“Physical reality seems to recede in proportion as man’s symbolic activity advances. Instead of dealing with the things themselves, man is in a sense constantly conversing with himself. He has so enveloped himself in linguistic forms, in artistic images, in mythological symbols or religious rites that he cannot see or know anything except by the interposition of [an] artificial medium.”
Ernst Cassirer, 1956, An Essay on Man. p. 43

“We know enough about language to understand that variations in the grammatical structures of languages will result in variations in what may be called “worldview”. How people think about time and space and about things and processes will be greatly influenced by the grammatical features of their language. We dare not suppose therefore that all human minds are unanimous in understanding how the world is put together; but how much more divergence there is in worldview among different cultures can be imagined when we consider the great number and variety of tools for conversation that go beyond speech. For, though culture is a creation of speech, it is recreated anew by [or better, the culture is ” renewed within ...”, J.A.] every medium of communication ….”
Neil Postman, 1984, Amusing Ourselves to Death; Public discourse in the Age of Show Business. p 9

Last night, Twitter (specifically #Libya #Feb17) was alive with all sorts of celebratory tweeting and retweeting of news that the insurgents had taken Sirte, Gaddafi’s hometown and a stronghold of the regime. Here are some key examples, from some of the the most retweeted accounts:

SultanAlQassemi: Al Jazeera Arabic reporter confirms that Sirte has fallen in rebels hands, says citizens celebrating. #Libya [note the media source]

EndTyranny01: CONFIRMED CONFIRMED CONFIRMED Militray sources on the ground Sirte has fallen.A clean takeover.No resistance. #Libya #Sirte #Feb17 #Benghazi

There are many more, and it turns out that the ultimate source of this was none other than a spokesman for the “Transitional National Council”–now recognized not just by France, but also by Qatar, Al Jazeera’s sponsor, as the legitimate government–and this was broadcast by Al Jazeera without any attempt at verification, without question.

(By the way, interesting how Libya can get this new “legitimate” government, and the only people who voted for it are the governments of France and Qatar.)

The other news media, were much slower, if they said anything at all about Sirte, or used minimalist language that suggested, this is hearsay, a claim made by one side, no confirmation.

A couple of hours after the celebrations in Benghazi erupted–some interesting news broke: explosions in Sirte. Taken? No resistance? Unarmed? CONFIRMED?

This morning: the actual reality. Sirte was not taken, at all. In fact, the closest the insurgents got to Sirte yesterday was 80km away from the city. They had not even tried to enter it, let alone take it. Reporters in Sirte do point to the presence of many armed civilian supporters of Gaddafi. The fight has yet to start…even though NATO planes bombed targets in the city, despite the fact that Gaddafi’s troops are posing no threat to the civilians there (remember, this is a bastion of support for the regime).

The opposition, with the aid of Al Jazeera, manipulative tweeters, and uncritical retweeters (the passive repeaters), all worked to produce what resembles a PSYOPS operation: the government is giving up, Gaddafi’s forces are fleeing, the people are all on our side, we are getting closer, better off if you surrender, etc. That is for the domestic audience. For the international audience the message is: the NFZ is working, another success, chalk it up.

And it was all a fabrication.

This morning, some tweeted: “ok it was just one of those Internet rumours.” No, it was more than that. It was the work of the insurgents themselves and Al Jazeera.

In this connection, this is one of the creepiest website I’ve found thus far :

“Heck yeah, Libyan revolution!” : http://thelibyanrevolution.tumblr.com

With an inspiring subtitle, ” your reliable source to what’s happening in libya ” , with tons of ready-made posts waiting to be reposted, and with the most ancient posts, about a month ago, here: http://thelibyanrevolution.tumblr.com/page/75

I thins it’s worth checking the “personal accounts” of “Nadia” and “Zehra”, linked to in the “FAQ” section of this website. Creepy.

I’ve not explored all of it yet, but it seems here are some of the (almost) clones :

http://feb17.info/ , starting february 17th, here : http://feb17.info/page/113/

and

http://www.libyafeb17.com , starting february 16th, here : http://www.libyafeb17.com/page/187/

I guess it won’t be online for very much longer now.

Just like you are perfectly willing to do when it comes to Yemen and Bahrain–right now–and countless other local battles before. What do you know about any mayhem, and from whom? I am not denying it, I am questioning the imagined scale of events, the alarmism and hyperbole. I am sorry that I cannot answer your question–it is far too garbled for me to even understand what you are saying.

Anyway, you keep refusing to read…because I went beyond just cutting ties. Again, FINAL PARAGRAPH, John, and check through the last three articles as well. How you imagine that we should all be supporting these rebels, without question, is quite beyond me…and you too apparently.

I was getting swayed toward the viewpoint that had become almost homogeneous across the different voices in the media – “Kadaffi is a Bad Guy; he has done inhumane things to his own people”; even things that overshadow his development of education, medicine and a technologically higher standard of living. So, i had decided to abandon kadaffi’s revolution and submit to the NATO cure.

Now, I am back to thinking this is what i thought it was from the get-go.

This is the raw facts behind counterinsurgency theory – if we ain’t got no counterinsurgency in a country that is being run by Bad Guys (read Muslims or socialists), then we will create a counterinsurgency and declare them to be the legitimate government, and join them in “repelling” the insurgents, in this case the government of Libya which is referred to as the Gadaffi Regime.
Yes, the Libyan government is now the insurgent force against the Transitional Council that some foreigners appointed, funded and equipped..

Can humanity be extracted from this assembly line?

Can communities of factory and office employees throw off the corporate managerial regime, reject DoD funds, and regrow genuine culture, minus the military virus, to restore humanity to the human resources? And, then what of the military?

It has all gotten so … so … Sciencefictiony, this assignment you gave me, Max, of demilitarizing the USA.

Countermeasures for US Citizens, another article and I think 3 more related to doing some leg work on the anti imperialist side.