Blood Lust and marketing

I’ve just returned from a weekend conference in Belgrade, hosted by the Radical Party of Serbia. I will write more about this soon, but some very interesting commentary took place, a lot of it focused on the corrupt ICTY — and the continued imprisonment of Dr. Vojislav Seselj. Four years and counting and no trial on the horizon.

Among the participants in the roundtable were Chris Black, Jacques Verges, General Leonid Grigorijevic Ivasov, Mick Collins, and Neil Clark. A judge from the Indian supreme court and two members of the Duma. So, all in all it was a varied and impressive group. I was happy to take part and speak. What struck me, in relation to the above mentioned postings, was the sense everyone had of the pernicious influence of mass media. The endless propaganda that is marketed via news organizations, corporate print media, and Hollywood film. The virtual commodities. Putting aside the deconstructing of film for a moment, I think it wise to examine the extent of the distortions and the magnitude of the machinery. The mechanisms of propaganda…by which I mean the framing and the nuances of message, are truly breathtaking. The ICTY, which is so nakedly illegal and so much the product of US and NATO design, is a great example. Much has been written on this, but it bears remembering. Same for the court in Rwanda, the ICTR. The intention is political and not legal. But the point here is that the coverage of such institutions is really amazing. The bias and slanting of information would make the Nazi propaganda machine proud. Marketing is everywhere. What I wonder is the engine for all this. We all know, or should, the Imperial designs. Beyond that, however, lurks something more disturbing. I have no name for it….but its a kind of primal blood lust.

Countries in the developing world are subjected to military aggression, social aggression, and economic aggression. But even if one gives them everything, they will come back for more. They will return for your soul. General Ivasov called them fascists, and Chris Black used the same term, only with gangster as a prefix. I began to think about the psychic deformities of such people. The individuals at the heart of this war machine. I have yet to arrive at conclusions, except that we are facing an enemy of true barbarism.

This leads me to ponder the commodification of all culture these dark days. Is there something inherently ideological about electronic media, for example? I don’t know. Godard said a close up of a face on a forty foot screen was automatically authoritarian. I suspect that is right. Behind this I try to grapple with Taylor’s and Zimmerman’s observations. How does it all tie together?
I leave it there for now. Jet lag is taking over. Its good to be back however.John Steppling

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You’re currently reading “Blood Lust and marketing,” an entry on Cyrano’s Journal /•\ ||| Placebo ART

Published:: 02.27.07 / 6pm

Category:: TRAVELS IN BOURGIEDOM, HISTORY REVISITED, KULTURATI, DOMINANT IDEOLOGY

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Cyrano’s Journal and its blogs are about clear thinking, the liberating power of truth and the cultivation of the good arts—which requires good artists to begin with. If you’re wondering who the gentleman in the pix is, well, it’s none other than one of the finest cinema and stage actors of the 1940s and 50s, Puerto Rico-born Jose Ferrer, onetime husband of Rosemary Clooney (and therefore uncle to famous George C.). His mug decorates this space because he gave us the definitive Cyrano in his Oscar-winning masterwork, Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). No one has ever topped that performance. He also gave us a terrific Barney Greenwald, defense attorney in The Caine Mutiny, but that’s another story.

johann 02.28.07 / 7pm

John Steepling is quite right about the huge propaganda smoke screen we have going with the so-called International Court, and although that is hardly new, considering our “democratic traditions” that now for easily three decades have consisted more and more of pure manipulation, what is remarkable is the degree of conformity these crooks and murderers still get away with. A critical point that I wish Steepling would address in his future commentary is how on earth we have been able to draw in the Europeans into this corrupt game, and to such an outrageous extent. For isn’t that telling us something, too, about the state of cvonsciousness in Europe? And if the chasm between the masses’s more advanced political awareness in Western Europe, or even the whole European continent, and their leaders’ actual policies, is wider than here, how do they maintain legitimacy? This is something that deserves some attention.

jacopus_H 02.28.07 / 7pm

Althoguh Croatian-born, my family fought on the side of Tito during WW2, and therefore was subject to several attacks by the Nazi-allied forces, the Ustashi, attacks that left almost 4 out of 5 of my relatives dead, killed in the most repulsive manner conceivable, as people on the left were regarded as “traitors” to the New Croatia.

The self-styled “Ustashi fuhrer” - the Croatian Attila the Hun Dr. Ante Pavelic, masterminded a gigantic holocaust, but of course about that nothing is said these days, especially in the Unired States where a whole nation lives in the shadow of an amputated historical memory—what else can you say? Pathetic.

The American people have never been told about such Ustashi specialties as gouging the eyes of men, women and children. All in a day’s work, in support of the Italian and German fascists. During that period, many of these criminals were muslim bosnian, who have a long history of reactionism, and so on, but they become heroes later, “victims” and the Serbians the heavies. This is a lie. The West is cynical because they go after the Serbs because the Serbs had the temerity to maintain a more socialist country. If Serbs had been pro-capitalism, Milosevic would still be sitting at the head of that nation, undisturbed. That’s the truth.
Forgive my English please.

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Blood Lust and marketing

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