(posted on http://nehama.newsvine.com/ Dec 7, 2010)
A friend of mine recently relayed to me his experience meeting a marketing company in the US. He and his business partner, both from Mediterranean countries, founded an innovative startup, and were in the process of entering the US market. So they contacted a marketing company, with an expertise in the appropriate market, to help launch their entry. My friend was disgusted with them. PowerPoint presentations of sweet nothings, clad in snazzy prêt a porter Saks 5th Ave. and Yves Saint Laurent business suits. “what did you expect," I retorted dismissively "this is the culture of fancily rapped junk”
Indeed, as a relatively new US resident it was first my aghast realization, and then acceptance, that US culture - that pretends to revere meritocracy, is all about ‘saying the right thing at the right time to the right people’. And the rest of the People – are typically quite ignorant and gullible, believe selfishness is a virtue (Gordon Gekko called it ‘greed’), and think that the New Testament is as scientifically valid as evidence of evolution or climate change.
As many others, I tend to agree that the recent Cablegate Wikileaks releases are not really earth shaking. The Arab Gulf countries, that literally fuel the economies of the US and Europe, could have put an end to the Israeli occupation, the pressure on Iran, and meddling in Lebanon, by simply shutting down the flow of oil for a week. Obviously, Arab countries are wary of Iranian nuclear ambiguity, and dislike the political Muslim fundamentalism of the Hizbollah and Hamas. Not really shocking that the Chinese Government thinks that the North Korean regime is unsustainable, and should be engaged in direct talks. Nor is anyone surprised that the Chinese very un-transparent government hacked Google. And US diplomats spying??!!…. Give me a break, I thought it was their job.
The fact that the official narrative embellishes reality…, well that is the purpose of the official narrative. The fact the official narrative has replaced reality – THAT is a problem.
What Julian Assange with his underground network of leakers has done is tear the duct tape off the mouth of duplicity.
Let’s start with the economy – does anyone remember Alan Greenspan saying that the dot-com economy is a new economy, with new rules - and therefore the fears of a financial bubble are so yesterday? And how about his assurances that “exotic financial products” don’t adhere to old market rules and therefore cannot be regulated by mortals. And the recent empty “CDO”-like Eurozone (fake) rescue fund, or the tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans at the expense of unemployment benefits. It’s all fake math.
What about the war in Iraq – the documented absence of “weapons of mass destruction” and evidence of “links with Al-Qaida”, were bogus. The Iraqi regime was already crumbling under the sanctions – and yet Colin Powell’s PowerPoint presentation was a deal breaker.
The recent 2010 elections will probably go down in history as having the most incredulous campaigns in US history, from denying being a Witch to describing the President as channeling his father’s anti-colonial Kenyan spirit (something that Americans should embrace if they weren’t spooked by the darkness of the word “Kenyan”). In which subsidized health care was demonized while documented “death panels” of the private health insurance system were championed as the “American Way”.
One of the markers of sanity is being able to tell the difference between reality and the pandemonium of voices inside our head. As a society we have lost the capacity to distinguish between marketing pitches and the description of products and services; between campaign ads and policy.
That is what Wikileaks may have changed.
It’s a cold shower of reality to counter heated-twisted packaging, display, and PowerPoint presentations of nothing.
Or less than nothing. US capital and diplomatic deficit reveal that the it is the World’s biggest problem, no longer ‘A City on The Hill’ (if it ever was). It has more debt, eats up more resources, pollutes more, and emits more greenhouse gasses than Africa and Asia combined.
So now we know – we really know. What are we going to do about it?
Indeed, as a relatively new US resident it was first my aghast realization, and then acceptance, that US culture - that pretends to revere meritocracy, is all about ‘saying the right thing at the right time to the right people’. And the rest of the People – are typically quite ignorant and gullible, believe selfishness is a virtue (Gordon Gekko called it ‘greed’), and think that the New Testament is as scientifically valid as evidence of evolution or climate change.
As many others, I tend to agree that the recent Cablegate Wikileaks releases are not really earth shaking. The Arab Gulf countries, that literally fuel the economies of the US and Europe, could have put an end to the Israeli occupation, the pressure on Iran, and meddling in Lebanon, by simply shutting down the flow of oil for a week. Obviously, Arab countries are wary of Iranian nuclear ambiguity, and dislike the political Muslim fundamentalism of the Hizbollah and Hamas. Not really shocking that the Chinese Government thinks that the North Korean regime is unsustainable, and should be engaged in direct talks. Nor is anyone surprised that the Chinese very un-transparent government hacked Google. And US diplomats spying??!!…. Give me a break, I thought it was their job.
The fact that the official narrative embellishes reality…, well that is the purpose of the official narrative. The fact the official narrative has replaced reality – THAT is a problem.
What Julian Assange with his underground network of leakers has done is tear the duct tape off the mouth of duplicity.
Let’s start with the economy – does anyone remember Alan Greenspan saying that the dot-com economy is a new economy, with new rules - and therefore the fears of a financial bubble are so yesterday? And how about his assurances that “exotic financial products” don’t adhere to old market rules and therefore cannot be regulated by mortals. And the recent empty “CDO”-like Eurozone (fake) rescue fund, or the tax cuts for the top 1% of Americans at the expense of unemployment benefits. It’s all fake math.
What about the war in Iraq – the documented absence of “weapons of mass destruction” and evidence of “links with Al-Qaida”, were bogus. The Iraqi regime was already crumbling under the sanctions – and yet Colin Powell’s PowerPoint presentation was a deal breaker.
The recent 2010 elections will probably go down in history as having the most incredulous campaigns in US history, from denying being a Witch to describing the President as channeling his father’s anti-colonial Kenyan spirit (something that Americans should embrace if they weren’t spooked by the darkness of the word “Kenyan”). In which subsidized health care was demonized while documented “death panels” of the private health insurance system were championed as the “American Way”.
One of the markers of sanity is being able to tell the difference between reality and the pandemonium of voices inside our head. As a society we have lost the capacity to distinguish between marketing pitches and the description of products and services; between campaign ads and policy.
That is what Wikileaks may have changed.
It’s a cold shower of reality to counter heated-twisted packaging, display, and PowerPoint presentations of nothing.
Or less than nothing. US capital and diplomatic deficit reveal that the it is the World’s biggest problem, no longer ‘A City on The Hill’ (if it ever was). It has more debt, eats up more resources, pollutes more, and emits more greenhouse gasses than Africa and Asia combined.
So now we know – we really know. What are we going to do about it?
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