Vive la Résistance

It is now more obvious than ever, that the mainstream media are instrumental in the continued war efforts. Control of the information given, trusted and shared is perhaps the most central pillar legitimizing the US and its ally’s imperial war efforts around the world. This is of course also the case in the Middle East and the current situation with Syria, ISIS and Russia and all the other nations involved.

We are witnessing a historical experiment. The social media are more powerful than ever making them a potential counterforce. I suggest that we use the opportunity to make the best of it. Will the rulers continue to allow us this freedom on the social media? We will see. I tell you that it is an act of resistance every time a person reads and shares critical information against the current efforts led by the United States and their allies and the warmongering propaganda run in the mainstream media. ‘Critical’ meaning true and important.

There is basis for optimism. Going against the mainstream propaganda with critical information should not be so difficult, considering some of the basic facts. Starting with the fact that USA and its allies have bombed hundreds of thousands of innocent people to death in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq began in 2003. With nothing but the most terrible political, societal and humanitarian results. Libya and Iraq are now failed states and extremely terrible places for people and families to live. Shall we wait thirty or forty years until they are functioning as they did even under Saddam Hussein? It is almost unfathomable to understand how many people still see it as a sensible statement, when the President of United State declares, that another war effort will help restore Peace and Democracy and keep us safe.

In fact, such obvious propaganda for war by the President of the most powerful, but do not forget also corrupt, democracy must also be an advantage, when it comes to resisting. Such claims by the President of the United States and other politicians are obviously so totally false and laughable, that one can simply repeat them in speech or on paper in order to use them for ridicule. We need to face that we live in an absurd reality on a scale comparable to North Korea and the political reality, which the Italian and the German people experienced in the nineteen thirties. Resisting ‘peace and democracy’ as an argument for invading and killing another ten if not hundreds of thousands innocent people in yet another country must be the main priority for any decent citizen of the West today.

Nietzsche argued that laughter kills. People everywhere should engage diligently and intelligently in finding stuff to ridicule and kill war arguments. Let us do our best. Truth and laughter shall be our weapons. Again, this will easily find safe ground within our political elites. Let us only mention the English Prime Minister David Cameron and wait with the French President Hollande and others. It is impossible to have even the slightest form of respect for this man in the highest office, who so easily and without showing the smallest sign of conscience or self-irony in only two years can go from being determined to bomb the Syrians to being just as determined that bombing Isis is now the only right thing to do.

He is clearly not thinking about the catastrophic consequences of war the past many years. Nor is he thinking the slightest about the hundred thousands of innocent dead civilians and all the many, many more hundreds of thousands of innocent people, who have had their and their children’s lives and even their children’s future ruined. How terrible is this? Cameron and other politicians just want us to go on. How idiotic is this? The English PM changes his mind about where to bomb as easy as people change their mind about favorite restaurants. In fact he seem to be a living example of the perfect politician described in Michel Houellebecq’s novel “Submission”, a man who has never had one single thought of his own. In addition, this is even a rather sympathetic thing to say about Cameron, when you think about it. John Pilger, who have investigated political leaders and the consequences of their actions for decades, questioned recently whether we could consider Cameron a human being.

Add to this, what every sane person can say to himself, that more war in the Middle East is not a solution for people living there. Think of the terror attack in Paris and imagine families living in such a hell on a daily basis. They, like us, need peace. Moreover, more war will only make the risk of terror in America and Europe rise steadily if not significantly. If we do not stop, we will experience more, probably much bigger, and more serious terror attacks than the one in Paris recently. At some point in time, the real war might come home to you and me. To our homeland. Perhaps this is what CIA’s cultural propaganda have been preparing. As it once made us understand the necessity and sanity of their torture programs well supported by American psychologists.

Let us say enough! No more war on my behalf. Let us systematically enlighten and laugh at our politicians and their ridiculous newspeak on a grand scale. In solidarity with the innocent children, families and people in the Middle East. Millions have showed their solidarity with the French people on the social media. Now is the time to show our solidarity with the innocent people in the Middle East. Let us kill the demagogy trying to legitimize yet more bombings of thousand, ten thousand or hundred thousands of innocent people. At least let us do our best and work together to end our brainless wars. Let thousands of people on Facebook and other social media make intelligent statements and banners similar to the statements and banners after Charlie Hebdo and the recent attack in Paris. Let us all share them on a scale so large that our media and our politicians cannot afford to ignore it.

Some will say that this is of little consequence. That it is too easy and as useless as ‘liking’ a picture on Facebook. Let us prove them wrong. We know from the totalitarian societies, that the small steps by ordinary people add up and end legitimizing the cruelest actions on a large scale. Let us show ourselves, the world and not least, the innocent people in The Middle East, that we are many, many, and many more people in the western world who think about them. That we do not want our governments to bomb them anymore. Let us begin to change our mind first by replacing our media’s planted images of Muslim terrorists with images of small Muslim children living in the hell that war and bombs are. This is no doubt a good cause. No matter what the corporate media and governments will try to tell us.

Lars Jørgensen is a sociologist and lecturer living in Varde, Denmark.