Loretta Napoleoni: Rogue-Economics - Political Illusions
To answer Christina interesting posting, I believe that information and images about the reality that surrounds us are readily available. The net, for example is a great place to search for the truth (and yes at the same time is full of lies). The problem is that, we, and for we I refer to the industrialized countries, live inside a web of illusions, market illusions as well as political illusions created by politicians and post Cold War politics and broadcast by traditional and mainstream media.
Let me focus on political illusions. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent triumph of Western capitalism, symbolized by the United States, have triggered a mass euphoria and destroyed any structured political opposition. The so called ‘left’ was buried under the falling bricks of the Berlin Wall. The world we lived in ended. During the Cold War, East and West existed inside a dichotomy, it was healthy because it reminded us and them (those who lived in communist countries) that politics and economics are not exact sciences and that politicians make mistakes. Above all it made people more receptive to political change, in the West it was alternative government, in the East the end of communism. After the end of the Cold War Western politicians became infallible and opposition vanished. Tony Blair politics are even more conservative than the politics of Mrs.Thatcher, a Thatcher’s government would never have abolished the Habeas Corpus, it would have been inconceivable! But the Conservative party will not oppose someone who pursues its own politics, in fact Tony Blair sole opposition comes from its own party, from the left of the Labour party. Blair lied to the nation, yet, nobody is holding him responsible for such an act, why? Because the opposition comes from the Labour party and they will not impeach their Prime Minister. I must stress that several countries went to war in Iraq without any proof of WMD, parliaments were bypassed on the basis of ‘security’. British Parliament was told that proofs could not be showed because of security reasons, members of parliaments had to trust the Prime Minister.
Against this scenario, I agree, the media had done an appalling job in reporting the truth. But if you look at what the media is today you will discover that it is very very different from the traditional media of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Journalists and politicians are often ‘friends’, they socialized together because they need each other. The media is owned by large corporations, see Murdoch, who are allies of politicians, therefore the support of politicians is crucial for journalists to pursue a career inside their own organization. This incestuous relationship is at the root of the failure of the media to report the truth.
What is the role of the citizen? How can people grasp what is happening if politicians lied to parliament and the media support their lies? This is a world where people are trapped inside something similar to the Matrix, they believe to live in an idyllic world, while in reality they live inside a web of illusions. How can you break through such illusions? The net is perhaps the most powerful tool ‘to see the light’. I have written a book on al Zarqawi and I have conducted many interviews on the net. The problem is, of course, sorting truth from fiction, but the alternative is pure fiction. In February 2003, after Powell speech at the UN, the New York Times and all the main papers reported that al Zarqawi was al Qaeda’s man in Iraq. Had those journalists done their job properly, they would have known that even kids in the Arab world thought that it was a joke. Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were enemies! A simple knowledge of the Middle East could have been sufficient to discover that Powell’s picture of al Zarqawi was a lie. So the net is better because with fiction has facts. The problem is that people have to spend time searching for the truth and most people have no time or inclination to do that. They are so used to have their intake of news from the TV, the radio or the papers, which are readily available everywhere. They are also too preoccupied to make ends meet, as I pointed put in my previous posting. If you have to find a way to pay your bills, you have no time or willingness to find out the truth about the world!
How to bypass these difficulties? I believe that digitalised media, which is the future of mainstream media, will do the trick. In less than a decade we will not have TV screen but plasma videos and speakers linked to our computer. At that point people will be able to watch CNN international and Guerrilla TV from Seattle by simply changing channel. Ironically, technology is working against traditional and mainstream media. So there is hope!
> Loretta Napoleoni