"흑인, 소수인종의 유전자가 문제다"

[홍실이의 이상한제국의앨리스](3) - 몸은 사회를 비추는 거울

원래 이런 연재기획 글은 자신의 전공을 살려 깊이 있게 써야 하건만, 아직 학문의 깊이가 일천하다보니 이를 제대로 못 하고 있다. (그럼 사회 일반에 대한 이해가 깊어서 그동안 그리도 잡다한 글을 썼냐고 물어본다면. 글쎄올시다...)

이번 회에는 모처럼 전공 학회에 다녀온 기념으로(?) 역학 이야기를 해볼까 한다. 같은 전공의 친구 하나는 "도를 아십니까?"라며 접근한 지하철 도인(道人)에게 "제 전공이 바로 역학입니다"하고 정중하게 답을 해서 줄행랑을 치게 만들었는데, 사실 우리 전공은 易學이 아니고 疫學이다. 건강과 질병의 분포, 원인들을 규명하고 이를 토대로 예방 전략을 개발하는 학문!!! (너무 교과서스러운 표현이로군).

흔히 질병의 원인이라면 우리는 특정한 세균이나 바이러스를 떠올린다. 식중독의 원인은 포도알균, 독감의 원인은 인플루엔자 바이러스... 물론 흡연이나 동물성 지방 섭취, 운동 부족 같은 생활 습관이 심장병과 암 같은 만성질환의 원인이라는 것도 잘 알려져 있다.

하지만, 여기에서 한 가지 유념할 부분이 있으니, 이러한 질병의 원인이나 결과가 모든 사람들 사이에 고르게 나타나지는 않는다는 점이다. 남자나 여자나, 돈 많은 사람이나 가난한 사람이나, 백인이나 흑인이나 똑같은 확률로 병에 걸리지는 않는다는 소리다. [잘 먹고 잘 사는 법] 같은 TV 프로그램에서 몸에 좋다는 걸 백날 가르쳐 준다 한들, 유기농 현미 사 먹으려면 돈이 들고, 신 새벽에 나가 오밤중에 퇴근하는 사람들에게 하루 30분 이상 유산소 운동을 하라는 건 거의 미션 임파서블이다.

사회 불평등은 우리 몸 밖에서만 작동하는 게 아니다. 우리 몸은 부모님으로부터 물려받은 개인적인 자산일 뿐 아니라, 역사의 궤적과 사회적 질서를 반영하는 거울이기도 하다. 오늘은 건강 불평등이라는 주제로 미국 사회를 들여다보고자 한다.

다른 국민, 다른 건강 수준

지난 회에도 잠깐 언급했지만, 세계 최고(?) 선진국 미국은 엄청난 보건의료비 지출에도 불구하고 평균 수명이나 영아 사망률 등으로 비교한 건강 순위는 그다지 높은 편이 아니다. 그 이유 중 하나는 흑인들이 국가 평균을 확 깎아먹고 있기 때문이다. 과연 어느 정도나? 2000년 현재, 평균 수명을 살펴보면 남성 74세, 여성 79세로 세계 최고 수준은 아니지만 그럭저럭 평균 이상을 보이고 있다 (물론 OECD 국가들 중에서는 바닥!). 그런데 이를 인종 별로 나누어 살펴보면? 남성의 경우, 백인 75세, 흑인 68세. 여성은 백인 80세, 흑인 75세. 즉 흑인 남녀의 평균 수명이 백인에 비해 각각 7년, 5년 씩 짧다. 이러한 흑인의 평균 수명은 1인당 소득이 4300불에 불과한 수리남과 비슷한 수준이고, 5500불인 도미니카 공화국보다는 약간 낮다. 심지어 수도 워싱턴이 위치한 DC (컬럼비아 특별구)에서 흑인 남성의 평균 수명은 58세밖에 안 되니, 이 정도면 가나, 방글라데시 등과 자웅을 겨룰 만 하다. 흑/백간의 평균 수명 격차는 미국 내에서도 워낙 잘 알려진 것이라, 심지어 부시도(!) 알고 있다. 지난 1월, 부시는 흑인 지도자(?)들을 모셔다 놓고 사회보장 사유화 지지를 부탁하는 자리에서 희한한 궤변을 늘어놓았으니, 흑인들의 평균 수명이 짧기 때문에 사회보장 혜택을 받는 기간이 백인보다 짧으니까 개인구좌 중심으로 사유화하는 게 흑인들에게 훨씬 이득이 된다는 망언을 한 것이다. (빈축을 산 것은 말할 것도 없다. http://blog.jinbo.net/hongsili/?cid=5&pid=94 참조)

그렇다면 평균 수명이 왜 이렇게 차이가 나는 것일까?

평균수명, 영아사망률

* 평균 수명 : 출생 시의 기대 여명(life expectancy)으로, 현재의 연령대별 사망률을 이용해 산출한 일종의 가상 지표로서 한 국가의 건강 수준을 종합적으로 보여주기 때문에 국가간 비교에 널리 쓰인다. 평균 수명이 70세라고 해서 지금 69세 노인들이 평균적으로 1년 밖에 더 못 살 것이라는 뜻이 절대(!) 아님.

* 영아 사망률 : 출생아 1천 명 당 만 1세 이전에 사망하는 아기의 숫자. 역시 한 국가의 보건 수준을 종합적으로 반영하는 지표로, 국가간 비교에 널리 쓰임. 한국의 영아 사망률은 약 7/1000
우선 가장 중요한 이유로 영아 사망률의 차이를 들 수 있다. 미국의 영아 사망률은 출생아 1천 명 당 7.1명으로 1인당 국민 소득 3천불에 불과한 쿠바보다도 높다. 이를 인종 별로 나누어 보면, 흑인의 영아 사망률은 13.9로 백인의 5.9에 비해 두 배가 훨씬 넘고, 심지어 일리노이 주 같은 곳은 16.9나 된다. 실제로, 흑/백 어린이간의 영아 사망률 격차는 80년대 이후로 계속 증가 일로에 있다. 어디 이 뿐이랴? 심장병과 당뇨, 암, 중독과 손상 등 대부분의 질환에서도 흑/백 인종간의 유병률, 사망률 차이는 뚜렷이 관찰되고 있다.

사회적 불평등, 그리고 차별

그동안의 연구들은 통계적인 보정을 통해서 이러한 격차의 상당 부분이 흑/백인종 간의 사회경제적 격차에서 비롯되고 있음을 보여주었다. 사회경제적 격차라면 과연 어느 정도? 이를테면 백인의 소득 중앙값 (median)은 4만 5천불인데 비해 흑인은 약 3만 불에 불과하며 (2001년 기준) 빈곤 가구의 비율은 백인 가구가 10% 내외인 반면, 흑인 가구는 22%에 이른다(2000년). 인구 구성비로 보자면 흑인이 전체 미국 인구의 13%를 차지하고 있지만, 의사 혹은 판사/변호사 등의 직업에서 흑인이 차지하는 비율은 겨우 5% 정도에 불과하다. 또한 흑인의 실업률은 백인의 두 배를 웃돈다. 의료보험? 전체 백인 중 11.1%가 의료보험이 없는 데 비해 흑인은 19.4%가 보험이 없다. 의료 이용의 인종 차이를 비교한 연구들을 종합한 보고서 (Kaiser Family Foundation 2002)에 따르면, 대부분의 연구들은 흑인이 백인에 비해 진단 검사나 심혈관성형술 같은 고가 치료를 받을 가능성이 적다고 보고했다.

흑인들은 사는 동네도 다르다. 일전에 미시건 대학에 재직하는 저명한 사회학 교수의 특강에 참석한 적이 있는데, 법으로 인종 간 주거 분리를 강제했던 남아공의 악명 높은 아파르트헤이트 정책보다, 이를 불법으로 금지하고 있는 미국에서 주거 분리가 더 성공(?)적이라고 지적했다. 미국의 지역 간 격차는 상상 초월인데, 일례로 출장 차 방문했던 매사추세츠 서부 지역의 학교 건강증진 프로그램 담당자는, 영양 교육 시간이면 실제 과일을 가져가서 아이들에게 꼭 보여준다고 했다. 왜? 가난한 동네일수록 슈퍼마켓이 없는 경우가 많고, 있다한들 정크 푸드나 통조림, 주스 등 가공 식품만 팔기 때문에 아이들이 진짜 과일을 보지 못한 경우도 있어서란다. 21세기 미국에서 이 무슨 황당한....

하지만 이게 다는 아니다. 소득이나 직업, 교육 수준들을 보정해도 흑/백의 건강 격차는 여전히 남는 것이 보통이다. 예를 들면, 똑같은 소득 혹은 교육 수준의 흑/백 산모를 비교해도 영아 사망률의 차이는 여전히 지속된다. 인종 간의 차이는 사회경제적 지위 차이만으로 설명되지 않는다. 똑같은 학위를 가지고 있어도 흑/백인이 벌어들이는 소득에는 차이가 난다. 3년 전, 시카고 대학과 MIT 대학 연구팀은 지역 신문에 난 구인광고를 토대로 1300여 곳의 회사에 가상의 이력서 5천장을 보냈다. 이들의 이력서에 표시된 학력/경력 수준은 모두 같고 단지 이름만 다르게. 백인에게 흔한 이름(예, 크리스틴, 캐리)과 흑인에게 흔한 이름(예, 케냐, 타미카)으로.... 그랬더니만 백인 이름을 가진 이력서에는 10.3%의 면접 요청이 들어왔고 흑인 이름의 이력서에는 6.9%만이 응답이 왔더라는 것이다. 법적으로는 차별을 엄격하게 금지하고 있지만, 현실은 그와 다르다. 1990년도 일반사회조사에 따르면, 백인 응답자의 56%가 "흑인들은 정부 보조금으로 살아가는 것을 더 좋아한다"는 문장에 그렇다고 답했고, 44%가 "흑인들은 게으르다"에 동의했다.

좀더 충격적인 결과도 있다. 현재 18-24세 흑인 남성의 25%는 대학생이고 10.5%는 감옥에 있다. 흑인이 미국 인구의 13%를 차지하고 있는데 비해, 주 교도소 수감자의 46%가 흑인이다. 흑인 남성의 17%는 평생 한 번 이상 교도소에 수감된 경험이 있다. 흑인이 그만큼 범죄를 많이 저질렀으니까? 하지만, 1999년의 조사에 의하면, 미국 전체 마약 사용자의 13%가 흑인인데 비해 마약 혐의로 체포되는 사람의 37%, 유죄 판결을 받는 사람의 55%가 흑인이고, 실제 징역을 선고 받는 경우의 74%가 흑인인 것으로 나타났다. 사법제도의 불공정함은 여기에서 끝나지 않는다. 미국의 많은 주들이 범법자들에 대해 투표권을 박탈하는 제도를 가지고 있어서, 그 결과 현재 흑인 남성의 13%가 투표권이 없으며 플로리다 같은 주에서는 세 명당 한 명꼴로 투표권이 없다.

궁금하면 유전자에게 물어보세요.

상황이 이 정도 되니, 흑인의 건강 수준이 좋다고 하면 그게 오히려 이상할 지경이다. 그런데, 요즘 미국 의학계는 유전체 연구의 붐과 함께 인종 간의 유전적 차이를 찾는데 혈안이 되어 있다. 흑인과 백인의 건강 격차가 그 어떤 (아직 하나도 밝혀내지 못한!) 유전자 때문에 일어난다는 것이다. 그 중에서도 군계일학은, 지난 봄 대박을 터뜨린 일명 소금 유전자 학설이다. 현재 미국 흑인의 고혈압 유병률은 백인보다 높은 것은 물론, 그 조상 격인 사하라 이남 아프리카인들보다 훨씬 높은데, 여기에 우리 몸의 소금(정확하게는 소디움 Na. 콩팥에서 소디움 배출을 줄이면 그와 함께 우리 몸의 수분도 보존이 되고 과다한 염분/수분의 유지는 고혈압 발생의 한 가지 기전으로 알려져 있음)을 보유하는 유전자가 그 원인이라는 것이다.

즉, 아프리카에서 미국까지 노예로 팔려올 때 배 안에서 땀과 잦은 설사병, 그리고 배 멀미 구토 때문에 탈수가 되어 미처 신대륙에 도착하기도 전에 상당수가 죽었는데, 그들 중 일부는 (우연히) 소금 보유 유전자를 가지고 있었고 그 덕분에 탈수가 덜 일어나 무사히(?) 노예로 팔릴 수 있었다는 이야기. 이렇게 살아남은 생존자들의 후손이 지금 미국 흑인의 다수를 이루고, 옛날 그 노예선과는 달리 소금이 풍족한 환경 속에서 소금을 보유하는 그들의 유전자는 오히려 고혈압의 주범으로 기능하게 되었다는 설명이다.

하지만, 이 가설을 입증할만한 역학적 근거는 제시되지 않았고, 더구나 바로 그 핵심이라 할 수 있는 소금 보유 유전자는 아직 후보 물질조차 확인되지 않았다. 하지만 그게 무슨 대수인가? 일간지, 주간지는 물론 웬만한 학술지에 이르기까지 이제야 흑인 고혈압 문제의 비밀을 풀었다고 모두들 난리법석을 떨어댔으니...

지난달에는 '흑인을 위한' 심부전 치료제라는 바이딜 (BiDil)이 미국 식품의약안전청의 승인을 받았고 최초의 "ethnic drug"라고 또 한바탕 난리굿이 벌어졌었다. 흑인은 백인에 비해 심부전으로 인한 사망률이 월등하게 높고 그동안 치료 약물에 잘 반응하지 않았었는데, 바이딜은 '자칭' 흑인들을 대상으로 한 임상 시험에서 우수한 효과를 가진 것으로 보고되었다. 하지만, 일반적 통념과 달리, 생물학적으로 "순수" 인종을 구분할 수 있는 유전자나 객관적 지표는 존재하지 않는다. 피부색이나 외양은 차이가 있어 보여도, 막상 유전적 구성을 보면 인종을 구분할 만한 특정한 차이를 발견하기 어렵다. 오히려 인종이란 생물학적이라기보다 사회적 개념이라는 것이 사회 역학계의 정설이다.

이를테면 미국 사회에는 "한 방울의 법칙 (one drop rule)"이라는, 아프리카인의 피가 단 한 방울이라도 섞이면 흑인으로 분류해야 한다는 노예법령을 가지고 있었다. 이런 점에서, 이 임상시험에 참가한 흑인들이 생물학적으로 단일한 유전적 특성을 가진 집단이라는 근거도 없을 뿐더러, 그동안의 다른 임상시험 결과들을 살펴보면 약물 반응에서 흑인과 백인이 보이는 차이만큼이나 흑인과 흑인 사이의 개인 차이가 크다는 점이 밝혀져 있다. 더구나 이 약제가 흑인에게만 있는 어떤 특이한 수용체와 결합하거나 생화학적 작용을 갖는지도 아직 밝혀지지 않았다. 흑인을 위한 "맞춤" 약제라는 표현은 사실 어불성설인 것이다. 이래저래 격렬한 학술적 논쟁이 벌어졌지만, 약은 승인되고 언론의 열화와 같은 지지가 이어졌으니...

  최초의 흑인 전용 심부전 치료제- 바이딜 (BiDil) 소개 페이지


맺음말

지금 미국 사회에서 인종간의 불평등 - 특히 건강 - 문제는 두 가지 측면에서 큰 고비를 맞고 있다. 하나는 전례 없는 사회경제적 불평등의 심화와 그에 따른 소수 인종들의 주변화, 고통의 증대, 그리고 이로 인한 건강 악영향. 두 번째는 유전체 연구의 발달에 힘입은 생물학적 환원주의의 득세와 이러한 연구 결과가 가져올 이데올로기 (사회 환경이 문제가 아니라 그들의 유전자가 문제다!)가 그것이다.

사회 역학자들이 인종 개념을 중요하게 다루는 것은 그것의 생물학적 의미 때문이 아니라 사회적/역사적으로 정의된, 구조적인 억압과 불평등의 산물이라고 여기기 때문이다. 4백여 년 시련의 역사, 현재도 진행 중인 사회 불평등은 이들의 몸에 고스란히 흔적을 남겨왔다. 불안이 영혼을 잠식한다면, 억압과 착취, 불평등과 차별은 그들의 몸을 병들게 한 것이다.

그런데 왜 미국을 들여다보면서 거울을 보는 듯한 느낌이 드는 걸까? 사회 양극화, 소수자에 대한 억압과 차별, 그리고 유전자 만능주의까지....

  지난 가을, 버몬트 주의 유명한 골동품 벼룩시장에서 보았던 유일한(!) 흑인 인형. 나머지 수천 개의 인형들은 모두 옆과 같은 백인 공주, 왕자, 천사, 귀족 아가씨들...
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  • 거울면이 고르지 않다면

    여자를 차별하는 것은 소수자 차별보다 더 광범위하고, 악랄하다(강간등으로 나타나기 때문)
    그럼에도 소수자보다 못한 문제로 취급되는 것은, 거울이 좀 왜곡된 면을 지닌게 아닐까. 신체 어느 부위는 사실보다 더 크게 비추고, 실제 어떤 부위는 왜소하게 비추는 거울.
    어쩌면 , 우리 사회는 알게 모르게 여성에 대해 보수적인 차별이 몸에 배였는지도 모를일이다.

  • 위의 글이 인종문제를 통해 성 문제를 감추려고 하는건 아니잖아요. 다만 윗 글의 주제가 인종 문제라서 거기에 집중한 것이지, 여성차별에 대해 어떤 왜곡된 시각을 유도한 건 아니죠.그리고 여성에 대한 차별 언급도, 참세상 글에 보면 많이 있던데... 과민반응이라고 봅니다.

  • pumdori

    Commentary

    Paranoid shift

    http://onlinejournal.com/Commentary/011004Hasty/011004hasty.html

    By Michael Hasty
    Online Journal Contributing Writer

    January 10, 2004—Just before his death, James Jesus Angleton, the legendary chief of counterintelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency, was a bitter man. He felt betrayed by the people he had worked for all his life. In the end, he had come to realize that they were never really interested in American ideals of "freedom" and "democracy." They really only wanted "absolute power."

    Angleton told author Joseph Trento that the reason he had gotten the counterintelligence job in the first place was by agreeing not to submit "sixty of Allen Dulles' closest friends" to a polygraph test concerning their business deals with the Nazis. In his end-of-life despair, Angleton assumed that he would see all his old companions again "in hell."

    The transformation of James Jesus Angleton from an enthusiastic, Ivy League cold warrior, to a bitter old man, is an extreme example of a phenomenon I call a "paranoid shift." I recognize the phenomenon, because something similar happened to me.

    Although I don't remember ever meeting James Jesus Angleton, I worked at the CIA myself as a low-level clerk as a teenager in the '60s. This was at the same time I was beginning to question the government's actions in Vietnam. In fact, my personal "paranoid shift" probably began with the disillusionment I felt when I realized that the story of American foreign policy was, at the very least, more complicated and darker than I had hitherto been led to believe.

    But for most of the next 30 years, even though I was a radical, I nevertheless held faith in the basic integrity of a system where power ultimately resided in the people, and whereby if enough people got together and voted, real and fundamental change could happen.

    What constitutes my personal paranoid shift is that I no longer believe this to be necessarily true.

    In his book, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower," William Blum warns of how the media will make anything that smacks of "conspiracy theory" an immediate "object of ridicule." This prevents the media from ever having to investigate the many strange interconnections among the ruling class—for example, the relationship between the boards of directors of media giants, and the energy, banking and defense industries. These unmentionable topics are usually treated with what Blum calls "the media's most effective tool—silence." But in case somebody's asking questions, all you have to do is say, "conspiracy theory," and any allegation instantly becomes too frivolous to merit serious attention.

    On the other hand, since my paranoid shift, whenever I hear the words "conspiracy theory" (which seems more often, lately) it usually means someone is getting too close to the truth.

    Take September 11—which I identify as the date my paranoia actually shifted, though I didn't know it at the time.

    Unless I'm paranoid, it doesn't make any sense at all that George W. Bush, commander-in-chief, sat in a second-grade classroom for 20 minutes after he was informed that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center, listening to children read a story about a goat. Nor does it make sense that the Number 2 man, Dick Cheney—even knowing that "the commander" was on a mission in Florida—nevertheless sat at his desk in the White House, watching TV, until the Secret Service dragged him out by the armpits.

    Unless I'm paranoid, it makes no sense that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sat at his desk until Flight 77 hit the Pentagon—well over an hour after the military had learned about the multiple hijacking in progress. It also makes no sense that the brand-new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sat in a Senate office for two hours while the 9/11 attacks took place, after leaving explicit instructions that he not be disturbed—which he wasn't.

    In other words, while the 9/11 attacks were occurring, the entire top of the chain of command of the most powerful military in the world sat at various desks, inert. Why weren't they in the "Situation Room?" Don't any of them ever watch "West Wing?"

    In a sane world, this would be an object of major scandal. But here on this side of the paranoid shift, it's business as usual.

    Years, even decades before 9/11, plans had been drawn up for American forces to take control of the oil interests of the Middle East, for various imperialist reasons. And these plans were only contingent upon "a catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor," to gain the majority support of the American public to set the plans into motion. When the opportunity presented itself, the guards looked the other way . . . and presto, the path to global domination was open.

    Simple, as long as the media played along. And there is voluminous evidence that the media play along. Number one on Project Censored's annual list of underreported stories in 2002 was the Project for a New American Century (now the infrastructure of the Bush Regime), whose report, published in 2000, contains the above "Pearl Harbor" quote.

    Why is it so hard to believe serious people who have repeatedly warned us that powerful ruling elites are out to dominate "the masses?" Did we think Dwight Eisenhower was exaggerating when he warned of the extreme "danger" to democracy of "the military industrial complex?" Was Barry Goldwater just being a quaint old-fashioned John Bircher when he said that the Trilateral Commission was "David Rockefeller's latest scheme to take over the world, by taking over the government of the United States?" Were Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt or Joseph Kennedy just being class traitors when they talked about a small group of wealthy elites who operate as a hidden government behind the government? Especially after he died so mysteriously, why shouldn't we believe the late CIA Director William Colby, who bragged about how the CIA "owns everyone of any major significance in the major media?"

    Why can't we believe James Jesus Angleton—a man staring eternal judgment in the face—when he says that the founders of the Cold War national security state were only interested in "absolute power?" Especially when the descendant of a very good friend of Allen Dulles now holds power in the White House.

    Prescott Bush, the late, aristocratic senator from Connecticut, and grandfather of George W Bush, was not only a good friend of Allen Dulles, CIA director, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and international business lawyer. He was also a client of Dulles' law firm. As such, he was the beneficiary of Dulles' miraculous ability to scrub the story of Bush's treasonous investments in the Third Reich out of the news media, where it might have interfered with Bush's political career . . . not to mention the presidential careers of his son and grandson.

    Recently declassified US government documents, unearthed last October by investigative journalist John Buchanan at the New Hampshire Gazette, reveal that Prescott Bush's involvement in financing and arming the Nazis was more extensive than previously known. Not only was Bush managing director of the Union Banking Corporation, the American branch of Hitler's chief financier's banking network; but among the other companies where Bush was a director—and which were seized by the American government in 1942, under the Trading With the Enemy Act—were a shipping line which imported German spies; an energy company that supplied the Luftwaffe with high-ethyl fuel; and a steel company that employed Jewish slave labor from the Auschwitz concentration camp.

    Like all the other Bush scandals that have been swept under the rug in the privatized censorship of the corporate media, these revelations have been largely ignored, with the exception of a single article in the Associated Press. And there are those, even on the left, who question the current relevance of this information.

    But Prescott Bush's dealings with the Nazis do more than illustrate a family pattern of genteel treason and war profiteering—from George Senior's sale of TOW missiles to Iran at the same time he was selling biological and chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein, to Junior's zany misadventures in crony capitalism in present-day Iraq.

    More disturbing by far are the many eerie parallels between Adolph Hitler and George W. Bush:

    A conservative, authoritarian style, with public appearances in military uniform (which no previous American president has ever done while in office). Government by secrecy, propaganda and deception. Open assaults on labor unions and workers' rights. Preemptive war and militant nationalism. Contempt for international law and treaties. Suspiciously convenient "terrorist" attacks, to justify a police state and the suspension of liberties. A carefully manufactured image of "The Leader," who's still just a "regular guy" and a "moderate." "Freedom" as the rationale for every action. Fantasy economic growth, based on unprecedented budget deficits and massive military spending.

    And a cold, pragmatic ideology of fascism—including the violent suppression of dissent and other human rights; the use of torture, assassination and concentration camps; and most important, Benito Mussolini's preferred definition of "fascism" as "corporatism, because it binds together the interests of corporations and the state."

    By their fruits, you shall know them.

    What perplexes me most is probably the same question that plagues most paranoiacs: why don't other people see these connections?

    Oh, sure, there may be millions of us, lurking at websites like Online Journal, From the Wilderness, Center for Cooperative Research, and the Center for Research on Globalization, checking out right-wing conspiracists and the galaxy of 9/11 sites, and reading columnists like Chris Floyd at the Moscow Times, and Maureen Farrell at Buzzflash. But we know we are only a furtive minority, the human remnant among the pod people in the live-action, 21st-century version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

    And being paranoid, we have to figure out, with an answer that fits into our system, why more people don't see the connections we do. Fortunately, there are a number of possible explanations.

    First on the list would have to be what Marshal McLuhan called the "cave art of the electronic age:" advertising. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Karl Rove, gave credit for most of his ideas on how to manipulate mass opinion to American commercial advertising, and to the then-new science of "public relations." But the public relations universe available to the corporate empire that rules the world today makes the Goebbels operation look primitive. The precision of communications technology and graphics; the century of research on human psychology and emotion; and the uniquely centralized control of triumphant post-Cold War monopoly capitalism, have combined to the point where "the manufacture of consent" can be set on automatic pilot.

    A second major reason people won't make the paranoid shift is that they are too fundamentally decent. They can't believe that the elected leaders of our country, the people they've been taught through 12 years of public school to admire and trust, are capable of sending young American soldiers to their deaths and slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent civilians, just to satisfy their greed—especially when they're so rich in the first place. Besides, America is good, and the media are liberal and overly critical.

    Third, people don't want to look like fools. Being a "conspiracy theorist" is like being a creationist. The educated opinion of eminent experts on every TV and radio network is that any discussion of "oil" being a motivation for the US invasion of Iraq is just out of bounds, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist." We can trust the integrity of our 'no-bid" contracting in Iraq, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist." Of course, people sometimes make mistakes, but our military and intelligence community did the best they could on and before September 11, and anybody who thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist."

    Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole assassin of JFK, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a "conspiracy theorist."

    Perhaps the biggest hidden reason people don't make the paranoid shift is that knowledge brings responsibility. If we acknowledge that an inner circle of ruling elites controls the world's most powerful military and intelligence system; controls the international banking system; controls the most effective and far-reaching propaganda network in history; controls all three branches of government in the world's only superpower; and controls the technology that counts the people's votes, we might be then forced to conclude that we don't live in a particularly democratic system. And then voting and making contributions and trying to stay informed wouldn't be enough. Because then the duty of citizenship would go beyond serving as a loyal opposition, to serving as a "loyal resistance"—like the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, except that in this case the resistance to fascism would be on the side of the national ideals, rather than the government; and a violent insurgency would not only play into the empire's hands, it would be doomed from the start.

    Forming a nonviolent resistance movement, on the other hand, might mean forsaking some middle class comfort, and it would doubtless require a lot of work. It would mean educating ourselves and others about the nature of the truly apocalyptic beast we face. It would mean organizing at the most basic neighborhood level, face to face. (We cannot put our trust in the empire's technology.) It would mean reaching across turf lines and transcending single-issue politics, forming coalitions and sharing data and names and strategies, and applying energy at every level of government, local to global. It would also probably mean civil disobedience, at a time when the Bush regime is starting to classify that action as "terrorism." In the end, it may mean organizing a progressive confederacy to govern ourselves, just as our revolutionary founders formed the Continental Congress. It would mean being wise as serpents, and gentle as doves.

    It would be a lot of work. It would also require critical mass. A paradigm shift.

    But as a paranoid, I'm ready to join the resistance. And the main reason is I no longer think that the "conspiracy" is much of a "theory."

    That the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations concluded that the murder of John Fitzgerald Kennedy was "probably" the result of "a conspiracy," and that 70 percent of Americans agree with this conclusion, is not a "theory." It's fact.

    That the Bay of Pigs fiasco, "Operation Zapata," was organized by members of Skull and Bones, the ghoulish and powerful secret society at Yale University whose membership also included Prescott, George Herbert Walker and George W Bush; that two of the ships that carried the Cuban counterrevolutionaries to their appointment with absurdity were named the "Barbara" and the "Houston"—George HW Bush's city of residence at the time—and that the oil company Bush owned, then operating in the Caribbean area, was named "Zapata," is not "theory." It's fact.

    That George Bush was the CIA director who kept the names of what were estimated to be hundreds of American journalists, considered to be CIA "assets," from the Church Committee, the US Senate Intelligence Committe chaired by Senator Frank Church that investigated the CIA in the 1970s; that a 1971 University of Michigan study concluded that, in America, the more TV you watched, the less you knew; and that a recent survey by international scholars found that Americans were the most "ignorant" of world affairs out of all the populations they studied, is not a "theory." It's fact.

    That the Council on Foreign Relations has a history of influence on official US government foreign policy; that the protection of US supplies of Middle East oil has been a central element of American foreign policy since the Second World War; and that global oil production has been in decline since its peak year, 2000, is not "theory." It's fact.

    That, in the early 1970s, the newly-formed Trilateral Commission published a report which recommended that, in order for "globalization" to succeed, American manufacturing jobs had to be exported, and American wages had to decline, which is exactly what happened over the next three decades; and that, during that same period, the richest one percent of Americans doubled their share of the national wealth, is not "theory." It's fact.

    That, beyond their quasi-public role as agents of the US Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve Banks are profit-making corporations, whose beneficiaries include some of America's wealthiest families; and that the United States has a virtual controlling interest in the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization, the three dominant global financial institutions, is not a "theory." It's fact.

    That—whether it's heroin from Southeast Asia in the '60s and '70s, or cocaine from Central America and heroin from Afghanistan in the '80s, or cocaine from Colombia in the '90s, or heroin from Afghanistan today—no major CIA covert operation has ever lacked a drug smuggling component, and that the CIA has hired Nazis, fascists, drug dealers, arms smugglers, mass murderers, perverts, sadists, terrorists and the Mafia, is not "theory." It's fact.

    That the international oil industry is the dominant player in the global economy; that the Bush family has a decades-long business relationship with the Saudi royal family, Saudi oil money, and the family of Osama bin Laden; that, as president, both George Bushes have favored the interests of oil companies over the public interest; that both George Bushes have personally profited financially from Middle East oil; and that American oil companies doubled their records for quarterly profits in the months just preceding the invasion of Iraq, is not "theory." It's fact.

    That the 2000 presidential election was deliberately stolen; that the pro-Bush/anti-Gore bias in the corporate media had spiked markedly in the last three weeks of the campaign; that corporate media were then virtually silent about the Florida recount; and that the Bush 2000 team had planned to challenge the legitimacy of the election if George W had won the popular, but lost the electoral vote—exactly what happened to Gore—is not "theory." It's fact.

    That the intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was deceptively "cooked" by the Bush administration; that anybody paying attention to people like former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, knew before the invasion that the weapons were a hoax; and that American forces in Iraq today are applying the same brutal counterinsurgency tactics pioneered in Central America in the 1980s, under the direct supervision of then-Vice President George HW Bush, is not a "theory." It's fact.

    That "Rebuilding America's Defenses," the Project for a New American Century's 2000 report, and "The Grand Chessboard," a book published a few years earlier by Trilateral Commission co-founder Zbigniew Brzezinski, both recommended a more robust and imperial US military presence in the oil basin of the Middle East and the Caspian region; and that both also suggested that American public support for this energy crusade would depend on public response to a new "Pearl Harbor," is not "theory." It's fact.

    That, in the 1960s, the Joint Chiefs of Staff unanimously approved a plan called "Operation Northwoods," to stage terrorist attacks on American soil that could be used to justify an invasion of Cuba; and that there is currently an office in the Pentagon whose function is to instigate terrorist attacks that could be used to justify future strategically-desired military responses, is not a "theory." It's fact.

    That neither the accusation by former British Environmental Minister Michael Meacham, Tony Blair's longest-serving cabinet minister, that George W Bush allowed the 9/11 attacks to happen to justify an oil war in the Middle East; nor the RICO lawsuit filed by 9/11 widow Ellen Mariani against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the Council on Foreign Relations (among others), on the grounds that they conspired to let the attacks happen to cash in on the ensuing war profiteering, has captured the slightest attention from American corporate media is not a "theory." It's fact.

    That the FBI has completely exonerated—though never identified—the speculators who purchased, a few days before the attacks (through a bank whose previous director is now the CIA executive director), an unusual number of "put" options, and who made millions betting that the stocks in American and United Airlines would crash, is not a "theory." It's fact.

    That the US intelligence community received numerous warnings, from multiple sources, throughout the summer of 2001, that a major terrorist attack on American interests was imminent; that, according to the chair of the "independent" 9/11 commission, the attacks "could have and should have been prevented," and according to a Senate Intelligence Committee member, "All the dots were connected;" that the White House has verified George W Bush's personal knowledge, as of August 6, 2001, that these terrorist attacks might be domestic and might involve hijacked airliners; that, in the summer of 2001, at the insistence of the American Secret Service, anti-aircraft ordnance was installed around the city of Genoa, Italy, to defend against a possible terrorist suicide attack, by aircraft, against George W Bush, who was attending the economic summit there; and that George W Bush has nevertheless regaled audiences with his first thought upon seeing the "first" plane hit the World Trade Center, which was: "What a terrible pilot," is not "theory." It's fact.

    That, on the morning of September 11, 2001: standard procedures and policies at the nation's air defense and aviation bureaucracies were ignored, and communications were delayed; the black boxes of the planes that hit the WTC were destroyed, but hijacker Mohammed Atta's passport was found in pristine condition; high-ranking Pentagon officers had cancelled their commercial flight plans for that morning; George H.W. Bush was meeting in Washington with representatives of Osama bin Laden's family, and other investors in the world's largest private equity firm, the Carlyle Group; the CIA was conducting a previously-scheduled mock exercise of an airliner hitting the Pentagon; the chairs of both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees were having breakfast with the chief of Pakistan's intelligence agency, who resigned a week later on suspicion of involvement in the 9/11 attacks; and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the United States sat in a second grade classroom for 20 minutes after hearing that a second plane had struck the towers, listening to children read a story about a goat, is not "theoretical." These are facts.

    That the Bush administration has desperately fought every attempt to independently investigate the events of 9/11, is not a "theory."

    Nor, finally, is it in any way a "theory" that the one, single name that can be directly linked to the Third Reich, the US military industrial complex, Skull and Bones, Eastern Establishment good ol' boys, the Illuminati, Big Texas Oil, the Bay of Pigs, the Miami Cubans, the Mafia, the FBI, the JFK assassination, the New World Order, Watergate, the Republican National Committee, Eastern European fascists, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the United Nations, CIA headquarters, the October Surprise, the Iran/Contra scandal, Inslaw, the Christic Institute, Manuel Noriega, drug-running "freedom fighters" and death squads, Iraqgate, Saddam Hussein, weapons of mass destruction, the blood of innocents, the savings and loan crash, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, the "Octopus," the "Enterprise," the Afghan mujaheddin, the War on Drugs, Mena (Arkansas), Whitewater, Sun Myung Moon, the Carlyle Group, Osama bin Laden and the Saudi royal family, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, is: George Herbert Walker Bush.

    "Theory?" To the contrary.

    It is a well-documented, tragic and—especially if you're paranoid—terrifying fact.

    Michael Hasty is a writer, activist, musician, carpenter and farmer. His award-winning column, "Thinking Locally," appeared for seven years in the Hampshire Review, West Virginia's oldest newspaper. His writing has also appeared in the Highlands Voice, the Washington Peace Letter, the Takoma Park Newsletter, the German magazine Generational Justice, and the Washington Post; and at the websites Common Dreams and Democrats.com. In January 1989, he was the media spokesperson for the counter-inaugural coalition at George Bush's Counter-Inaugural Banquet, which fed hundreds of DC's homeless in front of Union Station, where the official inaugural dinner was being held.

  • 뎡야핑

    쇼킹하네요=ㅁ= 흑인 하인 인형이라니;;; 진짜 싸이코들이다

  • 청주에서 Lee

    홍실이 누나, 글 재미있게 읽었어요.
    돌아오면 쏘주나 한 잔 해요. 청주에서 왕 팬이!

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