Showing posts with label John Hartfield. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Hartfield. Show all posts

Saturday 2 November 2019

A mixture Of Alice In Wonderland And George Orwell.

       The mainstream media is the biggest manufacturer of lies we have ever witnessed. It fills the role of the state's mouthpiece and through misinformation, lies and distortions, creates the reality the state wants you to believe. It is a fog creating machine to blind the public from the reality in which they live. In this fabricated reality, truth is a far away island that has yet to be discovered. I formed this point of view many many years ago, and since then have seen nothing except evidence that reinforces that view.
      The following is a little piece I wrote approximately ten years ago, in those passing ten years the mainstream media has sank further into the mire of the world of putrid lies, misinformation and distortions, it has become the proud prostitute of the state.

Picture by John Hartfield. 
 

Some everyday headlines, WE ARE SPREADING DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ. AFGHANISTAN IS A WESTERN SUCCESS. THE FREE MARKET SPREADS PROSPERITY. THIS YEAR WE WILL TACKLE AFRICA'S POVERTY.        

         Who so ever reads the bourgeois press will become blind. Slowly the fog rises, lies build on lies, lies spawn lies, lies shape your vision and reality is lost in a false consciousness. Trivia and mediocrity fill the mind, seek reality outside the putrid puss and you are deemed to be mad, a raving lunatic, possessed. The media teaches us all we need know of scandal and sport, crime and sex, who slept with who and where, depicting life as a smutty peepshow. Through the bourgeois press you’re fed your daily dose of loathsome lies, banal boring bromide, cliched crap, trivia and petty pulp. Our leaders are portrayed as heroes, supermen, and so the lies breed lies, and lies stretch back into the distant past, lies distort history until it is lost in a bizarre deformed fabrication. We then repeat the disasters of yesterday because the lies are everywhere blinding us. We can’t relate to reality, reality always takes us by surprise because we have no grip of reality, only the lies.


From ''Mein Kampf''
        "All this was inspired by the principle that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the (public) more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation."   Adolf Hitler.
Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk 

Wednesday 16 January 2013

THAT BABBLING BROOK OF BULLSHIT.


       Time and time again I refer to the Media as that babbling brook of bullshit, if only that was all they were. They are in fact a necessary arm of the powers that be and produce part-information and mis-information shaping and shading the picture of the world that we are handed. They are not innocents, their distortions can bolster a war by painting it justifiable and honourable, when in fact it is no more than a corporate resource grab, Iraq springs to mind. Their selective amnesia and blind-eye vision is nothing less than complicity in some of the most brutal episodes of modern Western imperialism. Without the loyal subservience of the mainstream media the state could not possibly get away with these brutal murders of innocent men, woman and children across the world. If the states of the world are blood stained up to their armpits, the mainstream media is wallowing in that same blood.


         There was a report half way through the war of an Italian refugee charity arriving at the border of Kosovo with a camera crew and ambulance, and spiriting away an old woman refugee who’d collapsed – all of it faithfully filmed for Italian TV. It was the first time during the war the charity had done anything. It turned out that the woman had merely fainted – and, as a result of this dramatic intervention she became extremely upset, hardly surprising, since she’d been separated from her family who, in the meantime, had been shoved off to some other refugee campand no-one knew where they were. Once you enter this world of TV, of image, of the appearance of goodness, “care”, “charity” & “humanitarianism” are but masks for indifference: everything’s just a photo-opportunity. The more all-pervasive these role-bound relations are the more such functionalising of people appears as ‘natural’. The media is simply an arm of the State, making modern alienated spectacular relations seem reasonable and in­evitable. 

         An article from a former soldier in Bosnia said that when an American TV crew turned up at his base they asked to see a burnt-out village previously inhabited by Bosnian Muslims – which they were duly shown. When the UN soldiers asked if they wanted to take photos of a burnt-out village previously inhabited by Bosnian Serbs the journalists refused, saying it would confuse the issue: their viewers wanted clear ideas about what was going on. The soldier then went on to say that this was a typical American desire for black and white opinions. In fact, this American TV crew were merely being loyal servants of their masters, the US ruling class, loyal servants of dominant ideology, which is not simplisticly a lie, but a half-truth that omits any facts that contradict the official “truth”.
 Image by John Hartfield.


 

ann arky's home.

Friday 24 February 2012

THE VIPER TONGUE OF THE MEDIA.


        It is sad that when there is any sort of demonstration against the exploitation by this corporate fascist system, people still have to rely on the viper tongued pro-system media. The mainstream media has always been, and always will be, a propaganda machine for those in power, a pro establishment anti-common people, weaver of illusions. I have often spouted my view on the lies, illusions and omissions that fill the sewer that goes by the name of mainstream media, Media - Lies and Illusions, is just one of my post on this dangerous and vile grouping.

By John Hartfield.

      A couple of statements lifted from Occupied London issued by the anarchist collective Vogliamo Tutto in Athens:
       You were, and you shall remain. scum, informants and journalists. "Hooded-youths loot the centre of Athens. The burning city is at their mercy. Chaos, 50 scum vandalised anything they found in front of them and pushed away the peaceful demonstrators. Where is the police?" (description of the events of Feb 12 by the informant-led media). The lackeys of the bosses offered their credentials once again. The disgusting coverage of journalists who did not hesitate to talk about workers threatened to lose their jobs as a consequence of the riots, or supposed small businessmen (yes, the banks and the multinationals!) of Stadiou Ave! ... to conspiracy theories, to parastatist provocateurs. These are not merely loopy or sensitive journalistic voices. The sewer opened up by the scum of the media is a standard practice of the sovereign. Libel, slander and misinformation aim at the isolation and the condemnation of social counter-violence and the scaring off of fighting and insurgent proletarians. At this crossroads, no-one can avoid taking a stance. You either bow your head, or you take to the streets! Vogliamo tutto e per tutti, anarchist group in the neighbourhood of Nea Smyrni and the surrounding areas

        We were, and we shall remain on the streets and at the barricades. Thousands of insurgent proletarians either chose to rage-fully clash with the repressive forces of the bosses, or they refused to retreat from Syntagma square, despite the countless tear-gas thrown by the riot police." -- A description from what we lived during the magical moments of the barricades but also of the demonstration of February 12. On the day of the sealing of the loan agreement, the day when local and international bosses were deciding the complete sucking off the blood of their subjects, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets. Slogans, passion, clashes, setting alight of banks and commercial chains, expropriation and active solidarity between workers on the streets. The hounds of democracy attacked rabidly but failed to counter the rage of the people. At the news shows later in the evening, a second wave of media-repression attack followed, in an attempt to halt social counter-violence and to slander the multitude in struggle. And yet, everyone who found themselves on the streets those days knows only too well what happened, they know who the true parastatists are, who steal their lives away, who are their enemies. There is no such thing as objective reality. You either remain a spectator, or you are there... Vogliamo tutto e per tutti, anarchist group in the neighbourhood of Nea Smyrni and the surrounding areas

         I have no doubt that the imposed colonial governors in charge of Greece at the moment, now that they have passed their new legislation, will expect the people of Greece to clear the streets and accept their exploitation and deprivation with subservience. As they syphon every public asset out of Greece and raid the public purse for the benefit of the banks and bond markets of the corporate world, the people are an inconvenience, a nuisance factor. No doubt the media will be used to misinform and delude the people to get them to suffer in silence. If that fails, as I believe it will, then the state apparatus will swing into action to brutally repress the justified and righteous anger of the people. It is a time when solidarity across borders is the only answer, this is our struggle, we are not British, French or Greek, we are the people.

Sunday 7 August 2011

MEDIA = PROPAGANDA.



       Those who know me will be well aware of my loathing for what is generally called "mainstream media".
        It is of course, no more than the propaganda machine for our wonderful billionaire corporate fascism, a mouth piece for our Western imperialism. I have spouted my mouth off about it, written about it and even written poems about it. While browsing I came across this "media dictionary" it makes very enlightening reading.
        I have posted a couple of wee poems that might help to give a better desription of the mainstream media.
By John Hartfield.

ENDLESS BABBLE.


The questions arise. Why war and hunger?
Why does poverty continue to linger?
Why such need in a world of wealth?
Why put a price on a child’s health?
Confused and angry the public stand
gazing in disbelief at this pathetic band.
Those shiney politicians designed by spin
their street credibility paper thin,
the great persuaders looking the mood
struggling so hard just for our good!
Masters of the art of wheeling and dealing
exceptional experts at legal stealing.
Enter the Media, drowning us all in trivial text,
everything you need know
of scandal and sport, crime and sex.
Together they create a world of confusion
all fashion and style, a vicious illusion.
So no matter how often we point at need,
we always drown in a sea of greed,
no debate entered into, no answers found,
the waffle the babble goes round and round.


ROBOTS.
With spin doctors now in full flight
we’ve entered a new era, a brand new age,
no need to think just follow the plan
experts will guide you through the difficult stage,
soon dear consumer, you’ll see the light.
Let Fashion Gurus dictate your style
the colour the length where to be seen
the music you buy the games you play
who to worship from the silver screen
the latest icon, just for a while.
The Media teaches us all we need know
of scandal and sport, crime and sex
who slept with who and where,
who kiss and tell just for the cheques,
depicting society as a smutty peepshow.
Mindless telly invades your home
banal boring bromide, cliched crap
trifling trite trivia and petty pulp
sport, sex and violence always on tap,
churning your brain to a frothy foam.
Programmers with programmes you must pursue
specialists have advice you must take,
freethinking at all cost must be avoided
spontaneity is obviously a mistake
our Leader’s voice the only view.
Each of us, a programmed dual-purpose robot
some to serve, some to produce,
all to function as constant consumers
our first, our last, our only use
in this cabal of cambist’s insidious plot.