- Wrote this a year ago for general consumption. With pic of people cheering giants fighting Archived Message
Posted by marknadim
on February 25, 2023, 9:48 am
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viewalable with pic here: http://www.facebook.com/100063567671631/posts/364188025710117 Zooming out time and location wise, we are ants observing giants embattled in a drawn-out cold and hot wargame across the globe. We're subject to the propaganda from our alloted giant, just as opposing giants subject citizens to theirs. Our giant wears softer gloves to maintain order, at home at least. In the worsening situation in Ukraine, 'little people' as always are very sadly paying the price in blood for the imperial wargaming they find their homeland at the centre of. May Russia withdraw its military and a long-lasting peace agreement be reached. But it's rank hypocrisy for US-UK-NATO pollies, blood-drenched from their own recent and ongoing 'interventions' with numbers killed running into millions in recent years - Iraq, Afghanistsn, Libya, Syria by proxy ... anyone heard much about Yemen reported? - to act outraged now when the boot is on the foot of another far less active imperial power, and events not going the desired way. Especially when this is 8 years after the US-enabled coup in Ukraine (there are literally so many US-enabled coups worldwide it's hard to keep track). The 2014 coup was right on Russia's doorstep - unlike other recent US-enabled coups, eg in Bolivia and Honduras, both now turned over. One consequence was that it gave Ukrainian neo-nazis a green light to step into the open to express and enact hate- fuelled violence against ethnic Russians. Not fitting in tune with the establishment line here, this has hardly been reported, but eg 1): https://www.thenation. com/article/archive/neo-nazis-far-right- ukraine/ eg 2): https://www.salon. com/2014/03/08/35_countries_the_u_s_h as_backed_international_crime_partner/ It's notable too that during the last 8 years, the US and its new very good friends in Ukraine, not coincidentally bordering their biggest enemy Russia, have dodged ratifying the Minsk accords that held the key to the possibility of avoiding military conflict - by recognising and assuring the security of the breakaway ethnic Russian Eastern Donbas region. Moreover, until just before invading Ukraine, Russia had been openly stating without response its need for some kind of reliable assurance from the West to prevent Western NATO missiles arriving there, keeping it as a buffer zone in line with decades old Western promises. These were all brushed aside by the 'high moral' West for unknown reasons we can only guess at; the biggest fear being the West - in other franker words "the warhawks in Washington" - actually wants to provoke a hot war, knowing it has been gradually losing power globally against both Russia and China, and seeing a major war as the best means to maintain and extend power. Not in any way to condone any country's military actions at all - jaw jaw always, not war war, and see eg the achievable truly sane plans for non militarist mutual security on worldbeyondwar.org - but it is necessary to see current events in their context, something which gets knocked aside at the 1st sign of conflict, in favour of simple 'us good, them evil' jingoism. Ukrainians are extremely unfortunate to find their country a flashpoint in a global imperial war of money, resources and arms, in a world that is mostly US- dominated - just see any map of US bases. It's where 'They' are currently leading 'Us' on the insane plane of military conflict. So, obviously, 'They' are demonised as 'pure evil' by establishment media and pollies, while all our foreign 'interventions' have of course been 'selfless acts of humanitarianism and spreading democracy', with quickly passed over 'collateral damage'. In a fair world all warmongers should be rightly demonised. Stepping back from the whole 'madding crowd' to take a breath of air, away from Bozo crowd-surfing over the establishment-rocking throng, the view is quite something. The fact the officially-endorsed and encouraged outrage and compassion level is turned up to 11 with no one publicly asking - no one is allowed to ask! - "Hang on, what about Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen ...!", brings into focus a view of people that is striking and terrible to behold. As the Media Lens editors David Edwards and David Cromwell have asked in their recent alert: "Is the impassioned public response to another media bombardment ... a manifestation of the power of human compassion, or is it a manifestation of power?" https://www. medialens.org/2022/doubling-down-on- double-standards-the-ukraine- propaganda-blitz/ It's a mixture of the two, surely, and there is so much great and admirable truly humane activity going on to support the many Ukrainian refugees that all of us can support. But the fact of the power and misuse of our own propaganda remains a taboo element in this, only making such a major focus on the horrors of war when 'They' are the warmongers. When it's 'Us' doing the bombing, it's all warporn clips from missile cams and 'independent experts' discussing strategy. While 'news' remains so institutionally imbalanced - as it always will in the system of media we live under - the terrible human suffering Ukrainians are going through now, like millions of Yemenis are going through, like Afghans, Iraqis, Libyans, Palestinians ... this cycle remains stuck on permanent repeat. Enabled by uniform establishment media and by a full deck of career pollies - any UK MPs signing Stop the War's simple anti -violence statement are forced to retract it or be suspended https://www.mirror.co. uk/news/politics/11-labour-mps-face- suspension-26323193 - we are in the midst now of a heightened establishment- endorsed propaganda-fest built on the back of 'Them' doing exactly the same crimes as we do, just that 'We' do them more often and on a much bigger scale. Staunch careerists in Parliament set the fake 'spectrum of opinion' tone for the nation - all absolutely rightly condemning war when carried out by 'Them', but all ignoring the same actions by US-UK-NATO and allies - and the same one-sided messages are endlessly rolled out through all arms of the media. Of course Russia's militarism like all military assaults is a horrific damning failure of humanity and society that needs to be highlighted and challenged; but what about ours? Silence. And what about the insanity of war and the arms trade in itself? When will peaceful means be prioritised? Silence. And what about the simple fact that Ukraine is on a geopolitical fault-line between two opposing elite-enabling superpower blocs as the image with this post aims to express? Silence. These fairly basic questions are far too controversial to mention in the 'Us v Them' heat of conflict. How Emperor's New Clothes entranced the UK and most of the world is - brought into focus at these times - to fully back unquestioningly the line that 'this invasion is intrinsically different from and much worse than all of ours' - which have killed millions in the last 2 decades, and wounded / made refugees / destroyed the lives of tens of millions, based on a list of lies. We are not meant to ask those things now and saying them makes one a target for being 'a Putin lover' etc. How about: "Evil them! Good us! Go Bozo, all is forgiven. Lead us!" - that fits better with the muzak. Ending wars - and facing up (very very very very late) to man-made climate change and capitalist inequality and insanity more generally - means ending groupthink as a magic tool held in the hands of a self-serving tiny few. This requires a Media Revolution that takes the immense power of the 'magic mirror' out of the inevitably corrupt hands of billionaires and government appointees (eg the BBC). The current hush-hushed and 'normalised' media set-up which we accept as 'simply the way it is' is primed to repel all challengers to the establishment whenever it's threatened, and to boost all its defenders: compare eg the media trajectories of the truly humanitarian Jeremy Corbyn or Julian Assange, say, Vs that of the lifelong self-promoting proven liar - but establishment serving luvvie - Bozo Johnson. For the parasite billionaire class, currently happy with frontman clown Bozo here in the UK, wars are a permanently used means to one main end: consolidation of the corrupt insane mass-suicidal status quo power structure that holds them aloft. This hot and presumably subsequent long cold war will be no different. The billionaire class' power will benefit from a fresh enrichment from arms purchases and the wider confirmation that 'the war cycle is necessary'; crippling fear and support for leaders among uppity masses; heightened security and crackdowns on free speech and protests .. . There is only one way to break this cycle: a complete Root and Branch Media Revolution. Awakening to the need and acting together to put Truth firmly in the hands of peace-loving, planet-loving common people - 'little people' - creating a transparent people-led, for-sanity, for- compassion, not-for-profit, not special interest group serving, New model of media. This is quite literally now our only hope of creating a sane and compassionate world, given the incredible concentration of media power and ownership in billionaire- serving hands, which naturally presents the war-dependent, planet-burning, and grossly unequal insane system - and media itself - as not only 'free', but 'the epitome of freedom and democracy'. We need a Media Revolution to be able to have a chance at taking sane compassionate group decisions - on a societal and global level - where currently decisions are made for us, without us even realising, through the permanently establishment-serving narrative that establishment-owned media inevitably presents, leading us ever closer to military and environmental apocalypse in the process. Instead of being the first victim of war, Truth can be the Saviour of Peace. Media Revolution Now |
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