Three documentaries and an article have inspired me to write this explanation of my song “The Government Hates” …… in which I compare the freely available life enhancing realities of nature and the terrorising of civilians, indigenous and peasants freely wrought by various Governments...... The deaths of millions upon millions of children have all but been written out of 'history'......ever asked yourself why?
Here's why.I'll tell you why!
The first two documentaries,
Rick Steves' Iran Documentary, And Rageh Omar’s
Inside Iran, took a peek inside Iran.
Rick Steve’s clearly goes for the feel-good factor as he visits various parts of Iran.. He states clearly that his interest is to meet Iranians as people and to see their culture first hand. And he does. And it is clear that the people he met have no interest in war, be it military or economic. He explores the history of Iran, and reveals the longstanding series of ‘interventions’ by British and US Military, and mercenaries to ‘protect valued resources’ …. to keep the oil flowing…. He acknowledges the strong anti-American sentiment visible in Iran. His subjects tell him it is government-government, not people-people. They are of course correct, and Rick stays schtum… interesting.
Rageh Omar opts for less of a tourist brochure, and does more interviews, delving deeper into Iranian perceptions and realities, at least for those in Tehran… he carefully avoids too much detail on the historical stuff that involves the west, and ignores the ancient roots … however he is sympathetic towards the Iranian people.. (well he’d never get anyone to say anything to camera except “FUCK “OFF in Farsi, would he?)
Both portray well the people of Iran as people. Different, with their own problems, their own joys … Do they need another war? Did the Iraqis? And is it Government-Government? Well the next documentary reveals something about this.
In Yer FaceThe third documentary is
Vietnam : American Holocaust, a shocking and deeply disturbing account of the Vietnam War, from well before it was official….. Back to before WWII, the French and Americans were involved in ‘exploiting the natural resources’ of Vietnam. Long story, Old Story. Same old Story.
In the documentary we hear various US presidents lie, publicly, whilst their ‘private’ conversations reveal their planning and execution of the entire project. Their obvious callousness is shocking. Cold, venomous and conceited. As ever those who ‘rule’ “and cry; let loose the dogs of war!” for to do so is the most callous act, the supreme crime, a war of aggression.
And for what?For profits. A Corporation that makes weapons, must make more and more, and develop new weapons, in order the guarantee that the investment made by the shareholders of that corporation will increase in value and deliver an annual or quarterly dividend. A cut of the profits.
Who owns these Corporations? How many of their ex-employees are in Government? How many Former Government Officials are now working for those Corporations?
And of course there’s the protecting of‘ natural resources’ and that vague euphemism, a kind self-important fig leaf of a word, “strategic interest” as well, as a cover-up. A distraction.
Ad in a bit of dehumanisation, the media will comply ….
The documentary says none of this. It doesn’t need to. It’s fucking obvious. Amazing. At last.
PropagandaAnd the article, by George Monbiot,
The Propaganda of the Victor makes up this days exploration.
Truly Great article. Not a word wasted. Sometimes George writes something I really, really get and also am delighted that he’s writing about that particular subject.
His book ‘Captive State’ isone such piece ... it is essential reading for UK citizens, if not all citizens of Industrialised States - and it set me on fire. The combination of info and explanation, narrative and anger, poetry and prose George Monbiot crafts when he's on fire is liberating at it’s best. Captive State is all that. You will read how the UK Government became a business ‘merge and acquisition’ project by business, at the grass roots as much as at National Government level. Great book. I digress. Praise George!
Anyways, his subject for this essay I dig so much is the lands held in trust for the nation by the National Trust ….in particular the lands and Stately house "Stowe Landscape Gardens. I know them well, for I enjoyed the astonishing unearned privilege of attending the school that’s housed there. The gardens (really a landscaped deerpark) were a vast playground of crumbling follies and overgrown lakes, of coverts and laurel brakes in which ruined monuments could, like Mayan temples, be discovered by adventurous boys. Licensed by tolerant teachers, I played swallows and amazons here for five years."
hw writes, and he also reveals the history, which is not the official history (the official history is the National trusts sanitised version, redolent of school tetx books) of their ‘transfer’ from commons to estates. A protracted history. A very violent history. Relatively recent history.
And Monbiot reveals that the writers of that history portrayed themselves as civilised, as the winners. They were the 'winners'. If they consider having all the gold, all the land to themselves, then yes. These self-styled winners forced the peasant people off the land that was commons by ancient right, and by fact of occupation, land upon which they had long subsisted, mostly healthily enough.
Evicted Violently. And when people resisted, the military was called in, and those not murdered were press ganged, or sent to colonies as slaves and prisoners. Those who did not resist were forced into factories, the Industrial Revolution was underway and needed man, woman, and child power. EP Thompson’s, ‘The Making Of The English Working Class’ documents what happened when the weavers and some factory workers resisted.
State espionage, murder, assassinations, smears, agent provocateurs, kangaroo courts ….. All to protect the evolution of the Factory System and the profits and immense wealth and power that accrued.
Only an institutionalised and bred or nurtured hatred can sustain this kind of behaviour, this kind of constant brutality, sheer depravity over such long periods of time. A psychotic hatred, a cold hatred, and controlled hatred. Only that could possibly engage generation after generation after generation of mass-murder most foul. And it is merely bullying. No more banal than that. Not Empire building ... that's a PR job. Merely bullying, with extreme violence...
And that is what the song “The Government Hates” is all about. It’s about those people who take the side of the Institutions that carry out such ‘policies’ as much as the Institutions themselves. Far too many of us succumb to that conditioning..
And only a cold, cold reading of History, or a severely edited one, or one presented as a ‘boys own’ annual special, a ‘costume drama’ … could ever manage to justify these horrors as part and parcel of ‘what makes us(?) Great Britain’ …. as part of human progress!
Since WWII the death rate for civilians/soldiers in ’wars’ is over 90% ‘in favour’ of civilians, ie: more and more civilians and fewer soldiers die. More in favour of soldiers, actually. And this is progress?
I cannot ‘adjust’ to this! I will not adjust to this! I hold those who made the rules for the teachers who taught me such lies responsible for my own lack of knowledge, and for the lack of understanding that pervades this society, that is the product of 'state education' and well, it’s time it was said.
Such lies amount to a crime against all children they are told to. To demand a child treat the victors history as the truth, and to coerce it via schooling and testing, is a psychological crime. It makes all those children accesories after the fact. Legally this is the case, though it has yet to be tested in a court. This must be faced. This must be said. Share these thoughts, my friends, add to them. Be a transmitter.
I will not be not afraid of these cold, callous monsters and their bullying. They are just men. Insecure men. Damaged goods.
I will not be afraid of to unveil those sacred cows such as History, Commemorations, Heroism in service of country. I am freeing my mind and my and heart and I will object, I will disobey in a civil way, whatever way I can.
I free myself and I carve my own values, the ones that meet the needs of a person; values that meet the needs of a natural healthy community, out of the raw ingredients of this rotten culture, and my nature and maybe, just maybe, I’ll be fortunate enough to be one of those who will start the process of building a humane and balanced way of society. Whatever it may look like, it will feel centered, it will be a place for all children for all time. That is the destination. Nothing esle.
This may well be discussed here and there, with a little bit of action here and there and for sure millions upon millions do sincerely, billions I would say, want this is happen…. But it isn’t really started yet, not in the UK, not in Europe….. We’re behind the curve on this one, It’s almost as if we just don’t quite get it yet?
How long will those at the harsh end of the history that George W Bush and Anthony Blair wrote have to wait for justice and honesty, truth and reparation?
Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, the People of Tibet, the San People of the Kalahari, The villagers of the Congo, How long?
Who is next on the hit list?The Government hates …people thinking these kinds of thoughts, and fears people with these thoughts might act upon them. The orchestrate, with business, the means to demonise the very possibility of these thoughts. That’s the function of the war on terror at home. Shut up!
The ‘Government’ shouldn’t be frightened. They should be proud we hold these thoughts and they should look to us for resolution. We mean them no harm. We want the wars and the greed driven stupidity to cease.
It’s not rocket science.
And it should not be taboo.
