[lbo-talk] America Held Hostage

[Carl Remick]

>From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
>
>On Jul 21, 2006, at 11:11 AM, Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>If there is a scintilla of good news from the Lebanon horror, it is  that 
>>no rational being can continue to deny the Israel lobby's  awesome sway -- 
>>aided, of course, by the supreme tractability of  the American people.  I 
>>just read a post here by Jerry Monaco  taking Wojtek to task for comparing 
>>people in general to sheep.  I  agree that this is an unfair comparison, 
>>since in the case of  Americans it is quite insulting to sheep.  Sheep at 
>>least have some  volitional capacity; USers seem to have none.  Presented 
>>with a  force field like the Israel lobby, Americans just line up like 
>>iron  filings in the desired pattern.
>
>Uh, no, the U.S. pop's support for Israel is much more positive than  that. 
>As Pew reported the other day, more than a third (36%) of  Americans think 
>supporting Israel will lubricate the Second Coming. ...

If anything, that confirms my point.  Who but a suggestible fool could 
believe in a Second Coming or in Israel's lubrication thereof?  Acclaimed 
religious bore G. K. Chesterton may be best known for something he 
apparently never actually said but that, I believe, accurately expressed his 
POV, i.e., "When a man stops believing in God he doesn't then believe in 
nothing, he believes anything."  As has been noted, that comment gets it 
exactly backward:  Someone who believes in God has already demonstrated the 
capacity to "believe anything."  Credulousness -- in foreign affairs, 
spirituality, economics, you name it -- is one of the few things Americans 
excel at.

Carl