Face/Off

We, as a people, have largely abandoned fact. We’ve tied our fate to pure emotion. We either love something or we hate it. We're no longer reluctant to announce our likes and dislikes publicly. We indulge ourselves shamelessly in our prejudice without having to suffer the consequence of being proven wrong.

As such, an expansive and lucrative industry has developed; one, that can supply designer ‘facts’ to suit every mood. Hate Israel? Plenty of material out there to support this position. Hate Republicans? Ditto. Love men? Women? Nazis? Children? Islam? Everyone has a favorite site they can go to find support for their particular perversion. And so, perversion is continually reinforced - anonymously and entirely without consequence. In some cases, some twisted truth manages to gather so much momentum as to become mainstream. (Classic example: Bush Derangement Syndrome.)

JB is right to view right-wing talk radio with suspicion. It is often pompous and tediously predictable. The same is true of its lone counterpart, Air America. To whom, then, can we turn to get a fair and balanced assessment of events? The John Batchelor Show, perhaps? We too have our crazies, to be sure. But Batchelor himself always manages to maintain a stiff upper lip.

I have found that in general it takes more effort to promote a lie; and its promotion, therefore, is apt to be more desperate; more conspicuous; flamboyant. But, as Barry Goldwater once said, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” This, I believe, is what gets Limbaugh et al. off the hook.

At the moment, every position regarding Israel is extreme. This has come about because of the unwavering demand by a large and influential part of the world’s population to have Israel wiped off the map. There is no middle ground.

At the moment, the Democrat (turned Socialist) Party is engaged in a bitter campaign to socialize the biggest, most successful free market economy in the world. They have decided to draw support from anyone with a beef. They have made the calculation that Israel can be sacrificed without hurting their cause. As such, they freely disseminate anti-Israel propaganda in the hope of recruiting the larger of the two populations to their side.

Until some semblance of middle ground can be re-established, the crazies on either side will continue to slug it out. As the rhetoric heats and reaches the boiling point, containment will cease to be an option.

Whether Islamist or Democrat (turned Socialist), neither is in a position to accept compromise. Their arguments are too weak to withstand even so much as fair scrutiny. In order to survive, it is essential that Israel as well as Republicans match tactics. The ‘other’ cheek has been bloodied so often, we are in danger of no longer having a face to present. If Israel should fade to a footnote in the ancient scrolls, can America be far behind?