Ronald Reagan Myths

Ronald Reagan is dead, finally! After lingering as America's favorite skeleton in the closet for sixteen years, he passed away in the manner of corporate despots - aged, infirm, in his bed, something he denied to millions of Americans and people around the world. No one ever called him a great administrator; he was the great communicator, or to critics, the great prevaricator. He lived as a myth, and his legacy to the world is a myth. William Rivers Pitt's even-handed eulogy is correct on that point at least.

However, after decrying the mythos surrounding Reagan which were cover for his administration's policies of deregulated corporate raiding, secret wars against peasants determined to free themselves, and open ended rape of the environment in the name of "resources", Mr. Pitt goes on to perpetuate myths that he identifies as resulting from Mr. Reagan's policies: AIDS, and Osama bin Laden.

Now that George III, Jeff Davis, Hitler and Khomeini are dead, Amin deposed, While it is true that a generation of Americans is fearful of sexual contact because the scourge of AIDS, Mr. Pitt erroneously identifies AIDS as a disease, and also erroneously attributes it to a virus. Though this myth has been trumpeted ever since the first reported case of death due to collapsed immune system functions in humans twenty four years ago, the syndrome cannot be properly classed as a disease because it does not follow a predictable pattern in its victims. Furthermore, there is no epidemiological finding that definitively links AIDS like symptoms to a specific causal agent, though there is a greater correlation between toxic drugs and cold steel, and AIDS than there is with AIDS and any sexual behavior. The link between AIDS and HIV is not epidemiological, but epistemological, and that seems to be enough for most Americans including Mr. Pitt. The more the AIDS=HIV myth is repeated, the more firmly people believe it, but it is not based on medical findings. 

Gaddaffi muzzled, Castro superannuated, and Noriega and Hussein are in custody, Osama bin Laden, apparently still at large, remains as the extant embodiment of evil. Like AIDS, Mr. bin Laden is purported to be the causal agent for the death of Americans, and again, the more that myth is repeated, the more firmly people believe "he did it to us". Osama bin Laden is the creation of the U.S. "intelligence" agencies, but did they just train and finance him? Or did they invent him entirely as a story to deflect inquiries into the evil doing of the U.S. empire? Is he an active terrorist running around the desert orchestrating the world's slide toward chaos? Or is he a terminally ill kidney failure patient and on dialysis? Is he the chubby smiling bin Laden on an undated videotape of unknown origin? Or is he the gaunt mujahadeen seen armed with scruffy comrades in a bleak mountainous setting? Is he the ostracized bad boy of the infamously wealthy bin Laden family? Or is he their secret agent fomenting strife to destabilize the Saudi government to make the desert peninsula into bin Laden Arabia? Is he a real threat? Is he even alive? The day after 9/11, Osama bin Laden was reported as the perpetrator. Sidestepping for a moment the ludicrous story of Arab men boarding as passengers, seizing control of four planes simultaneously at the one inch point of box cutters and skillfully steering them into landmark targets, the culpability of Mr. bin Laden himself has never been demonstrated. Though the U.S. "intelligence" community had known him for twenty years, and had interviewed him only weeks before, there was no indication that he might try to kill Americans in New York, but as soon as it happened they KNEW it was he. Since then a million separate reports, including Mr. Pitt's, have reiterated the mantra that He Did It To Us. Despite the endless litany of condemnation, and the hundreds of millions who are convinced of his guilt, there has not been one piece of verifiable evidence presented which links Osama to the 9/11 crashes. He may have gloated over the long overdue come-uppance that America experienced on that tragic day, but he didn't claim responsibility, and it isn't clear if that gloating was taped prior to or after the fact. Even though that doesn't mean he was not involved, according to US law he is innocent until proven guilty; unless that is we catch him outside U.S. territory where we can claim constitutional protections do not apply. As ready as Americans are to believe that terrorists are responsible for the incidents, they refuse categorically to believe the terrorists were white Christian Americans. Faith can also mean suspension of belief.

The point is, can current myths be examined unreservedly? Ronald Reagan was not a good guy, and his political spawn are still in residence at the White House. These myths about "threats" are also the spawn of the imperial government and also need to be critically examined according to the rules of evidence and logic.

Reverend Doktor "C." Sarian

Mid Coast Sub Church of Paranoia

Church of the SubGenius

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