Comments on: Update II: 'The Narcissism Revolution'

By: Virgil

Virgil — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:24:08 +0000

Ms. Mercer, I think you might get a kick out of this: Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for the anti-government protests in Iran. Narcissism abounds eternal.

By: Andrew T.

Andrew T. — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:37:47 +0000

To expand on my above post, any seasoned libertarian is well aware that such a scare tactic is but one card in the larger statist deck. The statist elite resorts to many other arguments to distort public opinion in its favor, not the least of which are: the exploitation of economic fallacy which champions the cheap, the socially amoral, the immediate, the politically expedient, and the narrowly utilitarian results above any long-term, broad, holistic considerations. Characterizing as radical and irrelevant those political opinions which do not neatly fall within the respectable spectrum of opinion, such as those of a Ron Paul or Ralph Nader; reduction of complex issues to simple, easily referenced dichotomies (D-R/liberal vs. conservative) which have the effect of caricaturization opinion itself; and of course, exertion of influence over big media.

By: Andrew T.

Andrew T. — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:21:44 +0000

The entire point of the mainstream media distortions (if I do not repeat myself) in reporting on Iran–and the general overexposure–is to reinforce our power elite’s prophecy that something is inherently wrong and inevitably dangerous about that country. No state mythology can be sustained without resorting to the scare tactic of an imminent, powerful Other enemy state. Today it is Iran, yesterday it was Al-Qaida and (unrelated, of course) Saddam’s Iraq, and the yesterday before it was the Communists.

By: Virgil

Virgil — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:16:56 +0000

I just finished watching "Iran and the West" and thought it a fair, though somewhat sparse, review of Iranian-American relations over the past 30 years. The picture presented is of two sides which have come close on several occasions to finding some middle ground, only to have one side devise some excuse not to go forward with negotiations (yes, Iran has its own version of neocons it would seem). Unfortunately they didn't cover the 1953 CIA-backed coup against Mohammed Mosaddeq and how this would affect later relations, but I realize that two hours allows for only limited information.

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:39:49 +0000

I suggest that Paul Wolfowitz, John McCain, Jonah Goldberg, and Charles Krauthammer all get some Ak-47's and head over to Tehran and lead their fellow Iranians to victory! Ayatollah Goldberg - I like the sound of it! Somehow, it goes beyond the neocon mentality to stand back and see if the Iranians themselves can organize, demonstrate, hold general strikes, engage in civil disobedience and change their government WITHOUT OUR "HELP". Switching topics slightly, while perusing Richard Spencer, I did spot this from Taki's magazine: http://www.takimag.com/.../israel_the_bernie_madoff_of_countries which completely ignores the 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands and is exceedingly one sided against Israel. I was wondering about your (Ilana) take on that article in that you are a staff member of Taki's magazine. [My position on Israel is loud and clear. See my extensive archive. I don't read every article on the site and I am not responsible for any but my own views.]