Mirroring American society in crisis, impasse, regression

Fed and feeding on hysteria

Excerpt by Carolyn Bennett

Barry Grey writes today at World Socialist Web Site “The media and their leading personnel present a picture of disorientation and panic.

“T

here is an  element of calculation in this, as the media establishment attempts to sow fear and confusion to justify past police state measures at home and wars abroad carried out in the name of the ‘war on terror,’ and prepare the way for a further militarization of American society.”

There is also, he writes, “a genuine mood of hysteria within this affluent and self-contained social layer.”

He concludes

“Events such as the Boston Marathon bombing ultimately reflect the immense social crisis and increasingly toxic contradictions of America. What happened on Monday was a horrific event that has left hundreds of families scarred for life. But it is the case that mass killings, more frequently with automatic weapons than with bombs, are a regular occurrence in the United States.

“I

t is also the case that the kind of death and destruction that hit downtown Boston on Monday, and far worse, is inflicted by the United States government virtually on a daily basis in the form of drone strikes on towns and villages in either Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia. This cannot but have a dehumanizing and demoralizing effect on sections of the U.S. population.

“In its own way, the hysterical response of the corporate-controlled media to the Boston bombing is another reflection of the crisis and impasse of American society.”

I could not agree more. 

Source

“Media hysteria grows over Boston bombing” (World Socialist Web Site,” Barry Grey

wsws.org), April 18, 2013, published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

  

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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