Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Never What They Seem
Americans, as we see time and time again, are incredibly naive about world politics. By and large, they accept government propaganda, no matter how absurd. They bought the Cold War script, the drug war script, and the War on Terror script, mostly without a second thought. They even bought the Hope and Change script, electing a Wall Street toady to fight as their champion against the powers that be.
Apparently, American gullibility knows no bounds. As evidenced by the popularity of the color-coded revolutions myth, they enthusiastically embrace the notion that a few thousand people armed with nothing but iphones can topple dictators, replacing them with authentic democracies due solely to their sincerity and good wishes.
Of course, power vacuums are filled by those who are prepared, not to mention connected. And when you're talking about reorganizing a society of tens or hundreds of millions of people, those connections -- be they economic, religious, or military -- count. How many times have we seen righteous indignation betrayed by notorious factions in cahoots with the IMF, World Bank, or CIA?
Whatever one might think about Egypt's Mubarak or other dictators who've fallen out of favor with the US and the EU, popular uprisings have political backgrounds, social context, and often unintended consequences. And when you're talking about regime change within totalitarian states, there is always a back story of international intrigue, as well as conspiracies to seize power.
In other words, things are never what they seem, especially if one's sources of information are the governments of intervening world powers, or the corporate media that does their bidding.
To state it bluntly, when the U.S. government and the former colonial powers of Western Europe decide to abandon dictators and proxy governments, they have to fabricate a narrative that conceals their sordid past, as well as reveals disingenuous outlines of their desired future. Both require distortion of the present. In the case of Egypt, that distortion is aided by not asking key questions.
Jared Israel examines the media narrative of the insurrection in Egypt, what it does and doesn't tell us, and how it is even contrived to fit a preconceived pattern.
Apparently, American gullibility knows no bounds. As evidenced by the popularity of the color-coded revolutions myth, they enthusiastically embrace the notion that a few thousand people armed with nothing but iphones can topple dictators, replacing them with authentic democracies due solely to their sincerity and good wishes.
Of course, power vacuums are filled by those who are prepared, not to mention connected. And when you're talking about reorganizing a society of tens or hundreds of millions of people, those connections -- be they economic, religious, or military -- count. How many times have we seen righteous indignation betrayed by notorious factions in cahoots with the IMF, World Bank, or CIA?
Whatever one might think about Egypt's Mubarak or other dictators who've fallen out of favor with the US and the EU, popular uprisings have political backgrounds, social context, and often unintended consequences. And when you're talking about regime change within totalitarian states, there is always a back story of international intrigue, as well as conspiracies to seize power.
In other words, things are never what they seem, especially if one's sources of information are the governments of intervening world powers, or the corporate media that does their bidding.
To state it bluntly, when the U.S. government and the former colonial powers of Western Europe decide to abandon dictators and proxy governments, they have to fabricate a narrative that conceals their sordid past, as well as reveals disingenuous outlines of their desired future. Both require distortion of the present. In the case of Egypt, that distortion is aided by not asking key questions.
Jared Israel examines the media narrative of the insurrection in Egypt, what it does and doesn't tell us, and how it is even contrived to fit a preconceived pattern.
