propaganda and blowjobs: the new pb&j?

propaganda: i learned today, while watching the last fifteen minutes of real sports on hbo, that the whole pat tilman thing was little more than a government engineered story designed to help create a hero in the eyes of football fans, making them more likely to support the war.

for those of you that don't know, pat tilman (i am not sure if i am spelling his name right) was either a full-back or linebacker for the arizona cardinals. following sept. 11, he became an army ranger, and was eventually killed in action. the original stories portrayed him as a hero, who gave his life to save his fellow rangers.

it turns out that he was shot rather ungloriously (is that a word?) by friendly fire. i guess the family came out and said that they thought what the government had done to his image to try and encourage more people to support the war effort was disgraceful.

i don't know if it means there is something wrong with me, but i like pat tilman more now than i did yesterday. i still can't say that i like him. i think that running off to war in the wake of something as inconsequential as sept. 11 shows more reactionism than it does bravery or strength. in fact, it shows that you are willing to contribute to the cycle of violence that is international politics.

but i guess that knowing that the whole thing was bullshit makes me not gag so hard when i think of it all. and i guess that is progress. well ... i guess progress would be me stopping my interest in professional sports, but ... fat chance. after all, sports is often far more interesting than news ...

blowjobs: ... except when that news is the revelation of the identity of the famed "deep throat." i guess it was time, as i am sure very few people really know who deep throat was anyway. but what the fuck ever.

i found a couple of things interesting about deep throat and the condemnation that his identity places on our society and its heroes.

the first interesting point is that his motives appear to be anything but noble. his family, i saw on the news, claims to be very proud of him, that he is now an american hero. but upon further examination, he was the second in command of the fbi. he was upset with nixon for two major reasons: nixon had appointed an outsider to replace hoover (isn't it funny to think that without j. edgar hoover, there would be no watergate?).

deep throat wanted to be the director of the fbi. of course, he was also upset that his beloved fbi was being corrupted by the president. the truth about his motives, i am convinced, lies somewhere between these two feelings of his. either way, it was not the selfless act that the anti-nixon culture of mainstream america will sell it as.

of course, i no way want to imply that i liked richard nixon or that i don't feel like deep throat did the right thing. but there is part of me that remains devoutly committed to the notion that the ends can never justify the means. and for ideals that i don't believe in to topple other ideas that i don't believe in doesn't exactly warm my heart.

but the most interesting thing about deep throat, to me, was how little he appears to matter. it's as if history has built such a great expectation of this man. but really, knowing who he is makes me feel no different about the whole situation. i don't feel like i have any answers.

really, the big question to me has always been, what did he do wrong? i mean, we are really talking about one campaign bugging another. i really hope that this is a practice employed by all political candidates. if you don't have some sort of spy system set up, then just go home. it's like you aren't even playing the same game.

i think that if you compare what nixon was actually doing to what the public perception of him was, you are left with a great void of understanding. i really don't think that spying is high treason. i mean, it's not subversion until you put your desires into practice. in fact, i think that george w. bush is already shown to be far more sinister than nixon. but i digress.

the point is just that i don't see the watergate thing in any different light now that i know who deep throat was. and i suppose that i was expecting to.