tp207.xml
Title
tp207.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-03-10
TomPaine Story: Story
Agenda Interrupted
The world didnt change on September 11th. You still work, if youre lucky; and probably still dont earn enough to make ends meet. The political battle is still between the working and moneyed classes, even if post-Reagan generations know little of it. Corporate airwaves banned Labor Day union stories along with the story of the creation of the EPA in response to a nations outrage at corporate polluters. Now people with such concerns are trivialized and vilified. Republicans accuse them of class warfare, as if the party of the moneyed class had not been waging its own.
Like chameleons, market fundamentalists have become military fundamentalists. The market as panacea has changed to the war on terror as our reason for being. This fundamentalism subordinates all to a cause prosecuted behind closed doors, vulnerable to enormous corruption. Militarists know that the first rule of war is to control communications. Theres the rub: we have lost the right to set the public agenda.
Exhibit A: the missing ozone layer. This story has been absolutely wiped clean from the national memory bank. Yet, according to scientists at NASA, ozone thinning will reach its peak by 2006. But that scenario works only if global warming is controlled because the two problems, ozone depletion and global warming, might interact. But hey, theyre only rocket scientists, so Im sure if corporate-controlled Blowhard Radio says theyre wrong, half of America will agree. Voila, nothing gets done.
Television would rather warmonger nonstop than admit how close corporations have come to destroying us all. Nor will they tell the tale of how Doolittle and Delay, anti-regulation Republicans, delayed addressing the ozone problem. Likewise, Bush remains unchallenged as he stonewalls global warming. Are they patriotic or self-serving? Corporate Americas accountability dodge might ultimately be our greatest threat.
The world didnt change on September 11th. You still work, if youre lucky; and probably still dont earn enough to make ends meet. The political battle is still between the working and moneyed classes, even if post-Reagan generations know little of it. Corporate airwaves banned Labor Day union stories along with the story of the creation of the EPA in response to a nations outrage at corporate polluters. Now people with such concerns are trivialized and vilified. Republicans accuse them of class warfare, as if the party of the moneyed class had not been waging its own.
Like chameleons, market fundamentalists have become military fundamentalists. The market as panacea has changed to the war on terror as our reason for being. This fundamentalism subordinates all to a cause prosecuted behind closed doors, vulnerable to enormous corruption. Militarists know that the first rule of war is to control communications. Theres the rub: we have lost the right to set the public agenda.
Exhibit A: the missing ozone layer. This story has been absolutely wiped clean from the national memory bank. Yet, according to scientists at NASA, ozone thinning will reach its peak by 2006. But that scenario works only if global warming is controlled because the two problems, ozone depletion and global warming, might interact. But hey, theyre only rocket scientists, so Im sure if corporate-controlled Blowhard Radio says theyre wrong, half of America will agree. Voila, nothing gets done.
Television would rather warmonger nonstop than admit how close corporations have come to destroying us all. Nor will they tell the tale of how Doolittle and Delay, anti-regulation Republicans, delayed addressing the ozone problem. Likewise, Bush remains unchallenged as he stonewalls global warming. Are they patriotic or self-serving? Corporate Americas accountability dodge might ultimately be our greatest threat.
Collection
Citation
“tp207.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed October 7, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/722.