“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
― Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War
Still true today, methinks. And, ohh, what shock and awe when modern weapons “do what they can.”
Made possible in a so-called democracy by a hydra of means that keep the War Machine in power by manufacturing consent and suppressing dissent.
Here, largely as a note to self, is a very old concept diagram I built from a small book or article whose source I cannot remember. It is from the “days of yore,” designed to examine tools, and dirty tricks, used in actual verbal or written discussion:
What truth is up against today is much more sinister.
Not Verbal – Visual!
A huge threat to public discourse that has arisen since the dumbing down of all TV media, is not verbal. It is visually intense and much more powerful: the showing over and over of the same footage designed to build reactionary attitudes in the population. Attitudes that lead to votes for the political party in control of the public broadcaster – a broadcaster that all taxpayers and voters pay for.
This has happened to my precious CBC, whose board of directors is, under Stephen Harper, peopled with a large majority of hacks who have contributed to the Conservative Party of Canada. This explains a good deal of the deterioration in quality.
Case In Point: the over the top attention given to a dumb, insensitive, disgraceful act by Franck Gervais impersonating a military sergeant in Ottawa during the Remembrance Day celebrations on November 11. Two days of relentless TV and other media coverage. As one commenter on this article wisely stated:
Shameful? Yes. National news? Not!
Of course the dumbed down CBC obsequiously pointed out that it is a crime to impersonate a soldier and that the Ottawa police are “looking into it.” Don’t hold your breath for the asinine Gervais to be jailed. Impersonating any person in public authority, such as a soldier, would only be prosecuted if it were used to coerce or otherwise harm another person or property. So the use of the technically correct word “crime” has the effect of promoting a shitty prank into a heinous crime – increasing the indignation of a gullible public.
To what end? Hmmm.
So it is irresponsible of a public broadcaster to use these terms in order to magnify the offense in the mind of the gullible viewer.
Franck Gervais has received threats. This sort of incitement to hatred by our CBC is extremely irresponsible.
The increased corrupting of the original purpose of Remembrance Day – a celebration of the laying down of arms – into an annual spectacle designed to acclimatize us to war’s horror is another point made very well in this great blog by EmaBee’s Art
I will not add anything to her wonderful post, other than to say that it appears that some very influential “powers” are committed to a world state of unceasing warfare for the duration of human life on Earth.
mightyturk 
Thanks for the link and shout-out -& what a GREAT diagram! My rant the other day (in the context of Ferguson) was that people just look at the superficial incidents and events and never dig deeper by asking the question why, why, why. Like, questioning assumptions and the status quo (and mainstream media).
I also like the part of the diagram on assumptions – that has also been a big thing for me recently – being really real about all the assumptions we make about the world around us. It very much gets into the philosophical realm. If we peel away the layers of assumptions and keep asking ourselves why, digging deeper, below the surface – that is where truth lies.
One learns to smell some of the subtler stuff. Glad you liked the chart. There’s a debate about accounting “transparency” for FN bands here in Canada that reeks of massively wrong assumptions and deep, unconscious prejudice that create big holes for the government offence to run through. Via huge omnibus bills they have passed (undebated) a boatload of legislation designed to totally destroy the power of our First Nations to stay together and fight pipelines and other attacks on our shared biosphere.