Editorials—
Gaither Stewart in Rome
Russia FM Lavrov and Kerry looking dour after US “constructive ideas” were rejected. As they should have been.
“When it comes to propaganda the American system is second to none. It is the most insidious mind control system ever devised. The American brand of brainwash is not part of the old authoritarian ideology, whether emanating from some theological source (such as the absolutism of Pharaohs or medieval kings) or overtly political, as is the case with Hitler and other modern dictators. The beauty, effectiveness, and resilience of the US propaganda system resides in its pervasiveness and invisibility (given its “invisible” roots in the private ruling class controlled media), and constant but always denied subservience to the state—all of which pretty much guarantees policy outcomes agreeable to the plutocracy.
This is a true, seamless form of totalitarianism from the cradle up. In fact, in the so-called Western democracies the posturings and mouthings of the establishment creatures, from politicos to media prostitutes, are always wrapped in the rhetoric of serving the democratic project, freedom and the rest of that cynical hogwash, a practice initiated in America, where the plutocracy has always wrapped itself carefully in the veneer of “representative” government, the tribute that vice pays to virtue, and which, incidentally shows the fear of the plutocracy of being seen as acting without legitimacy. The latter means that the wall of all-enveloping propaganda is forever an integral part of the American way of government and social control and will never lift until the system itself is finished. The end result is that “deprogramming” an average American is extremely difficult. Even self-defined “lefties”, not to mention the clueless liberaloids, carry enormous amounts of disinformation in their brains, something that acts as a minefield against remedial information. And as is true with all systems of nationalist propaganda that simplify political realities to make it a black & white narrative, “us vs. them”, “good vs. bad,” this narrow propaganda framework’s inherent toxicity winds up dumbing down the population, without counting the ways in which the lies themselves make people even more obtuse when tackling the intricacies of world events.” (Patrice Greanville)
In recent days I have had several demoralizing experiences with articles on leftist web sites as well as with persons dear to me who are victims of the US exceptionalist propaganda as sketched above by Patrice Greanville. Especially on Facebook, where people as a rule express their real beliefs and convictions, I have seen that people are literally starving intellectually.
I recently encountered resistance to my approval that an American drone had been “shot down” over the Crimea. “What? Shoot? Shooting is no answer.” (Actually it was not “shot down”; it was brought down technologically, deleted so speak). How could I describe briefly America’s “shooting down” throughout its violent history since its “discovery and colonization”: shooting down of native Americans, that is the evil Indians, then the shooting down of Mexicans, thus opening the world of the South America of the Monroe Doctrine. Shoot first, occupy and control. In more modern times, shooting by American troops, mercenaries and proxies, followed by occupying and incorporating into the corporate system has followed systematically: Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Panama, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela (yes, the proxies in Venezuela), Grenada, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and in the Orient an endless war against first Vietnam and Laos, then Iran and Indonesia. Then more recently: Yugoslavia, Serbia, Bosnia (Kosovo), Montenegro, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, Egypt, Syria, and now Ukraine. (I have forgotten many others in this trip of American aggression against the world at large.) In any case all reinforced today by the over 1000 US military bases with forces ready to shoot throughout the world . If retaliatory shooting is not the answer, what then is an acceptable answer?
Yesterday I commented on the photo of a Nazi salute by a leader of the West Ukrainian (Nazi-Fascist Svoboda and Right Sector) revolutionaries during his speech to pro-western followers in Kiev. Rigid arm at the proper level, thumb folded under the extended four fingers, a stern look on his face. A Facebook nitpicking enthusiast suspected this was the work of Russian propaganda. In the photo the salute was with the left arm! Clearly it was a reverse photo as when you look at yourself in a mirror. The communist salute—if that was the person’s thought—is in any case a fist.
The implanted implication here is that the Ukraine-Crimea question reflects Russia’s imperialist ambitions. Instead it reflects America’s propagandistically implanted fear of Socialism/Communism. Inculcated from birth into every American. As if contemporary Russia were in any respect Communist. Unfortunately it is not. The implication is the result of the pervasive invisible propaganda. An outright lie. But how to explain that to the ideologically ignorant American of today.
A discussion has been ignited on left sites about an article posted on OpEd News by a certain Brock Novak. Real name? Non de plume? I don’t know. The tenor of the article that snuck onto the leftist OpEd News can be summed up in the words permeating the article: Czar Putin, the Re-Soviet Union II, the Putin strategy to OVA (occupy, vote, acquire) not only former Soviet territories like the sprawling Stans to the east, the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, but also the East Europe satellites, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria. Oh, the thirst of those imperialist Russians!
The real issue is something totally different from US imperialism and Russian resistance to being encircled by American missiles bases. The issue at play here is capitalism. Much of the rest of the world knows that capitalism is kaput, its propulsive thrust run out, finished. As Lenin predicted capitalism has hanged itself. It is already dangling.
One of the reasons for its approaching demise is excess. It has overplayed its hand. An Italian expression sums it up well: Chi troppo vuole, nulla stringe. He who wants too much, gets nothing. And as Alberto Camus commented, “The mind’s first step is to distinguish between what is true from what is false. “The ancient Greeks said that a limit existed and that whoever dared to exceed it was mercilessly struck down.”
The United States of America has long ago exceeded the limit. Today it backed down on The Crimea. Today the US accepted Russia’s conditions on the overall Ukraine issue, claiming, naturally, Russia’s demands as its own. Ukraine will consist of regions with wide-ranging powers which neutralize the capital of Kiev as well as the nation which in effect also remains neutral. Therefore, no NATO bases in Ukraine. No US missiles in Ukraine. The effective borders of the Ukraine are not in the east on Russia’s borders as the US wanted, but in the west on Russia’s borders with Poland. Precisely as Russia wanted. There is no necessity of invading and absorbing Ukraine. Much preferable a Ukraine-cushion state between Russia and the US/US dominated west. In this scenario new national elections will have little effect, at least not in favor of the West. And predictably the radical Nazis-Fascists today in Kiev will be put on the back burner. The Ukraine might sign on for increased trade with the EU but trade with Russia will predominate. Oil is after all oil. Here Russia dictates the conditions.
The reader will excuse a quote from my own novel of over a year ago, Lily Pad Roll, in which a Russian interviewee says: Keep this in mind: in a contest over Ukraine between Russia on the one hand and Europe-USA on the other, Moscow in a fair battle will always win.
Senior Editor Gaither Stewart is also The Greanville Post‘s European correspondent. His latest novel, The Fifth Sun, was just published by Punto Press. Stewart’s Europe Trilogy, of which two volumes have been published to date (also by Punto Press), focus their plots on the web of intrigue and artificial political tension created by Western intelligence services and militaries, in an effort to encircle and cripple Russia. 
