Thursday, May 19, 2011

Osama's Porn, Obama's Propaganda

As a Watergate era kid, I can remember when we all mistrusted our authorities - those we voted for as well as those we voted against. Civic leaders at the time always urged us to get involved, to be less cynical. And, after a brief few years of blessed skepticism, in 1980 came Ronald Reagan, spawning true believers and true disbelievers (literally) left and right. Since then, lots of folks have "gotten involved", adopting a profoundly uncynical stance toward their side's leaders. So, how's that going for you so far?

We were once perceived to have a political cynicism problem. I think we currently have a political gullibility problem. I preferred cynical America, when left and the right could at least concur in our mistrust of the bums in charge. We viscerally understood that we had more in common with each other than with either ilk of windy demagogue. Indeed, other, hotter conflicts, like Israeli/Palestinian, will only resolve when each side realizes that antagonistic populations have more in common with each other than with their respective showboating leaders.

The latest example of our political gullibility: few 1975 Americans would have taken seriously the news report about a stash of porn found in Osama Bin Laden's compound (what's next, pork chops and Danish cartoons?). I assume that most of the world - with their healthy skepticism toward America's government - saw this as the weakly transparent propaganda it surely was. But I haven't heard anyone here so much as question it.

The gullible want to believe, and so they do. Cynics want to believe, but know better. A bit of cynicism is not a bad thing.
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5 comments:

  1. Ghalib SuleimanMay 19, 2011 at 11:32 PM

    Here's the much more likely scenario: there was porn, but it belonged to one of his staff, not him.

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  2. Jim LeffMay 20, 2011 at 11:39 AM

    Then why announce it?

    Whether or not this was a propaganda-useful lie or a propaganda-useful truth, it was certainly propaganda-useful.

    And just to make sure everyone understands: I'm certainly not huffy or outraged about it ("Imagine! Insulting OBL like this!"). More of a resigned smirk, because, at least to me, it's pretty transparent.

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  3. Ghalib SuleimanMay 20, 2011 at 2:49 PM

    Oh yeah, no disagreement at all with the propaganda purposes part!

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  4. Mike S.May 21, 2011 at 10:38 AM

    I think your point is worthwhile that we accept these things unquestionably, but it is equally foolish to automatically assume that it is untrue. Blind distrust in the government is as great a folly and just as dangerous as blind trust.

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  5. Jim LeffMay 21, 2011 at 11:01 AM

    Oh, I agree. We shouldn't reflexively assume that every announcement by our leaders is a lie. On the other hand, I don't know anyone who actually does this.

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