Regrettable Misjudgments": The Shocking Immorality Of Our Constricted Thought

Dorothy Parker famously remarked about a Broadway performance very early in Katharine Hepburn's career: "She runs the gamut of emotions from A to B." Several decades later, Hepburn acknowledged that her work in 1933's The Lake was far from her finest -- although even at that distance, Hepburn appeared to find nothing humorous about Parker's observation. In any event, that setback, along with a few others, didn't slow Hepburn down for long.

I thought of Parker's typically witty and cutting quip in connection with our national discourse. I always feel a reluctant tremor of trepidation when I am about to launch that phrase: "national discourse." It grants our national debate far too much stature. It makes it appear that our public discussion deals with facts and recognizes crucial moral principles when, in fact, this is almost never true with regard to our national conversation. As a nation, we are resolute in our refusal to identify the true nature of our actions, and in our refusal to acknowledge the consequences of what we do. This may well be true of most nations throughout history. Yet there is a direct correlation between a nation's power and influence, and its reliance on myth and other public relations ploys. As the world's sole superpower, the United States via its ruling class saturates its subjects at home and abroad with propaganda on a scale and with an intensity that have rarely been surpassed. As is true of all propaganda, permissible viewpoints are confined within suffocatingly constricted boundaries of thought; variation of any moment from the prescribed guidelines is prohibited.

Chris Floyd recently wrote about an important article by Michael Massing; your time would be very well spent considering Floyd's commentary, together with the Massing piece.

Massing's concern is our unforgivable national ignorance about the brute reality of our foreign policy. Consider how far into fantasy we have traveled, consider the scope of our determination to...