Read this new article at revcom.us
1) As we emphasized in the immediate wake of the
killings, the murders of 14 people at a holiday social event for
environmental health inspectors in San Bernardino, California, and the
injuries to 21 more, are a terrible outrage. They were men and women,
with a wide range of backgrounds, interests, outlooks, and of many
different nationalities--including people who immigrated to the U.S.
from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. There can be no justification for
targeting these people. Their deaths, whatever the motives behind the
killing, are a terrible crime and a painful tragedy.
At the same time, pain and outrage are being channeled
by the powers-that-be and their politicians and media to train people to
see the world through a grossly warped lens. The killings in San
Bernardino are being used to enlist people behind an agenda that will
escalate the cycle of death and terror in the
world. In the name of "safety," people are being whipped up into
xenophobia (irrational fear and hatred of "outsiders" including people
from other countries) aimed especially at Muslims, paranoia, and a
program of repression that actually makes people here and around the
world much
less safe.
People are being trained to see only American lives as
being precious, when in reality, American lives are not more important
than other people's lives. The
million plus people who died as a result of
the U.S invasion of Iraq; the people killed by an ISIS bomb attack in
Beirut, Lebanon; the people who died when U.S.-ally Saudi Arabia bombed a
hospital in Yemen; the people being tortured for years in Guantánamo...
these were human beings too!
2) And people are being trained to look at the world
from this incident out, instead of seeing what happened in San
Bernardino as a manifestation--in some form--of a global phenomenon that
has fueled that death and terror. The global conflict that this
incident appears--in one way or another--to have been shaped by brings
death by drone, torture, assassination, invasion, and massacres to a
wide swath of the world on a daily basis. This global dynamic is best
understood and defined in the following quote from Bob Avakian:
What we see in contention here with Jihad on the one hand and McWorld/McCrusade on the other hand, are historically outmoded strata among colonized and oppressed humanity up against historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system. These two reactionary poles reinforce each other, even while opposing each other. If you side with either of these "outmodeds," you end up strengthening both.
While this is a very important formulation and is crucial to understanding much of the dynamics driving things in the world in this period, at the same time we do have to be clear about which of these "historically outmodeds" has done the greater damage and poses the greater threat to humanity: It is the "historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system," and in particular the U.S. imperialists...
It is interesting, I recently heard about a comment that someone made relating to this, which I do think is correct and getting at something important. In relation to these "two historically outmodeds," they made the point: "You could say that the Islamic fundamentalist forces in the world would be largely dormant if it weren't for what the U.S. and its allies have done and are doing in the world-but you cannot say the opposite." There is profound truth captured in that statement.(From Bringing Forward Another Way)
3) In the way supposed "evidence" from the killings is
being trickled out, people are being trained to suspend critical
thinking and put sheep-like faith in the powers-that-be....
Read more
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