So it would seem that our TV, newspapers and internet news feeds are all going mad for the situation going on over Iran’s election.
It does look as though the results may possibly have been tampered with, that it was not allegedly a fair election… I think that I would prefer to see Ahmadinejad defeated as the coverage I have been prithee to in the UK has interviewed at length citizens of Iran and highlighted the differences to their lives and rights if he is defeated.
Why am I writing about this today? Let me explain…
You see, I continue to be stunned by the seeming lack of self-awareness much of the Western world has. most of the media I consume in from the UK or the US, so it is mainly those two countries I am referring to here.
This article that I read at the New York Times appears to just encourage citizens of Iran to go ahead and revolt. Some of the things I have been reading almost appear to have an agenda to goad on angry Iran citizens, instead of actually attempting to understand the issues within the systems employed that resulted in this volatile situation.
This article at Slate website describes the situation by saying: “the possibility of choice did inspire what had seemed to be a passive society to protest.” As far as I can see, the media that I am reading wants Iran citizens to revolt. They yearn for a revolution over there!
I find this particularly baffling when we ourselves have a Prime Minister who was not voted into office by the public — and if we were to have a general election right now, it is incredibly unlikely that he would get voted in to office.
In the US less than 10 years ago, the results of an election that many thought was unfair were duly accepted.
Are these two situations in the Western world actually all that different from what is happening in Iran today? So why is it then that our media and much national support is about encouraging the people of Iran to put their system of government, their economic and political stability, and even their lives, on the line and having a full-on revolution?
Are any of us calling for that in the UK? Did anyone call for that in the US? Then why do we expect it elsewhere?
It seems to me that if the popular media just allowed themselves a moment or two of self-reflection, they might think twice about encouraging protests, revolution and upheaval.
I think you’re wrong about your last sentence. Or even if you’re right; even if they think twice, that wouldn’t be reflected in their output, because those who think too much usually have a hard time keeping their jobs. When it comes to politics the media is for the most part just a tool for propaganda. It doesn’t function in a rational way. Check out John Pilger’s “War on Democracy”, it’s pretty informative. Just before the Olympics, what went on with China was also low quality propaganda. The media was even caught directly lying; showing photos from an incident from another country and claiming that the Chinese police was violently attacking protesters and many ugly lies like that. The public still doesn’t know. Similar with Venezuela, Zimbabwe, possibly even Darfur. And Palestine, obviously… It’s unfortunate really, this lack of reliability of the mainstream media…
Thank you for your comments and input Sadun.
You’re welcome. This source probably isn’t really unbiased either but the pictures are still revealing, regarding what I said about China/Tibet: http://thetruthoftibet.blogspot.com/
And I forgot to mention what went on in Georgia:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13285
Perhaps “Wag the Dog” with Hoffman and De Niro is a film seriously worth thinking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnSauj2855M
Dear Adam,
I have been following the Iran situation on the Internet. This includes reading the mainstream media. I have known quite a few Iranians over the years. Lovely people, very friendly but only representative of the more educated and liberal group mostly to be found in Tehran. Outside most people are poorly educated and relatively poor and conservative. The BBC has confined itself to interviewing people who speak English in the capital.
Having closely followed the other “colour revolutions” I can say that this one is following the usual pattern. That is it is being totally manipulated by Western Intelligence and the Mainstream Media, which is mostly an organ of propaganda and mind control.
It is not difficult to set up a few blogs on the Internet, get on to Twitter and other sites, set yourself up as a freedom fighter and provoke a revolution. As a German minister once said: “Intelligence work is 95 per cent deception”. The students in Iran are ripe for more freedoms and easy to manipulate, just like the Hungarians were in 1956, the Ukrainians, Georgians and others more recently. The poor however, are not.
There is no evidence of serious voting fraud and polls conducted before the election showed the President would win easily.
In my view we in the West should not be diverted by these events and first of all sort out our own corrupt system that favours certain elitist groups that control banking and the media. It is however an interesting exercise in studying how easy it is to manipulate the masses. Luckily it appears as if they are slowly waking up to this hypnosis.
And, as I say to my students: “If you do not question that which you know you will never know anything”.
Thank you Alan, I very much enjoyed reading that… And I love that sentence you say to your students that you finished up with, very good indeed.
Thanks again, A.