A few weeks ago, I downloaded the full text of the speech Harold Pinter gave in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature. It made very worthwhile reading. I've excerpted one of my favorite passages below, wherein Pinter describes the process by which the United States's crimes against countries such as Indonesia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile, and others, have been made invisible.

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

It was a strange relief to read these words. It is a relief because it reflects the facts of U.S. history as I understand them, and not the fantasy that is constantly projected here in the U.S.

Although the media often discusses the political frustrations of the Democratic party, I have rarely seen any examination of the daily frustrations of ordinary individuals trying to live in a culture where one is lied to every day. A place where lying is glorified, through the elevation of people who lie boldly, such as the Enron millionaires and our own President.

It is confusing to live in such a culture. One thing that I have been surprised to discover since 9/11 is how ideology can be extremely blatant and still work. Previously, I assumed that ideology was most successful when it acted surreptitiously, almost as an unconscious effect. But ideology must work hardest when the facts diverge most jarringly from "the official record" that is being offered. It is this constant presence of ideology that becomes so tiring, because it becomes such an effort to remember, day in and day out, what is real.