Stories about Thinking Politically.
Spartacus was a 1960 Hollywood film based on a book written secretly by the blacklisted novelist Howard Fast, and adapted by the screenplay writer Dalton Trumbo, one of the ‘Hollywood 10’ who were banned for their ‘un-American’ politics. It is a parable of resistance and heroism that speaks unreservedly to our own times.
“ ... because I don’t love the oppressed. I love those whom I love, who are always beautiful and sometimes oppressed, but who always rise up in revolt.”
Israel engages in the kinds of jaw-dropping lies that characterize despotic regimes. It does not deform the truth, it inverts it. It paints a picture that is diametrically opposed to reality. Those of us who have covered the occupied territories have run into Israel’s Alice-in-Wonderland narratives, which we dutifully insert into our stories — required under the rules of American journalism — although we know they are untrue.
Israel has invented an Orwellian lexicon. Children killed by Israelis become children caught in crossfire. The bombing of residential districts, with dozens of dead and wounded, becomes a surgical strike on a bomb-making factory. The destruction of Palestinian homes becomes the demolition of the homes of terrorists.
The Big Lie — Große Lüge — feeds the two reactions Israel seeks to elicit — racism among its supporters and terror among its victims. The Big Lies fosters the myth of a clash of civilizations, a war between democracy, decency and honor on one side and Islamic terrorism, barbarism and medievalism on the other.
One of the reasons for Fanon’s popularity among those who want to decolonise development is that he argued that post-colonial countries should forge their own paths to development rather than attempting to follow already developed countries. “The Third World must not be content to define itself in relation to values which preceded it,” he warned. “On the contrary, the underdeveloped countries must endeavour to focus on their very own values as well as methods and style specific to them.”
Somebody recently asked why the anti-French sentiment was so high in West Africa and in particular in Niger. After all, France is the land of lights and liberties, so why would anyone not like France?
Then in recent days, we heard France’s government claim in the media that France gives out 130,000,000 Euros per year to Niger for help; France is so generous, isn’t it? However, this amount represents about 1/200th of what France has been “taking” home from Niger from uranium only.
Green Social Thought Endorses “Black People’s March” in Washington, D.C. on November 4
