We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, March 30, 2013

WAR Danger in Korea: Pentagon’s False Propaganda Conceals Truth about Crisis

Click here to access article by Brian Becker from The 4th Media.

This is an excellent report on the current provocations against North Korea promulgated by US authorities. By comparing this report with the typical coverage in US mainstream media (see this, this, and this) regarding the military crisis, you will find that the latter coverage provides a perfect illustration of US corporate media as an indoctrination instrument of the Pentagon and the ruling class.

In mainstream coverage, especially on TV, they rarely go beyond such typical statements as the following:
  • North Korea is entering a "state of war" with South Korea, its state-run news service reports, further escalating the rhetoric against its southern neighbor and the United States.
  • "I think the real concern is not so much that they're going to aim a missile at Waikiki in Hawaii, but rather there is going to be some miscalculation on the Korean peninsula or just off shore from the Korean peninsula," said [Christopher Hill, a former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea].
  • North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's latest threat to "settle accounts with the U.S." -- while displaying a "strike plan" that shows missiles tracking toward American cities -- was widely seen as another example of the young leader's erratic bluster.