If you want to know why even most educated Americans don’t ‘get’ Europe, take the major US newspapers for a few days and read the naive “analyses” put forward by foreign correspondents and political columns about the continent from which most of them arrived during the last three hundred years.
Alternatively, read the British press on the subject of what’s really going down in South Africa, why everything is Russia’s fault everywhere else, or what the Gilets Jaunes are about in France. (If you want a real, good-old fashioned belly-laugh, read the New York Times on the Gilets Jaunes: it manages to be priceless and clueless at the same time).
In a combination of personal curiosity and happenstance, I found myself in Greece at the height of its debt “crisis”. The drivel put out about what was happening and why between Athens and Brussels (and Berlin, and Frankfurt) in the Western media was truly shocking, and got worse the further West one went. At the end of it, a close expat chum here in France said to me, “Look here John, we all know the Greeks are bone idle, crooked liars who evade tax, so for fuck’s sake stop defending the indefensible”. Soon afterwards during a phone conversation, my first wife opined, “You have to see it from the German point of view….they want their money back”.
More recently, the bile has been aimed at Hungary – a tiny country that had most of its land stolen after the First World War, but has dared to suggest that the European Union’s migration policy is insane and its political structure undemocratic. I have a black friend in the US, and I simply cannot have a discussion with the bloke about Viktor Orban. He thinks George Soros is a hero, and Orban a Nazi. Or posssibly a Commie: he’s not sure. All he’s sure about is that Orban wants to wipe out the gypsies and the Jews.
So in the light of all this – and while Remainer tosh on the subject of Brexit does irritate the Hell out of me – in truth I am no longer surprised by any media-based opinion anyone holds, however ignorant it may seem, about the affairs of something taking place somewhere else….in a country about which they have almost no experience, or on a continent they may never have visited.
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We do not live in a global village, or indeed on a planet that needs globalism. Since the myth of globalism was first floated seriously in the late 1970s, as a student of human culture, a market researcher and an adman, I rejected it and, along with a bunch of other blokes, started an 360° marketing agency aimed solely at local and regional clients.
In the forty-odd years since then, I have seen nothing to change my view of “the Global Future” as a construct invented by greedy, tax-evading, employee-exploiting multinational stockholders to justify a form of throwback capitalism that benefits nobody except the Gigarich 3%. Its emphasis on mercantile cut-throat competition is now so naked and twisted out of shape, it could take the entire planet with it, through eco-damage and/or nuclear conflict.
Travel around the world, and you will see that local media is infinitely more influential than global “news”. Every last “global” TV news network devotes the vast majority of its time to what’s happening in the region: Sky, CNN, and the others are unrecognisable from the content and presenters you see in your own country or continent.
But ironically, all the trappings of the global outlook are there: the maps of the World showing the weather from Archangel to Zaire, the bands running along the bottom of the screen showing stock market prices from Argentina to Zambia, and the breaking news of a friendly soccer game between Shamrock Rovers and Ho Chi Minh City.
But what these media do not do is increase the sum of our understanding at all. They merely reinforce the belief in No alternative – “Look, everyone”s doing it” – while further cementing the erroneous belief that we are a world species with a world vision.
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That is a ridiculous idea. We care first and foremost about our families, our neighbours and our close friends. Most human beings have a viable ‘caring’ network that rarely stretches beyond a hundred names. The only reason we care at all about how our employers are doing is because we don’t want to lose our jobs.
There is nothing whatsoever wrong with wanting to do unpaid charity work to help the less fortunate in our communities; that is a noble desire…but it can only ever be a palliative. Equally, we are often stirred by the fate of Tsunami victims on the other side of the world – but we hardly ever take on board the corruption, incompetence and inequality that produces such high death tolls.
We are light years away from being one globally consistent culture. Even when given the chance to be nations, all we have done is fight in a bid to dominate other nation’s cultures rather than understand them. Yet somehow, the “conclusion” we’re offered is that an ice-cold, faceless bureaucratic EU seeking to eradicate individual European cultures is somehow better….that what the world needs is another monstrously insensitive crypto-Empire to add to all the others – each one in turn destroyed by delusions of grandeur that cut them off from the aspirations of individual citizens.
The real answer lies in scaling down, not trading up.
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Social capitalism with power devolved to a communitarian level beats the globalist neoliberal model on every dimension that matters. It hands more power over their future to individuals but insists they take more responsibility for the health of the community. It encourages entrepreneurialism rather than wage slavery. It produces a fair, more equitable distribution of material wellbeing. It encourages social, educational and health governance to think of people rather than numbers….and to deliver that in a clearly related allround package. But above all, it has the goal of maximum citizen fulfilment at its core, and a peaceful desire to cooperate rather than coerce.
The development of mass media (recently given global reach by the emergence of the internet) has moved us further away yet from our natural state as a species. Opinion-forming by those media is tied to the bizarre agendas of their owners and allies, or the unelected State apparatchiks who dictate what the citizenry can and cannot be told about.
As a result of this, we have reached the stage in the West where we refuse to believe that our side makes stuff up about the other side.
At some point well into the future, the day will come when we at last see ourselves as all on the same side – the goal being the survival of the only planet that, for the time being at least, we have.
That view will come from bottom-up learnings, not top-down dictation.
John,
Interesting read re Global reach, and quite thought provoking !
Friends and family know where we are , the Christmas cards prove that some one has thought of us sufficiently to put a stamp on an envelope and post a card.. as we do also . The rest of the year is usually quiet unless some one wants something , or is passing by and popping in to see us .
The world knows where Britain is, they know where we are , yet .. we always reach out by being kind and sweet , we are not terribly good at putting any demands on recalcitrant nations … We are always giving .. take this, take that ..
Our scientists have great ideas, our engineers promote superb inventions .. I listen to clever people who have been ruined by bad government decisions or who have been abandoned and let down by financial constraints , or who have had great ideas filched by other competitors ..
What I am trying to say is that clever bods do not get the support they should receive from the City .. apart from of course , those who seek to further their vanity projects such as the HS2 etc.
Britain is now administered by the Government of harsh knocks and disappointments .. Brexit will not make their mindset any better!
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An insightful and educational article as per normal.
You are so right that Mr Average thinks ‘They are all the same’ and ‘There is no alternative’. I can’t argue with that but it doesn’t stop me arguing until my head hurts from banging it against a brick wall.
As for mass corporation, now I have noticed it, I see it everywhere. On a recent stroll around Biggleswade for example, I found the quaint old town centre deserted as apart from a few cafes and charity shops there didn’t seem much to attract a shopper.
I decided to look for a house that had been advertised but found myself lost in a space- age type monstrosity of a housing estate that seemed to go on for miles. Gasping for breath I finally managed to extract myself from the Lego land of huge 4 bedroomed detached houses with the tiniest gardens in the world.
It was quite sad to see the young professionals clutching their Costa Coffee cups as they pushed their expensive baby strollers around the periphery. No visit to the way off town centre for them. Stuck out as they were out near the ring road, the out of town retail ‘park’ was their only attraction.
The corporate blanket was almost stifling. I couldn’t wait to get out. From the big builders to the chains at the retail ‘park’, it felt like the life was being squeezed out of a middle England town that on paper I thought I might have liked to live in.
I wondered where I could escape to? What town is safe from these developers while they are in collusion with the Government? My overwhelming feeling is that I don’t trust the British Government, Brexit or no Brexit. It is an opportunity to change but to what while they are controlled by Big Business?
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Let’s face it no one on this planet is part of a global tribe, i.e we are not globalists. Even the elite globalists are a part of their own little closely defended tribe to the detriment of all others. We ARE by nature tribal, be that by race or by common interest.
If we were not tribal there would be no football, rugby or other ‘team’ – read ‘tribal’ – sports where the tribe extends to the supporters and support people. I am British by birth but I live amonsgt the tribe of my partner in Ireland. I feel a part of that tribe but not becuse I am part of the world but because the ‘tribe’ accepts me. I consider myself to be a part of the community in which I live. Oh yes we are most certainly tribal beings and not now, nor ever will be, truely global citizens of the world.
Vive la difference! Life would be very boring in an homogenous society.
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Bottom line, there are different things needing organising on different geographical scales.
Only deluded dimwits think you organise flood resilience strategies on a scale bigger than one watershed/river system.
A motorway system is best organised initially on a national basis, collaborating with neighbours if borders are landlocked.
High speed rail can usefully be planned on an a continental scale delegated down to national implementation groups.
Monitoring solar activity using satellites, telescopes etc etc is arguably best done globally, as nowadays is nuclear physics research.
You will find the same issues arising within the NHS. Very rare diseases need one specialist national unit with ability to video conference to wherever suspected cases may arise. Cancer is best dealt with using regional centres of excellence. A&E and GPs are best organised in all localities.
Same with education. You only find a handful of specialist music schools for 9-18 yr olds in the country like Cheethams in Manchester and the Menuhin School in Surrey. Science & technology academies occur in most major cities, whereas every locale has a bog standard primary school, nursery provision etc.
The majority close to the median are best catered for locally, rarer outliers are best organised regionally, nationally or internationally.
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Ah, once again a comment of mine did not appear! I would love to know exactly what point, word or phrase triggers the secret censors. Perhaps I should employ the old process of keeping a copy and then re-posting it line by line to find what it is. Certainly I do not include anything that may be construed as hate (contempt and dissatisfaction on the other hand) racist, sexual, obscene or any of the other verboten items of our mad PC world. I am confident that John did not take exception to it, even if he might have disagreed with part of it.
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Peter, there is only one thing on this planet moving in more mysterious ways than WordPress, and that’s Theresa May. JW
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After the 2008 financial crisis, the ECB bailed out insolvent banks of which the most insolvent were German. Transferring their bad debts off German books onto the ECB’s books meant that all member states then shared those liabilities.
Compare that treatment with Greece which was isolated, subject to crippling austerity and asset stripping of their ports, airports and utilities -mainly going to German creditors.
Before I’m accused of just hating the Germans, I don’t imagine that, in their position, we would act differently. However, we should recognise that the EU is there to serve German interests.
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“…we have reached the stage in the West where we refuse to believe that our side makes stuff up about the other side.” This view is not only highly pessimistic; it is also incredible. The political media elite, not only make stuff up about “the other side”, they openly assert it. Annita McVeigh, a BBC news anchor, rebuked Admiral West for having the audacity to express scepticism about the allegation that Assad had used chemical weapons. She said: “We’re in an information war with Russia.” Staying with the BBC, they even openly employ people with titles like Senior Journalist Disinformation. The Foreign Office spends taxpayers money promoting anti-Russian narratives. These aren’t secrets: they are openly boasted of. The only people who are “fooled” by the West’s political media elites’ propaganda are those who want to believe these absurd, foolish, imperialistic, and incredibly dangerous narratives.
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Steve, I think you missed the point I was making. 73% of Brits still think the US is our best ally, and over 60% believe that Putin rigs every election to his advantage. While 20% felt there were holes in the Skripal caper, 40% believed the Russians did it. Less than 10% believe that May and MI6 did their best to smear Trump during the 2016 election. Their vies are indeed incredible, but they do exist. JW
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You at least live in a country where people riot against their masters John, here we send people to prison for writing a Christmas card.
http://www.davidicke.com/article/512946/british-man-jailed-writing-rude-christmas-card
He joins the ever lengthening list of people in the UK languishing in prison for daring to behave in a manner which our political masters deem equivalent to mass genocide.
There is an agenda here , who’s directing it and to what end , is the issue.
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The mainstream media teach political naivety. The sheople lap it up with doses of coronation street and other such ‘cultural gems’, while woefully ignoring their ever increasing, deliberate impoverishment. Globalism serves the few and alienates the many.
Destruction of family, neighbourhood and nationality is deliberate. Destroy cohesion and control becomes easier. We have progressed way beyond Orwell and Huxley’s nightmare visions of controlled society. The only thing missing from the recipe is the further onset of robotic manufacture and administration and the resultant cull.
Infant mortality rates are far higher than many other countries and winter deaths among pensioners are excessively high. When being labelled a “useless eater” becomes mainstream be afraid ,be very afraid !
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Mellow Yellow
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Agenda 21…. We are herded to the cities. Everyone, from countries everywhere. Yes, we can get on with each other, but, its so blantant about divide and rule.
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Some interesting viewpoints in this talk re the EU.
Watch “Yanis Varoufakis | The Euro Has Never Been More Problematic | Oxford Union” on YouTube.
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If Globalism worked there would be no refugee crises, no world debt or poverty. Their very existence denies Globalism
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Watching television news is downright offensive – the politically-biased arrogant ignorance fobbed off on the audience is criminal propaganda.
Newspapers, the go-to source of my youth, are often worse.
Internet is frothy bile of bile and stupidity.
I admit I can only follow the money and make my own educated guesses out of the mess. The more I know, the less I think I know.
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JW, spot on with the analysis. Will the bottom up common sense prevail before the top down nonsense destroys the civilisation?
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I come from a slum on Merseyside. When the docks went the town went. Seven children were scattered round the world, and country to find work. I have a sister in London, brothers in China, Australia, Cornwall, Newcastle. Families have been broken down. My dad was a plumber, could support 7 children with my mum at home looking after us all.
People are not needed in a Global economy. John you `sold` ideas for people to buy, thinks that corporations wanted to sell.
We have machines to do work now. I am a butcher by trade they have machines that can do my job more efficiently than me, and don’t moan etc etc.
We are not needed that’s why we have Agenda 21, get rid of useless `feeders`. Agree?
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I would just like to defend The Greeks. I have spent more than 52 weeks of my life in Greece. We got married in Scotland, but spent our honeymoon in Greece. About 6 weeks later, my wife and I took her younger brother to Greece. Our two kids from the age of 18 months (born in London) grew up in Greece in the summer, when they were babies, and also when they were teenagers. We took our daughter’s best friend to Greece when they were 15 years old. They had such a good time, that she cried on the bus, coming back home to England.
Then the EU, completely impoverished Greece…I could see what was happenning, when I was mugged and robbed in Athens. All The Greek women, piled in to try and arrest the attacker who was almost certainly not Greek.
We just love Greece, or more accurately The Greek people who live there.
For Greece to be humiliated, and impoverished, by the EU Dictatorship, controlled by The CIA, is a complete Disgrace To the Human Race.
Thank God, The People of The UK (including all my family) voted in a Democratic Election, to withdraw The UK from the EU Dictatorship, as nearly did our Friends The Greeks…except they beat their leaders up. It’s a very good book.
“AND THE WEAK SUFFER WHAT THEY MUST?” Yanis Varoufakis
“You will do what us German (Globalist) People tell you to do. We own you, Greece is now ours”
Oh yeh???
Us British are on The Greek side.
They did Democracy long before us and taught us some very important lessons.
My Dad from Stockton-on-Tees used Spitfires – well he got them back into the air, nearly as fast as they came down , very close to where we now live near the original London Airport, somewhat North of Gatwick. He wanted to fly, but they wouldn’t let him. They needed him, to fix The Spitfires and get them back into the air during The Battle of Britain.
Tony
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How about a pan-European minimum wage, with the Germans subsidising the poorer of our neighbours with buckets of euros (or whatever they are calling the deutschmark these days).
Not a wage governed by national prices index, a genuine flat wage.
Then all the Germans can move to the poorer countries, where their Euro can buy as much gold as they can eat, and all the people from poorer countries can move to Germany and the UK – because, apparently, they want to be there for cultural reasons.
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Talking about bottoms, you know when something is wrong with the world when Alastair C(r)OOK get a knighthood in the corrupt royal gamesFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!;
when DWP hierarchy are all named as members of the honourary royal dispensation of the nation – these people are killing disabled people on a daily basis and nobody caresFFS!!!!!; when the bbc not only shows repeats but repeats those repeats over the yuletide celebrationFFS!!!!;
when war movies are all over the tv at a time of so-called peaceFFS!!!!!!!!!!!;
when the bbc celebrates for one whole hour the 2018 dead people of the year awardFFS!!!!!!!:
when Ole Gunner Smorgasbord is seen as a wizzard FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;
whencelebrities are seen everywhere doing stupid crap to entertain ‘us’FFS!!!!!!!!!!:
when both the ECB and the ECB are failures at what they do but claim they are upholding some sort of values not acredited to the populationFFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
when stores have sales of all the goods they have hidden from the public but is tat and more tat and people buy it FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
when fracking companies say the threshold for earthquakes should be raised so as not to cause them inconvenienceFFS!!!!!!!!!!!
when the term ‘modern day slavery’ is a misnomer for everything that is wrong with the planet – STILL – FFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Give me some nutty slack anytime – i well remember my uncle calling round at 5 minutes past midnight on new years day with a lump of coal to ‘let the new year in’ – and then we all went to bed, happy we had done our bit – I agree with ‘im
“At some point well into the future, the day will come when we at last see ourselves as all on the same side – the goal being the survival of the only planet that, for the time being at least, we have” – let’s hope so – amen bruvver!!!! I also want it to be known that i love the minions!!!
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Thank you.
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