New York State of Mind

[jbor]

on 5/10/01 11:32 PM, Otto at o.sell at telda.net wrote:

> May it be as it is with Mrs. Albright's words, it's Mr. Bush's and Mr.
> Blair's turn now and as far as I can see they've done a good job up to now.
> But as a reader of Mr. Pynchon's novels I've learned to watch politicians
> critically and I don't believe everything "They" are telling us. Sometimes
> it's hard to tell the truth from the propaganda, which goes of course for
> all those ZNet & Alter.net-messages too.
> 
> I agree nearly totally to Michael Perez post that has just come in.

I do too. I think that many of those Op. Ed. pieces, those in both the
mainstream and alternative media, make valid points. There is no denying
that. But my concern is that in using the attacks simply as an excuse to
grind their usual axes and spout the same anti-Bush, anti-CIA, anti-UN,
anti-globalisation crap as before some of these "dissenters" are placing
themselves in the unenviable position of seeming to side with, or defend,
the terrorists, and so are actually doing more harm than good to their
causes, and particularly so when they take on that insufferable tone of
snivelling, sneering self-righteousness which is so totally off-putting.
When those causes are worthwhile ones, like pacificism, and human kinship,
this is quite inexcusable.

For a change most "anti-American" sentiment right now is coming from voices
inside America, and that's not necessarily a good thing. As "The Last
Superpower" as I think David correctly noted the other day, the rest of the
world is watching and listening, and waiting. But I think we are listening
to the commentators -- Michael Moore is a good example I guess -- as much
and as closely as we are listening to the politicians, certainly more than
most are listening to eggheads like Rushdie or Chomsky. Or Pynchon. And this
leads me to wonder what the real ideological power bases are in that great
gorging Behemoth which is the market economy of late capitalism. If anything
it's the media and not the government which manipulates public opinion and
thereby shapes the culture, and which perpetuates the "military/industrial
complex" by a kind of pacification-through-sensory stimulation of its
masses. I think Pynchon in _M&D_ amply demonstrates the insidious ways that
*language* creates ideology. In a situation where the politicians are merely
the handmaidens of those who own and control the media, I believe that
"independent" media and voices of dissent indeed have a crucial role to
play, and that, on occasion, it is legitimate that they too be told to lift
their game.

best