Saturday, June 22, 2019
What I'm Reading 2019: Stephen Kinzer, The Brothers
The remarkable documentary about Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, two American patriots who were key movers in the Eisenhower era. Together they were instrumental in inspiring and enacting the American foreign policy of intervention, bullying and deposing of governments in developing countries. The overt policies of Foster Dulles who was Secretary of State worked hand in hand with the top-secret tactics of brother Allen. Remarkably, using the over-inflated threat of world communist takeover as the rationale, they blatantly intervened to influence political people and events in countries with which they deemed the USA had significant business interests.
The book goes into intimate details about campaigns, over and covert, to overthrow and blatantly push for American outcomes in Guatemala, Iran, Congo, Indonesia, Cuba.
Tactics included buying political allegiance with millions of dollars approved by Eisenhower, all top secret; supporting alternate leaders with money, false news stories and actual false content; manipulating the local playing field in whatever way possible; and ultimately participating in the direct assassination of a leader (Congo's Lumumba).
By playing upon and building up the fears of the people and members of congress with regard to communism, and with Eisenhower in agreement directing this secret choir of bullies, the Dulles brothers were given billions of dollars in resources to play their weird game of chess.
What I'm Reading In 2019: Joshua Safran, Free Spirit
An incredible story of a boy whose childhood consisted of being dragged around the US midwest by his single mom, living in off-grid communes, hippie farms, and new-age wacko towns. It shows how the mom's sincere but sincerely wrong belief can lead to a wasted life and needless self-inflicted grief. She had been raised with strong anti-government bias, and spent too much energy trying to escape from the clutches of what she believed was the evils of government, corruption and capitalism in "the system."
The book tells the story of the boy Josh watching his mother being abused by a shyster father figure who came into their lives and basically destroyed what was a peaceful coexistence with his mom. It reflects on Josh's coming of age and his increasing self-awareness of how life actually is. Josh ultimately has more courage within him than he originally believes and he finally takes matters into his own hands and chases the asshole out the door. The story also shows the brutality and bully instincts of school kids who have absolutely no class, and reveals a Lord Of The Flies world of violence, classism, and potential murder which exists closer to each of us than we think. Ultimately the book is a story of triumph and extremely inspiring to me.
What I'm Reading in 2019: Richard Wagamese, Indian Horse
Sad, instructive. Important that I read this story and realize once again that my country has been guilty of cultural genocide since its inception.
"Nothing about us without us."
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