Here’s a six-minute video put together by FireDogLake and Glenn Greenwald to give readers some perspective on the Petraeus testimony if you are still in need of it. It continues to amaze me how there is no public memory–how every public event, like the Petraeus testimony, appears on the public screen as if there was no historical context for it. Administration propagandists depend on this lack of context, and have every reason to expect that the media will not provide it. So even if you have the perspective, send this You Tube clip to somebody who doesn’t:
Remember the art of the con man is to play a symbolical role and tell his mark what he wants to hear. People want to believe that we’re not failing, and they are inclined to believe someone in Petraeus’s symbolic role. In this instance the Petraeus isn’t necesarily in on the con–he could very well believe everything he says. It’s enough that he be so invested in proving to everyone that he has been effective. The con, therefore, doesn’t require that he be aware of it. He could be; I don’t know. The point is that for the con to succeed he play his part knowingly or unknowingly. And the con doesn’t have to work for everyone in the electorate; it has to work just enough to get the media to bite and to neutralize congressional opposition. Piece of cake.
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