The question in my mind is if the guy really believes that or if it is just propaganda written in service of his paymasters. I think it just cynical propaganda.

Posted by: Joseph | Mar 26 2011 18:24 utc | 3

@Ben, and they appear to be accomplishing it. It seems a majority of our TV informed citizens have internalized their message. They never drum into the public that the CIA and our government is the reason for Iranian hatred of us. I recall one apology, for the coup that led to 26 years of the Shah, then it was back to non stop threats.

Posted by: par4 | Mar 26 2011 21:48 utc | 5

@ 6: In that context, yep!

Posted by: Ben | Mar 27 2011 4:16 utc | 7

@ JohnH it seems you are a lot more tolerant of bourgois self deception than I. I have spent some time analysing the look almost a glare that the tertiary educated upper middle classes have perfected for responding to ‘uncomfortable issues’ such as their belief in an adminsitration which perpetrates human misery on a grand scale – eg oblamblam’s criminal regime.
Theirs is not a look of stunned ignorance, it is most often an angry chiding remonstrance, directed at the person who is attempting to rouse them from their reverie. A “How dare you try to push me out of my cushy little comfort zone” sort of a look. Deep down they know exactly what is going on but like so many of the social contracts the bourgois make with themselves (eg pay your bills on time no matter how unreasonable they may seem to be and then an expectation that others including those who are struggling to survive, must pay their bills to you can easily be constructed, without a second thought) This self delusion – ‘that it is really all for the best’ (see jdmackay posts) obviates any of the questioning which could make their extremely comfortable lives, less comfortable.
There is a simple to test to this.
While character /personality does have some impact on a person’s economic status during an ‘economic meltdown’ there are many citizens who were steadfast true believers but through no fault of their own have lost their careers in once high paying industries and are now forced to work in jobs such as teaching which just don’t provide the lifestyle many of their peers who chose other professional occupations still enjoy.
Think of your friends family and aquaintances and poll them in yer minds eye.
Those who are still riding the crest of the bourgeois’ lifestyle will be about twice as likely to still subscribe to the shared delusion, than those who have been cast adrift by the export of employment.
Sure – some of that difference is because of the questioning of society that having a dream founder will engender, but much of it is because those who are doing OK don’t want anyone, no matter how close they may have been to them, creating doubt in their minds & thereby endangering their elaborate playing card castle.
This is why the elite recognises the inherent danger of an economic depression, why they have renamed it the global meltdown to try and keep fooling some of the people some of the time. There is a very fine line they are steering the rest of us down, whereby they maximise the wealth and power they accrue, but not so hard and fast too many peeps get stirred up at once.
The elites, ptb, usual suspects, call em what you like; they know that humans believe what it is convenient for them to believe.
For example most people raised in an xtian society who have a bent for superstition will become xtian, just as most superstitious people in an islamic society will become muslim, but this applies to those superstitious souls who weren’t raised within their national superstition equally as well as those indoctrinated from birth.
In the main they believe what is easiest, and most socially acceptable to believe.
So we get to witness our friends and family who once, when we were all young, stood shoulder to shoulder with us against imperialist wars, now making lame excuses for murder. You may feel angry towards them, or even feel a little sorry for them, but woe betide if you let that latter emotion show. It could likely cost your friendship because you are threatening their dignity, which in the main is what has driven them for so long. They have ‘arrived’ made it in the dog eat dog world of 21st century western capitalism, in a social structure that is hierachical and extremely status conscious – so your pity patronises them and suggests perhaps they are not ‘king of the world’.
Fuck em all. If there were a revolution tomorrow (yeah I know fat chance) and the proletariat lined them up against the wall, I would shed a tear for my friends who ‘played the game’ but I wouldn’t lift a finger to try to stop it.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Mar 27 2011 7:55 utc | 9

uh. in case it was not clear, purporting to show that the US is the most vibrant, etc.

Posted by: Noirette | Mar 27 2011 15:04 utc | 11

The oil companies were doing just fine with the status quo, thank you.
Indeed, but those were probably the wrong oil companies.

Asian and European oil firms have won most of the contracts on offer at Libya’s second open licence auction.
Five Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi and Nippon Petroleum, were awarded permits to develop oil fields.
Italy’s Eni Gas and British Gas were also successful, with just one US firm, Exxon Mobil, gaining a contract.

Posted by: b | Mar 27 2011 18:15 utc | 13

slothrop, how long has it been since you saw a country wage war because Us oil companies grabbed too many contracts?

Posted by: claudio | Mar 27 2011 23:05 utc | 15