Nov. 12,
2008 (Information Clearing House) -- My first
visit to
Texas was in
1968, on the
fifth
anniversary
of the
assassination
of president
John F
Kennedy in
Dallas. I
drove south,
following
the line of
telegraph
poles to the
small town
of
Midlothian,
where I met
Penn Jones Jr, editor
of the
Midlothian
Mirror.
Except for
his drawl
and fine
boots,
everything
about Penn
was the
antithesis
of the Texas
stereotype.
Having
exposed the
racists of
the John
Birch
Society, his
printing
press had
been
repeatedly
firebombed.
Week after
week, he
painstakingly
assembled
evidence
that all but
demolished
the official
version of
Kennedy's
murder.
This was
journalism
as it had
been before
corporate
journalism
was
invented,
before the
first
schools of
journalism
were set up
and a
mythology of
liberal
neutrality
was spun
around those
whose
"professionalism"
and
"objectivity"
carried an
unspoken
obligation
to ensure
that news
and opinion
were in tune
with an
establishment
consensus,
regardless
of the
truth.
Journalists
such as Penn
Jones,
independent
of vested
power,
indefatigable
and
principled,
often
reflect
ordinary
American
attitudes,
which have
seldom
conformed to
the
stereotypes
promoted by
the
corporate
media on
both sides
of the
Atlantic.
Read
American
Dreams: Lost
and Found by
the masterly
Studs Terkel,
who died the
other day,
or scan the
surveys that
unerringly
attribute
enlightened
views to a
majority who
believe that
"government
should care
for those
who cannot
care for
themselves"
and are
prepared to
pay higher
taxes for
universal
health care,
who support
nuclear
disarmament
and want
their troops
out of other
people's
countries.
Returning to
Texas, I am
struck again
by those so
unlike the
redneck
stereotype,
in spite of
the burden
of a form of
brainwashing
placed on
most
Americans
from a
tender age:
that theirs
is the most
superior
society in
the history
of the
world, and
all means
are
justified,
including
the spilling
of copious
blood, in
maintaining
that
superiority.
That is the
subtext of
Barack
Obama's
"oratory".
He says he
wants to
build up US
military
power; and
he threatens
to ignite a
new war in
Pakistan,
killing yet
more
brown-skinned
people. That
will bring
tears, too.
Unlike those
on election
night, these
other tears
will be
unseen in
Chicago and
London. This
is not to
doubt the
sincerity of
much of the
response to
Obama's
election,
which
happened not
because of
the unction
that has
passed for
news
reporting
from America
since 4
November
(e.g.
"liberal
Americans
smiled and
the world
smiled with
them") but
for the same
reasons that
millions of
angry emails
were sent to
the White
House and
Congress
when the
"bailout" of
Wall Street
was
revealed,
and because
most
Americans
are fed up
with war.
Two years
ago, this
anti-war
vote
installed a
Democratic
majority in
Congress,
only to
watch the
Democrats
hand over
more money
to George W
Bush to
continue his
blood fest.
For his
part, the
"anti-war"
Obama never
said the
illegal
invasion of
Iraq was
wrong,
merely that
it was a
"mistake".
Thereafter,
he voted in
to give Bush
what he
wanted. Yes,
Obama's
election is
historic, a
symbol of
great change
to many. But
it is
equally true
that the
American
elite has
grown adept
at using the
black middle
and
management
class. The
courageous
Martin
Luther King
recognised
this when he
linked the
human rights
of black
Americans
with the
human rights
of the
Vietnamese,
then being
slaughtered
by a liberal
Democratic
administration.
And he was
shot. In
striking
contrast, a
young black
major
serving in
Vietnam,
Colin
Powell, was
used to
"investigate"
and
whitewash
the infamous
My Lai
massacre. As
Bush's
secretary of
state,
Powell was
often
described as
a "liberal"
and was
considered
ideal to lie
to the
United
Nations
about Iraq's
non-existent
weapons of
mass
destruction.
Condaleezza
Rice, lauded
as a
successful
black woman,
has worked
assiduously
to deny the
Palestinians
justice.
Obama's
first two
crucial
appointments
represent a
denial of
the wishes
of his
supporters
on the
principal
issues on
which they
voted. The
vice-president-elect,
Joe Biden,
is a proud
warmaker and
Zionist.
Rahm
Emanuel, who
is to be the
all-important
White House
chief of
staff, is a
fervent "neoliberal"
devoted to
the doctrine
that led to
the present
economic
collapse and
impoverishment
of millions.
He is also
an
"Israel-first"
Zionist who
served in
the Israeli
army and
opposes
meaningful
justice for
the
Palestinians
– an
injustice
that is at
the root of
Muslim
people's
loathing of
the United
States and
the spawning
of jihadism.
No serious
scrutiny of
this is
permitted
within the
histrionics
of
Obamamania,
just as no
serious
scrutiny of
the betrayal
of the
majority of
black South
Africans was
permitted
within the
"Mandela
moment".
This is
especially
marked in
Britain,
where
America's
divine right
to "lead" is
important to
elite
British
interests.
The once
respected
Observer
newspaper,
which
supported
Bush's war
in Iraq,
echoing his
fabricated
evidence,
now
announces,
without
evidence,
that
"America has
restored the
world's
faith in its
ideals".
These
"ideals",
which Obama
will swear
to uphold,
have
overseen,
since 1945,
the
destruction
of 50
governments,
including
democracies,
and 30
popular
liberation
movements,
causing the
deaths of
countless
men, women
and
children.
None of this
was uttered
during the
election
campaign.
Had it been
allowed,
there might
even have
been
recognition
that
liberalism
as a narrow,
supremely
arrogant,
war-making
ideology is
destroying
liberalism
as a
reality.
Prior to
Blair's
criminal
warmaking,
ideology was
denied by
him and his
media
mystics.
"Blair can
be a beacon
to the
world,"
declared the
Guardian in
1997. "[He
is] turning
leadership
into an art
form."
Today,
merely
insert
"Obama." As
for historic
moments,
there is
another that
has gone
unreported
but is well
under way –
liberal
democracy's
shift
towards a
corporate
dictatorship,
managed by
people
regardless
of
ethnicity,
with the
media as its
clichéd
façade.
"True
democracy,"
wrote Penn
Jones Jr,
the Texas
truth-teller,
"is constant
vigilance:
not thinking
the way
you're meant
to think and
keeping your
eyes wide
open at all
times."
www.johnpilger.com