At the website of John Mearsheimer, who, along with Stephen Walt, wrote the controversial The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, I noted that he was preparing a new work on the subject of lying in international politics. I look forward to reading it.
This brought to mind a recent TV interview I watched with Jacob Zuma, likely to be the next president of South Africa. The interviewer asked Zuma about the increasing levels of violence in South African society. Murder, robbery, rape and bloody mayhem are rife in that country. Johannesburg has more murders than any capital in the world. Zuma brushed the question aside with a swish of the hand. It was not so, he said, South Africa was no more violent nor crime ridden than anywhere else. He explained that the cause of this mistaken impression was the unique openess of the South African media, which was more diligent in its reporting of crime than the media of other countries. South Africa was daily becoming less violent and more law abiding. Wait and see, he blithely informed the interviewer, by 2010 South Africa will have a crime rate of zero.
Hearing this sort of barefaced baloney from politicians is hardly uncommon, we even expect it of them. In another recent interview I saw Shimon Peres angrily thump the arm of his chair and declare, 'Israel has never attacked anyone. Never!'
The purpose of this kind of lie, and the most commonly deployed, is to curtail discussion. South Africa is experiencing unprecedented levels of violence and crime because it is a grotesquely unequal society, and the ANC has failed miserably to do anything about it. Bigshots like Zuma have no immediate plans other than to line their own pockets. Israel has not decided who to attack next, Lebanon or Iran.
Other types of fanny serve other purposes. Gordon Brown's cringe inducing panegyric delivered before the US Congress might lead you believe him entirely ignorant of American history, other than the fairy tale version dreamed up by Hollywood. Sadly, this is true. The last Labour leader to have read a book not bought on a rail station platform was Michael Foot, who was doomed for that very reason. Blair, who was appointed a Middle East envoy as malicious joke, once cheerfully admitted he had never heard of Mohammad Mossadegh.
"When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind,as to suscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe;he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime."~Thomas Paine"The Age of Reason" 1793
This brought to mind a recent TV interview I watched with Jacob Zuma, likely to be the next president of South Africa. The interviewer asked Zuma about the increasing levels of violence in South African society. Murder, robbery, rape and bloody mayhem are rife in that country. Johannesburg has more murders than any capital in the world. Zuma brushed the question aside with a swish of the hand. It was not so, he said, South Africa was no more violent nor crime ridden than anywhere else. He explained that the cause of this mistaken impression was the unique openess of the South African media, which was more diligent in its reporting of crime than the media of other countries. South Africa was daily becoming less violent and more law abiding. Wait and see, he blithely informed the interviewer, by 2010 South Africa will have a crime rate of zero.
Hearing this sort of barefaced baloney from politicians is hardly uncommon, we even expect it of them. In another recent interview I saw Shimon Peres angrily thump the arm of his chair and declare, 'Israel has never attacked anyone. Never!'
The purpose of this kind of lie, and the most commonly deployed, is to curtail discussion. South Africa is experiencing unprecedented levels of violence and crime because it is a grotesquely unequal society, and the ANC has failed miserably to do anything about it. Bigshots like Zuma have no immediate plans other than to line their own pockets. Israel has not decided who to attack next, Lebanon or Iran.
Other types of fanny serve other purposes. Gordon Brown's cringe inducing panegyric delivered before the US Congress might lead you believe him entirely ignorant of American history, other than the fairy tale version dreamed up by Hollywood. Sadly, this is true. The last Labour leader to have read a book not bought on a rail station platform was Michael Foot, who was doomed for that very reason. Blair, who was appointed a Middle East envoy as malicious joke, once cheerfully admitted he had never heard of Mohammad Mossadegh.
"When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind,as to suscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe;he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime."~Thomas Paine"The Age of Reason" 1793
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