By Madison S. Hughes (05.21.2011)
Within the distorted noodle of vulgar corporatist thought government appears as a specter; antithetically, the constellations of the erudite progressive mind exposes the corporation as the monolith it is.
By Madison S. Hughes (08.13.2011)
I have wrestled with America’s, especially the Corporatists, cognitive dissonance since the beginning of my intellectual maturity. I still have to remind myself that Americans refuse to allow facts to get in the way of their emotions, and their collective decisions reflect as much.
With much reflection, I have come to believe the major cause of America’s cognitive dissonance stems from the perpetual consumer triad of which they unreflectively find themselves, i.e., desire – acquire – consume. Thirty years of supply-side economics has put the nail in America’s cognitive coffin.
Since America is an embarrassingly anti-intellectual consumeristic society, any attempt to inform them that true happiness is found from within, not from without, I’m afraid would fall on deaf ears. You see, realizing this would require intellectual curiosity, and with a sound-bite attention span they will never get to the desire – acquire – reflect triad of knowledge.
By Madison S. Hughes (08.13.2011)
On innumerable occasions during my twenty-three year career as a U.S. Army Officer I found myself a captive audience member of Staff meetings that began with prayer. While deployed I vividly recall one instance where a Mississippi Redneck Chief of Staff, Colonel Massey, asked before a mandatory Staff meeting if anyone objected to the Chaplain opening the mandatory Staff meeting with a prayer. When I voiced my objection, I was told that I was welcomed to leave the room during the prayer. The U.S. Army, especially the Officer corps, is highly right-wing, and religious. It never ceases to amaze me that I, a lifelong Atheist, was able to serve twenty-three years in such an overtly religious organization.
[…] Republicans can generally be trusted more than Democrats to do what they say they are going to do. He won the Presidency by a healthy margin and had overwhelming popular support. He had the backing of 60 Democrats in the Senate and a similarly strong contingent in the Congress. Furthermore, he had the people and the facts on his side on so many fronts.
When the persecution of an individual who has exposed an evil is pursued so ruthlessly and yet the evil itself is studiedly ignored, all of us know that there is something very wrong with the way that our society is conducting itself. And if we do not protest in the strongest terms about what is being done in our name, then we become complicit.
U.S. Military Deaths (Afghanistan), 1,562
U.S. Military Wounded (Afghanistan), 11,191
U.S. Military Deaths (Iraq), 4,466
U.S. Military Wounded (Iraq), 33,080
Excess Iraqi Deaths, 655,000
Source: http://www.michaelmoore.com/ (accessed 08.13.2011)
The United States is a deeply religious country. More than 90 per cent of the population say they believe in god and while 80 per cent profess to believe in miracles. For the US military, dealing with its’ own religious identity has become an internal battle. Growing evidence points towards a rising influence of evangelical Christianity, and with two wars still raging in Muslim countries with significant religious overtones, there could be serious consequences for the US mission. Pentagon officials say incidents are isolated, aberrations occur, but others closely tied to the military and its’ religious leadership say a transformation is taking place with dire costs.
The United States is a deeply religious country. More than 90 per cent of the population say they believe in god and while 80 per cent profess to believe in miracles. For the US military, dealing with its’ own religious identity has become an internal battle. Growing evidence points towards a rising influence of evangelical Christianity, and with two wars still raging in Muslim countries with significant religious overtones, there could be serious consequences for the US mission. Pentagon officials say incidents are isolated, aberrations occur, but others closely tied to the military and its’ religious leadership say a transformation is taking place with dire costs.
Always Question Authority 