Thursday, November 11, 2004
Rage, rebel, protest. posted by Richard Seymour
If you want my advice - and who could resist it? - you should avoid the media as much as possible. Forget the news programmes if you can. Don't waste time absorbing the nuances of propaganda on BBC News at Ten and the Channel Four News. It is demobilising. First, they infuriate with their lies, then they silence with their persistence. You can't have a debate with the television screen, and throwing your coffee cup around is dangerous. Inevitably, you are left feeling impotent.Consider some of the outrageous assertions and omissions in the news today. We are told that 600 people have died in Fallujah, all of them apparently "insurgents". US tanks and airjets visiting immeasurable suffering on Fallujah is described in clinical terms, or in heroic Hollywood cliches , while the destruction of three police stations in Mosul by 'insurgents' merits the term 'rampage'.
Meanwhile, it is rarely mentioned that civilians are trapped inside Fallujah by US tanks while > water and electricity is being systematically cut off - for humanitarian purposes, of course. Meanwhile, cartoonish broadcasts and newspapers are working themselves into a frothing orgasm over Arafat's death, while Clinton retails the lie that Arafat fluffed a "generous offer" at Camp David. Why don't they simply dance naked on his grave and get it the fuck over with?
Turn off the television, then. Drag that Evening Standard across the epicentre of your soiled spinchter. Scan trustworthy websites - and you may as well pop in here, too, from time to time - and gather your news pickings that way. Then, take up some refreshing activities.
Take a stroll through some city centres with these folks over the next few days if you have time. Or why not spend some time with these guys ? James Buchanan did the group an immense service by threatening to cut Geoff Hoon's throat, so there's bound to be some fun. Contact them at contact@mfaw.org.uk with comments, offers of help etc.