War Creates (T)Error

500,000 marched in Washington this past weekend, although you would barely know it as the media doesn't much show it. I couldn't go, but I did get to see Noam Chomsky speak for 2 hours ever-so-lucidly on this administration's policies among other things. That man is a modern day political Einstein.

"Until 'industrial feudalism' is replaced by 'industrial democracy,' politics will remain 'the shadow cast by big business over society'."

Can I get an "Amen"?!

That's Chomsky quoting John Dewey, but it does get to the heart of things. One of the most difficult things for me about this war and the media is what a clearly transparent PR campaign it is on the part of the media. The media as it exists today does nothing to keep the government in check--it is left entirely to the people.

For a long time, it has increasingly irritated me that no one can have a truly productive debate with the powers that be or with each other unless both sides are aware and have it out in the open that the reason we are fighting this war is to secure the oil resources in the middle east. And yet, that will never be out-ed on a large scale. I found it very refreshing that Chomsky addresses this issue. It is entirely key. Whenever Bush talks about us being in Iraq, it is a National Security issue, which translates to an OIL issue, which translates to really being everyone's responsiblity that we are there. If we didn't have such an addiction to oil, there would be no need for us to be there.

I can no longer just point the finger at this administration--granted they are arrogant and awful to the extreme--but we are irresponsible to think so simplistically as to imagine "they" are the only enemy. Just as it is wrong to think Arabs and Islam as "evil". The debate about US occupation in Iraq needs to evolve to discussing energy policy and what we are going to do about it. It is the next step. We have come so far as a collective to march en masse and demand accountability from our leaders, but we need to take a few more steps to understanding the connections so that all of the messy solutions can become clearer to all.