A BuzzFlash Preview of Al Gore's "The Assault on Reason"

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

The title of Al Gore’s new book, "The Assault on Reason," says it all.

We have lived through a period in which the mainstream media and most Capitol Hill politicians – including most Democrats – have accepted the irrational and failed framework offered by the Bush Administration, right wing think tanks, and right wing media echo chamber.

The continued general unwillingness by the mainstream media to challenge the preposterous, radical, failed and illegal activity and statements by the Republican Executive Branch and its minions is mind-boggling to those Americans who have not been lobotomized by television, comfort and greed.

Al Gore is constantly marginalized by the mainstream media because he understands this.

Just looking at the top of the inner leaf of the book jacket to "The Assault on Reason" leaves no doubt that Gore has evolved into our modern day Jeremiah: "A visionary analysis of how the politics of fear, secrecy, cronyism, and blind faith has combined with the degradation of the public sphere to create an environment dangerously hostile to reason."

Gore’s new book returns to the themes of the speeches – sponsored by MoveOn.org – that he gave prior to the publicity surrounding "An Inconvenient Truth." Those lacerating commentaries on our perilous times were widely dismissed as "rants" by the corporate press. It is thus that a person who argues that we should return to the principles of the Age of Enlightenment – upon which America was founded – becomes scorned by a media co-opted by corporate greed.

In the introduction to his new book, Gore notes that as Senator Robert Byrd appealed for a rational approach to Iraq policy instead of launching a pre-emptive war, the Senate was empty, except for Byrd. "Why was the Senate silent?" Gore asks.

Then Gore answers his question:

In describing the empty chamber the way he did, Byrd invited a specific version of the same general question millions of us have been asking: "Why do reason, logic, and truth seem to play a sharply diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?"

The persistent and sustained reliance on falsehoods as the basis of policy, even in the face of massive and well-understood evidence to the contrary, seems to many Americans to have reached levels that were previously unimaginable.

Gore’s first chapter is appropriately on "The Politics of Fear." In his introduction, he explains that "In chapters 1 through 5, I identify and describe the enemies of reason….Chapters 6 through 8 assess the damage that has already been occurred as a result of the progressive substitution of raw power and institutionalized corruption for reason and logic in policies important to our survival: national security, environmental security, energy security, the protection of our liberty, and the promotion of the general welfare….In Chapter 9 [the last one in the book], I offer a road map for restoring the health and vitality of American democracy and propose a strategy for the reintroduction of reason to its proper role at the heart of the deliberative process of self-government."

In his Conclusion, Gore asserts: "The rule of reason is the true sovereign in the American system. Our self-government is based on the ability of the individual citizens to use reason in holding their elected representatives, senators and presidents accountable for their actions. When reason itself comes under assault, American democracy is put at risk."

The right wing assault on reason began decades ago, but only came to full fruition with the theft of the 2000 election and the installation of a dimwit monarchist in the Oval Office, with a Rasputin Vice-President as his puppeteer – and a Svengali as his domestic co-president.

It is to Gore’s great credit that he recognizes the role and power of television in transforming a commons based on the discussion of public policy and reason into a tawdry media infotainment machine that sees news as subservient to entertainment, ratings, and staying in the good graces of the status quo.

Gore, however, notes that we cannot merely get angry at the GOP thugs who are dismantling our Constitution and replacing it with dictatorial powers. We need to retransform our communication system into one that can once again facilitate a discussion of pressing national issues – and can be uncompromising enough to return to basic standards of journalistic professionalism in seeking out facts and the truth.

It is fitting that Gore closes his modern Tom Paine call to democracy with questions for us, the readers: "The question before us could be of no greater moment: Will we continue to live as a people under the rule of law as embodied in our Constitution? Or will we fail future generations by leaving them a Constitution far diminished from the charter of liberty we have inherited from our forebears? Our choice is clear."

Yes, our choice is clear, but we must become the advocates for change – and we must understand the importance of the media – particularly television, as Gore drives home – in shaping the narrow propaganda, entertainment values lens through which most Americans view the political process.

The Bush Administration and the mainstream media – for the most part – lead us to believe that Bush is, indeed, "The Great Decider," (Our Caudillo).

We must become the deciders, as did our revolutionary forebears, and the masters of our own destiny by never allowing such a concentration of power to accrue to one person ever again in America.

We all have a role to play in this process.

Al Gore is doing his part in his compelling, brilliant book, "The Assault on Reason."

He asks us to do no less.

THE BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

 "The Assault on Reason" can be purchased from BuzzFlash.com by clicking this url: http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/598