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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Condor who wrote (6708)	10/22/2001 10:30:37 AM
From: FaultLine	Respond to of 281500

uw, Condor, "CNN's Tailwind latest in series of media embarrassments" "CNN retracts Tailwind" nice digging --k

To: Condor who wrote (6708)	10/22/2001 5:11:39 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

<Unfortunately, retractions are cheap. The perpetrator has still won by enjoying the initial sensationalism as it translates into viewers/readers.> A very hollow victory. A reputation is hard won and easily lost. It isn't in the interests of news media to be turned into a joke information source. Time Magazine years ago did a major cover story on young male prostitutes in Moscow. To me it seemed absurd as soon as I saw it. Some things just don't make sense in the way humans function. Anyway, a few weeks later [or months maybe], they admitted that they had been conned. They had pictures of a boy dressed up as a girl as 'evidence'. The pictures were really funny and obviously a gag. They were easily conned because their bias was that Moscow was a sea of evil so they were biased to accept almost anything as being true. It's a bit like the current rabid attitude to Osama and the Taleban etc. Sucker news media and public will believe any absurdity because they have not got solid frames of reference. Major cognitive dissonance is endemic; more so than anthrax. With WTC gone and anthrax on the rampage, anything is seemingly possible; the world doesn't match how we thought it was. We should keep in mind that there were a couple of dozen superstitious violent guys with boxcutters who struck it lucky. Some similarly nasty people have decided to post anthrax bugs around the place [I wonder if they remembered not to lick the envelopes shut ... force of habit can lead to silly mistakes like that]. In Afghanistan, some opportunistic religious wackoes took over as alpha males and put paid to anyone who opposed them [including historic rock carvings of Buddha or some Buddhist icon]. They ganged up with Osama who was financed with oil money which mostly comes from the USA. The terrorist training manuals are a joke. Sure, they have some enthusiastic followers who can do some damage, but not really very much. They've had their success. Now they are getting their failure. On a historic basis and in perspective, it's not a very big deal for all of humanity. As always, the tragedy is total for those affected and their families, but the rest of humanity cleans up and flows around the disruption. The implications of Pearl Harbour were extremely serious by comparison. Think of the USA civil war. But where it's all leading is a big deal. The big news is simmering and people aren't really aware of it. But it's coming and it's a lot bigger than these Dawn of Man caricatures currently filling the media. Ironically, most people will find themselves on the side of Osama bin Laden, Ted Kaczynski, Tim McVeigh and the anti-globalisation Luddite mob. They just don't know it yet. By the time they wake up, we'll have them cornered. In fact, they are already cornered and being whittled away right now. They are as cornered as Osama. Hiding in a cave or mountain hideout like Ted Kaczynski, lashing out at the world, wanting to escape, but nowhere to run to and dependent on the very things they want to oppose. That applies to a lot of people, in their apartment and cubicle [think of the guy smashing his computer in his cubicle - a very funny video clip and one most of us have some sympathy with]. Watching that Taleban guy on TV, dirty, grunting angrily, scowling, bearded and hairy, squatting amongst the rocks, reminded me strongly [having just seen it again] of nothing so much as the introductory scenes of 2001 A Space Odyssey in which the proto humans fight over food and ends with one of them figuring out to smash things with a bone, ending with a spaceship on a mission. Here and now, in real life, we have precisely that scene, but without the time separation of the protohumans and the all mod-cons version. The Taleban proto-human scowls from the rocks and USS Enterprise sending planes and self-guiding missiles with space ships circling overhead. Incidentally, the international space ship is coming along well. It watches and waits. Mqurice