Monday, September 04, 2006

We Have Nothing to Fear...

Many of you may have read this in the Sunday newspaper (Sept. 3), but this is so good that I'm going to quote part of it here in full, with fervent thanks to Garry Trudeau of Doonesbury for saying something brilliantly, that really needed to be said. I thought I couldn't link the site, but apparently Doonesbury doesn't impose the usual 2 week comic blackout, so here it is.

The scene is "Megaphone Mark" and his partner Chase, and Chase is complaining bitterly that "the mess we're in today" is all Clinton's fault. Mark challenges him that "the right wing has had a complete monopoly on power for four years now," and asks why he is "angrier than ever." Then it comes:


I'll tell you why. Because radicals can only survive when fear replaces reason. So they need enemies, real or imagined. As an old lefty, I know. I was as angry as they come. But being an ideologue robs you of critical thinking. I miss it. Which is why I find myself drifting back into the mainstream.
Thank you, Garry Trudeau - this is probably the most incisive single panel you've ever written.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous4:10 PM

    Thanks for this link. Not at all sure what mainstream means anymore, since rather than any sort of unifying consensus about what I used to think were the basic social/political premises which constitute the foundations of this federal civil body politic ironically named the United States of America I see what strikes me as a fractured, rather frightened country grasping at some of the most incredibly shallow, narrow, misguided talismans of safety and certainty. Other than that, things are going swimmingly in the second installment of the Bush the Least Dynasty (least here is relative - none of them is a keeper).

    Still, a most excellent contribution from Gary the Actually Great.

    Anonymous David

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