[lbo-talk] Pew study of poll accuracy

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>Jon Johanning wrote:
>
>>This is basically the same mechanism that is operating in Israel and 
>>Palestine -- if your side gets hit badly (your military but even more so 
>>your civilians, and there are quite a few U.S. "civilians" -- actually 
>>substitute soldiers working for private contractors -- getting killed in 
>>Iraq these days), the gut reaction of most people in any country will be 
>>to hit back even harder. I don't know why people are so puzzled that 
>>Americans are reacting this way -- it's pure human nature.
>
>Well, yeah, but... "We" aren't the ones getting attacked in Iraq. Our 
>soldiers invaded the country, and Iraqis are trying to blow them up. "We" 
>wouldn't be getting attacked if "we" hadn't gone there in the first place. 
>And it was NYC that was attacked on 9/11, and we (no quotation marks) were 
>among the least bellicose people in the U.S. People in the heartland, who 
>are more likely to get hit by a tornado than a 747 or a dirty bomb, were 
>the ones really out for blood. Human nature is a very plastic thing.
>
>Doug

Let us recall that the USA isn't a nation-state, a society or a culture.  It 
is, in Kurt Vonnegut's classic coinage, a "granfalloon" -- "a proud and 
meaningless association of human beings."  I think nothing binds Americans 
together anymore but self-pity and murderous rage toward the rest of the 
world.

Carl

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