The Manufacture of Dissent

In 1984 a man named Noam Chomsky wrote an essay called the Manufacture of Consent. In this essay, he argues that much of the way we as Americans view our country is based on a false belief in the fundamental goodness of our founding and intentions throughout the development of our country. I could spend a whole lot of time getting you up to speed on the particulars of how he made his case and more of the substance of this essay, but I am not writing about Chomsky's essay but about my own observations about many in our country who have most certainly taken Chomsky's points twenty years ago to heart.

It seems to me that many in the intellectual crowds within colleges around the country and especially those in Hollywood chose to buy into his premise hook, line, and sinker. They seem to have made it their mission in life to expose the "evil empire" that was and is the United States of America. Ironically, now that his views have taken such root in the imaginations of those particularly on the left side of the political spectrum, I myself see a false belief that is a foundational premise for many of these people. This premise is simply put: the United States is incapable of doing or being anything noble or good. It is through this lens that people are able to see things like the world trade center and the current war on terrorists globally and somehow only see our atrocities, our wrong foreign policies, our corruption, etc.

A word of clarity... I am not claiming that these points deal with all who voice opposition to the war in Iraq nor even our methods of dealing with terrorism. I am well aware that there are other lines of reasoning than those I am mentioning here. Also, I realize that the United States is certainly guilty of evils in her past and present. This, however, is NOT to be confused with anything even remotely approaching the view of the United States that I just described.

I think organizations like the New York Times are complicit in this "manufacturing of dissent" with their blatant opposition to the war effort and the administration instead of objective coverage. (Please remember the New York Times owns much more than simply that one newspaper.) There are three primary editorialists that speak regularly for the Times. In the period from January of 2005 to July of 2006 these three primary writers wrote 314 editorials. Of the 314 editorials that they wrote, 156 were about the Bush administration and NOT ONE of them were written in a positive light. Also, the second man to receive the medal of honor from the start of the entire second Gulf War to date hailed from the great state of New York last fall. Guess who did not mention a word of it in the day of the ceremony ANYWHERE in their daily edition. In an almost unprecedented act, the New York Post actually wrote an article about the lack of ANY coverage by the New York Times to shame them. It was only after this that the Times covered it at all. I guess that story just wasn't supportive enough of their agenda.

Even Senators have gotten in on the act of contributing to the wrong headed premise of the "evil empire." Kennedy jumped on the Abu Ghraib scandal when it came out by saying that Saddam's torture chambers had reopened under U.S. management. Consider even the worst we know of our scandal with this. "The following, according to the State Department report, were routine in Iraq during Saddam Hussein's rule:
Medical experimentation
Beatings
Crucifixion
Hammering nails into the fingers and hands
Amputating sex organs or breasts with an electric carving knife
Spraying insecticides into a victim's eyes
Branding with a hot iron
Committing rape while the victim's spouse is forced to watch
Pouring boiling water into the victim's rectum
Nailing the tongue to a wooden board
Extracting teeth with pliers
Using bees and scorpions to sting naked children in front of their parents"
Also, Kennedy knew the perpetrators at Abu Ghraib would be prosecuted for what they did do. Instead Kennedy decided to make himself and his ridiculous quote the headline for Al-Jazeera the next day.