In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein relates how nations brutalized by the Chicago School’s savage capitalism and the Dirty War juntas enforcing it have recovered and developed a healthy immunity against more eviscerating shock therapy:

Any strategy based on exploiting the window of opportunity opened by a traumatic shock relies heavily on the element of surprise... in North America, the September 11 attacks were, at first pure event, raw reality, unprocessed by story, narrative or anything that could bridge the gap between reality and understanding. Without a story, we are, as many of us were after September 11, intensely vulnerable to those people who take advantage of chaos for their own ends. As soon as we have a new narrative that offers perspective on the shocking events, we become reoriented and the world begins to make sense again.

That psychology pertains on both the individual and societal levels: a trauma that is never dealt with openly, but suppressed in the subconscious, festers, reinforcing crippling habits and sabotaging recovery. Maybe it is our reigning paradigm of dogmatic materialism that keeps us from acknowledging afflictions of the mind and spirit; imbibe a new pill to correct the faulty chemistry, or ingest an economic stimulus package to cure our destructive addiction to greed and gluttony. Consciousness, our scientists tell us, is a mere epiphenomenon of electrical brain circuits, so there can be no such thing as a collective “national psyche” capable of being wounded (socialist psychology!).

But how do we explain the shocking backsliding of Obama and his majority party: indefinite detention, torture lite continuing in Gitmo and Bagram, virtual immunity for war criminals, acceptable collateral drone carnage of civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan, escalation of the disingenuous War on Terror, not to mention the subsidization of our piratical financial class. We are still locked in the shock of 9/11, the sole justification for this endless train of abuses, usurpations, and crimes. To forswear waterboarding would be regression to a perilous “September 10th mentality,” Elizabeth Cheney assures us.

9/11 is the wellspring that keeps on gushing, fueling our fear, barbaric behavior, and coffers of the merchants of death. But if the officially sanctioned narrative of 9/11 is any way deficient—if it is a cover-up of some kind, as many credible Commission staffers, prominent academics, military and intelligence officers, architects and engineers have alleged—then we cannot continue tacitly endorsing it without very grave and perhaps fatal consequences to our republic. To censor all inquiry that reflects critically on that first, very panicked draft of history, and declare any revisionist narrative heresy, surrenders our minds to the perpetual War lobby still feeding on it.

The disillusioning betrayals by our Democratic majority should be sufficient evidence of that by now. The torture, renditions, bloodbaths and bankrupting imperialism could be extended for 10 more years, as a Pentagon general recently envisioned. The Constitution, and critical domestic initiatives, are indefinitely detained.

In South America, after decades of plutocratic plunder and police-state oppression, genuinely pluralistic and vital democracies are resurgent, in no small measure because their citizens have courageously and tenaciously faced the horrors of their past, excised the cancer, and insured their progress with legal deterrence—exposure and prosecution of the Dirty War thieves and killers. Wall Street’s IMF shock troops have been evicted from the whole continent, and the rule of law has triumphed. In Argentina, Peru, or Spain, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld would be in the dock by now.

But here in United States, cradle of modern democracy and the unfettered Fourth Estate, our ostensible leaders and most of our media still cannot honestly face the seminal neo-fascist crime of over 40 years ago, the assassinations of JFK.. When one of the principal suspects, Cold War fanatic E. Howard Hunt, arranged a posthumous confession two years ago (“Surely someone would have talked by now!”), implicating the CIA’s Cuba faction, it was left to Rolling Stone alone to get the word out (whatever the veracity of that confession was later determined to be, there is no excuse for blacking out news of it). Twenty years earlier, when Mark Lane convinced a Miami jury that the same E. Howard Hunt and the CIA were complicit in the assassination, news of the landmark trial (Hunt vs. Liberty Lobby) never made it beyond a local Miami TV station. If there’s a conspiracy-of-silence theory here, fault our panjandrums of the press for feeding it, including radical luminaries Alexander Cockburn, Noam Chomsky and Justin Raimondo, all still preposterously swearing fealty to the rancid Warren Commission corpse as a holy relic.

Because: power is structural, institutional and ruthless, but it would never stoop to this level (except overseas). Because American exceptionalism embodies more than the privilege to flaunt whatever laws get in the way of its blundering manifest destiny—we are blessed also with a congenital/Constitutional immunity to those Machiavellian maladies common in most other polities in history. A Caesar Borgia is impossible in our land (except Chicago)! We suffer the downside of our singular individualism—Lone Nuts and postal pariahs—but they rarely collaborate in socialistic cabals. God’s, or Madison’s, dispensation has forever freed us from the alien scourge of conspiracy (except the Mafia, famously apolitical). To assert otherwise is a faux pas as impudent as “class warfare.” It’s self-evident: there is no ruling class in the shining city on the hill, but if there were, it would never, ever conspire darkly against the general welfare. Case closed!

Let us give praise: with a few picayune exceptions, every skeleton in our internal National Security empire is dragged out into the disinfecting glare of a summer day in Death Valley. Our congressional investigations are, by and large, enviable forays of forensic rigor and infallibility. We may falter and stumble, but in the Invisible Hand we trust to right the ship in all storms.... as long as our faith is sure and we stifle all doubt. All our current problems ensue, really, from a surfeit of the white man’s burden: Democracy and uplifting Capitalism are threatened by global epidemics of insurgency and virulent socialism that could, if not checked by our stalwart sacrifice, plunge the nation, or even the planet, into a great depression! The only language they understand: napalm on the wedding party. Since WWII, we have successfully crusaded and seeded capital democracy like conquistadors of the Enlightenment: Guatemala, Iran, Greece, Indonesia, Chile, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Iraq. We can’t abandon the mission of 1776 now. We must summon the fortitude to stand up to our swelling coalition of enemies.

It’s not the Cold War—it’s the Slush War, thawed by global warming. Becoming more fully automated, privatized and casualty minimizing. Replacing body bags, we’ll suffer wounded and killed drones and cyborg Marines—boom time for the robot contractors. Moreover, the market is stable, growing and self-fertilizing; new crops of terrorists spring up like bush seedlings after one of our F-22 forest fires. Our boys in uniform will be joystick jocks; when Star Wars is finally deployed (with offensive capability), even the previously disabled can be war heroes. Given the order, a future Steven Hawking, for example, if he got bored with physics, could obliterate one of the Stan countries. Is that not another advance for equality and social justice? Even as we kill prolifically, we do good. Virtue rises and permeates our character undefeated, however rough and tumble we’re forced to be. Most importantly, the Brits don’t have it over us on decorum; our prudence, civility and good taste in public are not inferior—we know when and where to censor ourselves. God save the Queen and the rest of the leisure class.

After 45 years of unpunished serial abuse, the collective unconscious of the nation must be roiling with a lot of repressed baggage, and we imagine this is inconsequential as we “look forward,” that all the talk of “festering wounds” in the national soul is just so much metaphorical prattle. America is a future-forging dynamo, untroubled by the dead weight of remorse for Abu Ghraib, the Gulf of Tonkin, or the Manchurian hit on RFK. No, such detours into the past would hinder the breathtaking progress we’re making on all fronts: reigning in the corporate-financial kleptocracy, ushering in a universal health care system approximately efficient as Cuba’s, withdrawing from the bankrupting quagmires overseas. Deploy the windshield, I’m gasping!

Certainly, let us not distract from celebrating the shower of fig leaves over this swinish epidemic of corruption in the capital. Yes, our gallant Democrats have shifted the political landscape—so the bulk of lobby loot now gravitates to their pockets, and we are appeased with a few grudging lipstick concessions from the bloodsuckers of Wall Street, the Pentagon and the insurance aristocracy—vested agents of bankruptcy, sickness and death feasting now with marginally less ravenous gluttony. Hoorah.

Perhaps our illegal immigrants from the South can assist by cultural diffusion: maybe they can teach us how to conduct a proper truth and reconciliation commission and reclaim our democracy. Maybe their example can shame most of our own journalists, professors and pols into growing some balls. Are we serious about dismantling this murderous, parasitical apparatus, or not? Outraged citizens in Bolivia, Argentina, Lebanon and even Britain take to the streets—our vanguard cannot even open its mouth, except to abjectly slander those who have taken action and risk the kick of outraged consensus reflex.

To cite one example of this noxious co-dependency: here on Daily Kos recently, a longtime blogger, Tocque DeVille was banished for declaring the proscribed L***P theory about 9/11, even after masochistic denials that he was giving any credence to subversive “conspiracy theory”—that ever potent meme adapted to divert investigation of the worst shock therapy crimes. Too grim and serious for us happy, optimistic Americans. Please do not disturb our precious innocence—we will persist peeing the bed and sucking the pacifier of big lies as Uncle confidently prepares to rape us again.

Well, I am serious. The body parts of 92 children in Bola Boluk were just shoveled into graves, courtesy of the Audaciously Hopeful One. And that was merely a downpayment. It is necessary, because somewhere among the gore there may have been a splattered towelhead hatching another 9/11.

If I have not already committed punishable perfidy here, I now offer no theories, conspiratorial or otherwise, but simply the following citation of officiously endorsed empiricism. As Kos repeats the hackneyed gem in his online Rules: “Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.” Well, here it is:

Firm evidence of nano-thermite residue in four distinct WTC dust samples. From a paper published in the peer-reviewed Open Chemical Physics Journal by dissident physicist Stephen Jones (our own Andrei Sakharov) and eight colleagues (summary here: http://www.globalresearch.ca/... Jones states it was the most rigorous peer-review he had ever undergone, in a long and distinguished career. So far, none of the dependable debunkers have disputed this research—that would perhaps draw too much undesired attention to it. So what does it mean?

First, it provides an explanation for two anomalies in the Twin Towers’ destruction: the great plumes of pulverized mass at the beginning of the collapse; and the pools of molten metal found in the debris weeks later (kerosene jet fuel fires may weaken steel, but cannot melt it).

People are quick to jump to unwarranted conclusions, but I will keep this safely within the designated free speech zone: no theories straying off limits into how or by whom the nano-thermite was employed on 9/11. But prima facie, it is a national security issue. Nano-thermite, or super-thermite, is a controlled pyrotechnic compound under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). It has to be engineered in a fairly sophisticated lab (like the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where it was originally synthesized. Or like the distinctive strain of anthrax used in the post 9/11 attacks). If the 19 hijackers and/or unknown confederates somehow acquired or created this devastatingly explosive terrorist weapon (it can be embedded or molded into almost anything, like ceiling tiles, shoes or carry-on luggage), should this not be discussed and investigated? Can our airport scanners detect this stuff? Is there an al-Qaeda nano-technology lab somewhere on the planet? Are we to rely on torture alone to save us from a ticking nano-thermite bomb?

Well, if this evidence be declared verboten by our commissars of permissible discourse, we may safely add to the flourishing Bush/Cheney legacy another element: the willful suppression of science, as we continue marching in blind faith-based amnesia over more cliffs.

We now know unequivocally that the FAA and NORAD lied about the national defense failures on that fateful day, much like the Warren Commission was bamboozled by Hoover’s corrupt FBI (see recent and upcoming books by Commission staffers Richard Ben-Veniste and John Farmer). And we know that Dick Cheney was in complete command (in an encore self-appointment, he assumed supreme authority over homeland defense four months earlier; an unprecedented role for an American VP), having arranged no less than 6 separate war games on 9/11 (Vigilant Guardian, Vigilant Warrior, Northern Vigilance, Northern Guardian, Tripod II, and a curiously coincidental NRO exercise), including simulated hijackings and airliners smashing into buildings (which Condi Rice and company could “never have imagined”) that diverted most U.S. defensive aircraft while effectively providing an obfuscating smokescreen for the genuinely hijacked aircraft. Maybe it wasn’t only the Boeings that were hijacked, but the whole war games scenario. If so, have we identified the al-Qaeda moles in NORAD, the Pentagon, or Dick’s bunker whose intelligence coordinated this Trojan Horse operation? Good God, could they could still be in place, packing nano-thermite laptops and iPods? From Level Blackout, we should move at least to Level Orange alert here.

Regarding responsibility for the financial meltdown, economist James K. Galbraith said, “…as always, you’ll have incompetence, negligence and conspiracy at various parts of the operation at various times”— a rare and exemplary apprehension of complexity that could also flesh out a new, unexpurgated, war-disabling narrative of 9/11. Whatever the relative proportions of negligence, incompetence and conspiracy, one thing is clear: the election-hijacking cabal (another feckless failure of our press, with the lone exception of Keith Olbermann) in power wanted, needed, pined and prayed for a “new Pearl Harbor” to kick off the “New American Century.” Individuals and bureaucracies alike filter out dissonant information, or intelligence, in conflict with grasping desires and beliefs; the best cognitive filter is a numbing ideology masking both inconvenient facts and base ulterior motives, enabling the most barbarous acts in the name of some imagined higher good. Such as: “Our white phosphorus is searing democracy into a stubborn, impervious people.” Better said by John T. Flynn:

The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilize savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells.

Unlike the first Pearl Harbor, not a single American official has suffered so much as a wrist slap for the loss of 3000 lives on 9/11, even though very specific foreign intelligence about an impending attack was flooding Washington that summer, while Colleen Rowley’s, Robert Wright’s and other diligent FBI agents’ field investigations were stymied, stubbornly and absurdly, by D.C. headquarters (the Moussaoui lead, suspected terrorists in Arizona flight training schools, a money trail back to madrassa financiers, all quarantined in a bureaucratic Siberia). The FBI honcho responsible for most of these persistent obstructions, David Frasca, was never reprimanded— incredibly, he was promoted. Ignore this.

In the secret bunker, Cheney appears to have ordered a stand down as Flight 77 approached the Pentagon, according to the Commission testimony of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Finally dragged together before the hearings they struggled to abort, Cheney ventriloquized his dummy to insure no slip ups focused on this long train of suspicious behavior. The warmongering cowboys fought any deeper probing of the disaster, and largely succeeded; how curious that our champions of the Left now ape them, acting as a mop up crew, blissfully ignorant of recent FBI statements like this:

As with all cases, the FBI will continue to examine the 9/11 investigation from every angle as new evidence develops, utilizing all leads available. Mr. Gage (president of Architect and Engineers for 9/11 Truth) presents an interesting theory, backed by thorough research and analysis. —Michael Heimbach

Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division

National Security Branch, FBI The reason why 9/11 is not mentioned on Usama Bin Laden's Most Wanted page is because the FBI has no hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11. —Rex Tomb

Chief of Investigative Publicity, FBI

Got that, ye righteous debunkers? We’re spending more billions hunting down a CIA-spawned Frankenstein for a crime we have no evidence that he committed. All the Taliban demanded before the carpet of bombs in 2002 was submission of that evidence, which Bush and Cheney couldn’t cough up. Sweet. I think Smedley Butler would call it an autocatalytic racket. He would also surely gag if asked to swallow one of the lesser known physical absurdities of 9/11, the Shanksville Gopher Hole, which swallowed Flight 93 and the “Let’s roll!” heroes whole, leaving no discernible debris larger than a baseball on the surface, before belching up engines and other parts and spewing them 8 miles downstream. The only comparable feat is that of Messrs. Cockburn, Chomsky, Raimondo, Moulitsas and company in swallowing this turd without so much as a gag reflex. But these gentlemen have their off-mainstream reputations to uphold. And how their screeds are winning the day! Keep shooting at the tail and tusks, gentlemen; the beast will succumb…eventually.

I don’t know how culpable Cheney is for 9/11—whether he would be indicted for criminal negligence, manslaughter or conspiracy to commit murder, illegal war and torture if not shielded by a vestige of high office. But I know that any nation that still tolerates this malignant Goering pontificating freely in public has a long way to go in recuperating its sabotaged traditions and hocked soul. Maybe we should convene a South American presidents’ summit in Washington or New York. They would probably advise us: “Publish the damn facts and indict the sonofabitches already!”

Of course, the chances of that happening any time soon are slim. The shocking candor might demoralize our media’s corporate overlords, sapping their dynamism that so richly trickles down upon us these days... it could even wreak unprecedented havoc on Wall Street! Above all, the supreme virtue, stability of the status quo, must be safeguarded. We can procrastinate still a little longer; after all, it has taken the Chileans, and many victims of serial abuse, decades to recover. The tsunami’s reflected waves are only now departing the South, to rattle back on the epicenter. Of course, since this tumor of fanatic-right covert ops sheathed with blind impunity was born on November 1963, it could be argued that we’re relatively overdue for making a start. In many cases, we are not talking “conspiracy theory” but simply history—revisionist, radical, uncompromising— and it is no mere academic exercise, as Orwell observed: who controls the past, controls the future.

The reason behind this inertia is obvious: treason has prospered mightily and benefited us all more or less, so none dare call it treason. That’s the demon lurking in our national id; it’s all about maintaining our sumptuous lifestyle, Rumsfeld proclaimed, and who really wants to live less high on the hog? But the credit on these accounts, like our other soaring deficits, is fast approaching the omega point. Recent bulletins from the Pentagon: we could be squatting in Iraq for at least 10 more years; the Vatican-sized embassy in Baghdad will be matched by a new diplomatic fortress in Pakistan; Afghanistan will require another decade as well; and we can still fight a conventional sequel in Korea, the generals cheerfully promise us. While the rest of the country founders, it’s boom time for Daddy Warbucks! Eisenhower understood this military-industrial coup a decade ago; we still don’t get it.

There has been much speculation on what prompted the former general to speak out so bluntly; the ambiguously authorized Gary Powers U2 flight and sabotage of a peace summit with Khruschev being the most likely candidate. Another possibility: he became privy to the now declassified Operation Northwoods plans presented by the Joint Chiefs early in JFK’s presidency. To galvanize the public for a pre-emptive invasion of Cuba, false-flag attacks on the homeland could be engineered, with bombed airliners and civilian casualties. JFK spiked this, before he was spiked. The naive assumption that no Rambos in our corrosive defense establishment could conspire so iniquitously is moot.

The liberation achieved by our former vassals in the South will be elusive to us until we also first liberate our minds. And it may take a shock to stir us from our lethargy, a shock equal to 9/11, which would be the whole shocking truth about 9/11. But maybe you are pleased with our Siamese twin-party farce of reform. A little tweaking and tuning of the Bush policies is all we really need and can hope for, as more thousands are destined to perish from inadequate health care, financial rape, and blind drone strikes. Thankfully, many among us are not so cravenly resigned—like chemistry professor Niels Harrit, co-author of Jone’s nano-thermite paper, who answered why he was so active in the 9/11 Truth movement:

First, I am opposed to crime, and second, when my 6 grandchildren ask me, 'Grandfather, which side were you on?' I will be able to answer them, 'I was on your side.'

For those who would acquiesce, whatever the level of suspicion, and act as if we must ignore, forget, deny and tolerate the crushing of 3000 lives... soon you may be cheering the glorious nuclear engagements with Tehran and Pyongyang in Eastasia. Osama bin Goldstein is still miraculously on the loose, no doubt hatching another Axis of Evil sneak attack in one of the aforementioned capitals. If we just torture sufficiently, perhaps we’ll finally discover his GPS coordinates.

Ignorance is strength... Stubborn ignorance is nuclear!