[-empyre-] The Ministry of Disinformation

[Randall Packer <rpacker@zakros.com>]

It's looking bad. With six days to go before the election, George 
Bush has locked up most of the "red" states and is now closing in on 
the "blue" states. Despite the fact that he is losing the battle on 
nearly every issue, from the War in Iraq to the home front, this 
completely failed President is gaining ground with the electorate.

How is this possible? Disinformation. They have mastered it, they 
have redefined it, they have perfected the art of spinning events to 
suit their objectives. They have learned to play the media like a 
fiddle. When John Kerry calls them on 380 tons of missing weapons in 
Iraq (whoops!), enough to blow the entire planet apart many times 
over, they declare that Kerry is not paying attention to the facts. 
The facts! What does an administration that declared nuclear 
Armageddon from overblown CIA intelligence know about the facts! Who 
is calling the kettle black?

No, deep in the heart of the Ministry of Disinformation, the Minister 
himself, Karl Rove, is concocting his latest propaganda cocktail. 
He's brewing up the next scene in this B movie of a Presidency that 
has done nothing if not thumb its nose in the face of reality.

The frightening thing about all this, is the gullibility of the 
American people. They buy it. They believe him. They are going to 
vote for him and he may very well win this election and we are going 
to have four more years of a plot that seems to know no end to its 
thickening. The question is: can we survive four more years of 
disinformation?

This quote from George Orwell, which Henry brought to our attention, 
speaks to the predicament we now find ourselves in, in which the 
government runs the country like its directing a reality TV show:

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

There was never a better moment than now to declare that here in the 
seemingly distant space of our discussion lists and personal blogs, 
the revolution, in fact, has begun.