Trouble-Making Truth-Tellers
Hey Folks,
What do Noam Chomsky, Steven Colbert, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Galileo all have in common?
Well, they’ve all been attacked by right-wingers. Galbraith, who died recently, was attacked for being “Liberal” by that reliably patrician twit, George Will. Colbert, who recently demolished Bush in front of assembled media swells was predictably skewered by the usual Foxxxy suspects – for “going over the line.” Chomsky has been the Right’s regular whipping boy for as long as I can remember – he, a respected professor at MIT, gives lectures and writes books, but you’ll rarely see him allowed on television; he’s the right’s poster boy for “far-left whackoes” who should - under all circumstances - be totally ignored.
And then there’s Galileo.
Galileo looked through his telescope and saw that the moons of Jupiter orbited the planet. He SAW it and recorded it; anyone else could have checked out his observations. The Pope, however, knew that Galileo’s lying eyes conflicted with the Church’s official view: the earth (you see) was held up by a magical, invisible, golden chain attached in heaven; a chain that could somehow pass through the rotating crystalline spheres in which the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars were embedded and by which they all circled the the focus of the Divine eye, the center of everything, i.e. the earth (this rotation, by the way, is what creates the fabled “music of the spheres”).
If the moons could pass through these spheres, as Galileo claimed, that would screw up everything. Galileo was forcibly silenced and made to recant. And it took the Church only 500 years to admit its mistake.
So, what is wrong with Noam Chomsky, Steven Colbert, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Galileo; what is their sin?
Are they liars, swindlers, inside traders, lobbyists, war profiteers, torturers, gay, alcoholics, cocaine-snorters, greedy, or wrong? No. They have been none of these. Their sin, like that of Michael Moore, is being RIGHT – and daring to speak the truth to those who don’t want to hear it. Their sin is like that of the child at the Emperor’s haberdashery parade; their sin is choosing to speak the truth regardless of the powerful and vengeful dissemblers the truth exposes.
As such, it clarifies for me a long-standing and puzzling question:
“If experts know so much, why don’t they ever agree?”
It’s pretty simple, really. Even if one side of an issue is seriously struggling to find the truth, the other side isn’t listening; instead, they’re actively working to AVOID the truth. At best, one side wants to overcome ignorance for the greater good of mankind; the other side – selfishly benefiting from that ignorance – wants to keep it that way. It is a struggle, but it is neither a dialogue nor an investigation; it is not colaborative. It is a tug of war; and the Dark Side believes: all’s fair in tug and war. It’s Henry Clay turned upside down: “I’d rather be President than right.”
Well, Folks, what does this all say to me? It says that time for nice talk is done. We need more Rumsfeldian hecklers screaming at lying monsters. We need more Colbert Reports in the face of “the Man.” We need more honest scientists like Chomsky and Galileo sticking to their story even if it pisses off the Pope and Kkkarl Rove.
The monsters who don’t want to hear what they don’t want to hear don’t listen to talk or reason or their calcified hearts or God – whether we ask them to for us or even - as I'm sure Bush & Co. often parrot - “in the name of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.” They care only about themselves, and unless we resist in stronger ways than impassioned entreaty and aguement, they will drag us into Grover Norquist’s bathtub, light a fire under it, add some carrots and celery, throw in a sprig of pasley, call it the People’s Stew, and demand that we stir it periodically.
- Uke Man
What do Noam Chomsky, Steven Colbert, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Galileo all have in common?
Well, they’ve all been attacked by right-wingers. Galbraith, who died recently, was attacked for being “Liberal” by that reliably patrician twit, George Will. Colbert, who recently demolished Bush in front of assembled media swells was predictably skewered by the usual Foxxxy suspects – for “going over the line.” Chomsky has been the Right’s regular whipping boy for as long as I can remember – he, a respected professor at MIT, gives lectures and writes books, but you’ll rarely see him allowed on television; he’s the right’s poster boy for “far-left whackoes” who should - under all circumstances - be totally ignored.
And then there’s Galileo.
Galileo looked through his telescope and saw that the moons of Jupiter orbited the planet. He SAW it and recorded it; anyone else could have checked out his observations. The Pope, however, knew that Galileo’s lying eyes conflicted with the Church’s official view: the earth (you see) was held up by a magical, invisible, golden chain attached in heaven; a chain that could somehow pass through the rotating crystalline spheres in which the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars were embedded and by which they all circled the the focus of the Divine eye, the center of everything, i.e. the earth (this rotation, by the way, is what creates the fabled “music of the spheres”).
If the moons could pass through these spheres, as Galileo claimed, that would screw up everything. Galileo was forcibly silenced and made to recant. And it took the Church only 500 years to admit its mistake.
So, what is wrong with Noam Chomsky, Steven Colbert, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Galileo; what is their sin?
Are they liars, swindlers, inside traders, lobbyists, war profiteers, torturers, gay, alcoholics, cocaine-snorters, greedy, or wrong? No. They have been none of these. Their sin, like that of Michael Moore, is being RIGHT – and daring to speak the truth to those who don’t want to hear it. Their sin is like that of the child at the Emperor’s haberdashery parade; their sin is choosing to speak the truth regardless of the powerful and vengeful dissemblers the truth exposes.
As such, it clarifies for me a long-standing and puzzling question:
“If experts know so much, why don’t they ever agree?”
It’s pretty simple, really. Even if one side of an issue is seriously struggling to find the truth, the other side isn’t listening; instead, they’re actively working to AVOID the truth. At best, one side wants to overcome ignorance for the greater good of mankind; the other side – selfishly benefiting from that ignorance – wants to keep it that way. It is a struggle, but it is neither a dialogue nor an investigation; it is not colaborative. It is a tug of war; and the Dark Side believes: all’s fair in tug and war. It’s Henry Clay turned upside down: “I’d rather be President than right.”
Well, Folks, what does this all say to me? It says that time for nice talk is done. We need more Rumsfeldian hecklers screaming at lying monsters. We need more Colbert Reports in the face of “the Man.” We need more honest scientists like Chomsky and Galileo sticking to their story even if it pisses off the Pope and Kkkarl Rove.
The monsters who don’t want to hear what they don’t want to hear don’t listen to talk or reason or their calcified hearts or God – whether we ask them to for us or even - as I'm sure Bush & Co. often parrot - “in the name of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ.” They care only about themselves, and unless we resist in stronger ways than impassioned entreaty and aguement, they will drag us into Grover Norquist’s bathtub, light a fire under it, add some carrots and celery, throw in a sprig of pasley, call it the People’s Stew, and demand that we stir it periodically.
- Uke Man
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