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Page added on October 7, 2015
A Landscape of Dreams
Maybe it’s just the psychology of selective attention, but tolerably often when I want to go into more detail about a point made in a previous essay here, stories relevant to that point in one way or another start popping up on the news. That’s been true even during this blog’s forays into narrative fiction, so it should be no surprise that it’s happened again—even though, in this case, the point in question may not be obvious to most readers yet.
One of the core themes of the Retrotopia narrative I’ve been developing here over the last month or so is the yawning gap between the abstract notion of progress that we all have in our heads and the rather less pleasant realities to which this notion has been assigned. The imaginary Atlantic Republic, the home of the narrative’s viewpoint character, is a place where progress as we know it has continued in exactly the same direction it’s been going for the last half century or so. That’s why it’s a place where income is concentrated in ever fewer hands, leaving most of the population to struggle for survival via poorly paid part-time jobs or no jobs at all; a place where infrastructure has been allowed to fall into ruin, while investment gets focused instead on a handful of high-tech services such as the metanet (my hypothetical 2065 “improvement” of today’s internet); a place where people make do with shoddy, wretchedly unpleasant consumer goods because that’s what a handful of big corporations want to sell them and there are no other alternatives, and so on.
Now of course the immediate response of many people to this characterization can be summed up neatly as “but that’s not progress!” Au contraire, the changes just noted, unwelcome as they are, are the necessary and inevitable consequences of exactly those technological transformations that have been lauded to the skies in recent years as evidence of just how much we’ve progressed. In the same way, my imaginary Lakeland Republic, with its prosperous working classes, its thriving urban centers, its comfortable clothing, and the like, has those things because it made certain collective choices that fly in the face of everything that most people these days understand as progress.
For instance, to cite a detail that sparked discussion on the comments page last week, the Lakeland Republic has abandoned computer technology—or more precisely, after the Second Civil War and the crises that followed, it rebuilt its infrastructure and economy without making computer technology part of the mix. There were a variety of reasons for that choice, but one was an issue I’ve raised in these essays several times already: when you have an abundance of people who want steady employment and a growing shortage of the energy and other resources needed to build and operate machines, replacing employees with machines is not necessarily a smart idea, while replacing machines with employees may just be the key to renewed prosperity and stability.
That’s an issue in the story, and also in our lives today, because computers have eliminated vastly more jobs than they’ve created. Before computers came in, tens of millions of Americans supported themselves with steady jobs as typists, file clerks, stenographers, and so on through an entire galaxy of jobs that no longer exist due to computer technology. The jobs that have been created by computer technology, on the other side of the balance, employ far fewer people, leaving the vast remainder to compete for the remaining bottom-level jobs, and this has driven down wages and widened the gap between the well-to-do and everyone else. That’s not what progress is supposed to do, according to the conventional wisdom, but that’s what it has done—and not just in this one case.
Since 1970, in point of fact, the standard of living for everyone in America outside of the wealthiest 20% or so has skidded unsteadily downward. The nation’s infrastructure has been abandoned to malign neglect, and a great many amenities that used to be taken for granted either cost vastly more than they once did, even corrected for inflation, or can’t be had for any price. We pretend, or at least the vast majority of us do, that these things either haven’t happened or don’t matter, and certainly nobody’s willing to address the possibility that these things and other equally unwelcome changes have been the result of what we like to call progress—even when that’s fairly obviously the case.
What’s going on here, in other words, is the emergence of a widening chasm between the abstraction “progress” and the things that progress is supposed to represent, such as improved living conditions, a broader range of choices available to people, and so on. The sort of progress we’ve experienced over the last half century or so hasn’t given us these things; quite the contrary; it’s yielded degraded living conditions, a narrower range of choices, and the like. Point this out to people in so many words and the resulting cognitive dissonance tends to get some truly quirky responses; put it in the form of a narrative and—at least this is my hope—a larger fraction of readers will be able to recognize the tangled thinking at the heart of the paradox, and recognize a dysfunctional abstraction for what it is.
Dysfunctional abstractions, though, are all the rage these days. A glance through the news offers a bumper crop of examples. One that comes forcefully to mind, just at the moment, is the ongoing attempts on the part of US political and military spokescritters to find some way to talk about the US airstrike on a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, without actually mentioning that the US carried out an airstrike on a hospital and killed twenty-two civilians, including three children.
It really has been a remarkable spectacle, and connoisseurs of weasel-worded evasions have had a feast spread out before them. Early on, the media in the US and its allies was full of reports that the hospital had been hit by an airstrike that somehow didn’t get around to mentioning whose aircraft was involved. Then there were stalwart claims that it hadn’t yet been confirmed that a US aircraft carried out the strike. Once that evasion passed its pull date—the Taliban, after all, doesn’t have an air force, and the public relations flacks at the Pentagon apparently decided that it just wasn’t going to work to insist that they’d somehow come up with one just for the sake of this one airstrike—the excuses began flying fast and thick. The fact that the four officially promulgated excuses I’ve seen so far all contradict one another doesn’t exactly make any of them seem particularly convincing.
What the excuses and evasions demonstrate, rather, is that the US military and government are treating what happened entirely as a matter of abstractions, rather than dealing with the harsh but inescapable reality of twenty-two smoldering corpses in a burnt-out hospital. To the media flacks at the Pentagon, evidently, this is all merely a public relations problem, and the only response to it they can think of involves finding some set of excuses, euphemisms, and evasions that will allow them to efface the distinction between a public relations problem and a war crime.
Now of course it’s not as though this sort of atrocity is unusual for the US at this point on the sorry downslope of its history. The only thing that makes the bombing of the Kunduz hospital at all unusual is that a significant fraction of the targets weren’t locals—they were physicians and hospital staff from the international charity Médecins sans Frontières, who can’t be ignored quite so easily. For well over a decade now, the US government has been vaporizing assorted groups of people all over the Middle East via drone strikes, and according to everybody but the paid flacks of the US government, a very large fraction of the people blown to bits in these attacks have been civilians. Here again, Washington DC treats this as a public relations problem, and simply denies that anything of the sort has happened.
The difficulty with this strategy, though, is that sooner or later you run up against an opponent that isn’t stuck on the level of abstractions, isn’t greatly interested in public relations, and intends to do you real, rather than abstract, harm. To some extent that’s what has sown the whirlwind that the US and its allies are now reaping in the Middle East. In many of the tribal cultures of the Middle East, vengeance against the killers of one’s family members is an imperative duty, and it doesn’t matter how airily the flacks in Washington DC dismiss the possibility that the latest drone strike annihilated a Yemeni wedding party, or what have you. The relatives of the dead know better, and the young men among them are going to do something about it, whether that involves hiking to Afghanistan or, say, joining the current mass migration into Europe, lying low for a while, and then looking for suitable targets.
The same difficulty has shifted into overdrive over the last few weeks, though, with Russia’s entry into the Syrian civil war. Russia’s current leaders are realists, which is to say, they assign abstractions the limited importance they deserve. The Russian presence in Syria, accordingly, isn’t a mere gesture, it’s the efficient deployment of an expeditionary force that’s clearly intended to wage war, and is in the early stages of turning that intention into hard reality. In an impressively short time, the Russians have built, staffed, and stocked a forward air base at Latakia, and begun systematic air strikes against rebel positions; work has gotten under way on two other bases; weapons and munitions are flooding into Syria to rearm the beleaguered Syrian army; the first detachments of Revolutionary Guard soldiers from Russia’s ally Iran have arrived. Russian Spetsnaz (special forces) and airborne units are en route to Syrian soil, where they and the Iranians will doubtless have something to do besides soak up rays on Latakia’s once-famous Mediterranean beaches.
Meanwhile Russia’s Black Sea fleet, led by its flagship, the guided missile cruiser Moskva, has positioned itself off the Syrian coast. That in itself tells an important story. The Moskva carries long range antiship missiles and an S-300 antiaircraft system; there are reports that another S-300 system has been set up on land, and Russian electronic warfare equipment has also been reported at Latakia. Neither the Islamic State militia nor any of the other rebel forces arrayed against the Syrian government have a navy, an air force, or electronics sufficiently complex to require jamming in the event of hostilities. The only nation involved in the Syrian civil war that has all these things is the United States. Clearly, then, Russia is aware of the possibility that the US may launch an air or naval assault on the Russian expeditionary force, and has the weaponry on hand to respond in kind.
Last night, working on this post, I wrote: “The Russian airstrikes so far have concentrated on rebel forces around the edges of the territory the Syrian government still holds, with some longer-range strikes further back to take out command centers, munitions dumps, and the like. The placement of the strikes says to me that the next moves, probably within weeks, will be against the rebel enclave north of Homs and the insurgent forces in Idlib province. I expect ground assaults backed up by artillery, helicopter gunships, and close-in air support—vastly more firepower, in other words, that any side in the Syrian civil war has had at its disposal so far.” This morning’s news confirmed that guess, and added in another factor: Russian cruise missiles launched from the Caspian Sea fleet, most of a thousand miles from Syria. Once Idlib and the rest of western Syria is secured, I expect the Russians and their allies to march on Raqqa, the Islamic State’s notional capital—and I don’t expect them to waste any more time in doing so than they’ve wasted so far.
All this poses an immense embarrassment to the United States and its allies, which have loudly and repeatedly proclaimed the Islamic State the worst threat to world peace since the end of the Third Reich but somehow, despite a seemingly overwhelming preponderance of military force, haven’t been able to do much of anything about it. Though it’s hard to say for sure, given the fog of conflicting propaganda, it certainly looks as though the Russians have done considerably more damage to the Islamic State in a week than the US and its allies have accomplished in thirteen months of bombing. If that’s the case, some extremely awkward questions are going to be asked. Is the US military so badly led, so heavily burdened with overpriced weapons systems that don’t happen to work, or both, that it’s lost the ability to inflict serious harm on an opponent? Or—let’s murmur this one quietly—does the United States have some reason not to want to inflict serious harm on the Islamic State?
I suspect, though, that what’s actually behind the disparity is something far simpler, if no less damaging to the prestige of the United States. I commented in an earlier post here that the US has been waging its inept campaign against Islamic State as though it’s a video game—hey, we killed a commander, isn’t that worth an extra 500 points? Look at that from a different perspective and it becomes another example of the total disconnection of abstraction from reality.
The abstraction here is “fighting Islamic State.” You’ll notice that it’s not “defeating Islamic State”—in the realm of dysfunctional abstractions, such differences mean a great deal. Obama has decided that under his leadership, the US is going to fight Islamic State, and that’s what the Pentagon is doing. At intervals, accordingly, planes go flying over various portions of Syria and Iraq to make desultory bombing runs on places where some intelligence analyst in suburban Virginia thinks an Islamic State target might have been located at some point in the last month or so.
That’s “fighting Islamic State.” Nobody can point a finger at Obama and say that he’s not fighting Islamic State, since the Air Force is still obligingly making those bombing runs. It doesn’t matter that none of this has done anything to slow down the expansion of the Islamic State militia, or to stop its appalling human rights violations; that’s in the grubby realm of realities, into which fastidious minds in Washington DC are unwilling to stoop.
Another abstraction that’s getting a lot of use in the current situation is “moderate Syrian rebels.” In the realm of realities, of course, those don’t exist. The Pentagon’s repeated attempts to find or manufacture some, to satisfy Obama’s insistence that a supply of them ought to be forthcoming, have yielded one embarrassing failure after another. This is for quite a simple reason, all things considered: the word “moderate” in this context means, in effect, “willing to put the interests of the US and its European allies ahead of their country and their faith.” (When American politicians use the word “moderate” about people in other countries, that’s inevitably what they mean.) Nonetheless, since the abstraction is so useful, the politicians and the Pentagon keep on waving it around. You have to read carefully to find out that some groups being labeled as potential moderates, such as the al-Nusra Front, are affiliated with al-Qaeda—you know, the outfit that the Global War On Terror was supposed to fight.
Such things should probably come as no surprise during the presidency of a man who got into office via a campaign that was never anything more than a blur of feel-good abstractions: “Hope,” “Change,” “Yes We Can,” and the like. Barack Obama will go down in history as one of the United States’ least competent presidents precisely because everything he’s done has been so utterly fixated on the realm of abstractions. The wretchedly misnamed “Affordable Care Act” aka Obamacare is a fine example. Its enactment has made health care more expensive and less available for most Americans; it took what was already the worst health care system in the industrial world, and accomplished the not inconsiderable feat of making it even worse.
To Obama and his dwindling crowdlet of supporters, though, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that the resulting mess corresponds, to them, to the abstraction “national health care system.” He promised a national health care system, we have a national health care system—and of course it’s not exactly irrelevant that the privileged few who still praise that system are by and large those whose wealth shields them from having to cope with its disastrous failings.
It’s only fair to note that, deeply immersed in the realm of dysfunctional abstractions as Obama is, he’s got plenty of company there, and it’s not limited to the faux-liberal constituencies that put him into his current address. Listen to the verbiage spewing out of the overcrowded Republican clown car and you’ll get to witness any number of vague abstractions floating past, serenely disconnected from the awkward realm of facts. For that matter, take in the outpourings of the establishment’s pet radicals—I’m thinking just now of Naomi Klein’s embarrassingly slipshod and superficial book This Changes Everything, but there are plenty of other examples—and you’ll find no shortage of equally detached abstractions drifting by in the breeze, distracting attention from the increasingly dismal landscape of fact down there on the ground.
What troubles me most about all this is what it says about the potential for really serious disruptions here in the US in the near future. I’m sure my readers can think of other regimes that reached the stage where moving imaginary armies across a landscape of dreams took precedence over grappling with awkward facts, and once that happened, none of those regimes were long for this world. The current US political system is so deeply entrenched in its own fantasies that a complete breakdown of that system, and its replacement by something entirely different—not necessarily better, mind you, but different—is a possibility that has to be kept in mind even in the near term.
The Archdruid Report by John Michael Greer
25 Comments on "A Landscape of Dreams"
makati1 on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 7:44 pm
This article is at least 10 out of 10 stars. Right on target. A BINGO!!
JMG sums up the US pretty well, I think. Even down to the last paragraph and what’s coming to the “Land of the Free”.
Davy on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 8:07 pm
Don’t get too excited dog paw you might pee your pants.
sunweb on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 8:26 pm
Well, said. He is too wordy for me but brilliant.
GregT on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 10:58 pm
Thanks JMG,
Spoken like a true American patriot. If there were millions more like you, there might be a chance of saving what is left of your once great country.
Somehow I don’t see that happening anymore. Too many have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the globalists’ propaganda.
Apneaman on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 11:21 pm
Tomgram: Engelhardt, A Record of Unparalleled Failure
Don’t Walk Away from War
It’s Not the American Way
“So here are five straightforward lessons — none acceptable in what passes for discussion and debate in this country — that could be drawn from that last half century of every kind of American warfare:
1. No matter how you define American-style war or its goals, it doesn’t work. Ever.
2. No matter how you pose the problems of our world, it doesn’t solve them. Never.
3. No matter how often you cite the use of military force to “stabilize” or “protect” or “liberate” countries or regions, it is a destabilizing force.
4. No matter how regularly you praise the American way of war and its “warriors,” the U.S. military is incapable of winning its wars.
5. No matter how often American presidents claim that the U.S. military is “the finest fighting force in history,” the evidence is in: it isn’t.
And here’s a bonus lesson: if as a polity we were to take these five no-brainers to heart and stop fighting endless wars, which drain us of national treasure, we would also have a long-term solution to the Veterans Administration health-care crisis. It’s not the sort of thing said in our world, but the VA is in a crisis of financing and caregiving that, in the present context, cannot be solved, no matter whom you hire or fire. The only long-term solution would be to stop fighting losing wars that the American people will pay for decades into the future, as the cost in broken bodies and broken lives is translated into medical care and dumped on the VA.”
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175854/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_a_record_of_unparalleled_failure/
BC on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 11:26 pm
Greer has always seemed to me to be a humorless, authoritarian-intellectual, self-superior type, even though I appreciate his brilliant intellect and literary efforts.
But then again, perhaps I’m just envious and projecting. 😀
Apneaman on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 11:30 pm
CNN and the NYT Are Deliberately Obscuring Who Perpetrated the Afghan Hospital Attack
https://theintercept.com/2015/10/05/cnn-and-the-nyt-are-deliberately-obscuring-who-perpetrated-the-afghan-hospital-attack/
Apneaman on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 11:33 pm
Saudi Arabia Continues Hiring Spree of American Lobbyists, Public Relations Experts
“Saudi Arabia is in the market for a better reputation in Washington, D.C.
In September alone, foreign lobbying disclosure documents show the Saudi government signing deals with PR powerhouse Edelman and lobbying leviathan the Podesta Group, according to recent disclosures.
Edelman, the largest privately owned public relations agency in the world, is known for helping clients win favorable media coverage on mainstream outlets. The Podesta Group is a lobbying firm founded by Tony Podesta, a major fundraiser for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.
The new signings are the latest in a year-long hiring spree by the Persian Gulf state as it further builds up its already formidable political arsenal inside the Beltway. The Saudi Arabian Royal Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
In March, the Saudi Royal Embassy retained two influential lobbying firms, DLA Piper and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. DLA Piper, for instance, employs a small army of former government officials, including retired U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and George Mitchell. Also in March, the embassy retained two firms that specialize in analyzing big data for political clients, Targeted Victory and Zignal Labs.”
https://theintercept.com/2015/10/05/saudi-arabia-continues-hire-politically-connected-american-lobbyists-public-relation-firms/
Apneaman on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 11:35 pm
BC, even if you are projecting you’re still right.
Apneaman on Wed, 7th Oct 2015 11:47 pm
BC, check this piece out in which Albert Bates pokes fun at the wizard Greer et al for some of the same characteristics you described.
A Gathering of Silverbacks: Age of Limits 2014
“Even John Michael Greer trudged out his tired old line about “don’t you remember 30 years ago when everyone was saying we would get another ice age — maybe fast? Show of hands? See! Climate science has no credibility.” Mark Cochrane, Senior Scientist at the Geospacial Sciences Center, thankfully addressed this in his later talk by noting the difference between science-fiction writers and actual climate scientists.”
http://peaksurfer.blogspot.ca/2014/05/a-gathering-of-silverbacks-age-of.html
Davy on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 3:38 am
You anti-Americans should understand the US is a global suicide belt and when we blow up it your ass too. We are also a wild animal you should be careful about cornering. You can respond smart ass to that but it is what it is and no amount of talk will change that. Also please spare me the lectures of all that is bad and why you hate us as an explanation. You know hatred usually needs an explanation. It is wrong to just hate. I hear this anti-Americanism ad nausea daily 24/7/365. I am the type of American that can make a difference. There are not many of us so probably too late anyway.
This warning is especially true of our loving brothers to the north who are the most concerned for us. I am going to start studying what is going on in Canada closer. I used to admire and like the place. I had a girlfriend in Toronto for a year back in the early 90’s. She was a fiery half Serbian and half Croatian tall black haired beauty. Damn those memories. So I have a taste for life up there. I remember a trip to Lake Louise in the late 90’s. I landed in Calgary and drove around Alberta for a week then on up Banff way. Man that is some beautiful country. I felt the people cold and hostile then. I will never step foot there again.
Little did I realize then these people hate us. Those things simmer under the surface but are hard to hide and hard to understand unless someone tells you. My parents have a place in the very North of Michigan on Lake Michigan but I have no plans to go to Canada anymore. I will recommend to my kids to never visit the place. If ever it comes up in conversations with other American’s I will explain to them how much Canadians hate us. I will tell them even those that are not overtly hostile are actually apologetically hostile or grudgingly tolerant but hateful. I should clarify something Canadians like you if you are an anti-American American.
It is Amazing because no one I know has a bad thing to say about Canada or realizes anything wrong. Many people from around here go fishing up there. It is naiveté on the American’s part along with the Canadians being two faced. I say two faced because you should show your hatred more overtly so we are not fooled into thinking you like us. I know you think us dumb but come on be honest at least. Honesty is far more important than being as smart as a Canadian. I am going to warn anyone I meet to watch their backs in the future when in Canada. When I see a Canadian down here I am going to go “psst..Canadians hate us watch your back. Why are you guys down here like fleas anyway if you hate us?
I have friends and family in Europe mainly Italy, Spain, and Germany. I have a good friend here in Missouri locally who is Dutch. My Italian wife has many international friends that are here for work. My daughter lives in Madrid. She is from my first marriage. None of them express the hatred and animosity for the States like the Canadians. They are not crazy about all the things we talk about here but they know they have huge problems also unlike Canadians.
I would appreciate none of you Canadians responding to this comment. Just keep up your criticisms as normal that covers everything. I will feel a little bit of love that way at least you talk about us. We could get the silent treatment because we have no importance like Canada. I don’t need any more of your advice and condescending comments. You have that covered through your normal daily commenting. I got my life under control. It is what it is. You Canadians are not making my bed. I will not buy Canadian maple syrup anymore if that makes you feel better.
I am not impressed with Canada or Canadians. If I need advice I will talk to someone from Tibet. Oh, I forgot the asshole Chinese invaded and subjugated them but that is ok for the Canadians. Canadians like China and Russia again secretly they would not want to offend their oblivious big brother to the south. The people from Tibet have a good reason to hate I might add.
I will end this comment by letting you Canadians know when we self-destruct your small little insignificant country (population not land we Know how friggen big you are land wise) will be overrun and destroyed by the migration of millions Americans north. There will be no stopping them. You are basically fucked. That is why you hate us I guess and that is a legitimate reason. See I am being fair and balanced. If it helps a little bit there will be one that does not go north. I will die here in place. If you have read my many comments then you know I am not completely right so when I say something like this I mean it. If Canada was the only refuge I would not go. I will warn my kids about Canada but they will be free to go as they please because this is a free country so they say. I would say good luck but I don’t mean it. I am not going to be two faced like a Canadian. I don’t like Canadians and I won’t pretend to.
GregT on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 4:10 am
“I am the type of American that can make a difference.”
Then do so Davy, and stop externalizing your insecurities on the rest of us.
I was born in Canada Davy. That makes me a human being that was born in a country controlled by the Queen of England. Does that mean that I support the corruption? Definitely not.
You’re losing it Davy. You are completely fucked up. You should have thrown your flag out with your cell phone, but you didn’t. Get a grip buddy. You are turning into a fucking ugly American.
You are becoming your own worst nightmare, and quite frankly, if you don’t snap out of it, you fucking deserve what is coming your way.
Enough of your flag waving bullshit Davy. Grow the fuck up, or fuck off.
GregT on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 5:27 am
And furthermore Davy,
If you can’t get beyond associating yourself with the most evil empire that has ever existed in all of human history, you are without a doubt the biggest fucking loser ever. Give your fucking head a shake. To think that I actually had some semblance of respect for you, what the fuck was I thinking. Get your shit together Davy, you fucking idiot.
Cloud9 on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 6:57 am
I have Canadian friends. They tend to be nice for the most part. We have different views. I don’t try to change them and they have given up on trying to change me. We have different histories. They did not fight a revolution. They did not have a civil war. They did not have a large slave population. They have not been invaded by Latin America. Consequently we have arrived at the same moment in time from different directions.
As for the United States being the most evil empire that has ever existed, well, evil takes many forms. How many slaves were brought to these shores by ships flying the Union Jack? How many Chinese were addicted to heroin to balance out the tea trade?
Didn’t Rudyard Kipling do a tour of duty in Afganistan?
makati1 on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 7:05 am
In other news:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-tpp-economic-treaty-is-the-calling-card-for-death-of-the-united-states-as-a-sovereign-nation/5480371
“Meanwhile, the EU-US’ TTIP appears to be unraveling in the face of defectors mainly from France and Germany abandoning US Empire’s house of cards hegemony.”
The TPP still has years to go before it can be used and 12ccountries have to ratify it. I would lay odds that the Us economy will collapse before that happens.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/dangerous-crossroads-lunatics-in-washington-want-direct-military-confrontation-with-russia/5480381
ALL of the contestants for the prize of the title, American Fuehrer want war, except possibly Berrie.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2015/10/06/432230/US-Syria-Russians-Brzezinski
This senile old man should be dead. Proof that only the good die young. LOL
Davy on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 7:36 am
Everything you need to know about Globalresearch in a nutshell
Quoted ”North Korea, a Land of Human Achievement, Love and Joy”
Globalresearch.ca (also under the domain name globalresearch.org) is the website of the Montreal-based non-profit The Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG) founded by Michel Chossudovsky.
While many of Globalresearch’s articles discuss legitimate humanitarian or environmental concerns, the site has a strong undercurrent of reality warping throughout its pages, especially in relation to taking its news from sources such as Russia Today RT[2] and Press TV.[3] Its view of science, the economy and geopolitics seems to be broadly conspiracist.
Whenever someone makes a remarkable claim and cites Globalresearch, they are almost certainly wrong.
What it thinks it is
The website describes itself as an “independent research and media organization.” Globalresearch considers itself to be a reliable “alternative news” source serving as a major repository of a broad range of “news articles, in-depth reports and analysis on issues which are barely covered by the mainstream media” (such as the New World Order). Its politico-economic stance is strongly anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-militarist, “internationalist but anti-globalization.”
What it really is
Despite presenting itself as a source of scholarly analysis, Global Research mostly consists of polemicists, many of whom accept (and use) conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and propaganda. The prevalent conspiracist strand relates to global power-elites (primarily governments and corporations) and their New World Order.[4] Specific featured conspiracy theories include those addressing 9/11,[5] vaccines,[6] genetic modification,[7] Zionism,[8][9] HAARP,[10] global warming denialism,[11][12] Bosnian genocide denialism[13] chemtrails,[14] and David Kelly.[15]
Globalresearch contributors are happy to source information from anyone who seems vaguely aligned with their ideology; during the 2011 Libyan civil war the site was an apologist for Muammar al-Gaddafi,[16] reproducing his propaganda and painting him as a paragon of a modern leader. In the 2014 Ukrainian crisis the site is taking the standard “anti-globalisation” stance against the Western side and falling into the ranks of imperial Russian propaganda instead.
Globalresearch also has published numerous articles written by contributors to New Eastern Outlook, a Moscow-based Russian Government propaganda site. It has published the same articles on the same day as Oriental Review, a Moscow-based site that is also almost certainly a Russian Government site.
It’s no surprise then that the site has long become a magnet for radicals, fringe figures and whacko elements from the left in general.
Davy on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 7:40 am
Press TV anyone?
Press TV is a 24/7 English-language international news channel based in Teheran and owned by the Iranian government that tries to present itself as an independent alternative to other international English-language media (Like Al Jazeera, but on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s payroll). If you are in Iran and you would rather avoid floggings or worse you’d better not criticise Press TV too much.
The channel has a heavily antisemitic stance, something which has even led its website to run an article by the white nationalist Mike Stathis. In it, he argues that a Jewish mafia has taken over America and is discouraging whites from feeling pride in their race.[1]
Rodster on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 8:10 am
Charles Hugh Smith wrote an excellent post for those that think they can change the system. In short, it ain’t gonna happen.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2015/09/you-cant-separate-empire-state.html
Davy on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 8:54 am
Rodster, one should add to that point this is a global phenomenon infecting all states. We have different brands of it according to the culture and region. It is actually an adaptive global structure. Globalism has made this possible. Globalism will have to end to turn this trend backwards. No country today offers an alternative or is capable of a decouple.
marko on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 3:50 pm
Davy, our problem is in fact that we are American Russians Canadian Serbian etc( by the way I live in Serbia and yes they have beautiful girls here). We couldn’t by pass those differences , and we are as a specie fucked because of that
Davy on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 4:31 pm
I spent some time in Belgrade in 92. Wonderful city. Glad you have joined us Marko.
ghung on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 8:53 pm
Greer: “Russian cruise missiles launched from the Caspian Sea fleet, most of a thousand miles from Syria.”
Whoops!
Syria crisis: Russian Caspian missiles ‘fell in Iran’
Shit happens, or not. Hard to know who to believe these days.
Davy on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 9:00 pm
G-man, some are saying the missiles were nearing their shelf life and this was a good opportunity to renew the arsenal. I have read good things about their capabilities. The issue is their lack of use may have degraded them. Who knows if there were failures or this was disinformation. We know when the U.S. Hit Sadam in 03 some failed. That is the nature of the beast.
makati1 on Thu, 8th Oct 2015 10:47 pm
Ghung, check your source, another Obama poodle, big time. The UK has it’s head up his ass so far, they have no idea of reality. Just like American press was claiming civilian deaths by Russian bombs an hour before the planes even took off. Americans will believe anything. They have no independent brain cells left.
Davy on Fri, 9th Oct 2015 4:33 am
Dog Paw can’t admit the Russians are killing machines now and their weapons less than stellar. You cannot deny what is happening in the ME. Your agenda is not that deep.