Of all the specious or at least suspectedly specious information the media constantly spew, one unquestioned datum has been bestuck in my craw for long enough that it may be doing permanent craw-damage: The "American people" are very upset with how the war in Iraq is progressing. Or, better, not progressing. So upset are they that The War has been the destruction of Bush's approval ratings, Republican prospects in November, the Bush "legacy", the chances of any kind of victory in what is apparently another war, (the one on terrorism), etc.
The problem with this wisdom is that just as often the same media are telling us that the "American people" are rubish dullards who "can name the finalists of American Idol" or name the most desperate housewife but cannot tell you who the secretary of state is, or what the secretary of state is, or what the Constitution says about the team mascot of the Electoral College.
Obviously these two pieces of received truth can't coexist, and it is obvious what the big lie is. The people are NOT upset about The War; no matter how many times the Pollsters say that they are. They may well be upset with Bush, and Republicans (though they probably don’t know what those are, either) but The War is not keeping them up nights. In fact, in only shows up on their radar screens in two instances: When pollsters ask them if they are upset with Bush and the Republicans over the god-awful war in Iraq, and when they are told that polls say they are.
The war in Iraq has been called the one-percent war because it affects such a tiny fraction of Americans. Chiefly those are the folks in the military who have actually been fighting—and even these are mostly soldiers and marines, not sailors or airmen-- and their families. In other words, hardly anyone out of 280 million people. World War II it is not. Plenty of sugar, chocolate and nylons to go around. No tire contributions solicited at the gas-rationing stations. It is not even Vietnam. No boys from down the street are getting drafted, and with 100-plus channels you can easily and completely fortify your living room by avoiding any news at all, save that of the MTV-celebrity world. In fact the same sinister liberal Democrats who off one side of their talking-points index cards lament the people's war weariness and the cultural combat fatigue condemn the Bush Administration from the other side for not requiring the American people participate in, let alone sacrifice for, the war effort. So the question begs (no, it doesn’t but that’s another issue for another day): If Americans, like goldfish, can’t be bothered by, even be aware of, anything that is not presently in front of their overstressed infotained eyes then how can the 99 percent of them be so upset about The War that is entirely an abstraction to them? The answer is that they can’t be and they aren’t.
So why do the media claim that Americans are all atizzy over this? Well, besides the fact that over 90 percent of so-called journalists are elitist, semi-educated Demopolitans horrified by the prospect of normal people’s values saving civilization, they are also frozen out of covering The War for their own benefit. They can’t leave the Green Zone. They can’t mine the biggest gold vein of a news story in their lifetimes because The War is just too damned dangerous. Oh yeah, they say it’s because the military won’t let them. But the Nazis, Japanese or even the Viet Cong didn’t search out journalists on purpose to saw their heads off. Even journalists know this much. So, instead of blaming this enemy for its unprecedented vileness, they say it is the Bush Administration’s fault that they can’t get out there and catch GI’s torching villages with their Zippo lighters and they express their own frustration by projecting it onto the American people.
The War is not “frustrating” common folks as the pundits claim, The War is not weighing on them, The War is not relevant to their everyday lives. Well, at least not in the obvious in-front-of-your-face way that something needs to be in order to catch and keep their attention. If the upcoming election turns on the Iraq issue it will be for one reason only and that is that the media have created it. They planted it, watered it, nurtured it and weeded from around it any real issues that might distract from it.
Now mind you, none of this is meant to suggest that the American people shouldn’t be concerned about The War. They damn-well should be, and about winning it. Decisively. That one-percent is carrying a hell of a burden for everyone else, and they aren’t complaining.
The problem with this wisdom is that just as often the same media are telling us that the "American people" are rubish dullards who "can name the finalists of American Idol" or name the most desperate housewife but cannot tell you who the secretary of state is, or what the secretary of state is, or what the Constitution says about the team mascot of the Electoral College.
Obviously these two pieces of received truth can't coexist, and it is obvious what the big lie is. The people are NOT upset about The War; no matter how many times the Pollsters say that they are. They may well be upset with Bush, and Republicans (though they probably don’t know what those are, either) but The War is not keeping them up nights. In fact, in only shows up on their radar screens in two instances: When pollsters ask them if they are upset with Bush and the Republicans over the god-awful war in Iraq, and when they are told that polls say they are.
The war in Iraq has been called the one-percent war because it affects such a tiny fraction of Americans. Chiefly those are the folks in the military who have actually been fighting—and even these are mostly soldiers and marines, not sailors or airmen-- and their families. In other words, hardly anyone out of 280 million people. World War II it is not. Plenty of sugar, chocolate and nylons to go around. No tire contributions solicited at the gas-rationing stations. It is not even Vietnam. No boys from down the street are getting drafted, and with 100-plus channels you can easily and completely fortify your living room by avoiding any news at all, save that of the MTV-celebrity world. In fact the same sinister liberal Democrats who off one side of their talking-points index cards lament the people's war weariness and the cultural combat fatigue condemn the Bush Administration from the other side for not requiring the American people participate in, let alone sacrifice for, the war effort. So the question begs (no, it doesn’t but that’s another issue for another day): If Americans, like goldfish, can’t be bothered by, even be aware of, anything that is not presently in front of their overstressed infotained eyes then how can the 99 percent of them be so upset about The War that is entirely an abstraction to them? The answer is that they can’t be and they aren’t.
So why do the media claim that Americans are all atizzy over this? Well, besides the fact that over 90 percent of so-called journalists are elitist, semi-educated Demopolitans horrified by the prospect of normal people’s values saving civilization, they are also frozen out of covering The War for their own benefit. They can’t leave the Green Zone. They can’t mine the biggest gold vein of a news story in their lifetimes because The War is just too damned dangerous. Oh yeah, they say it’s because the military won’t let them. But the Nazis, Japanese or even the Viet Cong didn’t search out journalists on purpose to saw their heads off. Even journalists know this much. So, instead of blaming this enemy for its unprecedented vileness, they say it is the Bush Administration’s fault that they can’t get out there and catch GI’s torching villages with their Zippo lighters and they express their own frustration by projecting it onto the American people.
The War is not “frustrating” common folks as the pundits claim, The War is not weighing on them, The War is not relevant to their everyday lives. Well, at least not in the obvious in-front-of-your-face way that something needs to be in order to catch and keep their attention. If the upcoming election turns on the Iraq issue it will be for one reason only and that is that the media have created it. They planted it, watered it, nurtured it and weeded from around it any real issues that might distract from it.
Now mind you, none of this is meant to suggest that the American people shouldn’t be concerned about The War. They damn-well should be, and about winning it. Decisively. That one-percent is carrying a hell of a burden for everyone else, and they aren’t complaining.
posted by the wrightist at 12:00 PM
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