Somebody named Graham E. Fuller in his new book (which I saw on the new book shelf, held in my hands last week for the seconds it took to read the cover, back, and inside-flaps then put it down), A World Without Islam:
There is a further irony here: How can a nation like the US, which expresses such powerful outpourings of patriotism and ubiquitous unfurling of the flag on all occasions, seem quite obtuse to the existence of nationalism and patriotism in other countries? Washington never fared very well in the Cold War in understanding the motives and emotions of the nonaligned world; it dismissed or even suppressed inconvenient local nationalist aspirations, thereby ending up pushing a large grouping of countries toward greater sympathy with the Soviet Union. This was a kind of strategic blindness ...
What? America's not "obtuse to the existence of nationalism and patriotism in other countries," America pisses its fucking pants at "the existence of nationalism and patriotism in other countries." Gleefully.
America creates rabid nationalism and patriotism in The Other, and here's the thing, it does exist. Charles World's Shittiest Human Krauthammer should be scared of the Iranian Charles World's Shittiest Human Krauthammer who's scared of ours, and both are just motherfucking propagandists who believe the other is every bit as shitty as himself and !!!, maybe more! Corporate may not weep at the crude sentimentality of their marketing (I think they do), but they're pantsful convinced of the assholosity of their opposite assholes, and they're certainly correct to fearmonger the other camps' nationalism and patriotism to their camp's sanctimoniously fearmongering nationalists and patroits as greased compliance.
MORE, LINKS, MUSIC, POEM at the
I know it's a pain in the ass, but please adjust your bookmarks, blogrolls, and readers.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.