spinning democracy
We prattle on and on about how important democracy is. It's so important that we had to invade Iraq, killing tens of thousands in order to force a West-loving form of it down their throats till they choke (ah, the gag reflex and democracy..)
But, aren't we just a bit myopic about what we think democracy means? Let's shift our gaze from Iraq and peruse the whole globe. Do people whom we label as "primitive", "third world", "uncivilised", or whatever, have democratic rights? And if so, what are these rights?
Do they have the right to not have their resources and environment plundered to satisfy our ever increasing need for more and more bling bling?
Do they have the right not be used as mere pawns by those who have set themselves up as arbiters of all and everything?
Do they have the right to protect themselves from such forms of Western cultural fascism?
Why are we, the oh-so-democratic, so overweening in our relations with these people, their resources, their environment, their culture and their belief systems, all the while pretending we have nothing to do with the behaviour of the global resource giants, pretending we have nothing to do with the activities of our cultural bulldozers, the missionaries, the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO?
And after an area is inevitably laid waste by these marvellous do-gooders, we finish them off with "foreign aid" programs delivered to a demoralised, disenfranchised people who are then told that the only way "forward" is by way of virtual slave labour and prostitution, servicing their Global (we can't really use the term "Western" anymore) masters and overseers. But it's all for good, we believe, just so we can sleep at night, and dream of even more bling bling.
If, due to the rage induced by the realisation that they are about to be culturally vaporised by seemingly overwhelming forces, they resort to "terrorism" as a means of striking back, they are branded as evil, whilst we, the plunderers, murderers and rapists will not engage in the slightest bit of self-analysis.
Oh no, we can do no wrong. And we have to give no quarter. Might is right. Right? And what's any of this got to do with those people's democratic rights? Absolutely nothing.
And the beat goes on, the beat goes on... La dee da dee dee, la dee da dee dah...
But, aren't we just a bit myopic about what we think democracy means? Let's shift our gaze from Iraq and peruse the whole globe. Do people whom we label as "primitive", "third world", "uncivilised", or whatever, have democratic rights? And if so, what are these rights?
Do they have the right to not have their resources and environment plundered to satisfy our ever increasing need for more and more bling bling?
Do they have the right not be used as mere pawns by those who have set themselves up as arbiters of all and everything?
Do they have the right to protect themselves from such forms of Western cultural fascism?
Why are we, the oh-so-democratic, so overweening in our relations with these people, their resources, their environment, their culture and their belief systems, all the while pretending we have nothing to do with the behaviour of the global resource giants, pretending we have nothing to do with the activities of our cultural bulldozers, the missionaries, the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO?
And after an area is inevitably laid waste by these marvellous do-gooders, we finish them off with "foreign aid" programs delivered to a demoralised, disenfranchised people who are then told that the only way "forward" is by way of virtual slave labour and prostitution, servicing their Global (we can't really use the term "Western" anymore) masters and overseers. But it's all for good, we believe, just so we can sleep at night, and dream of even more bling bling.
If, due to the rage induced by the realisation that they are about to be culturally vaporised by seemingly overwhelming forces, they resort to "terrorism" as a means of striking back, they are branded as evil, whilst we, the plunderers, murderers and rapists will not engage in the slightest bit of self-analysis.
Oh no, we can do no wrong. And we have to give no quarter. Might is right. Right? And what's any of this got to do with those people's democratic rights? Absolutely nothing.
And the beat goes on, the beat goes on... La dee da dee dee, la dee da dee dah...
posted by The Editor at
10:35 PM
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