Thomas Friedman: George W Bush plus corny cliches

By Murray Cohen

Corporate America’s pop culture  is  a market-generated virus compounded of puerility and disingenuousness, which attacks the consumer’s taste and kills his morality. Add a greedy, murderous arrogance and you have the Bush administration.  Add  corny clichés and a pro-Israeli default, and you have Thomas Friedman. A fine example is Friedman’s column in the Sacramento Bee last November. 

Sometimes I hold my nose and peruse his stuff to keep abreast of what current 'moderate' Democratic opinion 'buys into' as 'humanitarian'.  Friedman was strongly in favor of  the 'war' like most Democrats, but apparently isn't now. He wants us to be like the Chinese and make money without making all these enemies we have to invade.  …But, look, the war would be o.k. if the Iraqis would stop being babies, grow up,  and leave the oil to us…

Friedman really doesn’t know what to say, so, hey, he calls the occupation “babysitting”.  This type of banal, Goebbels-like cosmic insult of our victims--whose doors are kicked in, whose loved-ones are murdered or imprisoned or tortured, and whose houses are  blown up with the children inside--is doled out daily by Friedman and other journalists imbedded in our “free” corporate press.  Fast food Truth. We’ve grown fat on it.

Murray Cohen is a retired teacher interested in issues of peace and social justice.