Arms inspectors vote on BBC

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Wed Feb 12 07:14:04 PST 2003


Doug:
>
> How many Americans do you talk to regularly? Sure this describes some
> of them, but there are a lot who don't match this description at all.
>
> Doug

Most people I actually talk to are against the war and Bush in general. What I had in mind was mostly opinions expressed on various fora, such as opinions polls, internet discussion groups, letters to editors, or flags and god bless america stickers on cars and trucks. Based on these observations I conjecture that about 50-60 percent of the population loves Bush and cannot wait to "kick butt" at least vicariously.

Of course the real question is "so what?" - the answer to which is, I am afraid, "not much." I do not think that, having rigged the election, the Bushies are too much concerned what the public thinks. What is more, I do not think that the figures would be any different in any other country preparing for an imperial war. This is grounded in human nature. Most people are stupid, lazy and vain - they do not know much, especially about things that do not concern them directly, they are unwilling to take any serious efforts to learn more about them, so they will settle for whatever is being spoon-fed to them, and they will be particularly eager to swallow any crap that makes them feel superior to others, even if that means nothing more than putting others dows.

Most people (not just in this country but elsewhere) are nothing but despicable slime that would jump on any bandwagon and vicariously derive pleasure from suffering inflicteed on others. That is why public torture and executions in the middle ages always attracted crowds, lynchings were such a riot in this country harsh and sadistic punishment has mass appeal, and a prospect of an easy and victorious war makes people salivate.

I do not think US-ers are any different in this respect from any other nation, but it is the US that is waging a war now, so it would be a bit disigenuous to blame "human nature" for that.

Wojtek



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