From: swilbur-AT-wcnet.org
Subject: Re: Ronald Reagan: Stuffed corpse to be displayed at the Smithsonian, so 
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 13:03:24 US/Eastern


There's been some interesting stuff in the newspapers
recently about how Reagan serves to "remind Americans
who they really are." It's all thin and weird, stuff
about Reagan's "bravery" in facing Alzheimer's, along
with the common puffery about "ending the Cold War" 
and being the Great Communicator, but also a number
of references to Reagan's "optimism." There's been
explicit reference in some editorials to the prisoner
abuse scandal, and GWB's assertions that the soldiers'
acts were somehow "not American." There's some odd
stuff on the table: Americans threatened with a kind
of forgetfulness about their nature, as a result of
recent scandals, being encouraged to look to Reagan -
a greatly mythologized Reagan, but he was mothballed
for just these mythic purposes a decade ago - as a 
source for a positive national self-image. All of
this coming right around the D-Day anniversary has
meant the papers are full of praise for the bravery
of "our boys over there," and we're just encouraged
to feel good about what a brave nation we are, and
feel that we have lost a great deal in the unselfish
defense of liberty. WWII and 9/11 and Ronnie's illness
and various other things all sort of run together in 
the metastory we're being fed. 

-shawn

Iain wrote:
> Ali Kazmi wrote: 
> > > Some pyschosis of late capitalism in action?
> > >
> > > Iain
> > 
> > Naw. It's just the T.V. told them to mourn. So, they
> > are mourning. It is really quite simple.
> 
> Probably. Some of it (from the far right) will be genuine.
> Some of it may be "Stockholm Syndrome" kind of thing.
> 
> but this hysteria seems significant, given how it has appeared
> alot of late. Massive grief over people you have never met but
> seen on TV? I can understand responses to things like 911, but
> for celes and politicians -- seems mad...
> 
> Iain
> 
> 


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