Open Public Letter to Patrick Lawrence, by Ray Zwarich
To all of Caliban’s Really Good Ones, and to all whose fears are growing as the hatred in our nation grows ever closer to erupting into tragic deadly violence:
This is an open public letter to American commentator, Mr. Patrick Lawrence, whom I consider to be on a very short list of the deepest thinkers and finest political writers in our tragic bleeding nation. I’ve only been familiar with this man’s work for a couple or three years or so, but apparently he was, for several decades, a big deal ‘foreign correspondent’ for large mass media outlets, (like the International Herald Tribune, if I recall).
Mr. Lawrence’s work is firmly grounded in genuine humility, which, of course, is what captured my attention, then drew me in. The purpose of his writing is not to merely feed his ego, (like Cane Toad Hedges, who is most surely reading this), but rather to solve the intractable problem hanging over our heads like Damocles’ proverbial sword, threatening all Humanity with extinction, in the NEAR term, (not in some distant millennial future, as when John preached by the River Jordan).
No woman or man can serve the truth without being humble before it. Humility is the central concept of Reason itself. It is from humility that what we call ‘the scientific method’ was hewn.
Mr. Lawrence has lived all over the world, but he now lives in the same general territory as me, (within an hour’s drive or so of our farm). He cherishes the beauty, (as do I), of the Berkshire ‘mountains’ of western Massachusetts. (I put the word ‘mountain’ in hash quotes because people ‘out west’, where I spent quite a bit of time in younger days, once living in a cabin at 9,000 feet in the Rockies, way ‘off the grid’, where the nearest human neighbor was a good 30 miles away, if not 50), would snigger to call them ‘mountains’, but they are nonetheless as beautiful… Apparently he has a home in Connecticut as well. (I am a 45 minute drive from Hartford).
This open letter is written in reply to Mr. Lawrence’s recent article concerning his recently being permanently banned from the privately owned public communications utility, Twitter, apparently for expressing views that counter the mainstream (CIA/Goebbels Committee) narrative concerning the US Empire’s military aggression against Russia, and Russia’s defensive reaction to that aggression. (I often use the term “CIA” as a generic term for the ‘intelligence’ that runs the US Empire… I also frequently use the term “Goebbels Committee” for the arm of US Empire ‘intelligence’ that runs our nation’s highly centralized Mass Media).
Mr. Lawrence:
Surely ideological self-righteousness is among the most dangerous factors which threaten our nation. I assume that a writer as brilliantly perceptive as you knows that as well as I do. In our tragic nation’s current era of proliferating, and competing, “witch hunts”, we would do well to imagine, and remember, what the burning flesh of young women smelled like in old Salem, as it wafted on the morning breeze, like the delicious smell of chicken or steak over an open fire.
Self-righteousness, when adopted en masse by any large group, is among the most DEADLY of our human traits.
Large numbers, even millions have died whenever self-righteousness has gained political power in large nations. Millions in our nation are in great peril, though relatively few of us seem to yet realize it.
Surely a person as brilliantly perceptive as you, Mr Lawrence, is fully aware that our nation has not only been captured under a deadly regime of self-righteousness, but our population has been skillfully engineered to be divided into two mutually hateful camps, both of which proudly fly the flag of self-righteousness, completely heedless of the deadly danger.
I am, of course, sorry to hear that you were banned from Twitter, simply for challenging the CIA/Goebbels Committee narrative concerning the US Empire’s deadly and existentially dangerous military aggression against Russia, but it is distressing to me, in its multi-layered irony, to see such a brilliant writer as you take refuge among the deadly dishonest forces of the self-righteous pseudoLeft.
Did you know, sir, that both Scheer Post and Consortium News are themselves sites that are censored with totalitarian iron fists? Did you know that your article decrying censorship is published on censored sites? Is that not multi-layered irony?
Just as you, sir, were banned from Twitter for challenging the mainstream narrative, so I have been banned from both Scheer Post and Consortium News for doing the same. I dared challenge the Woke pseudoLeft’s centrally established (Stalinist) ‘party line’.
I am an AUTHENTIC Leftist, you see… I believe that what once was the American Left was deliberately induced into embracing the ‘woke’ ideology of Identity Politics, which has completely subverted and supplanted Class Analysis, and has only served our nation’s Ruling Elites by fatally dividing the nation into warring factions who thus have no capacity whatsoever to oppose the Ruling Elites hold on power over us all.
My very authenticity itself is what has caused me to be banned from EVERY pseudoLeft public forum in our nation. It would seem that a writer of your brilliant degree of perception must surely be aware that the well-known doctrine of Political Correctness both rules this pseudoLeft, and has rendered it completely impotent and soon heading for utter defeat. (I would be eager to discuss this aspect more thoroughly, but here will refrain… Only ‘so-much’ ground can be covered in one essay. Though I extoll Marxian Class Analysis, I’m NOT a ‘marxist’, per se, nor a ‘socialist’, per se).
Did you not know, sir, that the American pseodoLeft ‘alt media’ are every bit as rigidly censored as any other public forum in our nation? Like Twitter, Facebook, or Google, these websites are privately owned PUBLIC forums. If Joe Lauria, (who runs Consortium News), or Robert Scheer can rule over their privately owned public forums with Iron Fists, why can’t Twitter do the same?
What right has Joe Lauria to cry about being censored when he himself practices iron-fist censorship?
If the owner of a privately owned public forum can censor that forum through subjective and/or capricious whim, why can’t the owner of a diner ‘censor’ some from the privilege of being served for similar subjective and/or capricious reasons?
What’s the moral principle you are defending here, Mr. Lawrence? How do you, sir, reconcile, in your own mind, the stupendous irony of your article decrying the rapidly advancing censorship in our nation being published on the heavily censored websites of the iron-fisted pseudoLeft?
I like Joe Lauria… I like him a LOT… [Note to readers who may not be aware, Joe Lauria runs the Consortium News website, the legacy of one of our nation’s greatest journalists, the late Robert Parry]. It was Mr. Lauria himself who censored me. When I asked him why, his entire answer, as quoted exactly and in full, was “Because you’re talking a lotta crap”. Was that a more or less Orwellian answer than you got from Twitter, Mr. Lawrence, when you asked why you had been banned?
As an ex ‘big deal’ mass media correspondent himself, I assume Mr. Lauria is an ‘old buddy’ of yours from ‘way back’, Mr. Lawrence? He stands well apart from the pseudoLeft crowd in CRUCIAL ways, but sadly, he’s not yet aware of his own distinction.
A major difference between him and the rest of the morally disgusting pseudoLeft, (people like Robert Scheer, Christopher Hedges, or the whole disgustingly execrable crew of lying propagandists at Common Dreams, or at Portside, or TomDispatch, or CounterPunch. et cetera, ad nauseum), is that he is trying hard to tell the truth. As a person banned from Consortium News, I do have a bone to pick with Mr. Lauria, (for obvious reasons), but I can, and do, enthusiastically attest that I have NEVER heard the man tell a lie. NEVER! Not even ONE time.
But sadly, he remains not in the least aware of how much I admire him for that. He yet thinks I’m an ‘enemy’. (We’re going to be good friends one day, he just doesn’t know it yet).
Mr. Lauria has many admirable character traits, over and above his painstakingly honest regard for the truth. Loyalty is one of them. His regard of me is shaped by his own misguided loyalty to people who do NOT share his regard for the truth.
Loyalty is an ‘ironic’ human tribal instinct and behavior… We instinctively value loyalty VERY highly… But relatively few of us seem to have any awareness that bonds of personal loyalty are also the bane of Democracy. Loyalty is the very root of Democracy’s ease of being corrupted.
Loyalty is the very beating heart of Corruption itself. When personal bonds of loyalty, (whether bought, or rooted in friendship/love), are forged between those charged with responsibility for democratic oversight, (to guard the public interest), and those whose designs and/or ambitions are being overseen, no democratic oversight then any longer exists, and corruption then prevails.
Eventually Joe Lauria will come to understand how misguided his current loyalties are… but at this point he does NOT. And thus he remains loyal to people who have no respect at ALL for his own highest moral value as a publisher, the truth itself.
Most of the mentally deranged hosts of the ‘woke’ alt-media pseudoLeft are lying propagandists every bit as much as are the people who work in and for the Goebbels Committee’s Mass Media.
As an AUTHENTIC Leftist, I know that the ‘antidote’ to propaganda is NOT ‘better’ propaganda. The best way to counter lies is not by telling ‘better’ lies… The antidote to propaganda is the truth…
Joe Lauria knows that… You, Mr. Lawrence, surely know that, (or else maybe you just have me fooled?… LOL)
Are you not aware, Mr. Lawrence, that in allowing your work to appear on a website run by the morally disgusting Robert Scheer, you are ‘taking refuge’ among close allies of the Enemy?
Are you not aware of the close political alliance between the entire Woke pseudoLeft and the US Empire?
Are you not aware that disgusting ‘quisling’ characters, (Robert Scheer was once a ‘great hero’ of mine in younger days, UCLA, Class of ’70), are full supporters of the same Democratic Party that is not just allowing censorship to steadily engulf our nation, that is not just encouraging censorship, but is among the primary perpetrators of lying propaganda, and of the iron-fisted censorship of voices challenging their propaganda?
Do you recall that there were 147 Congresspeople, all Republicans, who voted against certifying the results of the ’20 election? Do you recall that the Democrats proposed that those 147 elected representatives should be expelled from Congress for exercising their legal right by casting a legal vote?
Are you not aware that Christopher Hedges is a two-faced liar of the worst possible kind? I am a carpenter by trade, Mr. Lawrence, and was once in the home improvement business. I was still in my 20s (in the 1970s) when I first learned the central maxim that animates our culture, our politics, and our economy. A white-shoe salesman named Harry Paul taught me, “Once you learn to fake sincerity, you’ve got it made”. No one is better than the eloquently masterful Cane Toad Hedges at “faking sincerity” as he lies. He lies as easily as he breathes.
Are you aware that your work appearing on Scheer Post is sharing space with actual CIA propaganda? Are you not aware that Scheer runs articles concerning Ukraine from websites organized by ex-CIA head John Brennan himself, (or rather in which John Brennan participates; I have no proof of his organizational role)? Are you not aware that the entire edifice of the pseudoLeft has fully supported the US Empire’s military aggression against Russia in Ukraine, condemning Russia as “criminal” for defending itself on its own borders?
Are you not aware that the entire pseudoLeft is organized, is incorporated, as taxpayer-subsidized 501 C3 organizations primarily financed by the Wealth Foundations of the Ruling Elites?
You are NOT doing your own reputation, sir, ANY favors by allowing your work to appear on this morally disgusting character’s, on QuislingBob Scheer’s, website. Your work one day. John Brennan’s lying mouthpiece the next. Is a publisher who publishes lies not herself or himself a liar?
Joe Lauria is being censored, and Consortium News is being threatened with utter destruction, (by the insidious NewsGuard, which you mention in your article, and by Google’s ever more evil algorithms), precisely because he is trying to tell the truth.
Robert Scheer will never be censored as long as Scheer Post so agreeably publishes actual CIA-generated propaganda. Scheer Post will never be censored as long as it features the work of lying propagandists like Chris Hedges, whose work constantly contributes to achieving the Ruling Elites’ highest priority, which is to keep the nation’s population fatally divided into complete political impotence, and to keep us so distracted by the divisions that there is currently not one IOTA, not one shred, of organized political opposition, in our entire nation, to the power of the Ruling Elites.
The entire population of our tragic bleeding nation is so skillfully and artfully divided between skillfully ‘engineered’ warring camps hatefully fighting each other that NO group, or ‘side’, or camp yet exists, at ALL, anywhere in our nation, to oppose the power of the Ruling Elites of the US Empire.
If you know of any, please inform me, sir…
The reasons for my admiration for your own work are self-evident in your article under discussion here. You typically cut to the very heart of the matter. Freedom of Speech has been destroyed in our nation under the pretext that privately owned companies who run PUBLIC UTILITIES can behave in any way they please. If they want to censor PUBLIC UTILITIES, they can, because the Public Utilities are their wholly owned private property. Private property rights are used as pretext. Robert Scheer and/or Joe Lauria can censor the sites they ‘own’, because those sites are their wholly owned private property, (though most ALL of them are tax-payer subsidized, so a claim could be made against them on that basis). So, by that same pretext, Twitter can censor you.
What are the ethical principles, Mr. Lawrence, that pertain to writers publishing material complaining about being being censored on websites whose own public forums are censored?
Gee… Would anyone suppose that if writers refused to publish on such sites, the censorious behavior of those sites’ owners might be affected? Isn’t there a VERY strong odor of rank stinking hypocrisy somewhere around here? (Sniff, sniff).
The entire pseudoLeft is too stupidly ‘fighting racism’, and fighting for abortion ‘rights’, and fighting for gun control, and for transgender rights, etc etc, to fight for a little thing like freedom of speech.
And how could this absurdly censorious (politically correct) edifice of this politically idiotic, and totally politically impotent, pseudoLeft complain about censorship when censorship is a CENTRAL tenet of its OWN ridiculous ideology?
And while the Ruling Elites steadily destroy freedom of speech, they are FULLY on board with ‘fighting racism’, even while they eagerly promote the very policies of highly centralized wealth appropriation that are impoverishing people of every race in our nation… Even while they import massive numbers, tens of millions, more poor people from foreign nations, to foster even MORE viciously cutthroat competition among the poor that exacerbates primitive tribal emotions among desperate people struggling just to survive.
The ONLY way to “fight racism” would be to ameliorate, and ultimately to eradicate, the factors that exacerbate the primitive tribal emotions engendered by cutthroat competition for survival. But the idiotic edifice of the pseudoLeft is “fighting racism” (it so ridiculously pretends), by practicing racism, by dispossessing one race to benefit another, which has had the ONLY effect it COULD have, which is producing the anger among the disposessed race which can ONLY cause demigogues like Trump to arise.
Never in all of Human History has a more stupid political faction than this idiotic American pseudoLeft ever existed. I often call these people the “Bolshevik Marionettes” because they so OBVIOUSLY serve the direct interests of the Ruling Elites, with their clownish ideology and idiotic histrionics. They dance like brainless marionettes on the ends of the Ruling Elites’ strings.
The Ruling Elites don’t just support the pseudoLeft through the Democratic Party, while simultaneously opposing the pseudoLeft through the Republican Party, they actually FINANCE it as well. Which pseudoLeft group is NOT both tax-payer subsidized as a 501 C3, (gee… Who got that tax law passed? I sure don’t want to support these counterproductive idiots, but as a taxpayer I’m FORCED to), and which is not primary supported by grants from Wealth Foundations.
The Ruling Elites both support and finance the pseudoLeft, and the pseudoLeft, of course, then returns the favor by supporting the Democratic Party, one of the Ruling Elites two wholly subsidiary, and wholly controlled parties.
Meanwhile… The opposition, the Republican Party is ALSO primarily financed by the Ruling Elites.
The Ruling Elites are not any longer controlling a political process. They have now developed their skill far beyond that. They have transformed our political process into a Reality TV Show. They have progressed beyond controlling a political process. They now are merely stage managing a TV show.
You called the burying of the Biden Laptop story, Mr. Lawrence, by the UNIFIED edifice of the entire centrally controlled Mass Media, “preposterous”, (if I recall correctly). My dictionary defines ‘preposterous‘ as “contrary to reason or common sense; utterly absurd or ridiculous”. A very poor choice of words, sir. What they did in burying that story amounted to subverting and thus stealing the election. The burial of that story, just days before the election, was the main event of what amounted to a Mass Media Coup.
Thus its effect was NOT contrary to reason, (it had a keenly intended purpose which it accomplished), nor was it absurd or ridiculous. It served, quite effectively, to capture control over a large and powerful nation. Nothing absurd or ridiculous about that.
Did you ever read Ron Unz’s excellent article on this, sir? Mr. Unz goes into great detail in ‘proving’ the decisive effect that burying that story had on ‘throwing’ the election? Regardless of any possible voting or vote-counting irregularities, burying that Biden Laptop story, in and of itself, subverted any semblance of democracy, as the Democratic Party Machine ‘stole’ the election.
“Divide et impera“, divide and rule, is an actual quote from Caesar, reportedly spoken to his lieutenant-generals with a map of Gaul spread out before them… This most basic strategy for social control, through which The Few, the Ruling Elites, have subjugated The Many, the Common People, was already thousands of years old when Caesar explained his basic strategy of conquest to his subordinate commanders.
“I can hire half the working class to kill the other half”, boasted 19th century industrialist Jay Gould.
Is that not EXACTLY what is happening before our very eyes in our tragic bleeding nation? Our nation’s population has been artfully and skillfully divided almost exactly in half. Neither side can EVER prevail permanently over the other. The hatefulness between these artfully created factions will grow until violence breaks out. It sure looks right now like Trump’s forces will prevail this fall, and Trump will be re-elected in ’24. What then?
As soon as the inevitable mass violence breaks out, (Trump’s assasination would be a perfect ‘trigger’), martial law will rise and prevail. Open naked fascism will prevail. a “no communication” list will be maintained (like a no fly list). People like you and me, Mr. Lawrence, won’t even be able to send or receive email.
As brilliant as you are, Mr. Lawrence, in your analyses of US Empire’s foreign policy, your taking refuge among enemies, allowing your work to be published by people who fully support the Democratic Party Machine that stole the last election, suggest that you may not yet fully understand the dynamics of our domestic predicament.
You are making allies of the SAME people who are supporting the Democratic Party Machine that has censored you. Now THAT, sir, is utterly “preposterous”, (utter absurd and ridiculous).
I’d be glad to discuss this with you at length… I’m sure my readers, in many nations, would appreciate hearing your response. My blind copy list is not ‘democratic’, of course. I use this format out of respect for the privacy of the people on the list. But if you wish to reply I pledge to post your reply, unedited, to my full list.
I’d be glad to contribute to a discussion on ANY uncensored public forum. Does any such thing even exist in our sad, bleeding nation?
Or… How ’bout a cup of coffee? Or breakfast? Or a sandwich? My treat… Meet at your favorite cafe in the Berkshires? Even the furthest corner of Connecticut is only a short drive from my house. I was born and raised, and raised my own family, (3 daughters, 7 grandchildren, and married to the same ‘old girl’ for 48 years this October), in a state, Kansas, that takes about 8 hours to drive across, (east to west).
Dinky little states out in this territory… LOL…
Caliban
R Zwarich
Bent Birch Farm
63 Webber Rd
Brookfield, MA 01506
774 449-8030