When you bear this in mind, the US presidential race becomes surreal. The beatification of President Barack Obama is already under way; for it is he who “challenges America to rise up [and] summon ‘the better angels of our nature’”, says Rolling Stone magazine, reminiscent of the mating calls of Guardian writers to the “mystical” Blair. As ever, the Orwell Inversion Test is necessary. Obama claims that his vast campaign wealth comes from small individual donors, yet he has also received funds from some of the most notorious looters on Wall Street. Moreover, the “dove” and “candidate of change” has voted repeatedly to fund George W Bush’s rapacious wars, and now demands more war in Afghanistan while he threatens to bomb Pakistan.
That is from this article by John Pilger.
Here is one more quote:
Among ordinary Americans desperate for a secure life, his skin colour may help him regain this unjustified “trust”, even though it is of a similar hue to that of Colin Powell, who lied to the United Nations for Bush and now endorses Obama. As for the rest of us, is it not time we opened our eyes and exercised our right not to be lied to, yet again?
8 comments:
Having sneered, in an earlier post at people's obsession with the US Presidential election, why this sudden interest?
But seriously, I am not sure of the point of this post and the quotes. Some people may have beatified Obama and that is silly. But what are the options (at least for Americans, we, like the journal Nature, do not have the vote) -- not vote at all, or vote for John McCain and get a fruit-cake as VP who thinks research in fruit flies is laughable.
One has to make choices from what we have, not in an abstract sense. And here the point is not to have another four years of a Republican administration. And to accuse him of the same level of ethical standards just because another 'person of colour' lied about Iraq, is really flirting with racist attitudes.
John Pilger's page The diplomacy of Lying from which your quotes are taken, contains as 'Essential Reading for Newer Readers" on the right column an article titled 'Does God Play Dice with the Universe" which exhorts readers to acquaint themselves with spiritual texts in various religions to fill the gaps in science particularly since 'science has no explanation for the beginning, nor...the end" Along the way some potshots are delivered at Darwinian evolution and particle physics.
If this is what Mr Pilger thinks is essential reading, I rest my case.
Oh learned mastah! Many of your points are well taken. My `interest' in this subject was mainly to demonstrate that behind that supposedly benign appearance of Obama lies a lot of danger for many peoples of the world, especially those in our neighbourhood. It is his war mongering that is scary from my point of view, which I wanted to bring to the attention of all three readers of this humble blog. I had not noticed Pilger's other stuff, which I agree is scary. But do the points in his presently quoted article diminish because of his other views. I do agree with you his lumping Obama with Powell is in bad taste. BTW, I have `taken cognaisance' of your post on scientists endorsing Obama. It is all very strange and beyond the comprehension of this limited mind.
Your humble student.
Just wanted to add that the article was actually written for New Statesman. I happened to find a link on truthseeker, of which I know nothing.
Anant,
see also this article by Vinay Lal The Technician in the Establishment: Obama's America and the World in EPW.
Now that it's a done deal I have to admint that after months of not sharing in the Obamamania I was surprised to feel great relief, even joy!, when I found out that Obama officially won. There suddenly seems to be at least a possibility of saner US policy. This comes as a huge relief after the Bush years which offered no hope and gave us unmitigated bad news... 2001:9/11, 2002:Guantanamo, 2003:Iraq, 2004:election fraud, 2005:New Orleans, 2006:wiretapping, 2007:obstruction of climate change conference in Bali, 2008:Financial crash. At least there seems to be new possibilities now and that feels pretty good.
This comment is for Anant. In another blog many months back, you claimed that right-wingers are those who believe that the "genocide" in Gujarat never took place.
This comment shows what is wrong with Indian science and why even so-called prestigious universities in India produce bad quality research.
Let us look at your statement objectively. Was it a genocide or a riot? 790 Muslims were killed and 254 Hindus were also killed. Had it been a genocide or a pogrom as conspiracy theorists like you claim, how come Hindus too were killed?
I'll tell you your problem -- you crave the appreciation of White-skinned people and so believe whatever appeals to them and denigrates co-Indians. 200 Muslims and ZERO Hindus were killed? Nonsense. The train burnt on its own. That too is a stupid claim.
USE your brains and THINK -- if the train burnt on its own, you would then imply that the Muslims gathered around the burning train and threw stones at the dying passengers! How idiotic you and your type are. All you care about is impressing the Whites and you make fools of yourselves in the process.
Here is what happened - the train was attacked by Muslims who doused it with petrol and threw burning rags into the train. They also hurled rocks at the train and infuriated Hindus took law into their own hands. Riots ensued and hundreds of Muslims AND Hindus were killed.
Now let us look at your idiotic version -- The train exploded spontaneously all by itself and Hindus blamed Muslims and killed them since Narendra Modi told them to do so. Not even one Hindu was killed but 2000 Muslims were killed. The other theory you have is that there was a fight at the station over the price of tea and it is normal for people squabbling over prices to attack each other with petrol bombs!
Now, think through this to realize how you fell for idiotic conspiracy theories. Assume Modi was the one who planned the killings. So how come your beloved Sonia Maino and her puppet Manmohan have not arrested him? Is your brain capable of even thinking up such questions or are you so gullible to fall for conspiracy theories?
No wonder the state of science in India is so low that there are no Nobel laureates in India these days. Low IQ people become professors in India. The smarter people just moved to USA.
Rather cool blog you've got here. Thanks for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to this matter. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.
Best regards
Jeph Normic
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