The Media Void Lives
By Case Wagenvoord
14 September, 2009
Countercurrents.org
Back when we were a nation, death didn’t upset us as much. It was a fact of life best expressed by Gus in Lonesome Dove when he said, “Life is short; some are shorter than others.” Rural homes had parlors where the baby who died of diphtheria was laid out before the family buried it out behind the barn.
When we went to war, we honored the dead through photographs and drawings. Mathew Brady brought the Civil War home to America with his horrific photographs of corpse-strewn battle fields. The two world wars, Korea and Vietnam featured film footage and photographs of the fallen.
It kept our leaders honest. The public accepted the death of their young only as long as they felt the war was necessary. But if, as in Vietnam, the war appeared to become unnecessary, the public, shocked by scenes of carnage, turned against it.
But, that was when we were a nation. Now that we are a corporate state, things are different. Corporate states thrive on dishonest wars. In dishonest wars, public support is tenuous at best. So wars must be sanitized and cleansed of their gore.
This means no more dead bodies, no more film clips of the grieving parents of children killed in airstrikes. In the public’s eye, war now takes place in a sterile void where there is neither blood nor death. It’s war that isn’t really war, a make-believe Noh drama in which the public quickly loses interest, especially if it’s been going on for eight years.
Our corporate masters like it that way. It gives them a great deal of latitude to wreak havoc on the world while its citizens sit comatose and unaware.
But, God help the media that allows reality to dribble into this void!
Recently, the Associated Press released a photograph of a wounded Marine who later died.
The outcry showed that hypocrisy is the cement that holds the corporate state together. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates laid the mortar on thick when he said the Associated Press lacked “common decency.”
I hate stating the obvious, but I have no choice here. Does this mean that in Gates’ world, the bombing of innocents and the destruction of a country that posed no threat to us is an expression of his “common decency?”
It is telling that so few people noted the obvious. The corporate state has done its job well.
The family of the fallen Marine was upset over the publication of the photo. They had a right to be since it added to their grief. Gates had no right to be upset! Not with the death and misery he’s spread throughout the world! His was the outrage of a criminal when a friend rats him out.
It may be small comfort to the Marine’s family, but it is possible that the publication of his photo, along with similar photos, could well turn the public against this war and speed its end.
But, I forget. After the fracas that was raised over the AP photo, it’s doubtful any similar pictures will be published. What a difference from our previous wars. But we were a nation back then. Now we’re too sanitized to even admit that death exists, and we loathe those who remind us.
Case Wagenvoord is a citizen who reads. He blogs at http://belacquajone.blogspot.com and welcomes comments at [email protected].
