End of America!

There is an interesting debate in the Guardian, triggered off by an excellent article by Naomi Wolf "Fascist America, in 10 easy steps"..

Lord Byron it was who said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty". That there has been a breakdown in this vigilance is brought out brilliantly, though sometimes with a little hyperbole, by Ms Wolf, "Because Americans like me were born in freedom, we have a hard time even considering that it is possible for us to become as unfree - domestically - as many other nations. Because we no longer learn much about our rights or our system of government - the task of being aware of the constitution has been outsourced from citizens' ownership to being the domain of professionals such as lawyers and professors - we scarcely recognise the checks and balances that the founders put in place, even as they are being systematically dismantled." Ms Wolf has alerted us to the creeping dangers of such totalitiarian tendencies in American political institutions.

It is indeed staggering to realise how far the Bush administration has fallen. The list of administration idealogues and cronies under scanner for corruption and other fraudulent practices is growing - Paul Wolfowitz, Alberto Gonzales and the Federal Prosecuter Gate, Lewis Libby, Conrad Black, the Halliburton gang, Texan oil groups ...

I can't imagine many Governments, even in some of the more dubiously democratic countries, surviving this relentless carnage of character and integrity, which the Bush administration has been facing every day for the past two years. Are the American people turning a blind eye, or are they simply ignorant of this orgy of malfeasance and fraud? If it is the later, as I am inclined to belive, then there is a major problem with the media establishment in that country. How can so many intelligent people be continued to be fooled for so long a time? Where have all the upholders of truth and justice in the Fourth Estate disppeared to? Amira Hass, writing in the Israeli newspaper Haa'retz, spoke about the role of media as "questioning the centres power". But by that standard, the media has long since abdicated its responsibilities. As an outsider following US mainstream media closely through the major newspapers and magazines, I am struck by this self-censorship and the lack of outrage or even concern about this state of affairs in a country which prides itself as the fountainhead of democracy and good governance.

Next time US Human Rights watchdog Freedom House rates countries on various indices of freedom, it may do better to take a pause and do some introspection. To re-phrase Mao Zedong, "let a million Naomi Wolfs and Noam Chomskys bloom"!