In 2007, I published an article that sought to show in detail how the Iraqi economy had been opened up to allow the transformation of the economy and the routine corruption that enabled a range of private profit-making companies to exploit the post-invasion economy. The article argued that the illegal war of aggression waged by a ‘coalition’ headed by George Bush and Tony Blair was tied to a series of subsequent crimes of pillage and occupation.
The post How the Iraq Inquiry failed to follow the money appeared first on OUPblog.
All this talk of “News of the World”…
Allegations of cell phone hacking. Digital interloping. Scoops, muck, grief and mayhem. Seduce readers, sell papers. A free press pleases the gods in the Age of Information.
Oh! Is it really? “The Age of Info”? (yawn)
Actually, I’m less bored than I am shocked! Shocked that anyone would see the context of their precious life in such paltry terms. I’d be embarrassed. I’m more inclined to imagine myself living in the coming age, the next bracket up.
For instance, I say, “How passé, the so-called “age of information”. No, this is the time to trust “what we already know”.
Here’s Northwest poet, David White, holding forth on this very subject. (The interstitial comments are mine.):
This is not the age of information.
This is not
the age of information…
Never mind that most information is misinformation.
Forget the news,
and the radio,
and the blurred screen…
In other words, all the stuff that distracts us from waking up to the real bad news, existentially speaking.
This is the time of loaves
and fishes.”
You need to check your Bible for this reference: Matthew 14:19.
People are hungry,
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.
Meaning what? One good word? Not a word with food value, but with volume. An alarm! A battle cry! Whatever wakes us up. One good word won’t add to our knowledge base, but it will incite knowing. Maybe it’s not even a word, but rather a look or a touch or gesture. Or as the mystics say, “a finger pointing to the moon”.
No, this is not the age of information.
This is the time to trust what we already know.
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