Norman Solomon is a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics. His website is www.normansolomon.com.
In the following interview, Dr. Doom of the Doom Institute, and some interns from the Institute for Survival, talk with media analyst Norman Solomon. The interview took place in July, 2007.
Dr. Doom: We at the Doom Institute feel we are at the precipice of great things. We are entering the age of global cataclysm, and the flames of war and resentment are raging. We feel that the world may be on the eve of a great conflagration, or that we can look forward to something approximating a Biblical deluge. Or both! Do you think we are over-optimistic?
Norman Solomon: Well these are boom times for the Armageddon boosters, and it must be quite exciting for those who for whatever reasons are excited by the prospect of conflagration and slaughter of unprecedented magnitude.
Dr. Doom: What can Americans do to further the doom process? By which I mean destroying humanity and the planet.
Norman Solomon: Oh, do nothing. Just be passive and it will happen. Trust our leaders and people in authority. Defer to them. Go along to get along, and don’t try to change history. That will do it.
Dr. Doom: If I may ask a followup, what possible threats to the doom process should we be looking out for?
Norman Solomon: Well there is the slight but real threat that peace could break out. If that happens, all bets are off. The doomers are not home free.
Terry Freud, B.S. psychology, an intern at the Survival Institute: Do you think Cheney and Bush are criminally insane, and if so what does that say about their supporters in the media and in the suites?
Norman Solomon: I’m not an authority on such matters. I’m a media analyst, not a psychoanalyst.
Buddha girl, Survival Institute Intern: I’m worried that so many people are sending Cheney and Bush ‘negative energy’ and that this will freak them out even more. Would you support a 1960’s-style LOVE-IN with the theme, ‘We Love You, Dick and George’? After all, Martin Luther King did say we should love our enemies.
Norman Solomon: I don’t know that negative vibrations are really problematic. I do think that nonviolence is the appropriate response, but it would have to be a militant nonviolence. To tell you the truth, Buddha Girl, I don’t think that Bush and Cheney care what you think of them.
There is an issue of sado-masochism here, but again, I’m not a psychoanalyst.
Brenda, Survival Institute Intern: I have the feeling that there must be a simple way to resolve the Iran crisis, but I don’t know what it is. Do you agree there is a simple solution, and if so, what it is?
Norman Solomon: I have a simple answer, but I can’t remember what it is.
Look. if you are determined to upend the chess board, metaphorically speaking, and double-or-nothing the bet after you’ve lost the first bet, then exploring peaceful resolutions and negotiations would make no sense whatsoever.
For those who believe ultimately, with the Pentagon under their command, in the efficacy of mass violence, then that should be the option that, as the saying goes, should always be on the table.