Many if not most fundamentalist Christians have believed for some time now that Bush is on a mission from God. Typically, Bush encourages this belief. There is evidence that like all cults, the GOP, communicates to its base in code words designed to assuage the base and dupe the rest of us. The attack on Social Security was of this form. So, too, the war of aggression in Iraq.There is only one reason a political party would want to communicate with its membership using "code words": it wants to hide its real agenda. It wants to keep non-members in the dark. That the GOP has eschewed good English for propaganda and "code words" is a dead give away: the GOP is not a political party. It's a kooky cult.
A very recent use of "code words" to communicate covertly with a cultist base, was found in a statement by Condi Rice:
"What we're seeing here ... are the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do, we have to be certain that we are pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old one.""Birth pangs" is found prominently in scripture:
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs."It is fair to ask if Condi Rice, a "self-professed evangelical" is, in fact, communicating a message to Bush's whacked-out, Republican base, many of whom have tried to justify the US war against Iraq with scripture and vague, weird references to rapture. Was Condo re-assuring the dogs of war who still support Bush? It would be alarming to know just how many of these folk truly believe that Bush is on a "Mission from God" to bring about Armageddon and, hence, the rapture.(Matthew 24:3-8 RSV)
The GOP has been taken over by hard core extremists and religious ideologues. I became aware of this in the early eighties. A state rep race used the term dynamic conservative to describe its candidate. I was curious -never having associated the word "dynamic" with conservatives. In this case, the code word dynamic conservative had been the product of a Chicago based political consulting firm that had been associated, at some point, with Congressman Phil Crane who had been, until his defeat in the elections of 2004, the longest-serving Republican member of the US House of Representatives. Interestingly, Crane went to Congress in 1969, succeeding Donald Rumsfeld who had been appointed to a position in the Nixon administration.
I had thought the phrase -dynamic conservative -an oxymoron. Was the candidate dynamic? Or was he conservative? Contradictory? Well, focus groups don't have a problem with that. And neither, apparently, do cults. There is a difference between mere jargon and code words, used by the GOP to both reveal and conceal. A code word is a signal to initiates, but a mask to everyone else.
Code words are designed to keep the public in the dark while GOP cultists communicate in code with one another. When Bush tried to destroy Social Security, he wished to reassure his radical base of robber barons and fanatics while concealing that fact from normal, hard working folk who depend upon Social Security. How to do it? Bush uses code words, understood by the base for what they are, but taken at face value by the rest of us. In this case, Bush's solution was the code word: privatization!
Admittedly, more odious and overt bigots have gone underground. And that is Bush's problem: how to communicate with them without giving the game away, without revealing to the world what he really is. Both dynamic conservatism and compassionate conservatism deserve special mention. Neither label, of itself, is a sure indicator of cultism. Both, however, serve a single purpose. They are the face the candidate shows his base; they are the glitzy store front he shows the world.
It is significant that both labels came into being at about the same time -a post Watergate world when the GOP began to realize that if they simply told the truth, they would lose. Lying, therefore, became GOP strategy. It must be kept in mind that the GOP had been under siege during Nixon's Watergate scandal and again when Ford pardoned Nixon. The bunker mentality born of those times is most certainly a defining characteristic of cults. There are others.
A cult is unquestioning in its commitment to a leader just as the GOP rank and file were unquestioning in their support of George W. Bush. Indeed, there were numerous billboards, presumably paid for by local GOP groups, which proclaimed Bush "Our Leader" or "The Leader". In another language that is "Der Führer".As with any cult, the GOP leadership dictates how members think, act or speak. Until Iraq fell utterly apart, it was verboten to question, doubt, or disagree with "Der Führer". This was a time of "freedom fries", the Dixie Chicks boycott, and the orchestrated demonization of Michael Moore.At this time many fundamentalists considered Bush to be "the Messiah" who had come again on a special mission from God to save humanity, or perhaps, to start Armegeddon. Even if that were true, I prefer the Blues Brothers. The sound track is better.
Blues Brothers: Soul Man
Cab Calloway: Minnie the Moocher
There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself. And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton & Clinton are on the other side, and George Bush is on our side.Hitler used the same, simple-minded tactic. Aryan good; Jew bad!
-Pat Buchanan, 1992 Republican Convention
There is yet another sense in which the GOP uses the term culture war to assure the affluent base that "greed is good". In this sense of the term, culture war immunizes Gordon Gekko wannabes from evil liberals, indeed, anyone possessing a concscience.
Michael Dougles aka "Gordon Gecko": Greed is Good!
In the GOP, as in any cult, "der Führer" is thought to be above the law. Nixon said "...if the President does it, it is not illegal". Bush has claimed similar "executive privileges" that are equally cultist in tone and effect, equally absurd. Because Bush is thought to be above the law, exempt from the restrictions of the US Constitution, the GOP has internalized an "us-versus-them" mentality. In smaller cults, this often leads to conflicts with society as a whole. The situation is complicated, however, when the cult leader, der Führer, occupies the Oval Office.
A cult will teach or imply that its ends justify any means. Means, for Bush and the GOP that enables and assists him, means trashing treaties, breaking international law, committing war crimes, perpetrating torture, waging wars of naked aggression. Like other cult leaders, Bush has often claimed that his "higher mission" justifies the various tortures and atrocities that have their origins inside the Bush bunker...uh..White House. For example, Bush could only have been referring to tortures and/or summary executions in his 2003 State of the Union address:
All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way -- they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies. (Applause.)As far as anyone knows, none of those referred to by Bush received a trial. If so, it was a secret trial and therefore, a violation of international law and treaty. Or, Bush was simply lying through his teeth as he most certainly lied in his first debate with John Kerry. It was at the end of one of John Kerry's stronger moments when he explained that George W. Bush would prefer the people believe that it was Saddam Hussein who attacked the US. Bush snapped petulently: “Of course I know Osama bin Laden attacked us. I know that.” Then he stumbled:
-George W. Bush, State of the Union, 2003
“Of course we’re after Saddam Hussein -- I mean bin Laden. He’s isolated. Seventy-five percent of his people have been brought to justice.”Oh really? The fact is there is no credible data on al Qaeda at all. Then or now. The CIA had estimated at the time that al Qaeda consisted of about two dozen operatives. 75 percent of two-dozen doesn't sound very impressive. But it does raise new questions about the US capture, detention and torture of the 3,000 detainees referred to by Bush in his address. We have only Bush's word that any were connected in any way with al Qaeda.
Since Bush made his remarks, the tortures of Abu Ghraib have come to light. It is fair to ask if Bush had merely communicated to his understanding base, his cult of torture and atrocity. In any case, true to the cultist nature of this illegitimate regime, Bush would justify both lie and atrocity on these grounds: he was on a mission from God. Again, I prefer the Blues Brothers. They didn't murder or torture anyone.
If Bush is on a mission from God so, too, the GOP which makes it all possible with its money and support. Those cult members in danger of getting caught are often thought to be justified in lying in order to protect "der Führer". This occurred during the Watergate scandal to protect Richard Nixon and it has happened during Bush's illegitimate occupation of the Oval Office.
There are many other characteristics of cults. I am confident that all apply to the GOP, a society apart where members are encouraged to obey "der Führer" without question even as his policies have proven disastrous for the people of America, indeed, the world.
Imperialism
Bush
War Crimes
Iraq
Spread the word:
17 comments:
Christianity is not a religion, it's a virulent strain of the disease of conceit. They've had, what, two thousand years to straighten us all out and minister the Truth or whatever. 99% of it is delusional quackery. That's the facts. Anyone who follows any religion, open your eyes. There's only one person you can help and that's yourself.
And as an example of the code words that you refer to Len, one need look no further than Bush's 2nd inaugural address. It is chock full of biblical references intended to keep the faithful onside. Disturbingly, this religious viewpoint has been allowed to permeate the US military leadership. People who believe in the 'end times' should not have their fingers on any nuclear buttons.
Code words and dog whistles....
Actually the Republican Party developed their own lexicon under the tutaledge of the Master Linguist, Frank Luntz. He distributed a "how to" book to party members back in '94.
The first crack at destroying Social Security was put out under the code word, "reform". ('tain't nobody against reform.)...the abortion issue became "pro-life"....anti-gun control became "second amendment RIGHTS"....and it goes on and on and on.
And you're right ... repub candidates seeking to garner the support of religious fundamentalists still use "dog whistles" which only the true believers can hear....Condi's "birth pangs" was one of those "dog whistles".
Your commenters may think we're nuts to believe this but all they have to do is google Luntz and Lexicon and they'll find it's true...
good post.
appropriate...
President Jonah
By Gore Vidal, Truthdig
Posted on January 28, 2006, Printed on August 9, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/31321/
While contemplating the ill-starred presidency of G.W. Bush, I looked about for some sort of divine analogy. As usual, when in need of enlightenment, I fell upon the Holy Bible, authorized King James version of 1611; turning by chance to the Book of Jonah, I read that Jonah, who, like Bush, chats with God, had suffered a falling out with the Almighty and thus became a jinx dogged by luck so bad that a cruise liner, thanks to his presence aboard, was about to sink in a storm at sea. Once the crew had determined that Jonah, a passenger, was the jinx, they threw him overboard and--Lo!--the storm abated. The three days and nights he subsequently spent in the belly of a nauseous whale must have seemed like a serious jinx to the digestion-challenged whale who extruded him much as the decent opinion of mankind has done to Bush.
Originally, God wanted Jonah to give hell to Nineveh, whose people, God noted disdainfully, "cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand," so like the people of Baghdad who cannot fathom what democracy has to do with their destruction by the Cheney-Bush cabal. But the analogy becomes eerily precise when it comes to the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico at a time when a president is not only incompetent but plainly jinxed by whatever faith he cringes before. Witness the ongoing screw-up of prescription drugs.
Who knows what other disasters are in store for us thanks to the curse he is under? As the sailors fed the original Jonah to a whale, thus lifting the storm that was about to drown them, perhaps we the people can persuade President Jonah to retire to his other Eden in Crawford, Texas, taking his jinx with him. We deserve a rest. Plainly, so does he. Look at Nixon's radiant features after his resignation! One can see former President Jonah in his sumptuous library happily catering to faith-based fans with animated scriptures rooted in "The Simpsons."
Not since the glory days of Watergate and Nixon's Luciferian fall has there been so much written about the dogged deceits and creative criminalities of our rulers. We have also come to a point in this dark age where there is not only no hero in view but no alternative road unblocked. We are trapped terribly in a now that few foresaw and even fewer can define despite a swarm of books and pamphlets like the vast cloud of locusts which dined on China in that '30s movie "The Good Earth."
I have read many of these descriptions of our fallen estate, looking for one that best describes in plain English how we got to this now and where we appear to be headed once our good Earth has been consumed and only Rapture is left to whisk aloft the Faithful. Meanwhile, the rest of us can learn quite a lot from "Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire," by Morris Berman, a professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
snip
Berman sets his scene briskly in recent history.
"We were already in our twilight phase when Ronald Reagan, with all the insight of an ostrich, declared it to be 'morning in America'; twenty-odd years later, under the 'boy emperor' George W. Bush (as Chalmers Johnson refers to him), we have entered the Dark Ages in earnest, pursuing a short-sighted path that can only accelerate our decline. For what we are now seeing are the obvious characteristics of the West after the fall of Rome: the triumph of religion over reason; the atrophy of education and critical thinking; the integration of religion, the state, and the apparatus of torture--a troika that was for Voltaire the central horror of the pre-Enlightenment world; and the political and economic marginalization of our culture.... The British historian Charles Freeman published an extended discussion of the transition that took place during the late Roman empire, the title of which could serve as a capsule summary of our current president: "The Closing of the Western Mind."
.................
a new mission...
http://www.burntorangereport.com/event.do?eventId=296
Impeachment: Our Right, Our Duty
posted by: ie3456 Summary:
An action event that will be held at the Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church in Houston. Description:
The time has come for We the People
To show Bush and Cheney that we will NOT tolerate
* Illegal Wars
* Loss of constitutional rights
* Torture
* Deceit
* Election Fraud
It's time to bring this administration's secrets to the light of day so that we overcome lies that divide our country and fears that drive us to war.
IMPEACHMENT: OUR RIGHT, OUR DUTY
Featured speakers include:
CINDY SHEEHAN
PROFESSOR BOB JENSEN
COL. ANN WRIGHT
DEBRA SWEET
STATE REP. LON BURNAM
CITY COUNCILWOMAN ADA EDWARDS
DIANE WILSON
SISSY FARENTHOLD
Join us for a night of edification and action. Join us for petition signing, postcard writing, tabling, networking, food, videos, music, and speeches.
RSVP at www.dfa-link.com/event.php?id=18360
Where:
Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church
2025 West 11th Street
Houston, TX 77008
When: 06:00 PM - 09:00 PM
Monday, 04/09/2007
………………
from:
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/80R/billtext/html/HC00154I.htm
By:
Burnam H.C.R. No. 154
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The elemental source for initiating congressional impeachment proceedings is found in The Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and Rules of the United States House of Representatives;
Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of Parliamentary Practice authorizes federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state or territorial legislature as a matter of privilege; and
WHEREAS, Precedent for employing this authority is well-established and documented in Hinds' Precedents of the House of Representatives of the United States; one such entry relates to a 1903 joint resolution passed by the Florida state legislature requesting that the U.S. Congress impeach U.S. District Judge Charles Swayne that resulted in a senate trial; and
WHEREAS, Invoking this authority, the people of the state of Texas charge that President George W. Bush has violated the United States Constitution and other federal law and abused the power of his office to the extreme detriment of the country and the interests of its citizens, actions that constitute high crimes and misdemeanors; and
WHEREAS, President Bush conspired with others to defraud the United States of America by intentionally misleading the congress and the nation regarding an Iraqi threat to the American people to justify a war in direct defiance of the United Nations Security Council and in violation of Section 371, Title 18, United States Code; in so doing, President Bush and members of his administration:
1) overstated the offensive capabilities of Iraq, including that country's supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction, and manipulated and distorted intelligence relating to Iraq's weapons program during a plenary session of the United Nations and in direct contradiction to evidence gathered by international weapons inspectors;
2) manipulated public opinion by repeatedly and erroneously linking Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government with the terrorist organization responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001, al Qaeda; and
3) manipulated public opinion by stating in the State of the Union Address that Saddam Hussein had sought "significant quantities of uranium from Africa," despite confirmation from the Central Intelligence Agency and officials from foreign governments that the documents supporting these claims were forged; and
WHEREAS, The Bush Administration's decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was an unnecessarily reckless endeavor; while Saddam Hussein was a despotic leader who had used chemical weapons against Iran, as well as the Kurdish and Shia people, and required prudent and efficacious attention by the United States and the international community in order to maintain peace and stability in the Middle East, the invasion of Iraq, in fact, necessitated the removal of United Nations weapons inspectors who were on the ground in Iraq and uninhibited from performing their job of monitoring Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities; in fact, during the 11 years before the invasion, the United States enforced a no-fly zone over 60 percent of Iraq's airspace, significantly restricting the country's military movement and activity throughout its territory; and
WHEREAS, Indeed, Iraq posed no threat to the territory or people of the United States, yet the 2003 invasion of Iraq has resulted in the deaths of more than 3,200 American soldiers and a reported 59,000 Iraqi civilians, over 23,000 wounded American soldiers, and severely diminished American military readiness; the fiscal cost of the war will reach $500 billion by the end of 2007; and
WHEREAS, In addition, to meet the needed manpower to execute the invasion, President Bush has federalized and deployed members of the Texas National Guard overseas, thereby subverting the power granted to congress under Section 8, Article 1, United States Constitution, to call "forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions"; regrettably, the illegal deployment of the Texas National Guard deprives the state of its primary mechanism for defense and emergency response, needlessly jeopardizing the safety of Texans; and
WHEREAS, Under the guise of the war on terror, the Bush Administration has held American citizens and citizens of other sovereign nations without charge or trial; despite these secretive detentions, the United States has been embarrassed by revelations of torture and abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and evidence suggests that President Bush has authorized the use of similar acts of torture in the interrogation of detainees in American facilities around the world; and
WHEREAS, These detentions are clear violations of international and federal law; as a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, the United States is bound to provisions of Article 13 requiring that "Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated . . ." and Article 17 stating that "no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion, may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever"; and
WHEREAS, Furthermore, the War Crimes Act of 1996 provides that a person who acts in breach of the Geneva Conventions has committed a war crime and is subject to punishment under federal law; similarly, Article VI of the United States Constitution provides that ". . . all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land . . . ."; and
WHEREAS, The Bush Administration's defiance of the Geneva Conventions has potentially threatened the lives and well-being of American soldiers captured as prisoners of war in future conflicts; likewise, the Bush Administration's defiance of international law has tarnished the United States' reputation as a country founded on principles of human rights and diminished America's integrity and influence in the international community; and
WHEREAS, In an effort to further manipulate public opinion relating to the justification for the Iraq war, the Bush Administration leaked classified information, knowingly revealing the identities of covert U.S. intelligence agents and exposing them to potential harm and retribution; and
WHEREAS, The Bush Administration's breaches of law are not limited to international affairs, having similarly violated the public trust by suppressing scientific information and altering government documents relating to the causes and effects of global warming with the intention of deceiving the American public; and
WHEREAS, President Bush's illegal actions have also undermined the balance of power between the branches of government; in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, President Bush has publicly admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to contravene provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, specifically authorizing the agency to spy on American citizens without securing a search warrant; and
WHEREAS, President Bush has also subverted congressional authority with regard to domestic policy by filing hundreds of signing statements that declare the administration's official legal interpretation of legislation passed by congress; in more than 750 instances, the president has asserted an authority to ignore numerous sections of the bills he has signed into law, including legislation relating to military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that congress be told about immigration services problems, "whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research; and
WHEREAS, Moreover, President Bush has overtly undermined the authority of congress; the Bush Administration has undermined specific provisions of the Clean Air Act by changing Environmental Protection Agency rules to allow older power plants, refineries, and factories to upgrade their facilities without installing newer, more advanced pollution control technologies, thereby increasing the amount of pollution and threatening the health of all Americans; and
WHEREAS, In order to secure passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Modernization, and Improvement Act of 2003, the Bush Administration knowingly misled congress regarding the cost of the bill by providing a $400 billion cost estimate to lawmakers while government documents revealed the true cost was calculated by administration officials to exceed $500 billion; be it
RESOLVED, That the 80th Legislature of the State of Texas submit the charges contained herein to the United States House of Representatives under the authority of Section 603 of The Constitution, Jefferson's Manual, and Rules of the United States House of Representatives; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the charges contained herein constitute proof that the president of the United States has willfully violated his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the charges contained herein, should be removed from office and disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.
………………
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040607R.shtml
Heroes, Sung and Unsung
By David Swanson
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor
Friday 06 April 2007
Last night in a bar in Austin, Texas, we held a family reunion for the peace movement. The occasion was the presentation of the Camp Casey Peace Awards. Much of the evening was devoted to the incredibly powerful antiwar music of Carolyn Wonderland, Emma's Revolution, Hank Woji and Jesse Dyen, each of whom had a crowd on their feet and moving as well as sitting and feeling like crying. Carolyn sang Willie Nelson's "What Happened to Peace on Earth" beautifully, with Willie and his wife Annie sitting ten feet away and cheering.
The Nelsons were given an award for all the work they've done to promote peace and all the help they've given to Camp Casey. Cindy Sheehan presented the award. Mimi Kennedy presented an award to the amazing Jodie Evans, co-founder of Code Pink. Jim Hightower gave an award to Ann Wright and Veterans for Peace, without whom I don't think we'd have a peace movement or a Camp Casey. Ann Wright presented an award to the Crawford Peace House and its leaders, who brought peace activism to Crawford before Camp Casey and made Camp Casey work when it arrived. And Cindy gave an award to the young creator of online peace videos, Ava Lowery. It would be hard to imagine a more deserving bunch.
But appreciation was handed out also to many others in the room, which was filled with a mix of Texans and peace activists from around the country. I was especially pleased to meet for the first time a member of the Texas Legislature, Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth). Burnam was already a hero of mine for having introduced this year a resolution to petition the US House of Representatives to impeach Bush and Cheney. Between this year and last, nine states have seen such resolutions introduced, two of which have come close to passing. The chief sponsors of those nine bills are worthy of the name hero, and really ought to be the focus of public movements to draft them to run next year for Congress. In each case, they have already served their nation better and upheld the oath taken by members of Congress better than any member of their states' delegations.
They are:
* Lon Burnam, Texas
* Gerald Ortiz y Pino, New Mexico
* Eric Oemig, Washington
* Paul Koretz, California
* Daryl Pillsbury, Vermont
* Karen Yarbrough, Illinois
* Jamilah Nasheed, Missouri
* Frank Boyle, Wisconsin
* Keith Ellison, Minnesota*
Great comments, all...
pygqsn said...
...There's only one person you can help and that's yourself.
Spoken like a true Existentialist.
damien said...
one need look no further than Bush's 2nd inaugural address.
Great links, Damien. Both are must reads. Indeed, the fear that a psycho-fundie general will actively try to bring about Armageddon is real and justified. I suppose it never occurred to GOP cultists that if "God", is indeed all powerful, he doesn't need any help.
hizzoner said...
Actually the Republican Party developed their own lexicon under the tutaledge of the Master Linguist, Frank Luntz. He distributed a "how to" book to party members back in '94.
Good point. If I can find a link to Lutz' work, I will add it to the main article as an additional resource. Thanks for the heads up. Also, your list of GOP-SPEAK with respect to Social Security, abortion, and gun control.
Indeed, it is hard to say anything along these lines with regard to the GOP that is not true. Will Rogers once said that he never met a man he didn't like. Well, I've never met a GOPPER that I liked. I don't like the way they dress. I don't like the way they talk in platitudes and code words. I don't like the way they lie to themselves and others.
I have said that the GOP is not a political party, it's a crime syndicate. But it is also a kooky cult of delusional half wits, fanatics, screwballs, and religious nut cases.
Carl Jung said that as much as 30 percent of any given population are certifiably psychotic. Is it only in America that all of them chose to join the GOP?
Bev, thanks for the Gore Vidal. He is always a great read. I also recommend his The Decline and Fall
of the American Empire.
From your post:
Not since the glory days of Watergate and Nixon's Luciferian fall has there been so much written about the dogged deceits and creative criminalities of our rulers.
However much has been written, it is not enough.
I also enjoyed the House Concurrent resolution. It must be pointed out that some of the offenses that will be charged against Bush are capital crimes.
Biby Cletus said...
its a really cool blog that you have here, keep up the good work, will be back.
Thanks for the kind words, Biby. You're welcome at the "Cowboy".
"GERONIMO AND THE BUSH FAMILY CURSE"
WWW.ILOVEPOETRY.COM/VIEWPOEM.ASP?ID=91756
ANGERING EVEN THE DEAD!
Proletariat. Bourgeoise. Forces of history. Dialectical materialism.
Code words, par excellence!
Law of Supply and Demand. Majority Rule. Equality. Liberty. Human Rights. Freedom of Exchange.
Code words, par excellence!
Armageddon. Born Again. Bible. Rapture. God's Word.
Code words, par excellence!
Chosen People. Divinely Elected. Zionism. Auschwitz. Hitler.
Code words, par excellence!
Queer. Faggot. Nellie. Butch. Top. Bottom.
Code words, par excellence.
Ego. Id. Super-ego. Oedipus Complex. Psycho-sexual arrest. Repression. Neurosis.
Code words, par excellence!
So what's your point? That people use buzz-words or code-words? The human species uses language for its social construction, whether as Marxist, Liberalism, Evanglical, Judaism, Straight, or Therapists. Different forms of Christianity have its lexicons too. So do Buddhists. So do Socialists. So do Progressives. So do Conservatives.
But when equivocation, double-entrende, deception, misnomers, etc. operate, as they have with the Bushies, the code words are a means of identifying fellow travelers of repugnant ideologues. Let them speak in code words. Let them expose themselves. Then the rest of us can avoid their toxic ideologies, and avoid electing them to office.
Carl Jung claiming 30% of the public is psychotic is like the kettle calling the pot. The Cult of Therapy always misdiagnoses other individuals mental health, oblivious to their own disordered thinking. That's why it's a Cult, just like Evangelicals. Ditto, Freud, Adler, Skinner, Perl, May, Fromm, and all the other Cult of Therapists.
Where were the anti-Cultists when Freud's metaphysics of mind and his preposterous illusions were pandered as "cures?" Where are the ego, id, and superego? How can a mind be "unconscious?" What is "repression?" What is conflict dystonia?
They're right along with the Virgin Birth, the Parting of the Red Sea, Moses on Mt. Sinai, Resurrection of the Dead, Enoch's Dreams, Job's Torments, and the Acid Trip called "Revelation." As Freud himself posited, his metaphysics of mind would replace the "illusion" of religion. Marx, Freud, Reiff, etc. have been pandering the "Future of an Illusion," just like Evangelicals have been pandering their illusions.
Beware of Metaphysics! Regardless of whichever metaphysician panders it.
As if human language weren’t opaque enough…
Yet, familiar…
Noam Chomsky’s studies proved a “deep structure” to language which evidently is broader than human, a component of a complex brain.
Wait till you get a load of this:
Birds are the last genetic link to dinosaurs.
They have evolved:
from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3430481.stm
Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short.
The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.
snip
About 100 words are needed for half of all reading in English, so if N'kisi could read he would be able to cope with a wide range of material.
Polished wordsmith
He uses words in context, with past, present and future tenses, and is often inventive.
snip
One N'kisi-ism was "flied" for "flew", and another "pretty smell medicine" to describe the aromatherapy oils used by his owner, an artist based in New York.
When he first met Dr Jane Goodall, the renowned chimpanzee expert, after seeing her in a picture with apes, N'kisi said: "Got a chimp?"
He appears to fancy himself as a humourist. When another parrot hung upside down from its perch, he commented: "You got to put this bird on the camera."
Dr Goodall says N'kisi's verbal fireworks are an "outstanding example of interspecies communication".
snip
Professor Donald Broom, of the University of Cambridge's School of Veterinary Medicine, said: "The more we look at the cognitive abilities of animals, the more advanced they appear, and the biggest leap of all has been with parrots."
.........
And, they are using flashcards to try to teach N'kisi to read...
Life is too amazing.
And, I like what the bird talks about better than what the GOP talks about.
Wow! Great thread. It looks like there is a consensus that a trained parrot has more savvy than a Republican merely parroting themes developed by KKKarl Rove or Frank Luntz. And I prefer the Blues Brothers too, not just for the sound track. The Blues Brothers' mission from God involved saving a convent. The Bush cabal's mission is nothing but destruction.
Bev, a gentle nudge about netiquette - when you copy/paste entire posts from other sites people just tend to scroll past the whole thing and they will miss your point entirely. It's way better to post a link and a short synopsis. And it looks best if your link is embedded, especially in a blogspot thread, where long links tend to scroll off the side.
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How to embed a link:
copy/paste this code onto a notepad or other plaintext document:
<a href="URL">TITLE</a>
Better yet, paste several copies onto the same text doc while you're at it. That can be very handy.
Then, when you want to embed something, copy/paste the URL into where it says 'URL' (duh), and type in whatever TITLE you want to give it. And blogs y'r uncle!
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The Gay Species said...
Proletariat. Bourgeoise. Forces of history. Dialectical materialism. Code words, par excellence!
Those are not "code" word. You utterly miss the point as well as the difference between "jargon" and "code words".
Marx articulated his theory in detail. Whether you agree or disagree is irrelevant. Marx didn't put on one face for the party faithful and another to the world. Last time I checked, Marx was never elected to public office.
The GOP has become and remains a kooky cult premised upon lies and deception. The GOP gets elected because it lies. The hard core faithful know Bush lies and that's why they vote for him. They are complicit enablers, a base that he can count on. It's the gullible dupes who really believe crap like "no child left behind" whom I pity and often disdain.
Where were the anti-Cultists when Freud's metaphysics of mind and his preposterous illusions were pandered as "cures?"
Off topic. I didn't mention Freud and your allusion to him is irrelevant. Freud's terminology is fully explained. It is not intended to deceive and doesn't. And, to my knowledge, it has never been a political platform. Same thing goes for your other completely irrelevant examples.
If you have an axe to grind with Freud, peddle it elsewhere. I am not a Freud fan but less so your meaningless attack.
So what's your point?
The Point
Or, put another way:
The GOP has become and remains a kooky cult premised upon lies and deception.
SadButTrue said...
The Blues Brothers' mission from God involved saving a convent. The Bush cabal's mission is nothing but destruction.
Indeed. It remains a great movie full of wit, satire, and some excellent music.
hizzoner said...
repub candidates seeking to garner the support of religious fundamentalists still use "dog whistles" which only the true believers can hear..
Exactly. And thanks for the heads up about Lutz. The early 80's was a period of great change for a GOP still dazed by Watergate. Unfortunately, I have lost at least one GOP "campaign manual" that I had obtained in those years. It was revelatory reading. It is tempting to conclude that as it tried to recover from Watergate, the pardon and other GOP disasters, the party faithful were willing to do anything to regain power. Much of it was outlined in "manuals" not intended to fall into the hands of "the media".
Great post, Len. I, too, am puzzled by gay species' odd litany of various lexicons as though these are equivalent to the Luntzian code developed and honed by the GOP.
But the code extends beyond mere communication with the base. As Luntz (and Gingrich) have advocated, GOP talk ruthlessly sought to demonize terms previously neutral or merely descriptive and to make that demonization mainstream.
For example, the word "liberal" was targeted specifically by the GOP and has been turned, in the mainstream, into an animadversion, which Republicans routinely spout during campaigns. The word "liberal" in our current political lexicon -- as shameful as it is -- bears almost no relationship to the literal meaning of the word.
The GOP certainly does have a base code and they have created a psuedo-code of public discourse by polluting the language to suit their own ends. The Dems have no equivalent process and, frankly, I'm glad of that. But it is one of the reasons why the Democrats forever appear on the defensive.
None of this begins to address the Orwellian language that we have seen come directly out of the White House, though. "Clear Skies Initiative," "Healthy Forests Initiative," and other such legislative Newspeak. But after years of this nonsense, there is no secret to that code anymore. We know exactly what it means.
Thanks sadbuttrue. I will do better with the links. I did edit some of the articles to shorten as they were longer, however, not so on Burnam's text of his bill.
I keep thinking, if people skim it is better than not linking. I will try to limit to the most important material. I could have made this shorter. Pardon me.
theBhc said...
I, too, am puzzled by gay species' odd litany of various lexicons as though these are equivalent to the Luntzian code developed and honed by the GOP.
Thanks for reminding about how the GOP demonized a perfectly good word: liberal. Indeed, many 19th century liberals might have been comfortable in an "honest" GOP. Sadly, now, to be GOP is to be dishonest.
Liberal is a perfectly good word and until the GOP was hijacked, "liberals" were found in both parties. Nelson Rockefeller was often called a liberal and was, in fact, the leader of the liberal wing of the GOP. That was when it had such a wing, of course. I met and interviewed Nelson Rockefeller in the aftermath of Watergate. We talked about art, specifically, his purchase of a mink-covered bed designed by Max Ernst, valued at $35,000. I am not responsible, however, for the press criticism that later resulted in the bed being loaned to a museum. Years later, Happy Rockefeller offered to return the bed to the VP mansion.
Rockefeller had other "liberal" credentials other than "art lover". In the 1940's, as he was concerned about Latin American poverty, Roosevelt appointed him to head the office of Inter-American Affairs.
He negotiated Latin American regional security pacts and helped draft the UN charter.
He managed several large scale initiatives aimed at funding improvements in agriculture, public health, and infrastructure throughout Latin America where he felt widespread poverty a threat to regional stability.
In the Eisenhower administration, he helped establish the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
Liberal, of course, is from the latin "liber" which means free. Democrats and others of the liberal persuasion made a big mistake by running away from it. I have stated numerous times that it is time to reclaim the word "liberal". Instead of running for cover whenever a gopper screams "liberal", an attacked candidate should yell back: Liberal and proud of it.
bev said...
Thanks sadbuttrue. I will do better with the links.
We appreciate your input and your efforts along those lines. Until the comment section is made more user friendly, we all struggle along as best we can. Thanks for visiting and sharing with us. Sadbuttrue and Fuzzflash are long time regulars. We welcome you to what Fuzzflash has referred to as a "Baghdad Cafe".
that is without a doubt one of the best posts i've read in a long time. thank you!
Thanks, hotpotato...welcome to the "Cowboy".
The term "gun control is in itself likely a term dreamed up by the NRA. What sane people really are asking for is gun regulation. Same with how the right calls money that goes to the poor as welfare and money that goes to rural farmer types as subsidies. These evil bastards are masters of using language that is meant to make good policy seem radical and leftist.
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