User:Prunesqualer

Welcome to Wikipedia*
(*voted America’s most powerful propaganda tool 12 years running)

Julian Assange is currently being broken in a maximum security prison in London – his crime: publishing truths about war crimes, mass surveillance etc. Meanwhile, vicious people with monumental egos, shed loads of opinions, but precious little imagination or compassion, are using their time and energy to obscure his achievements and present him in the most cruelly unkind light. Who are these sadists I hear you ask? Unthinking nationalists, orthodox conservatives, militarists (let’s hear it for the good old red, white and blue)? Indeed yes, but it’s also possible some are in the pay of U.S. government institutions or any one of the other individuals that Assange has upset by revealing their dirty little secrets – if so I hope they choke on their blood money.

One is reminded when researching material which might reflect badly on the US empire, that Wikipedia’s front line of information control is the “Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources” list, which carefully excludes any source not fully compliant with the standard neoliberal U.S. Exceptionalism agenda. It’s what is colloquially known as a “stitch up”.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde “A wiki-lawyer is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

Wiki’s Julian Assange article is being compiled for the most part by the prosecution – the rules and courtroom niceties are usually adhered to in the editing, but such is the dominance of negativity towards Assange - that any sense of him as a human being who might just be worthy of a little compassion or empathy is generally kept off the page (usually with the rational that treating a living subject as human being is somehow “un-encyclopaedic”).

Q: How many Wikipedia editors does it take to change a light-bulb.

A: It will never actually get changed, because the original light-bulb was produced by “Conglomerated Corporations Inc.” (Electronics division) which is supported by a section of editors who will not concede the bulb was ever faulty, who will point to the fact that none of the mainstream news sources (which happen to be owned by “Conglomerated Corporations Inc.” (Media division)) have commented on the light-bulb being faulty – thus demonstrating that the broken bulb is not broken, and does not need changing.

It’s good to take breaks from Wikipedia editing every now and again, to remind oneself that life is not all cant, hypocrisy, and massive egos.

I agree with the Richard Dawkins’s statement;- "Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense. Dangerous because it gives people unshakeable confidence in their own righteousness. Dangerous because it gives them false courage to kill themselves, which automatically removes normal barriers to killing others. Dangerous because it teaches enmity to others labelled only by a difference of inherited tradition. And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!"

I also think that much of this statement applies to Nationalism. The human condition, for nearly all of us, involves tribalism. How we can progress without tribalism I cannot see. With tribalism I can only see guaranteed futility.

There is some debate on Wiki as to whether MEMRI is to be considered a propaganda organisation. I find this fascinating.

This makes me think - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOFO6BuPstg

To Those Who Choose the Road to War

To those who choose the road to war,
The angry men,
The zealots, or distanced cold plotters.

As you feel power grow within you,
As you sense the righteousness and glory of the fight,
To kill or to die for your country, your god or your sacred beliefs,
To tear down the tyrant,
To destroy all that threatens you,
Through honour to victory.

Remember then, as you survey,
At last,
The fields of desolation, you have wrought.
Remember, as you stand, knee deep
Amid the ruin of the charnel house,
The smell and taste of death upon you.
As the thick tears, unbidden, fill your staring eyes.

Remember then, that journey back to peace,
Back to family, back to self-forgiveness, to love,
To redemption, if you will.
Remember then, should you choose that road,
How long and lonely that journey may be.
And may compassion, then, guide you home.

Remember then, At last, these sacred words
This course,
Truly,
Must be,
The path of last resort

"Truth is always the first casualty in war" is a phrase that Wiki editors would do well to remember. The Israel/Arab conflict has been ongoing for quite some time now. There is no shortage of people/organisations out there with an agenda, willing to go to almost any lengths to put information, favourable to their cause, out there. Those interested in even a vague approximation of truth need to question our own agendas, and those of the people around us.

This user likes the film 12 Angry Men. Some favourite youtube bits and bobs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=445fIesASh4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yRK_sbFIaA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuprDK_aNuk&feature

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaBeeU6_V38

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUoXAVJkvCo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGxAYeeyoIc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gmRKWJaLSY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li6NaDax7g0