<a href="http://www.plastic.com">Plastic.com</a> has a discussion called <a href="http://www.plastic.com/article.pl?sid=02/01/16/1941209&mode=nested&threshold=3" title="The Power of a Good Myth - The Lies We Tell Ourselves Post September 11th">The Power of a Good Myth</a> referring to a <a href="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/">Yahoo News</a> article called <a href="http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020116/us/attacks_myths_2.html">Facts Find Sept. 11 Myths Misleading</a>. The article touches on the interesting phenomenon of "if you say it, it's true" kind of myths that crop up. For example: <span class="quote"><q>After Sept. 11, says Laura Bush, divorce is down, weddings are up and "families have come together.'' ... In fact, fewer folks are taking vows and more are splitting up, says the available data, and hounds are twice as likely as husbands to get wifely attention. ... After Sept. 11, says Colin Powell, [S]ecretary of [S]tate and once the nation's top soldier, more Americans want to be all they can be. ... Maybe, if they can be right where they are. Enlistment figures haven't budged.</q></span> These all seem to be things that members of government say to make either themselves or the public or both feel better, but have no basis in fact. In many cases, these offhand, made-up comments (lies) are completely wrong. This can mislead those that trust these authority figures not to lie to them (at least on relatively mundane things like this). The upshot is that these "white lies" allow the government to make it look like things are better than they are, all without actually doing anything about problems that <i>do</i> exist. The Plastic discussion should be read at level 3 or higher and mostly has humorous suggestions of other popular myths: <span class="quote"><q>This crisis has shown George W. Bush to be a capable and effective leader</q></span> <span class="quote"><q>Faith in government hasn't been this strong since WW2</q></span> <span class="quote"><q>The world is behind the U.S.</q></span> <span class="quote"><q>The Argentine economy won't have any effect on us.</q></span> <span class="quote"><q>The War on Terrorism will be nothing like the (ongoing) War On Drugs™</q></span> Another <a href="http://www.plastic.com">Plastic</a> discussion covers Bush's deliberate myth of America's "heartland" having better morals or values than the rest of the country. <a href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/">Consortium News</a> has <a href="http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/011502a.html">'Heartland Values,' Again?</a>, noting that: <span class="quote"><q>Bush made his first big pitch for “heartland values” in August during his working vacation, which included side trips to several cities where the president highlighted what he saw as their basic decency. Some residents living near the Atlantic and Pacific oceans viewed the hype about “heartland values” as a not-so-subtle snub at the so-called “blue” coastal states that favored Al Gore.</q></span> This is an interesting question, because the exact same logical refutation of this argument, that people are people wherever you go (<a href="http://www.plastic.com/users.pl?op=userinfo&nick=Goldmund">Goldmund</a>'s comment, <a href="http://www.plastic.com/comments.pl?sid=02/01/17/0438233&cid=10">Heartland? F**k the heartland!</a> at Plastic sums it up), also applies to the resurgence in patriotism. People are people. People aren't naturally predisposed to being courageous because of the soil they're raised on. Neither are they predisposed to violence for the same reason. It applies to state borders and it applies to national borders as well. Patriotism must go. In this case, though, <a href="http://www.plastic.com/users.pl?op=userinfo&nick=bitter_engineer">bitter_engineer</a> makes a good point in <a href="http://www.plastic.com/comments.pl?sid=02/01/17/0438233&cid=14">WHOA! STOP THE PRESSES!!!!</a>: Bush is just doing what politicians always do. He was in Missouri when he gave that speech; hence, he praised heartland values. However, if asked, I'm sure Bush would expound for hours about the greater moral fiber of Americans versus the rest of the world, regardless of <a href="http://www.plastic.com/comments.pl?sid=02/01/17/0438233&cid=3">arguments</a> to the <a href="http://www.plastic.com/comments.pl?sid=02/01/17/0438233&cid=9">contrary</a>.