Service Master Soulutions

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The rhetoric of democracy is the process of convincing people that even though sometimes unpleasant things must be done in its name, like bombing other countries, democracy and freedom is what it is about in the end. And it is almost as if repeating the lie enough times will make it so. This is a form of propaganda that is insidious because they tug at our heart strings. Of course we want to help other people. These are propaganda messages that say "Don't just think of yourself, Americans can't be selfish". It makes bombing other people ultimately seam like an act of kindness of altruism. If our government has pure motives then the fact that they are killing people may not be too upsetting to the public, in fact it may indicate that they are killing people for very good reasons. And so you have the high ground president with the lofty motives being proclaimed and we are being told that peace is being sought alternatives to war being explored and that becomes sort of the official story told over and over on TV to the American people.

The American Empire has always been a bipartisan project with the Democrats and Republicans taking turns expanding it, honoring it, and justifying it. The rhetoric can be persuasive at first but it is difficult to hide the hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq, the torn limbs of our returning soldiers, or the millions driven from their homes. Our leaders tell us that war is necessary for our security, expansion is fundamental to civilization. At what cost does patriotism come? Have we not given enough to this madness? Have we not reached a point in history where we are ready to embrace a new way of living in the world, expanding not our military power but our humanity?