Lucky for me, I am going on Jon Stewart tonight to talk about my new book The American Way of War. The Daily Show is a national treasure and, in an age of such cynicism about the media, I think a whole generation of Americans will look back at these past eight years and feel a warm spot in their hearts that Jon Stewart kept us all laughing and thinking during a time of such challenge. I think it's not unlike how my parents' generation remembers Lenny Bruce -- as a voice in the wilderness, and one that understood the power of laughter to keep us all sane.
I, on the other hand, am a bit of a bummer. I spend all my time trying to understand the real mechanics by which the American system lost its way. I think unless you really retrace the steps of the past and figure out where you took a wrong turn, you risk taking more wrong turns in trying to solve the problem.
As I wrote here over the weekend ("Real Change Trickles Up"), we need to be extremely careful as we approach November to commit ourselves as individuals to serious engagement in the rescue of our society -- and that this engagement requires far more than just casting a ballot on election day. I have a mission. And my mission came from talking to thousands of people around the country as I toured with my last film Why We Fight. Everywhere I went, in small towns and big towns, among military audiences and civilian, I faced the same question "What can I do?" My mission is to try to encourage people to keep asking this question and to seek answers to it in their everyday lives. So much of the story of the past eight years is one of good people doing nothing while awful things happened around them.
To give an example, George Bush has for some time suffered a 70% disapproval rating and the defining issue of his presidency (until recently) has been the Iraq War. So in a country of 227 million adults, this 70% rating would suggest a possible 159 million eligible war-protestors. Yet, what we saw instead was that the largest U.S. war protests are lucky to rise above 100,000 (and were shamed by the numbers that marched in other Western democracies). This reflects a disturbing disconnect at work between what people think about our society and how they conduct themselves as members of it. This gap must be closed if we are to have real change.
No matter who enters the White House in November, we as the public will have to overcome our inhibitions and break our habits of disengagement to become the shapers of our own destiny. Otherwise, no matter what the intention of any candidate, our future will be shaped for us by the same forces that have brought us to this juncture of crises.
Though I wrote The American Way of War, I am first and foremost a moviemaker. So to give you a sense of what the book is about, I cut together the trailer below. Notice Chalmers Johnson's great statement in it that the upcoming election "is about the Constitution. If you don't restore it, it doesn't matter who you elect." I couldn't have said it better myself.
Last time I was on The Daily Show, my mom told me I swiveled in my chair too much and that it made me seem nervous. So first of all, I hope not to swivel in my chair. But second, I hope I can get across to people that, though we all must vote on election day, that is only the tiniest beginning of all that we need to do in the coming years to restore this country and the world. It could be an exciting time, if we are ready for the long haul.
Eugene Jarecki's 2006 film "Why We Fight" won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival as well as a Peabody Award. His new book, The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril, has just been released by Simon & Schuster/Free Press. He will be appearing on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart this Monday, October 20.
Too bad they didn't give time to really articulate the threat of MIC...
War/massive militrary spending=bankruptcy (moral and financial). It would have been helpful (for our survival) if they gave you a chance to discuss citizen action.
Please take a look at Senator Mike Gravel's book Citizen Power. He knows that our Representatives don't change the system (70% of citizens are against war... Iraq/Vietnam, 70% for Healthcare yet no improvement in 30+years). Chapters 2 and 12 outline citizen empowerment. Real civic engagement happens when Americans have the right to vote on issues.
Women's Right to Vote, Social Security, Civil Service, Campaign Finance Reform all came from the People while our governement of minority/Lobbyist controlled Representatives blockaded these advances.
We can bring in the People as our 4th check in our system of checks and balances. Geogre Washington said it best..." With Initiative and Referenda, there will be no need for further Constitution Conventions. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government."
Check out http://www.vote.org and see what Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky and others say about the National Initiative.
We need something more than just protesting in the streets (remember Reagan and the Nuclear Freeze Movement?... We now have more nukes even with all the money , protests and activism). We the People need a real voice in government. http://www.nationalinitiative.us
hope u can get on Charlie Rose, BookTV and Larry King (although I'm not holding my breath on the latter) ....
also get your publicists to work on 60 MINUTES and/or CBS SUNDAY MORNING ... all of those outlets would be great... as well as a spot with Thom Hartmann ...
we citizens have been silent too long as to what is the most judicious use of military power and how we can better use our resources...
keep up the good work ... war must always be the worst and last resort ... the costs in lives, minds, and dollars are enormous ...
join us, REVOLT!
thanks for the article.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/20/eugene_jarecki_on_the_american_way
As a poet and student of psychology, I was very intrigued by your discussion of moving out of the deliberative function of government, during a crisis, into the executive, towards getting things done as they come up. You emphasized that this means that the executive favors war, favors crises.
My concerns center on the uses of the social sciences as "software" for our military hardware. My science, psychology, has been abused to develop methods of manipulating public opinion, manufacturing consent, and torturing us one by one.
As you said, democracy takes more than just the few minutes we spend in a voting booth every once in a while. And as David Sirota has recently said, our participation is their worst fear, especially when we take direct action.
"A Republic, if you can keep it," Ben Franklin said after the Constitutional Convention. I have to say, at this point, we've lost it to thieves and fanatics and our own apathy.
The good news, though, is each of us is a co-equal sovereign, the source of the authority of the subordinate three branches, America stands as we stand, she speaks as we speak. Saving the world, saving America, is as easy as saving your own little self.
I applaud Mr. Jarecki's sentiments, but it is frustrating when all one's efforts are for naught. When Pelosi ignores our demands to impeach Bush, when Democrats look the other way whilst elections are stolen, when the MSM cares more about Dancing with the Stars than people drowning in New Orleans, I have to ask myself "Why bother?
IF Obama becomes President, it will be many years and a lot of hard work before we can turn this country around. It will happen if EVERYONE does their part! No more partisan bickering, the corporate media HAS to start doing its job and we will need a well-informed citizernry to get off their collective bums, turn off their Ipods and video games and particpate in fixing this country's problems.
I'm not holding my breath, though...and if McCain "wins" THIS not-so-blithe spirit will be buying a one-way ticket back to the UK!
Whether it makes them very independent or creative is debatable, but their minds are pretty strong and so is their ability to work hard in graduate school.
I find education in US schools in general too lax and too easy, pandering to the lowest possible denominator.
Granted, I can redesign a network infrastructure or explain how the internet works in my sleep, but simple math in my head is often problematic. (Addition and multiplication, actually, I have little trouble with...but subtraction and division for some reason always give me pause.).
We need a WAY to "become the shapers of our destiny." Buying Congress is likely the world’s best investment, paying off at 1000 to 1, according to several sources, including Jack Abramoff (in the 3rd paragraph of http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/30/AR2005043000783.html.)
To check and balance that almost infinite pressure on Congress, we need better and NATIONAL BALLOT INITIATIVES, which have worked in Switzerland to keep Parliament humble and representing since 1891. The best project for this is former Sen. Mike Gravel's National Initiative for Democracy.
Since 2003, registered voters have been voting at http://Vote.org to ratify the National Initiative, much as citizens ratified the Constitution at the Conventions. But the media won't touch it, even when Mike was sacrificing his retirement to run for President to promote it.
If you agree, please tell people tonight on Jon Stewart's show something like "Please Vote at Vote.org to take the "mock" out of democracy!" People can also read Mike's book "Citizen Power".
Evan Ravitz,
evan at vote dot org