Come on folks... we all know that our society is one of marketing ideas in any manner that will gain popular support. The very fact that people have to "sell" their ideas to the public displays the strength of our democracy and popular control of the political process that is "of the people".
Spinmeisters can twist our opinions, tell us half-truths, appeal to our patriotism or our sense of right and wrong, but I have quite a bit of faith that you can't fool all the people all the time.
The US media is configured to sell the news, not report it. But it is also a reflection of our society in that we expect the news to be interesting and dramatic, which most real important news isn't.
The Balkan problem never captured the American people's until there were scenes of refugee camps and ethic cleansing, mixed with the rhetoric of Hitlerian genocide being revisited.
And the reason that the Balkans crisis is "sold" as a humanitarian disaster and Milosevic being a new Hitler, is that the general public doesn't care that Milo's policy of aggressive nationalism in order to maintain his power was a major threat to NATO. They wouldn't understand how the balance of power in the region was crucial to maintaining peace and stability in NATO between the Greeks and Turks and that Moscow and Bejing were indirectly encouraging Milosevic to be a thorn in Europe's side.
No... the American people don't see that as being particularly interesting or newsworthy. But seeing hundreds of thousands of people displaced, with many abused or murdered, is captivating and tear-wrenching.
In a similar fashion the American people didn't see the onset of Hitler in the '30s as a major threat(nor did many in Europe). No nation's population was willing to sacrifice economically or politically to take a hardline stance against Hitler's agression until it was too late and war was thrust upon Europe. What would have been required with Milosevic?? An invasion of Albania? Annexation of Macedonia???
The only way that Milo can stay in power is to continue to inflame Serb nationalism and brainwash them with the fear of how all of their neighboring countries are plotting to destroy them. That kind of manipulation requires greater and greater amounts of fear-mongering in order to provide the rally the popular support for his regime. He would require greater and more profound national crises in order to galvanize political loyalty.
So we have to ask where his manipulations would have ended?? What would he have done for his next act in order to continue to distract his people from the nightmarish economic conditions and corruption his policies have created??
That is one of the reasons that Milosevic had to have his bluff called. And when the Serbian people reflect upon this, they will likely realize that the Montenegran Serbs were right for opposing Milosevic.
Regards,
Ron |
