Your post made me think of my brother, once my closest friend growing up (there is only 18 months between us) but now in our dotage we rarely communicate aside from when we are forced to at family get togethers.
Back in the 1970's my brother completed a post graduate qual in 'journalism'. Nowadays it would be called communications or even worse media studies. Soon he was working for the city fishwrap & then the state broadcaster, the latter as a TV journalist.
He was sent to cover many conflicts. From memory his first was Eritrea, he has a yarn about being 'with the troops' as they liberated Samara.
He covered Palestine on many occasions, thankfully conveying what was in those days Aotearoa's national view that the people of Palestine were being oppressed. His other assignments included the slow destruction of Yugoslavia, in particular Bosnia. He made many visits all the way to Kosovo and the war on Serbia a conflict which left him conflicted in that he was upset at the amerikan bombing of Serbian TV, a deliberate act of oppression by amerika (he had appeared to have no opinion on the bombing of the China embassy in Belgrade) probably cos it forced him to confront the reality that should Aotearoa & amerika ever fall out, that he too could become a target of amerikan slaughter.
In general though he seems to support the outlandish claims made by 'the west' against such entities as Arkan's Tigers milit without considering the immense evil wrought by Croatian militias upon women and children of Bosnia, nor the fact that Kosovo had been a part of Serbia for more than 1000 years.
I didn't get it, the man still claimed to be a socialist or a little later that nonentity of an ethos, a social democrat, yet he never seemed to question his role in furthering the interests of the capitalist kabuki of 'the west' aka the amerikan empire's bullshit in support of its neverending wars.
I had returned to Aotearoa in the late 1990's and we had a number of heated debates about this. When Iraq 2 kicked off I thought for a moment that maybe he was beginning to get it. He had quite naturally refused to accept amerika's 'kind offer' to embed himself with the invaders and was going to drive across the border with his camera & sound crew plus a broadcasting network appointed 'handler'. Handlers were usually locals preferably those with journalism experience as well as reasonable english language skills. However this time his bosses had foisted a fellow countryman of my brother's who had little or no Arab language skills. When the morning came for them to drive up to the border of Iraq ready to cross the border into the nation once amerika invaded, this handler announced that he had forgot to pack the body armour all would require to enter a conflict zone and it was likely to take several weeks to shift it all the way to where they were. The bosses brought them all home sans story.
Finally it seemed that the penny had dropped, my brother rightfully recognised this handler as a security services plant tasked with making sure that there would be no 'independent' coverage from our nation.
That was when I also realised that it wasn't any sort of egoism or careerism behind my brother's seeming blindness to the reality of the conflicts he covered, it was simple peer group pressure; that whereas newspaper journalism tends to be a solo gig for the journalist, TV journalism is much more a group based endeavour where one is encouraged to go along to get along. This collaborative nature isn't just confined to the 'cell' of producer, journalist, camera and sound crew, it extends across the entire newsroom where program producers plus presenters, many of whom are not trained journalists call the shots.
Presenters and senior producers are ego-driven careerist types who willingly kowtow to power and the advantages such obeisance brings.
My brother still expounds on the evil that is occupied Palestine, yet he also believes absolutely that 'Putin' is evil in a far worse manner than any amerikan Prez; an odd collection of beliefs which cannot withstand objective scrutiny.
Even though he has been retired for several years he is still incapable of real scrutiny of the empire's deceitful actions.
The saddest part of this is that newer younger journalists are equally incapable of questioning the empire's motives yet are also full of those who display a disgusting refusal to accept indigenous Palestinians' resistance towards the occupation of their nation by zionists. In other words, the empire's soft power is increasing at a time when the safety of this planet requires many more humans to resist this latest, most destructive parade of greed.
We all need to do much more work on the pathways to indoctrination that the current empire utilizes and then develop counters to those blatant brainwashers.
Painful but important reminder of how what we are and do here and now causes this ugly violence. We are what 'the world' has made us and 'the world' is what we have made it. Can we break the link? This may be the most personal and unique responsibility of each one of us. Unfortunately, we usually choose to 'look away' because it is so discomforting.
Just finished this book. Thank you, Chris Hedges. It’s better to go through life knowing than the alternative. I will continue to try to kill people with kindness - and not fool myself as to the enemies of an open and honest society.
PS: Inescapable conclusion – 2020 election was indeed stolen – by Russia-gating FBI. As a direct result of that immense hoax we have US War party’s “unprovoked” tragedy in Ukraine.
You didn't need to tell us your aversion to your war experience after covering it for years; it was written all over your face, and for all to see. Violence is hard to ignore and even harder to get rid of.
Your post made me think of my brother, once my closest friend growing up (there is only 18 months between us) but now in our dotage we rarely communicate aside from when we are forced to at family get togethers.
Back in the 1970's my brother completed a post graduate qual in 'journalism'. Nowadays it would be called communications or even worse media studies. Soon he was working for the city fishwrap & then the state broadcaster, the latter as a TV journalist.
He was sent to cover many conflicts. From memory his first was Eritrea, he has a yarn about being 'with the troops' as they liberated Samara.
He covered Palestine on many occasions, thankfully conveying what was in those days Aotearoa's national view that the people of Palestine were being oppressed. His other assignments included the slow destruction of Yugoslavia, in particular Bosnia. He made many visits all the way to Kosovo and the war on Serbia a conflict which left him conflicted in that he was upset at the amerikan bombing of Serbian TV, a deliberate act of oppression by amerika (he had appeared to have no opinion on the bombing of the China embassy in Belgrade) probably cos it forced him to confront the reality that should Aotearoa & amerika ever fall out, that he too could become a target of amerikan slaughter.
In general though he seems to support the outlandish claims made by 'the west' against such entities as Arkan's Tigers milit without considering the immense evil wrought by Croatian militias upon women and children of Bosnia, nor the fact that Kosovo had been a part of Serbia for more than 1000 years.
I didn't get it, the man still claimed to be a socialist or a little later that nonentity of an ethos, a social democrat, yet he never seemed to question his role in furthering the interests of the capitalist kabuki of 'the west' aka the amerikan empire's bullshit in support of its neverending wars.
I had returned to Aotearoa in the late 1990's and we had a number of heated debates about this. When Iraq 2 kicked off I thought for a moment that maybe he was beginning to get it. He had quite naturally refused to accept amerika's 'kind offer' to embed himself with the invaders and was going to drive across the border with his camera & sound crew plus a broadcasting network appointed 'handler'. Handlers were usually locals preferably those with journalism experience as well as reasonable english language skills. However this time his bosses had foisted a fellow countryman of my brother's who had little or no Arab language skills. When the morning came for them to drive up to the border of Iraq ready to cross the border into the nation once amerika invaded, this handler announced that he had forgot to pack the body armour all would require to enter a conflict zone and it was likely to take several weeks to shift it all the way to where they were. The bosses brought them all home sans story.
Finally it seemed that the penny had dropped, my brother rightfully recognised this handler as a security services plant tasked with making sure that there would be no 'independent' coverage from our nation.
That was when I also realised that it wasn't any sort of egoism or careerism behind my brother's seeming blindness to the reality of the conflicts he covered, it was simple peer group pressure; that whereas newspaper journalism tends to be a solo gig for the journalist, TV journalism is much more a group based endeavour where one is encouraged to go along to get along. This collaborative nature isn't just confined to the 'cell' of producer, journalist, camera and sound crew, it extends across the entire newsroom where program producers plus presenters, many of whom are not trained journalists call the shots.
Presenters and senior producers are ego-driven careerist types who willingly kowtow to power and the advantages such obeisance brings.
My brother still expounds on the evil that is occupied Palestine, yet he also believes absolutely that 'Putin' is evil in a far worse manner than any amerikan Prez; an odd collection of beliefs which cannot withstand objective scrutiny.
Even though he has been retired for several years he is still incapable of real scrutiny of the empire's deceitful actions.
The saddest part of this is that newer younger journalists are equally incapable of questioning the empire's motives yet are also full of those who display a disgusting refusal to accept indigenous Palestinians' resistance towards the occupation of their nation by zionists. In other words, the empire's soft power is increasing at a time when the safety of this planet requires many more humans to resist this latest, most destructive parade of greed.
We all need to do much more work on the pathways to indoctrination that the current empire utilizes and then develop counters to those blatant brainwashers.
Thank you Chris -- where do you find energy for your invaluable efforts - over decades?
Painful but important reminder of how what we are and do here and now causes this ugly violence. We are what 'the world' has made us and 'the world' is what we have made it. Can we break the link? This may be the most personal and unique responsibility of each one of us. Unfortunately, we usually choose to 'look away' because it is so discomforting.
Just finished this book. Thank you, Chris Hedges. It’s better to go through life knowing than the alternative. I will continue to try to kill people with kindness - and not fool myself as to the enemies of an open and honest society.
Thanks – and more: Matt Orfalea’s CENSORED / DELETED videos on YouTube
Democrats' "Stolen" Election Claims | FLASHBACK -- September 29, 2022
https://rumble.com/v1m15p8-democrats-stolen-election-claims-stolen-2016-election.html
"Rigged" Election Claims | Trump 2020 vs Clinton 2016 -- September 29, 2022
https://rumble.com/v1m1364-rigged-election-claims-trump-2020-vs-clinton-2016.html
PS: Inescapable conclusion – 2020 election was indeed stolen – by Russia-gating FBI. As a direct result of that immense hoax we have US War party’s “unprovoked” tragedy in Ukraine.
Stand with Russia – it fights for all of us.
Incredible.
You didn't need to tell us your aversion to your war experience after covering it for years; it was written all over your face, and for all to see. Violence is hard to ignore and even harder to get rid of.
Thank you Chris. I’m certain writing it was much more hellish than listening to it; however, I feel the need for a brain enema immediately.