Archive for January, 2006
Censorship, Google, and China
Reporters Without Borders (on 25 January) accused the Internet’s biggest search-engine, Google, of “hypocrisy” for its plan to launch a censured version of its product in China, meaning that the country’s Internet users would only be able to look up material approved of by the government and nothing about Tibet or democracy and human rights [...]
Folksy Propaganda
Here is an excerpt from the US Army’s Psychological Operations Field Manual No. 33-1 Appendix I: PSYOP Techniques; HQ, Department of the Army (31 August 1979): Plain Folks or Common Man: The “plain folks” or “common man” approach attempts to convince the audience that the propagandist’s positions reflect the common sense of the people. It [...]
Wilderness
I have seen attitudes to conservation split into the following categories: The Romantic-Transcendental Conservation Ethic In the mid-nineteenth century Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and John Muir waxed eloquent about the wonders of nature in a mystical, almost religious language. Their writings convinced many of the need to save wild places, regardless of whether [...]
Owning the Black Armband
John Howard refuses to say “sorry” to the stolen generation. The British Museum refuses to return the Elgin Marbles. The west may no longer talk of white man’s burden, but there is also little mention of the Opium Wars, or the Rape of Bengal, or the supression of the Mau Mau in Kenya. The Japanese [...]
In: philosophy, society
New Feudalism
The other day I heard a fellow called Thom Hartmann talking on the radio. It was one of those minor relevatory moments where you feel a little foolish for never quite thinking through a thing which is immediately obvious. Not so much the epiphany as the sound of things falling into place. He was talking [...]
