On the RIOTS ...........................On LIBYA

...from ICH: "The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed"  - Steve Biko

Below: four brief extracts from recent postings which demonstrate (in prose more articulate than I'm capable of) the self-evident parasitic nature of what one might call the CEO - not Chief Executive Officer (though a connection is perhaps implicit), but Corporate Elite Oligarchy. This is the source of control that has gripped western governments for many decades (indeed, centuries), has recently tightened this grip like never before, AND at the same time, as ever, is attempting to seize by stealth as much as force wherever else in the world it can.

Only through propaganda (see methods of deception HERE) are us plebs perennially hoodwinked into compliance/tolerance/blindness to the true activities of the elite - that parasitic CEO. By NOT staging a major revolt, or otherwise refusing to cooperate with this brutal mob that controls our government, we are assisting and conspiring in its heinous adventures for BIG profit at the cost (annually these days, so it seems) of at least hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and the displacement and destitution of millions....

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From WSWS (25.8.11)

The Riots that swept London and other cities earlier this month threw a harsh light on the real state of social relations in Britain. They revealed the extent to which the UK is a nation torn apart by intractable class divisions, in which millions of workers and young people have no escape from a life of grinding, unremitting poverty while they are forced to watch others live a life of unparalleled luxury.

Thousands of youth rioted because they have no avenue through which to articulate their grievances or realise their aspirations for a better life—least of all through the Labour Party and the trade unions, which are as much the corrupt playthings of the financial elite as the governing Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Theirs is a degrading situation that has continued year after year without change, or even the apparent possibility of change, because the entire social and political order is stacked in the interests of the super-rich.

The universal response of the state, the political establishment and the media to the riots has confirmed that nothing else can be expected from the ruling elite and its hangers-on. Brutal police repression, mass arrests and the doling out of punitive prison terms for minor offences have been accompanied by a blanket denial that legitimate social grievances played any part in the riots. They were, according to the official narrative, solely the product of a criminal “underclass.” .....Chris Marsden

 

Why, do you wonder, have such draconian punishments been dished out to rioters in the UK - reminiscent of Britain 200-years ago, or of some primitive third world dictatorship? Answer: because the rioters present the most scary and potentially lethal threat possible to the CEO, which has no other way of controlling such uprisings - apart from Syria's: shoot to kill! But then... how many hundreds of 'unruly' individuals have the UK police killed in recent times? Correct me if wrong, but I think it's nearer 1000 than 100? Scarcely a handful of these have come to public notice, and not a single prosecution brought.

Now LIBYA:

From ICH  Answer Coalition (23.8.11) [includes comprehensive history]

Libya is a small country of just over 6 million people but it possesses the largest oil reserves in all of Africa. The oil produced there is especially coveted because of its particularly high quality.

The Air Force of the United States along with Britain and France has carried out 7,459 bombing attacks since March 19. Britain, France and the United States sent special operation ground forces and commando units to direct the military operations of the so-called rebel fighters – it is a NATO- led army in the field.

The troops may be disaffected Libyans but the operation is under the control and direction of NATO commanders and western commando units who serve as “advisors.” Their new weapons and billions in funds come from the U.S. and other NATO powers that froze and seized Libya’s assets in Western banks. Their only military successes outside of Benghazi, in the far east of the country, have been exclusively based on the coordinated air and ground operations of the imperialist NATO military forces...Brian Becker

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True enough: the fall of a dictator is (or should be) a welcome event. But the dictator that replaces Gaddafi won't be an individual; instead it'll be that brutal Corporate Elite Oligarchy that's after the oil and also to drain the lifeblood from millions who, as in the west, it'll enslave in its 'factories' for decades to come....

I wonder how ordinary Libyans will regard their swap in a decade or so from now under this new and ever-ruthless CEO dictator? Will the youth of Libya be rioting as were their disaffected equivalent in the UK recently? Or will they, like so many more in the UK, just sink into apathy and accept their downtrodden ripped-off lot (or rather, little)?

Truth is objective, never subjective; what one believes, though, is precisely the reverse. How closely the two agree depends on how objective we have the insight to be - and how accurately informed: ie, we are inclined to believe whatever or whoever we most trust for the facts. The sources and nature of these facts, however, has to be weighed against the widest possible range of data, whatever rational logic and reasoning we are capable of, and our invaluable intuition... ie, gut feeling. As a little test, try balancing the Establishment 'BBC' angle on the Libyan situation (which is churned out constantly on UK radio and TV) with this:

 

From the end of a WSWS article by Bill van Auken (26.8.11):

The universal euphoria of the US and much of the European media, which is “embedded” with NATO and its “rebels,” cannot conceal the brutal reality that a war waged under the pretense of human rights and protecting civilians has unleashed immense death, human suffering and destruction.

Far from a “revolution” or struggle for “liberation,” what the world is witnessing is the rape of Libya by a syndicate of imperialist powers determined to lay hold of its oil wealth and turn its territory into a neo-colonial base of operations for further interventions throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

 

AND from another WSWS article (27.8.11):

“Operation United Protector,” as NATO dubbed its military onslaught, would have been more accurately described as “Operation Imperialist Gang Rape.” The US, Britain, France and Italy, each pursuing its own interests in Libya and the broader region, managed to unite for the common purpose of “regime-change.”

To achieve this aim, NATO warplanes carried out over 20,000 sorties, destroying schools, hospitals and homes and slaughtering untold numbers of Libyan soldiers, many of them young conscripts.

Flouting the terms of the United Nations resolution authorizing “all means necessary” to protect civilians, NATO powers, including the US, France and Britain, sent in special forces troops, military contractor mercenaries and intelligence agents to arm, organize and lead the so-called “rebels,” whose primary function was to draw out Libyan government forces so they could be annihilated from the air.

The pretense that this was a war to protect civilians has been exposed as a moral obscenity, with the death toll in Tripoli alone climbing into the thousands and NATO bombs and missiles continuing to fall in heavily populated areas...

 

So which side looks most plausible to you? Is it the 'CEO' Establishment BBC version of events, or that of the anti-imperialists? Which, against the backdrop of history, makes most sense as being the actual truth?

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