P. J. O'Rourke Wants the 60s Taken Off "Life Support" - Is He Ignorant Or Just a Fool?

Tragically, too many Americans - particularly some of the more or less influential wordsmiths of the Neoliberal media - have found a common refrain in why America "remains obsessed with the 60s." They feel the decade has long since passed, the events have been noted, and hey- it's more than past time to move on.  Such is the case with part time humorist and author P.J. O'Rourke - who's made a living skewering cultural obsessions, fixations and idiosyncrasies for what Bajans call "donkey's years".

He takes them up again in his recent TIME essay (January 13), 'Keeping the 60s on Life Support', mocking the notion that this decade is worthy of any such prolonged attention. In many ways O'Rourke's take mimics that of songster Bob Dylan who, two years ago, in a CBS Morning Show appearance said:

“I can’t imagine people making such a big fuss over the Sixties. Unless things are so dull now they just have to think of some time when times were better.”

Leaving one to wonder if Dylan even was semi-conscious for the 60s, or merely survived them in some kind of stoner haze.   Yeah, why make a "fuss" over the decade that saw two signal pieces of legislation passed (The Civil Rights Act in 1964, and Voting Rights Act in 1965) that basically conferred the practical basis for the exercise of rights to a minority of the population, that hadn't been manifested for over 100 years?  Oh, and then there was the legislation that gave us Medicare,  which nearly 45 million seniors depend on now and without which they'd likely be dying in ditches, unattended and impecunious.

Let’s also be clear that only an idiot, or semi-comatose stoner fool would opine that people reference the 60s now as “some time when times were better”. Are you effing kidding me? A decade of upheaval with four major assassinations – including of John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert, and Martin Luther King – essentially the entire solid core of American liberalism at that time. (Accounting for how we veered into namby-pamby, free market Neo-liberalism as a capitalist, whore substitute for the real McCoy).

Sadly, it seems O'Rourke is no better informed, and finds it easier to set out semi-facetious word play on the decade than to do a serious analysis. He begins, of course, with the centerpiece event - the JFK assassination- which effects still cascade through time as we behold the "anti-Nation" that never would have materialized had JFK lived.  By that I mean the arc of recorded history would likely have seen no Vietnam War, no 58,000 Americans killed there, no early termination to the manned space program (on account of $269b wasted on Vietnam) and NO election of Ronnie Raygun -with the massive inequality it ushered in. Oh, and likely no Gee Dumbya Bush shoehorned into power 37 years later! (With no 9/11, Iraq war or Afghanistan either!)

One of the saddest lines ever penned occurs in O'Rourke's essay as when he writes:

"I was driving my 15 year old daughter and three of her class mates to school on Nov. 22, and I asked them if they realized it was the day President Kennedy was assassinated. The three girls had no idea. Two girls (my daughter included) had no idea who President Kennedy was."

Truly, I'd have been ashamed to admit such a thing in a widely circulated medium, even TIME. It reveals the author to be defunct (as a parent)  in his own contributions to his daughter's education, in failing to provide what her school didn't.  It also says more about the currently deficient high school history curriculum than it does about an event O'Rourke presumes is passé. It again, shows that if today's kids are being denied knowledge of this defining event (which likely saw a coup d'état and our nation's future course permanently altered) than they really do need to avail themselves of other sources i.e.  via the Kickstarter project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1450964693/jfk-and-the-unspeakable-the-graphic-adaptation"


That O'Rourke's daughter and her friends don't  know that they likely wouldn't even exist today had Kennedy not defied the Joint Chiefs' plan to bomb and invade Cuba in October, 1962, is beyond incredible. And yet, O'Rourke sees fit to mock the importance of the event to the extent of even asserting (likely in his gross ignorance - in which case he needs to check our my JFK FAQs from November):

"Almost any adjective can be applied to the 60s except 'serious'. ....We had heroes in the 1960s ...their flaws didn't lead to their destruction, they were killed by deranged fools".

If P.J. truly believes this he needs a thorough course in deep politics. Indeed, none of the liberal core slaughtered in the 1960s were killed by "deranged fools" although that is the way it has been made to appear by a PR-tainted corporate media. Sadly, not enough Americans - like O'Rourke - dig deeply enough to find the real answers, say in understanding why Lee Oswald was no "deranged fool" but rather a targeted (by the CIA) asset to be manipulated into being the decoy. I went through the explanation for this in detail, in two October blog posts on 'The Pre-Assassination Framing of Lee Harvey Oswald'.  Does any of this matter to O'Rourke? Seemingly not, so long as he can get some passing jollies on perhaps the most significant (historically) decade of the past 150 years.....and get paid for his balderdash.

O'Rourke in his phony (funny?) essay declares: "Other Golden eras have  had  bad ends - Edwardian England and the Roaring 20s, but they don't have the deathless, Keith Richards staying power of the 60s."

That may well be so, but if the reasons accounting for this exception aren't clear to O'Rourke, then perhaps he ought to leave out any further ruminations on the decade until they are. To that end, perhaps he needs to avail himself of learning the real history of that decade, not the phony one on offer from the Neoliberal historical revisionists and their national security state accomplices ....who'd just love it dearly if all Americans were as fallow, ignorant and lazy as P.J. appears to be.

But then, what do you expect from a part time humorist who has zero exposure - far less grasp - of recent American history?

Bringing the Next Generation Up to Speed on the JFK Assassination- A New Graphic Novel

Image from proposed graphic novel seconds before the head shot.

"JFK and the Unspeakable has sold more than 70,000 copies since it was published in 2008. But, judging from recent polls, increasing numbers of Americans are ignorant of the hidden truths behind the assassination. As we move further away from the event, a kind of amnesia seems to be settling into the collective memory of the nation."  - From the Intro Page to the Graphic Novel Adaptation of James Douglas' book, JFK and the Unspeakable .

"Jim Douglass has unraveled the story of President Kennedy’s astonishing and little-known turn toward peace, and the reasons why members of his own government felt he must be eliminated. This disturbing, enlightening, and ultimately inspiring book should be read by all Americans. It has the power to change our lives and to set us free."—MARTIN SHEEN 


I read James Douglass' book more than two years ago, but it remains the absolute best book on the assassination to show Americans what happened to Kennedy, why it happened, and how that dreadful event has warped our nation ever since. In this sense, one can argue that this book is perhaps the most essential contribution to recent American history in the last half century. The problem is that despite Douglass'  masterful writing, the deep politics insights may be too formidable a hurdle for many readers, especially the young.

To surmount this impediment, an energized group has now been committed to producing a serialized graphic novel based upon Douglass' book.  Named the "Kickstarter Project" its objective has been described by Hope Hamilton, one of the founders, thusly:

"We are attempting to reach the next generation of peacemakers and truth-­seekers. Here's the Kickstarter page for the project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1450964693/jfk-and-the-unspeakable-the-graphic-adaptation"

The site encourages monetary donations to help fund the project, as well as outlines of what it is about.  The essential summary of the warp and woof of the project is stated below:

"We believe a graphic novel will remind those who have forgotten and inform those who never knew-- dramatizing what Thomas Merton called “the Unspeakable” – the truth that JFK was murdered for becoming a peacemaker.

Using a graphic story-telling approach, we will present many elements of the JFK assassination in a straightforward style that will be easily understood by readers. Our goal is to get the story of JFK’s assassination as a peacemaker to a newer, younger and perhaps more visually inclined audience. Every important conflict President Kennedy had with his own war-making state will be covered here. 

The story will dramatize the bold and often secretive diplomatic efforts of JFK to forge peace with world figures, such as Fidel Castro and Nikita Khrushchev.  We’ll watch as Kennedy, in his moving search for peace, traverses a minefield of obstacles and possible acts of sabotage generated from within the State Department, the Pentagon and the CIA. We’ll look with a clear eye at the case against Lee Harvey Oswald, and the evidence that there was cover-up of epic proportions to find him guilty of acting alone. JFK was struggling for the lives of us all and these efforts ultimately cost him his life." 


Make no mistake that a graphic novel approach to the Douglass' book is more than needed, and welcome, given it can help spread fundamental historical insights  much wider. Accessing early chapters of the novel is critical in the weeks ahead as the mainstream media is already mounting a massive propaganda effort to re-sell the "Oswald did it" lone nut myth.  Indeed, one of the most mammoth efforts will be Tom Hanks' forthcoming 13-part HBO series based on Vince Bugliosi's book 'Reclaiming History' - a 2,646 page monstrosity since  pared down to 634 pages and renamed: 'Four Days In November: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy'. 


I had already exposed Bugliosi's book for the PR nonsense it is in earlier posts, i.e.
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/05/reclaiming-historyor-redacting-it.html

and

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/05/reclaiming-history-or-redacting-it-2.html

I also pointedly remarked that all Vince Bugliosi has proven is that his pro-Warren Commission, lone nutter speculations deserve to be remaindered just like his book. I additionally suggested, in an earlier blog, that if Hanks was a genuine truth seeker as opposed to a supporter of patent tripe, he'd have based his series on James Douglass 'JFK and the Unspeakable'. But, of course, Hanks lacked the courage to go that route. It's easier to stick with the "accepted story" and Hanks himself is determined to "de-snooker" (sic) fellow Americans.

Thus, in the wake of such a storm of codswallop, a graphic novel (even serialized) to introduce more readers to the JFK assassination is more than welcome.  The effort is to be published serially, with the target date for the final chapter included in the e-book by Nov. 22 next year (and bear in mind it entails distilling the original 500-page book of Douglass with 1,000 footnotes into a 158 page graphic novel).  In the course of reading the novel, readers will learn about:

-  JFK being set up by Allen Dulles during the Bay of Pigs debacle and the fallout 

-  Gen. Curtis LeMay and others pushing JFK towards attacking Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis

-  JFK’s efforts and strategies to make peace with the Soviets, including 21 secret correspondences with Khrushchev

-   Kennedy’s secret efforts to establish normal relations with Cuba and the fury that this [it] caused within the CIA and amongst Cuban exiles

-  JFK’s determined efforts to get U.S. troops out of Vietnam and the forces within his administration that resisted and ultimately prevented this effort

-  Kennedy standing up to U.S. steel interests and the bitterness that this lead to among U.S. business leaders, including Henry Luce, publisher of Fortune

-  The overwhelming evidence that Lee Harvey Oswald was on the CIA payroll and had an assortment of handlers

-  The CIA plot that painted Oswald as a communist sympathizer and lunatic with ties to the Soviet Union and Cuba

-  How power brokers convinced the official investigators (Warren Report) to pin the assassination on Oswald

-   The underreported plot to kill JFK in Chicago, stopped and bungled by the Secret Service one month before Kennedy was killed in November of ’63.

-  The latest forensic evidence that shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the published autopsy x-rays are composite fakes.

-  The stories of many witnesses who saw things differently than the official story, who were sometimes killed, died of mysterious causes, or had their stories changed or their lives threatened.


Meanwhile, those who want to learn more should try to read Douglass' original book, available at amazon.com. They can always fill in assorted blanks later after the full graphic novel is published.