« Propaganda Where It Belongs | Main | Why I Read Cornel West »
April 26, 2005
In Support of Maggie Gyllenhaal
Before we criticize Maggie Gyllenhaal we need to question the efficacy of the news that brings us our information. If our news consists of reports of official White House releases, statements by anonymous government officials, rhetorical statements made as though they were infallible fact, it is our duty to question. This is not a fundamentalist/liberal, democratic/republican debate. Maggie Gyllenhall is not an enemy. She is a compassionate American who is deeply troubled by the war ideology that has divided us Americans. Since 9/11, every issue is being framed by our congressional representatives and the president's administration in ways to divide us to the brink of an ideological civil war. When Bill Frist makes the filibuster a religious issue he is saying all of us must think as he and the conservative evangelicals, and that it is your fault for not agreeing, not his. And for your refusal to agree you are causing the schism between yourself and others, not him.
Ironically, the administration, conservatives in congress, and their evangelical backers are promoting a radical tyrannical agenda just as they want the public to believe Muslim fundamentalists are engaged in. We are in a modern day version of the crusades pitting religious armies against each other. Maggie Gyllenhaal shouldn't be criticized with vitriolic bellicosity. If anyone has criticism for her they need to find out what she said and ask why anyone would feel it in their best interests to attack us, and not believe some stupid propaganda line that they "hate freedom". Americans don't like it when other communities of the world show a hatred toward us. Why? Because we are a compassionate and peaceful people. So are Arabs, their governments, like ours, don't always do the things that represent them as a whole.
What Maggie Gyllenhaal did, what Cornel West did, Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky have done is to show that there are multiple view points to consider and nothing good can come from a lynch mob mentality. After you have done the research to find out what the Arab people themselves think about American involvement, what the world thinks, how the war is being reported around the world and the reputation we have gotten, what the intellectuals from around the globe think, and frame this information with an understanding of social theory than you have something to add to the discussion. Perhaps you can help others to understand social and political situations better. Otherwise, you are just news junkies with an ear to your favorite commentators.
