 58,000 Vietnam War dead.
I cited our inability/refusal to face the fact that not one of them died for anything worthwhile – unless one counts the perpetuation of the Military/Industrial Complex, or similarly justifies their deaths as having protected Indonesia’s oil reserves from the “godless Communists.” Nor, I added, do schools teach our children that in the same bargain, America, self-righteously and to no real point, such as “defense” of our country, murdered – wantonly murdered – 3.5 million Southeast Asians.
One of my fellow panelists took immediate, irate exception to my remarks, insisting that I had forgotten the “Red Scare” and its attendant “Domino Theory.” Since I never believed in either, knowing at the time, like a lot of people, that they were no more than contrived fear-mongering, there seemed no reason to carry the discussion any further.
The point here is that even my small statement of truth pushed buttons that are in our culture, way off-limits.
Think similarly about our troops fighting pointless wars in Afghanistan. And Iraq. And – Korea. Simply put – they died or were maimed for nothing.
Obviously, at the risk of professional and/or political suicide, if not the invitation of a bullet from some 2nd Amendment nutcase, such truths must never be uttered in public – a public that requires such mass-delusions.
And sadly, in truth, pragmatically so. What if your child or loved one had given his/her life for no better reason? There is a need to believe in such bullshit, else – what?
That you – and others – might rise up in anger and demand an end to such things.
And ergo, our populace therefore has zero chance of changing the fatal, hideous direction our nation has taken since WWII.
Such unfaceable realities are among the many that must never be spelled out in our mass media. And those are the obvious ones. Other untouchable topics go to far deeper levels of unmentionable reality.
A current example: the passionate disagreements about the influx of illegals from Central and South America. Arguments about hows, whys and possible cures are varied and frequently passionate, but none will ever go near the true root-causes. Because to do so would raise issues that, per accepted wisdom, our species is unable/unwilling to handle – issues almost cosmic in scope.
Try this for instance: large segments of the populaces of Mexico, and on through Central America, plus much of South America, are doomed to permanent unacceptable levels of poverty and resultant high crime rates. How? By a religion imposed upon them centuries ago by their Spanish conquerors, that forbids them to practice birth-control via realistic means, thus sentencing them instead to generation-after-generation of more children than they want nor can afford to adequately support
Again, not an acceptable topic for discussion.
Other examples, deep or not-so-deep, rarely if ever touched upon publicly by even our most daring minds:
- The admission that war is arguably man’s favorite pastime.
- That all of our politicians, from the President on down – the people who make our laws – are bribed before they ever take office. Because until we change our election-finance methods, the cost of getting elected in the Media Age necessitates their accepting money from/ being bought-and-paid-for by interests who then – quite understandably – expect/demand repayment in the form of legislation that favors them.
- The fact that while idealists (AKA Liberals) are unable to lie about their ideals, for ideologues (read: conservatives) lying is the way of life.
- That conservatism, as practiced in this country is based upon a two factors: a religious faith in the myth of the ‘free market,” and bigotry, the former while simultaneously ignoring/denying man’s genetic penchant for greed-and-thievery, which must be regulated and policed. And because conservatism has no intellectual basis whatever, its leaders, driven solely by greed and/or the acquisition of power, shamelessly and effectively pander/lie to/push the buttons of their major constituency, the Moron Majority.
- That the current wave of muslim terrorism can and should be blamed in large part upon ourselves, caused by our thirst for oil, and our accompanying willingness to support one despot after another in that part of the world, in order to keep it flowing – while ignoring their unjust and often brutal treatment of their own people who, primitive though they may be, have come to understand who their true tormentors are.
- That America’s gun-culture, and its attendant self-serving misreading of our Constitution, is solely about macho love-of-violence, killing and blowing up things-and-people.
- The human species’ need to believe in magic – AKA gods and religion – to afford it the scant comforts they provide while at the same time so readily justifying hatred for, and the murder of those who embrace a different form of the same nonsense.
- And our refusal to face the truth that our economy’s spine and chief support is the M/I Complex which, whenever things get slow, contrives an excuse for another otherwise unnecessary war.
There are unquestionably more examples, but these should be enough to at least cause us to think – about what might be possible if we were to face such truths, to allow them to be spoken – and perhaps reconsidered…
Thomas B. Sawyer
November, 2010
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