What I didn’t learn on my summer vacation

Having spent three weeks away–from the city, from TV, and (mostly) out of cyberspace–I feel myself, in part, well-rested and restored, by long, sweet family mountain hikes, and hours of meditation by the sea, and hearty chowdowns on delicious local food (including lots of beer); and very quiet nights, just reading. (I read Moby Dick, and some of Bret Harte’s stories., as well as the July issue of Harper’s, cover to cover.)

So that’s the good news, for me and mine.

On the other hand, that period spent (almost) completely blissed-out in the semi-wild has made it something of a shock to come back here: i.e., to the mediated hell of daily news in these United States–news that I had been absorbing mainly through the New York Times (New England edition) and now and then a local paper.

From reading through the Times (on paper) line by line, I learned a lot; but what I learned, of course, was, for the most part, incomplete, with crucial aspects of the story usually ignored or buried or played down; and that refers just to those stories that the paper deigned to note at all. Certainly this came as no surprise to me (as you who’ve read my emails and/or blog must know); but it was pretty striking to have been immersed all but completely in the Times’s comfy daily version of events.

If I had time, I’d try to capture all that that newspaper either tuned out, downplayed or distorted during those three weeks; but I don’t have such time. (Vacation’s over, so there really isn’t time enough for anything.)

So I’ll say only that the news–the real news–seems to have turned really ugly since the middle of July; and so we need to know it, or it won’t be possible to take a proper stand against what’s going down.

Here, then, I’ll resume my on-line labors, starting with Sara Robinson’s essay on the fact that, yes, the US finally is right on the brink of outright fascism (according to historian Robert Paxton’s authoritative definition).

Needless to say, this is an analysis that the Times would laugh off as “alarmist” and “extreme.”

MCM

Is the U.S. on the Brink of Fascism?
By Sara Robinson, Campaign for America’s Future
Posted on August 7, 2009, Printed on August 9, 2009

All through the dark years of the Bush Administration, progressives watched in horror as Constitutional protections vanished, nativist rhetoric ratcheted up, hate speech turned into intimidation and violence, and the president of the United States seized for himself powers only demanded by history’s worst dictators.

With each new outrage, the small handful of us who’d made ourselves experts on right-wing culture and politics would hear once again from worried readers: Is this it?

Have we finally become a fascist state? Are we there yet?

And every time this question got asked, people like Chip Berlet and Dave Neiwert and Fred Clarkson and yours truly would look up from our maps like a parent on a long drive, and smile a wan smile of reassurance.

“Wellll…we’re on a bad road, and if we don’t change course, we could end up there soon enough. But there’s also still plenty of time and opportunity to turn back. Watch, but don’t worry. As bad as this looks: no — we are not there yet.”

Read more.

Originally posted: What I didn’t learn on my summer vacation

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