Public Good in Canada

In a recent article in the Vancouver based ezine The Tyee, the reporter compared the demonizing of dissent and indigenous activism in Canada to that of Peru. In his recent commentary on the psychological warfare waged by the Government of Canada and Canadian oil companies against Canada's First Nations, Public Good correspondent Ahniwanika (John Schertow), a Mohawk journalist based in Winnipeg, interviewed Public Good's Jay Taber about the mechanics and perils of demonizing indigenous and other environmental activists.

On Thursday January 26, 7-8 a.m., Ahni will be interviewed on Vancouver Co-op Radio W2's program Morning Project.

Without a Second Thought

Canada's Oil Tar Sands mining in northern Alberta is one of the world's largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, and one of the dirtiest polluters of waterways on the planet. As a result of the Canadian Tar Sands, Cree communities on the Athabascan River have been devastated by disease.

Knowing all this, one is hard pressed to comprehend how the oil companies in Canada actually believed their television ad Ethical Oil could succeed in duping American liberals into believing the Tar Sands nightmare equates to a human rights initiative. Then again, it wasn't all that long ago that a candidate for US President ran on a platform of hope and change that had liberals swooning.

I could come up with other examples of phony PR campaigns that hoodwinked liberals into supporting such frauds as the wars on Iraq, but I think you get my point. No matter how fraudulent, immoral, or simple minded, Madison Avenue has the upper hand when it comes to baffling liberals. All they have to do is invoke saving the panda, children, women or whales, and liberals will fall all over themselves to support warmongers and planet destroyers without a second thought.

The interesting thing about manipulating consumerism and human behavior today is that not only can populations be so easily persuaded to buy what they don't need as well as refrain from opposing war and other acts of aggression, but also to be complacent about the corruption of governance. While intellectuals may be amused by the pedantry of propaganda like Ethical Oil or Clean Coal, humanists who find expression of their values in consumerist behavior like shopping or voting are remarkably easily manipulated by emotions that appeal to their sense of morality.

Where they were once content to be mindless consumers of tangible products, in their advanced liberal imbecility they now demand to feel good about themselves and their purchases, happily congratulating themselves on their politically correct idiocy retooled by Madison Avenue into morality. No matter how patently absurd, if it feeds into their fantasy of painless piety, they'll buy it hook, line and sinker.

Bigots and Gangsters

In his informative article on the bigotry of Ron Paul, Frederick Clarkson illustrates the political illiteracy of Americans and the perils of piety. As Americans leave the two major political parties in droves, bigots like Paul are forgiven their misanthropic prejudice toward gays and blacks, as long as they oppose the war-mongering and hippie-bashing by Democrats and Republicans. Given these limited choices, is it any surprise the United States is following in the footsteps of its once archenemy the Soviet Union? After all, what could be more anti-democratic and inhumane than gangster capitalism?

Noise

In the 1971 book Crimes of War, Robert Jay Lifton described theatrical militarism as the inevitable conclusion of US dominance. Looking at the role militarism plays in today's media, it's not surprising that mainstream news is mostly noise generated to drown out other points of view.

As Lifton explained, the collective psychic trauma and delusions of dominant society are fostered by prior atrocities (the most egregious of which were perpetrated against indigenous peoples). Violently defended illusions of benevolence and an inability to come to terms with either defeat or loss of status are symptoms of this psychosis.

With the end of the American Dream, the indistinguishable corporate media and government propaganda respond by not only distorting the news, but by literally searching out and destroying all dissenting perspectives.

Village Voice Villainy

When our friends at Prostitution Research and Education took on Craigslist a year ago for aiding and abetting the trafficking of women and children in the sex industry, we wholeheartedly endorsed their efforts. Now that they are taking on Village Voice Media -- owners of the Seattle Weekly, San Francisco Weekly and LA Weekly -- for profiting from the same crime against humanity, we once again applaud their efforts at abolishing this modern form of slavery.

Reading Village Voice Media's lame responses, which range from everybody else is doing it to we only support trafficking of women 18 and older, we are left wondering where they got their PR people--let alone their moral values.

FBI Fantasy

In The Revealer on Monday, Nora Connor discussed the anti-Islamic bias taught at the FBI academy in Quantico. As part of the curriculum, fostering ignorance and bigotry in America's top law enforcement institution raises serious questions. One question is how effective they can be after being indoctrinated to ignore reality while pursuing fantasy. As I note in the comments section, that hasn't worked so well in the past.

De-funding Globalization

Reading through Bay Area coverage of the Oakland and San Francisco police clashes with anti-globalization protestors this week, I came across a useful suggestion in the Bay Guardian: transfer your funds from bailout bank accounts to credit unions. While this may be nothing new to pro-democracy advocates, it seems the time is right for the millions of us made homeless or jobless since 2008 to begin putting our money where our mouth is.

With direct deposit and online banking available no matter where you put your money, there's simply no reason to keep supporting Wall Street financial institutions.