Tyranny thrives on silence and apathy

ASHEVILLE GLOBAL REPORT NEEDS YOUR HELP!!! Quakers, vegetarians, peace activists, people serving food to the homeless... independent media centers: these are just a few of the types of groups that have been singled-out for suspicion in our government's "war on terror." There is, of course, a long national history of government surveillance and subterfuge of grassroots organizations working towards social change. To remember, one need only review the lives of people such as Martin Luther King Jr. or any number of those who fought long, hard battles for such quaint ideas as the 40-hour work week. But the character of our government, and by extension our society and world, has changed quite a bit in recent years. Many of the freedoms that we have been told our soldiers are fighting abroad to protect and export have been dealt damaging blows at home. This past year, your President went on the road to promote the PATRIOT Act, insisting that the controversial bill was to better "protect our civil liberties." The act, made permanent just a couple of weeks ago, effectively destroyed the Fourth Amendment of your Bill of Rights and severely crippled the First. The right to free speech, free assembly and to freely associate with whomever one wishes may be something many of us take for granted. But it's hard to say because there was nary a peep about this historic decimation of freedom in the corporate media. To have reported accurately about it would have unpleasantly put the lie to everything our government has been claiming to stand for in all its raw, ugly hypocrisy. No, if Bush's signing of the PATRIOT Act was mentioned at all, it was in vague, deceptive and now commonplace language which reduced this astounding affront to merely being a set of "terror-fighting tools, passed post-Sept. 11." [For all you locals, see the Asheville Citizen-Times, Mar. 10, 2006, for a splendid example of this.] This isn't just bad or irresponsible journalism. The fifth estate, as the news media is called in this so-called democratic republic, has a moral obligation to accurately report to the public about its system of governance, to foster timely, critical debate and participation with informed consent. That is not what is happening. In fact, we at Asheville Global Report would argue that corporate news media monopolies practice what preeminent linguist Noam Chomsky has called "manufacturing consent"–that is, create and sustain the "necessary illusions" of consensus to maintain the status quo. This is the idea that as long as everyone is showing up for work, not joining a labor union, continuing shopping, but not worrying about environmental and consumer protections, and is led to believe that war is a natural consequence of conflict resolution with all its attendant justifications, and that our government is everything our "leaders" assure us it is– everything is fine. It's the idea that a passive, consuming public is preferable to an active, agitating one. In this, the corporate media are much more than gatekeepers of the status quo. To the extent that we are not informed, they are accomplices. Whether it is the phony hype that led to the invasion of Iraq and its subsequent death squads and torture, the very real threat of global warming, or dignifying the persecution of homosexuals (to name just a few examples), our monopoly media bears significant responsibility for fostering our passive, complicit acceptance and spoiled slumber. Ultimately, we are all collectively responsible for these realities, whether or not we agree with them. With this critical state of affairs in heart and mind, dozens of concerned, motivated citizens volunteer their time every week to provide you with news and perspectives the gatekeepers of the status quo won't typically broadcast or publish. The result is the Asheville Global Report, an award-winning antidote to the silence and apathy that fuels tyranny. It's the beginning of our Spring Fund Drive, that time of the year when we beg you to help us continue our tragically necessary work. We hate to ask you for money, but if we don't ask, or you don't respond, we won't continue. It really is that simple. So make a pledge against tyranny and send us a donation, advertise or come to one of our benefits as we struggle to defend your rights. We've got your back. To continue, we need to know that you have ours... otherwise it's just those strange men with cameras taking pictures of our staff (no joke).