LEWISTON – Two internationally noted authors explored the topic of “Finding Our Way in Bush’s America” at Bates College on Friday night. The two-hour talk and public discussion session drew an audience of several dozen people.
Despite a few instances of bare-knuckle Bush-bashing by both presenters and the audience, Adam and Arlie Hochschild, who spend summers in Turner, delivered a reasoned discussion of their opposition to the Iraq war and Bush administration policies.
“We are moving very seriously backwards and people are going along with it,” Arlie Hochschild said. She listed several reasons for that observation, including her belief that the Bush administration “is brilliant at misrepresenting the truth” through use of “double-think,” silence and “masking images” which influence public perception.
Hochschild said she believes, “The press isn’t alert to this and it’s not being unveiled to the American public.”
She also told the audience there is a “long-range right-wing campaign” that has been “aggressive and relentless for 30 years.”
She told the audience that President Bush is also appealing to “an empathy squeeze.”
“The middle class is going ouch,'” she said, “and Bush is exploiting the ouch.”
Arlie Hochschild suggested that people have regrets about how the Iraq war is going, and she said Bush is exploiting that concern with “a pseudo-morality.”
“In a way, he has kind of hijacked morality,” she said.
Adam Hochschild asked the audience to consider why there is not more outrage at the war in Iraq. He said one reason is that the Bush administration has been successful at shifting burdens.
Hochschild said he thinks the Afghan military operations have been “very badly bungled” and he added that Bush “very quickly, very cleverly added Iraq to the mix.”
“What can we do about all this?” he asked.
“It’s very important to find ways of saying that supporting the troops is something different from supporting the war,” Hochschild said. He also emphasized that opposition is not a partisan issue and he added that the cost of the war in lives and dollars should not be forgotten.
“We need to remind our friends of the extent to which this is a war for oil,” he said. “We need to work our way out of that.”
Questions from the audience included a woman’s concern about “manipulation of religion by this administration.” Arlie Hochschild said she sees the development of “a class divide.” She said elements of Bush policy appeal to economically deprived citizens whom she said are “turning to their church as their welfare solution.”
Another member of the audience pointed out that, “We need to talk with people with whom we disagree and not use Bush as a scapegoat.”
Adam Hochschild agreed, adding that, in getting news, “We need to learn to be channel switchers” to be sure we hear all sides of issues.
Arthur Whitman, treasurer of the Ladd chapter of Veterans for Peace, introduced the speakers. Doug Rawlings, president of Maine Veterans for Peace, a nonprofit educational and humanitarian organization dedicated to the abolition of war, moderated the presentation. Rawlings said the organization, which now has 120 chapters across the nation, began in Lewiston 20 years ago through the efforts of five founding veterans.
Co-sponsored by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates and Maine Veterans for Peace, the Hochschilds’ presentation is the inaugural event in the Veterans for Peace Capt. William Ladd series of free public forums. The series is named for William Ladd, a sea captain and Minot resident who in the early 1800s founded the American Peace Society and proposed an international organization for peace and justice.
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