ZINN: "The truth has a power greater than a hundred lies."

[kpete]

"The lesson of that history is that you must not despair, that if you are right, and you persist, things will change. The government will try to deceive the people, and the newspapers and television may do the same, but the truth has a way of coming out. The truth has a power greater than a hundred lies. My hope is that you will not be content to be successful in the way our society measures success; that you will not obey the rules, when the rules are unjust; that you will act out the courage that I know is in you."

more:
http://openleft.com/diary/17176/the-peoples-historian

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Suppose the lies are our own?

We often think that we are incapable of falsity, and that we are the font of Truth.

But how did we get a leg up on those evil mothers who lie all the time? By living a life of self-analysis, self-doubt, and reality-testing.

Sometimes we deviate from that; even Howard Zinn did from time to time (though the path he walked was uncommonly straight if demanding and narrow).

These are days when we on the left are unsparing in our self-congratulation. For those of us who have planned a thorough re-reading of his work, may our zeal to hold closer to the truth be renewed.

--d!

[Zoeisright]

2. I wish I believed that.

But a lie, repeated a thousand times, becomes the truth in this country, and especially when it's echoed repeatedly in the M$M.

Just look at how Reagan has been glorified. And he was a mean old man who was not popular all the time when he was President.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. I'm with you.

The truth has no great power at all unless it is recognized to be the truth.

Given how ignorant and misinformed most Americans are -- thanks, M$M! -- the truth barely gets enough oxygen to keep breathing.

[Gregorian]

3. The problem is, political truths aren't as clear as scientific truths.

You won't see FOX spinning the fact that the earth is round. But one would think that universal health care for all would be an absolute truth that could not be twisted. Or that invading a country is a war crime. Or that massive increases in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere caused by man is real.

Yet we suffer under their lies, because some people can't see the truth in front of them. When people are confused, they don't know the truth even when it's clearly true.

We need more people like Zinn.

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. I dunno about that - the PNAC gangs lies got the USA into permanent war by the looks of it

.
.
.

Does anyone REALISTICALLY see an end to the USA's wars in the Middle East?

Without a nuclear event?

I don't.