The Metropolis

Unsocial net: Here’s a resolution for 2011—talk to people in person

Cila Warncke | Thursday 2 December, 2010 22:16

This may be my favourite news story of the year, and it is a perfect object lesson as we approach the end of 2010. According to the New York Times (22 Nov, 2010) there has been a setback in Afghanistan: NATO and Afghan leaders spent “a lot of money” bribing Taliban second-in-command Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour to join negotiations.

After several meetings, including one with the Afghan president, the supposed Taliban man vanished with the money, leaving a bunch of suckered diplomats scratching their heads.

Seems the missing man may be “a freelance fraud,” a Taliban plant or a Pakistani agent.

Whoever he is, he isn’t Mullah Mansour.

Though this tale of the absurd is instructive on several levels, let’s focus on the principle moral of the story: Trust no one; especially not the government or the media. You don’t have believe that those in power are liars and profiteers, and that the media is pure corporate propaganda, but you’d best believe they know very little, and what they do know is generally being used to no good end.

Their superior knowledge, insofar as they have any, is the result of wealth and power not—as they like to suppose—of inherent superiority. The institutions that run our state, and all states, are exactly the same: made up, for the most part, of fallible, venal, halfbright opportunists, with the odd idealist and the very occasional genius leavening the loaf. In short, exactly like the general population, only more privileged.

The dumbest thing anyone can do in the era of Rupert Murdoch, Twitter, the LibCons, Brangelina, Royal Weddings and Strictly Come Dancing is take anything on faith. Leaders aren’t honest just because you elected them. The paper you buy isn’t accurate because it tells you what you want to hear. If, like most people—myself included— you buy newspapers or magazines, or watch TV shows, or listen to radio programmes, because they dish up politics that suit your palate, beware. The media does not exist to serve, enlighten or inform you. It exists to sell. Ask yourself: what is it they want me to believe?

Of course, it is easier to not think, to merely skim headlines, to store up bits of news you can regurgitate later and congratulate yourself on being an informed citizen.
Why worry about the abrogation of civil liberties and human rights when “there’s nothing I can do about it”? Why discuss politics when everyone else is debating the X-Factor? Why read when you can channel surf? Why encounter other humans face-to-face when you can update Facebook? No reason at all, except… if you always choose the path of least resistance you will lose the ability to resist.

As you face a new year, remember, the principle aim of power is self-perpetuation. Don’t blindly respect politicians – hold them to a higher standard because they presume to lead. Don’t believe all you read or see; examine, analyse, argue, renounce. Question everything, especially authority. I leave you for 2010 with a favourite quote:

“To abdicate one’s own moral understanding, to tolerate crimes against humanity, to leave everything to someone else… is the only irresponsibility.” – Germaine Greer

irresponsibility.wordpress.com

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