The Emperor's New Clothes

Well, George is at it again. "Terror" is looming its ugly head; ooohhhh nnnnooooo, children, hide under your beds, or the "Terror" will get you too.
How absurd. Having exhausted the "Terror" potential of both Iraq, and Afghanistan (two nations now so broken, desperate, and bloodied that it will take them decades to recover, if indeed they ever do at all), the Right Honourable Mr. Bush has found a new threat lurking in the Islamic reeds of the Persian Gulf: Iran.
Iran makes for an easy target. After all, it is a nation that has, in the past, severely bloodied the proud Yankee nose. The staunch ally of America (and massive abuser of human rights), the Shah, was deposed in 1979, leaving America without a "strong policeman" in the Gulf region to serve corporate interests (it did not take them long to replace him, of course, with the ever so pleasant Saddam Huessein, another humanitarian). In the subsequent creation of the Islamic Republic, America also had to deal with a hostage crisis which took over 400 days to be resolved. Iran, quite simply, could not be bullied by the global thug, and pushed back, and his is an inforgivable sin to the great American ego. And so, this nation, imperfect though it may be, has had to grow and exist in an international community where it is seen as a pariah. Unlike its "liberated" neighbour, Iraq, Iran has law and order. Its people do not live in fear of civil war. And again, it is under threat from the great lurking machine of war.
'President George Bush stood on the shores of the United Arab Emirates and delivered a strong message across the waters of the Gulf to Iran. He accused Tehran of being "the world's leading state sponsor of terror" and urged regional allies to confront the "danger" posed by Iran "before it is too late".' (The Independent). A bigger threat than America itself? An interesting question...And all of this talk of "before its too late" - we are again discussing a pre-emptive military action. Guilty before proven innocent, Iran will need to be taught a lesson, taught what its place is to be, left crippled and mangled like its neighbour, broken, and ready for the pillaging that will occur. Is it a coincidence that Iran, like Iraq, is an oil rich land? Black gold sits beneath its soil...and like post Desert Storm Iraq, it is now a threat to the global community.
'In a speech in Abu Dhabi devoted to his creed of the benefits of spreading democracy, the US President said that "violent extremists" who had "hijacked" Islam to undermine freedom and democracy were financed and supported by Iran. "It sends hundreds of millions of dollars to extremists around the world – while its own people face repression and economic hardship," he said.' (The Independent). Of course, there are no other Middle Eastern states that also fit this description of domestic repression and hardship - well, there is Saudi Arabia (which sponsored and created the Taliban), and Egypt (whose "democratically elected president, Muhbarak, won in a staggering landslide by 98% - not at all fishy, given the level of police control and violent repression of any dissenters). Can we, in the West, expect these nations, where human rights simply do not exist, to be punished as well - for they provide so much of the fuel that helps to create the extremist fire. No, we can not expect it. They are our allies. Curious, is it not, how one state can be maligned and villified for "repression" of its people, this same repression can be used as a pretext for armed action, and yet other nations guilty of the same, or greater repression, are deemed acceptable. Is this not the epitomy of hypocracy? A Saudi blogger who critisized his government is captured and held without trial for over a month - Amnesty International fears torture - the Americans are silent. But wait, Iran does not sell oil to the USA, Saudi Arabia does. I think there may be a pattern developing here.
Of course, Iran is enriching uranium, making it a nuclear threat, right? Similarly, so was it feared that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). That claim was NEVER substantiated, and was later proven to be a lie, simple and clear. We were lied to, so that the war machine could justify its terrible violence. And wait! The National Intelligence Estimate just finished concluding that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003. And yet, they are a nuclear threat, according to Mr. Bush, who has made a habit of always obtaining the best possible intelligence available during his tenure as Commander in Chief. Oman, one of Iran's closest Gulf neighbours, further undercut Mr. Bush, by stating that they did not feel in the least threatened by Iran. I wonder how they feel about the American presence, with its fear mongering and war fervour?
Do not be surprised if the USA goes into a military action against Iran before Bush's second term in office is over. Human lives mean nothing to this regime, Muslim lives even less, and oil is at a premium. not only that, but the shroud of fear in America itself is lifting, unclouding many eyes in the process, lessening the corporate grip. It is time for the Halliburton Candidate to ratchet this fear back up, trying to recreate his post 9/11 glory, when fear created his shroud of invincibility. Truly, the Emperor had no clothes - he did not need them, we were all too afraid to look and see anyway.

"Beyond a Domesticating Education: a Dialogue", Noam Chomsky - A response

“Beyond a Domesticating Education: a Dialogue” – Noam Chomsky


At first glance, it appears that Chomsky is nothing more than an embittered cynic, who is intent on creating issues that exist so far beyond the classroom walls that they do not need to be thought about. After careful consideration, however, one can read a great deal of truth into his dialogue, and it is interesting how he is able to expand so well on a seemingly isolated, quasi-irrelevant happenstance (the child who thought that the Pledge of Allegiance was hypocritical) and show how it connects to far greater issues globally.
I never used to be cynical, but the events that have occurred on the global stage in the fallout of Sept. 11th have altered this substantially. The Corpocracy that rules the Western “democracies” has been waging a vague shadow war against an enemy, which by definition, does not really physically exist – “Terror” is a mental construct, meaning that this ill-defined war can last in perpetuity, all the while suckling at the tit of power. After all, Halliburton, and Blackwell are corporate names that are synonymous with the war in Iraq. Think about this – there are more mercenaries employed by Blackwell on the ground in Iraq than there are American troops – it is a corporate war. Casualty lists for the Iraqi’s do not exist. The numbers are simply not recorded by the occupying power, as they are so appallingly high.
Clearly something is amiss with this whole situation. And yet, we (and I mean people who are citizens of the Western “democratic” powers) do not respond. Why is this? If asked individually, people seem to care, but as a society, we do not respond – individuals do not shake the boat or upset our comfortable status quo. We who live in such extreme comfort and ease do not wish to sacrifice these comforts – because in order for us to ask questions, and disrupt the seat of corporate power that rules the West, we will need to do without these same comforts. We turn a blind eye to the evils committed by our allies and our own governments, evils that when committed by men like Saddam Hussein, or Osama bin Laden, are universally condemned. 9/11 killed 3,000 odd people. The death toll in Iraq is conservatively placed in the 100,000’s. Tell those families that they are better off now that “democracy” has been brought to the Middle East.
How does all of this tie into education, however? It is quite simple. We live in an age, and a part of the world that exists in extreme privilege, driven by consumerist fervour. This massive surplus of consumer wealth is our modern day “bread and circuses”. Just as Roman Emperors entertained the masses with food and violent spectacles, so do our Corpocratic regimes distract us with bigger and better TVs, stereo equipment, SUVs, etc. And we, as a society, learn not to question the actions of the corporate elites, because to do so will mean less of these items that make our lives so privileged. It is engrained into our very educational systems that we should not rock the boat with dangerous questions, but should be rewarded for following the rest of the flock. Teachers all too often teach their classes how to think, or what to think, not to think. If we were taught simply to think, from an early age, some of these globe spanning debacles could be avoided, altered or stopped. We simply do not think about them, because we have been trained not to; we have been trained to accept them.