In liberal Democracies – my state, your state, whichever state – the problem with state propaganda about this, that or the other issue is that those of us who know better are so few. The state, on the other hand, is all-powerful and it is supported by even more powerful agents.
Let me turn that last phrase around: The state is to a large extent the agent of large corporations and big finance, not officially, of course. The meetings of the Bilderberg Group are not official either, nor were those of the Mont Pelerin Society that preceded it and fathered neoliberalism (market fundamentalism, globalism, etc.)
A great deal could be said about the agenda of these coteries of the rich and powerful and their matrimony with “the State” – basically all states, in the so-called West.
The other day, I read a piece written by a former local politician in Norway:
[What we are seeing is a] power structure in which global capital interests, financial institutions, supranational bodies and technocratic circles set the framework which national authorities and the media propagate. Asset managers and funds with ownership across virtually all sectors of society, key financial hubs, large banks, consulting firms and international institutions constitute what can collectively be described as the global governance complex.
In this system, elected representatives at all levels are subjected to intense pressure… [and] begin to represent what comes from above, not what comes from below. Thus, their role shifts from being representatives of the people to being administrators of the interests of the global governance complex.
(AI translation)
Just so! I could not possibly have phrased this more succinctly, and, for the umpteenth time: re-read Orwell‘s 1984. Democracy, I put to you, is just a sham. You and I and all our friends and relatives have no say. Voters can merely decide who will perform the functions of governance, not what sort of governance will be performed.
Meanwhile the propaganda machine, which was once limited to the printed word, now beams its messages through the internet, through Cable TV and through the social media – all of which are part of the “global governance complex”.
So If I tell you that what you have been told about Venezuela is largely, if not altogether, false, you won’t believe me. No mainstream outlet – NY Times, the Guardian, etc. will corroborate what I claim. The same applies to Iran. If Max Blumenthal tells you that the violence perpetrated there is largely the work of people paid by the CIA and Mossad, you won’t have even the slightest chance of believing him, because the propaganda designed to give legitimacy to imminent US aggression against Iran has been overwhelming.
In Norway, where we have a national broadcasting company, and where the population still trusts our authorities because this is still a welfare state, few questions have been asked. We are told that Iran is a monster state that violently suppresses its people. Period. And that is what almost all Norwegians believe without reservations. We were also very much in favour of giving Venezuelans their “freedom”.
After Trump has said that Venezuelans don’t trust Machado, and after Machado has given the shameful prize to Trump, whom Norwegians don’t trust, we are admittedly a little confused. The business of liberty and Democracy is not quite as clear-cut as in Biden’s day. The curtain concealing the heinous operations of the dirty dozen – who have always been cavorting behind the scenes, unbeknownst to us – has been worn thin.
Moreover, Trump has muddied the Ukrainian waters and people are starting to suspect that Ukraine is not quite what it has claimed to be either.
Indeed, now that our most important ally is determined to take Greenland, we are more than confused.
Mind you, I am not saying that China and Russia are more democratic than we are. Certainly not. What I am saying is that they don’t pretend to be. What I am saying is that “Western” so-called liberal Democracy is just a show, a glitzy performance. Behind the scenes, oligarchs have a free rein. In Russia and China, the oligarchs are somewhat reined in. In the West and certainly in Ukraine, the oligarchs basically run the show.