Cannibal Countries
Mar. 27th, 2016 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingboothttp://johnpilger.com/articles/a-world-war-has-begun-break-the-silence-
Terrifying.
The problem with Pilger is, though I respect him very greatly as a journalist, I wonder if he suffers from personal anti-Americanism. Is he prejudiced?
But he makes some undeniably good points here. Mainstream news is almost a cosmetic industry in the West. What we read is slanted and sanitised even to the point of lies and/or silence. We really have not a clue what is going on outside our own borders, and the war against the poor is on every doorstep. Caught up in our own battles, even if shown the big picture, what choice is there and what can we do?
And we are comfortable enough, many of us. Pilger's right about the me-ness. It's become like some sixties Twilight Zone episode, when one is invited to dinner only to realise that the meat on the menu is human...Looking around and noticing that everyone is tucking in, and either doesn't know or doesn't care. And in this imaginary episode, your choices are to join in, to unobtrusively abstain, you could point out the current cannibalism, you could try to stop them or you could try to sneak away.
And because nothing stops them, you just end up doing what it takes to make sure they don't all start devouring you...if you are lucky, you get to sneak away or just not eat the stuff, if you are lucky you can shout harmlessly.
If you are lucky.
How to change things? If they've got a taste for cannibalism, there's nothing to be done, except stay out of the kitchen, and pray they still like their food cooked.
And when everyone's too drunk to notice, you leave the ghastly meal, the house, the town... how do you know they don't do the same elsewhere? Where do you go?
Terrifying.
The problem with Pilger is, though I respect him very greatly as a journalist, I wonder if he suffers from personal anti-Americanism. Is he prejudiced?
But he makes some undeniably good points here. Mainstream news is almost a cosmetic industry in the West. What we read is slanted and sanitised even to the point of lies and/or silence. We really have not a clue what is going on outside our own borders, and the war against the poor is on every doorstep. Caught up in our own battles, even if shown the big picture, what choice is there and what can we do?
And we are comfortable enough, many of us. Pilger's right about the me-ness. It's become like some sixties Twilight Zone episode, when one is invited to dinner only to realise that the meat on the menu is human...Looking around and noticing that everyone is tucking in, and either doesn't know or doesn't care. And in this imaginary episode, your choices are to join in, to unobtrusively abstain, you could point out the current cannibalism, you could try to stop them or you could try to sneak away.
And because nothing stops them, you just end up doing what it takes to make sure they don't all start devouring you...if you are lucky, you get to sneak away or just not eat the stuff, if you are lucky you can shout harmlessly.
If you are lucky.
How to change things? If they've got a taste for cannibalism, there's nothing to be done, except stay out of the kitchen, and pray they still like their food cooked.
And when everyone's too drunk to notice, you leave the ghastly meal, the house, the town... how do you know they don't do the same elsewhere? Where do you go?
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