Stanfords Finest

So we must be at war then. Leaving for Ningbo last week I managed to catch a quick glimpse of everybody’s favourite soaraway TV station, Sky News. As well as being a rightwing propaganda machine and the UK’s very own Fox News, Sky News is also appallingly produced with a seemingly endless supply of Breaking News which on more than one occasion has proven to be false. I am particularly fond of the ticker tape that runs across the bottom of the screen with bite size news summaries for those high powered execs that are too busy to spend more than 36 seconds to gather important news facts before spending 23 hours in the office screwing down 3^rd world nations.

So, scrolling along the bottom of the screen as I was just heading out was the news that, and I quote, ‘’CHINA IS ONE OF THE WORLDS BIGGEST POLLUTERS…CHINA PRODUCES TWO POWER STATIONS A WEEK’’. Great stuff and sure to get the Daily Mail reads choking on their Cornflakes when they see that gem of a ‘fact’ in the breakfast news. Chip, chip, chip away at a reputation with misinformation and distorted half truths is the order from Murdoch and the media machine in the UK. Is it lazy journalism or cynical propaganda or am I being too sensitive for wanting less hyperbole and more balanced reportage? Do you see how the machine works? Our average scumbag Sky viewer (yes anybody relying on Sky for news is a scumbag) will see the ticker at the bottom, regurgitate AS FACT to fellow workmates and friends and the strengthening of certain feelings of mistrust and suspicions of the New China is achieved. The reason Sky, ergo News International, ergo Murdoch, ergo the establishment, promote such propaganda is clear; the west, rightfully, is scared. The rise of China is an invigorating yet nerve wrecking prospect for the entire world. A nation that has largely isolated itself for 4000 years has decided it wants to be part of the world instead of passively allowing civilisation to evolve around it. If China achieves its goals it will be the most powerful nation in the world. The west needs to build in contingencies NOW in the event that there is a power struggle further down the line. If China, and to a lesser extent, India, expands then Europe will contract. Civilisation began in the near east and it is there it will return. The UK, and to a much lesser extent Europe and the west, is in a state of decline. Nationhood is cyclic as are regional power bases. Those that pull the strings know this and in preparation for conflict the UK readies the propaganda machine.

We are all subjected to half-truths and lies throughout each day but we must choose what to believe and what is BS. Alas, the vast majority of people do not have the luxury of such a cynical disposition as I and therefore cannot detect it BS. Being cynical can sometimes be a crippling affliction but it can also be a blessing and a barrier protecting people from losing their minds. Instead of dumbly nodding at every lie thrust at us we should question it. Just as in handbag design, Why, why, why is something designed the way it, why, why, why is something fact just because you say it is? Let us see how much of a lie Sky’s ‘News’ was:

’CHINA IS ONE OF THE WORLDS BIGGEST POLLUTERS’…Is it? Why? What is being measured to come up with such a sweeping statement? Carbon emissions? Greenhouse gasses? What? These days we need to be more precise. Chinese people have a carbon footprint 8 times smaller than those in the west. FACT. But they are the ‘’WORLDS BIGGEST POLLUTERS’’. Funny eh? The west has polluting and developing since the Industrial revolution yet modern China has been doing the same for the last 20 years? So all the poison in the earth must now be a collective responsibility even though China has just walked through the door and sat down at a party first held 4oo years ago. The west is saying that we all should slow down and be more responsible at EXACTLY the same time as the east suddenly threatens to pull power away from Europe. Well, what a coincidence. In other words let’s keep the status quo just as it is OR WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE. So, back to my point ‘CHINA IS ONE OF THE WORLDS BIGGETS POLLUTERS’ is a distorted half-truth (not even half actually) and not news but rather propaganda. Sounds crazy but I’d love to know what else it could be called. You certainly couldn’t call it news.

CHINA BUILDS TWO POWER STATIONS A WEEK…That gets the teeth chattering eh? TWO? A week? Holy smokes. They must need the power stations for housing billions of people that double in size everyday…they must need the power for new super weapons and technology that they will use when they rule THE WORLD…It’s a very emotive statement and again isolated will imply one thing when the facts are different. Firstly this is a snapshot rate. It hasn’t been doing this for years; it is a new phenomenon that will slow in a few years time. Secondly the size of the power stations is neglected in such emotive isolationist simplicity. Thirdly, the reason this is a distortion is the best one…CHINA NEEDS POWER FOR FACTORIES THAT MAKE THINGS FOR THE WEST. Take the iPod. It is put together in China and sold to the west. The West wants to use slave labour and doesn’t want to dirty and pollute their countries so it’s dumped in China. China, still underdeveloped, gratefully accepts and then the West points the finger at China for ‘using slave labour’ and ‘polluting the world’. And repeat for 99% of other major western companies from car makers to supermarkets. I believe its called hypocrisy. This hypocrisy is being feed to Sky News viewers, the dumbest of the dumb. It’s a dangerous combination.

It is a depressing world we live in and I am not an apologist for the Chinese but I say as I see. The sad fact of the matter is that the Chinese are also subjected to an even more unrelenting and unsubtle propaganda machine but the difference is that they know no better – we, the west, believe that we have a different system but we do not – just different strengths of the same lies and propaganda machines. To believe anything else is ludicrous.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 5:22 pm and is filed under blah blah blah. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.