I am not certain I understand the second map. Forgive me for being a little slow when it comes to maps, but in the second map does the red symbolize Republican, the blue Democrat and the green--what?
If so, then I see the correlation in slave states versus R states, and the free states versus D states. Interesting.

I am not certain I understand the second map. Forgive me for being a little slow when it comes to maps, but in the second map does the red symbolize Republican, the blue Democrat and the green--what?
If so, then I see the correlation in slave states versus R states, and the free states versus D states. Interesting.

I think clearly things have got to get worse before they can start to get better. Falluja is a case in point. It beaks my heart to consider the 10,000 Marines poised to attack. Being an ex-Marine I know what horror is about to be let loose. The feeling of impending death is tangible for me. It reminds me of the battle of Hue. Many ghosts will haunt for many years.

Here's a reply from Brian Willson (http://www.brianwillson.com/bio.html) to an e-mail I wrote to him about the election. It's a bit of a ramble but he's given me some hope - especially with the idea of framing. I think the times ahead will be great for artists and activists because there will be many many more people seeking a different frame as their belief systems begin to crumble.

Mike,
Yes, there is massive cognitive dissonance in the US population, and there is a helpful explanation in George Lakoff's book, "Don't Think of an Elephant." Lakoff is a professor of cognitive science and linguistics at Univ. of CA, Berkeley. He describes the cognitive process in terms of how people are conditioned in "framing." If the facts don't fit the frame, they cannot be let in and "heard." This goes for progressives as well, but it is especially applicable to the neocons and fundamentalist christians who tend to require authoritative solutions and leaders (due to the rigidity of their own upbringings) as opposed to nurturing approaches (which is more likely to happen if you grew up in a nurturing upbringing).
Alice Miller, the Swiss psychoanalyst life's work revolves around understanding the fairly direct relationship between child rearing centered on physical discipline and/or shaming with adult attitudes and behavior that projects outwardly resentments and hatred from the repressed childhood pain of invalidation. Thus empathy is not likely unless one is able to embrace one's own pain, requiring development of empathy to one's own inner wounded child. That requires a conscious effort at healing that emerges if one is motivated to break out of the pattern of dysfunctionality - like a bottomed out drunk.
Lakoff suggests that progressives have not learned the art of consciously framing their own issues in a manner equal to that of the effort created by conservative framing created by the far right think tanks and their leading successful student, Karl Rove. The far right's main guru is the fundamentalist Christian James Dobson, whose book "Dare to Discipline" has sold millions and millions of books to the fundamentalist christians. Having come from a fundamentalist home myself I find this very fascinating, even though it is terrifying to know how self righteous it is and what lengths these folks will go to perpetuate their theocratic ideology.
It stems, according to Alice Miller, from the fear of facing their own inner invalidation from their authoritative upbringing of shaming and physical discipline. Of course, any life behavioral pattern can be interrupted by events, epiphanies, painful awakening experiences, etc. But I think Lakoff is onto something about the art of framing, and Miller definitely has taught us much about the need for nurturing families and communities if we as a species want to survive. her work is accentuated by Ashley Montagu's brilliant anthropological studies of the human condition, how either hatred or love is created by whether one is taught hatred or love as a child.
And Lewis Mumford's work centers on how the "megamachine" (first king-doms, now the military-industrial-technological complex) has taken the human out of the equation for 5 millennia, he urging humans to recognize they have given their power over to the megamachine leading to ourr own demise as an evolutionary species.. Boetie, the French law student wrote in the 1550s the fantastic essay, "The Politics of Obedience: A Discourse on Voluntary Servitude," an insightful essay on the psychological origins of tyranny and the mass cooperation with it. V. Gordon Childe, the great Australian anchaeologist, wrote the break trhough book in 1935, "Man Makes Himself," in which he argues that whatever humans create, they can undo and re-create in a new functional way. In other words it is up to us to empower ourselves to create somehting that works for our own sustainable life. But we have to recognize that the institutions we have created are doing us in, so that we can perceive the danger. Once humans perceive danger to survival, change is abrupt and radical.
Let us hope that we can perceive the dangers we are in, and that what yesterday was inconceivable becomes today indispensable.
Sorry for the ramble. I am processing myself the post-election "opportunity" for thinking ever farther out of the box.

Brian

Shawna,
The red states purportedly went for Bush, Blue for Kerry. The Green states were undecided at the time the map was captured.

I urge everyone to take a few minutes a visit the website of Brian Willson, be sure and put in two "ll's" or you end up with the beach boy.

Mike is right on about the ghosts, if the attack was broadcast on T.V. the war wouuld end much quicker, or at least I would hope so!

Also recived a map from Roger's list that show by population, it is much better.