Propaganda teachers and theorists tell us that the most powerful form of propaganda is that of omission. It is not an exaggeration to say that the most targeted population on earth for propaganda are the citizens of the United States.
Consider the near universal omissions of two entrenched realities that threaten our survival: U.S. militarism and imperialism. Martin Luther King in perhaps his most important speech acknowledged the United States as the “Greatest purveyors of violence” in the world. This was at the height of the Vietnam War and before our destruction of Cambodia which ushered in and made possible Pol Pot and his killing fields.
Militarism and imperialism left unchecked will leave the country of origin and those they target in ruins. Think of Libya, Honduras, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the literal starvation of Yemen. These military actions are never questioned, reviewed, vetted or debated. No one will dare ask as, Ralph Nader did, “Who is in whose backyard?”
The strategy of omission and the epic media failure to challenge our ever-expanding global military adventures are leading us as a nation to a near point of no return. Because coupled with our imperial ambitions is the sobering and terrifying reality and evolution of our “Nuclear modernization plan.” Our war planners have introduced a mindset and strategy of utilizing first-strike nuclear weapons for non-nuclear confrontations such as a severe cyber-attack.
Americans need to come to terms and face head on the realities of both militarism — the “military industrial complex” that Ike warned us about — and our unchallenged imperialism which threatens world peace and species survival.
It is time we all collectively cast light on these problems. By doing so we afford ourselves the chance to preserve our democracy and ease global tensions that left unchecked with result in unimaginable disaster.
Jim Sawyer
Edmonds
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