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Politics : Moderate Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yogizuna who wrote (2425)	6/23/2003 2:41:38 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20773

I think expecting people NOT to use tragedies for their own ends is expecting the impossible. We all use incidents around us as proof of our world view- it's just we use them in different ways, to prove different things- and most people fail to realize the highly subjective nature of THIER usage, while at the same time condemning the other guy, whoever he or she is, for the horribly unfairness of his or her usage. In WWII Roosevelt used Pearl Harbor exactly the way Bush used 9/11. The question, of course, is whether the long term usage of the event will be in our interest- does the end justify the manipulation? And of course in my opinion (and probably your opinion) it does NOT. But manipulation by all parties involved in our system will continue- and they will prop up the bodies of our honored dead, if necessary, in order to get us to do "their" bidding- whoever they are. Democrats are as guilty of this as republicans. It sucks- but it's been going on since politics began. I remember reading some Greek propaganda that was every bit as manipulative as the stuff today. PT Barnum knew it, and we know it, most people go to the egress if you hype it enough. I think all manipulation, whether by people I agree with, or by people I do not agree with, is dangerous, because it subverts free choice. When you've been lied to, democracy means nothing- since a citizenry cannot make informed democratic choices without legitimate information. That said, manipulation has always and will always be with us, IMO.