From: Mark Steven Heyman (markheyman@infoproconsulting.com)
Date: Sun Jul 31 2005 - 00:09:39 BST
Hi Paul, Sam, and all,
On 29 Jul 2005 at 15:50, Paul Turner wrote:
Until now I've kept out of any discussions of the recent events in London
and the wider conflict. This is mainly because I find myself without any
stable ideas about what is going on in what I think is an incredibly complex
conflict whereas many of you seem to have it firmly and decisively figured
out. Another reason is that it is often suggested that there is an
alternative channel of information - one that tells us what is really behind
everything - whereas most people are kept in the dark by popular media.
So, not knowing which channel it is I'm picking up, the chances are I'm in
the dark. And I certainly don't have any firm answers.
msh 7-30-05:
Just for clarification, I don't think it's been suggested that
there's a single "alternative channel of information - one that tells
us what is really behind everything." What I and others have said is
that relying on commercial media for one's view of the world will
result in a highly skewed world-view. This is due to the delicately
concealed contradiction in the idea that a free and open media can
somehow be financed by commercial interests. It just ain't gonna
happen.
So, if we wanna know what's really going on, we'll spend as much time
as we can gathering information from as wide a spectrum as possible,
and then measure what we gather against our own experiential and
intellectual grasp of "reality." It will be an approximation at
best, but better that relying on a single institutionalized "source"
pretending to be diversified.
Anyway, thanks Paul, for your moq-based analysis of recent events; on
one reading I find nothing to disagree with, though this might
change.
And Sam, thanks for the link to the Jonathan Glover comment in the
Guardian. I find little to disagree there, as well. One quibble
would be that he seems to be asking us to focus on recent US-UK
activities that may have contributed to the problem of "terrorism"
without recognizing that the US and UK, and the west in general, have
been leaving a pretty brutal footprint around the globe for more than
500 years. But I'm happy to see any appeal for an Intellectual-
Social solution to Social-Biological brutality.
A second quibble has to do with the subtle strain indicating that
Glover has not yet transcended the fiction that "their" lives are
somehow less valuable than "ours," and that we don't kill to make a
political point. He writes:
"The terrorist attacks appal (sic) us because of the loss of life,
but even more because the killing is deliberate. In London, traffic
kills far more people than bombs. But we are outraged by what the
bombings express. The bombers want us - any of us - dead, or at
least are prepared to kill us to make a political point."
See, in Iraq, bombs (and napalm and DU, and rockets, and tanks, and
aircraft) are everyday killing more innocent Iraqis than the total
dead in London, July 7. No one, at least no one in the commercial
media, seems to be appalled by this.
I'll leave you guys with some thoughts from David Edwards, one of
the two Davids who run MediaLens.org, which spends a lot of time
analyzing deficiencies in the British media, in particular. I highly
recommend their website and mailing list, if you don't already
subscribe.
"The truth is that we are trained to value the lives of our
countrymen more highly by a socio-political system that has much to
gain from a restricted, patriotic version of compassion, and much to
lose from an excess of popular concern for suffering inflicted on
’foreigners’ by our governments and corporations."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9592.htm
Best to all,
Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
--
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