March 7, 2011
Amidst all the stirring political upheavals in North Africa and the Middle East, the name "Marshall Plan" keeps being repeated by political figures and media around the world as the key to rebuilding the economies of those societies to complement the political advances, which hopefully will be somewhat progressive.
3 comments:
SHAM
It is not a given that there is
a "democratic" society in the US, but we have something we call by that name.
The efforts of the media together
with other forces Noam Chomsky
calls THOUGHT CONTROL. Chomsky has
written on this area extensively
in many of his works.
In DETERRING DEMOCRACY Chomsky
writes on page 6 as follows:
"The concept of thought control in
democratic societies ---or for that
matter, the structuring of options
in a democratic society by
hierarchic and coercive private
institutions --- seems contra-
dictory on its face.
A society is democratic to the extent that its citizens play a meaningful role in managing public affairs. If their thought is controlled, or their options are narrowly restricted, then evidently they are not playing a meaningful role: only the controllers, and those they serve, are doing so...
The rest is sham, formal motions
without meaning..."
The US claims it is democratic
and promotes "democracy" abroad only when our side wins.
The uncovering of other outcomes
does not fit the myths we wish to create. Julian Assange is only
one example. Already known are
many other examples both from
recent and past history and from
world history.
The uncovering of the development and uses of torture, of covert actions, of our conduct in wars, of our conduct in (so-called) "diplomacy" is always unpleasant.
One may go on a date but reading
the details in a newspaper the
next day is never enjoyable.
All uncoverings are not worth your
time ---or mine.
We all know inside that we have
ourselves participated in a cover-
up...or more.
But here's to the Julian Assanges of this world and to others who
have dared to enable us to see if we only have the nerve to look.
email:peterloeb@yahoo.com
KOLKOS : RADICALIZED HISTORY
It is lamentable that the major
works of Joyce and Gabriel
Kolko are no longer center stage.
Their contributions to debunking
the historical myths which we have
crafted for ourselves is absolutely
crucial.
In the first pages of THE LIMITS
OF POWER by Joyce and Gabriel
Kolko, they write:
"The so-called Cold War, in brief,
was far less the confrontation of
the United States with Russia than
America's expansion into the
entire world --- a world the Soviet
Union neither controlled nor created." (op cit,p.3)
"NSC 68" [= "National Security
Council"] had not been declassified
at the time of their writing. NSC 68 was signed by President Truman
in April, 1950 but became available
to the public in 1975. Other
secondary sources provide excellent
descriptions of its contents.
I cannot urge you too strongly to
read the Kolkos' works with your
closest attention. The earlier
works are out-of-print but your
search through slightly yellowed
underlined versions you find at
your library will be more than worth your while.
Should the Kolkos works fall from
our public discourse, we should
be the losers.
email: peterloeb@yahoo.com
"The period {1948-1952} was in fact marked by deflationary policies, unemployment and recession."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2011/030711a.html
Although GDP fell by 0.706% between 1948 and 1949, by 1953 it was 33.15% higher than 1948.
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