I would be remiss if I didn't also acknowledge the hundreds if not thousands of people who write about America's condition, its causes and possible future and exhort us to pursue socioeconomic justice and peace. Clearly the hundreds of writers whose works I cite throughout this book are among them.
These writers, like myself, have chosen the pen over the sword. Can the first be mightier than the second, as the saying goes? Well, consider this. Thomas Paine's pamphlet, "Common Sense," was a piece of war propaganda, nothing common sensical about it, that is said to have gotten the colonists excited enough to fight the unnecessary American Revolution. Now, don't get me wrong. I never have and never will advocate the sword in response to an antagonist's sword, and for two reasons. One, the antagonists, in this case America's power elite, would melt the revolutionaries' sword. Two, violence is never the right answer for other violence. The only morally responsible path to socioeconomic justice and peace must be a just and nonviolent path.
I would also be remiss if I did not mention the late C. Wright Mills, sociologist and author who apparently coined the term "the power elite" in writing his 1956 book, "The Power Elite," but I did not draw upon it for writing this book.23 It charts its own course.
I'll end this Preface with two questions, an advance notice about my deliberate choice of certain nouns and pronouns and an addendum. First question: do you think on the one hand that there is a real difference between a handful of evil doers choosing villagers in a far-away land and then bombing them to smithereens in our names and on the other hand the many millions of us letting it happen? Second question: do you think the surviving loved ones blame the few or us in general? You can tell my answer by my varying use in the text of nouns versus pronouns. For example, instead of writing "the military bombs innocent people," I will occasionally write "we bomb innocent people" to emphasize that whatever is done by a certain few in "our" government is being done in our names. Since you might find this practice irritating if I always do it, I will do it only occasionally.
And finally, an important addendum. Near the beginning of this Preface I wrote that one distinguished scholar/activist called America a "rogue nation." That was the title of one of William Blum's books, and I cite it in the Notes below. I have since learned that Mr. Blum has died. He was vilified in an obituary written by, you guessed it, a major newspaper of the mainstream media, a major source of false facts, propaganda and vilifications. As a heads up, read what I say about this happening in Chapter 4 when I write about the mainstream media as a badvantage for the corpocracy.
Respectfully,
Gary B. Brumback, PhD
Notes
1. Brumback, GB. Real America, an Endangering and Endangered Ruination. Dissident Voice, March 28; OpEdNews, March 29; Headline News, March 29; PopularResistance.Org Daily Digest, March 31; Greenville Post, April 2; Transmedia Service, April 6; Uncommon Thought Journal, April 8. 2016.
2. Ellis, C. Americans: Government Corrupt, Elite Serving Only Themselves. WND, March 3, 2016.
3. See, e.g., Post Editorial Board. U.S. Is the Greatest Threat to World Peace? New York Post, January 5, 2014.
4. Blum, W. Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower. Common Courage Press, 2005; Chomsky, N. Noam Chomsky: The Leading Terrorist State. Truthout, November 3, 2014; and Derber, C, Sociopathic Society: A People's Sociology of the United States. Routledge, 2013.
5. Schwarz, J. A Short History of U.S. Bombing of Civilian Facilities. www.theintercept.com,
October 9, 2015.
6. Brumback, GB.
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