Saturday, February 04, 2006

State Of The Propaganda address

Today, I heard the conclusion of the Bush SOTU address (which I had dilligently avoided) on the radio.

BUSH: Before history is written down in books, it is written in courage. Like Americans before us, we will show that courage and we will finish well. We will lead freedom's advance. We will compete and excel in the global economy. We will renew the defining moral commitments of this land. And so we move forward optimistic about our country, faithful to its cause and confident of the victories to come. May God bless America.

This is not a speech: it is merely a litany of double-plus-good newspeak. Vague, glittering generalities of propaganda. This is why "politician's promises" are held in contempt: not one of these promises is concrete. Not one of these promises specifies any action by the government. And even if it did, it would probably be a lie, as so many Bush promises have been.

1 comment:

Glen said...

Dang, here I am agreeing with you again. How odd.

Hey, maybe this means Bush is a "uniter" after all! His devious plan must have been to unite all us hard anarcho-libertarians, all you squishy liberalish communitarians, and partisans of every other stripe. Once fiercely divided, we are all now firmly united in our mutual dislike and distrust for the Bush Administration's rhetoric and policies. At the end of the second term we'll all stride boldly forth, shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, into a bright new future of rainbows and puppies and sugar-free cotton candy.