An African American pregnant woman was tased by the Chicago police. This follows a pattern of repression that is sweeping the United States., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.
Let’s Talk About Human Rights
Editorial 龙信明
The 4th Media
Saturday, July 7, 2012, 14:03
Beijing
The Power of Propaganda
We begin here with a quote from Noam Chomsky:
“A principle familiar to propagandists is that the doctrine to be instilled in the target audience should not be articulated: that would only expose them to reflection, inquiry, and, very likely, ridicule. The proper procedure is to drill them home by constantly presupposing them, so that they become the very condition for discourse.”
As a current example, all discussion on the financial crisis in Europe is directed to “saving the Euro”, ignoring the underlying questions of whether, or why, the Euro should be saved. The purpose underlying the agenda of the international bankers is simply presupposed, as if it were too obvious to question. That’s the tactic.
Another necessary quote for us to consider is this widely-accepted maxim: “If you tell a lie five times, most people will believe it.” And generally, if we repeatedly restate our propaganda doctrine, most people will accept it – especially if the mass media ignore contrary opinions.
We introduce these two thoughts here because they bear directly on the entire question of human rights in a worldwide context.
It’s OK, so Long as We Do it Somewhere Else
The US propaganda machine has created the presupposition that it is only your actions at home, toward your own citizens, that constitute material to be used in discussions of human rights.
There is no apparent recognition of actions taken toward other nations, other peoples.
Most Westerners have apparently bought into this propaganda to the extent that we seldom question the constant and repeated atrocities that the US (and other imperial powers) have inflicted on much of the remaining world.
It is a stunning tribute to the power of good propaganda that the incredible assumptions underlying these discussions and criticisms have never been identified, much less questioned.
And the foundation for both this propaganda success and its acceptance by the West (again, especially Americans), is racism, based on Christian superiority and American exceptionalism, attitudes generally shared by most Westerners.
And It’s OK, so Long as You Aren’t White
And that’s the power of propaganda. Create the underlying presupposition that only our behavior at home, only the treatment of our (white) people is relevant in terms of “rights”, and couch all discussion in those terms.
If successful, that leaves us free to roam the world, brutalising (non-white) populations with our halo intact.
Whether in Vietnam or Iraq, Nicaragua or Indonesia, the inconvenient truth is that “human rights” are reserved for white Americans and Israeli Jews. The US native population, the Vietnamese, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, are inferior races and entitled to no particular consideration.
Westerners have been so (willingly) overwhelmed by the US propaganda machine, that the litany of unconscionable atrocities committed in Asia, Africa, South and Central America, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, somehow “don’t count” because “human rights” has been cleverly limited to what we do at home, and because of the unforgivable racism inherent in that propaganda.
That’s the truth. You don’t have to like it, but you can’t spin it away.
龙信明 The Bearcanada.com
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