Interview with James Corbett of The Corbett
Report pertaining to war propaganda, the ongoing crisis in Syria and the
role of what he describes as “the real alternative media”. The real
alternative media is independent and grassroots, and is not funded by
the NGOs or foundations. Devon DB begs the question: How can people break free from the current system of oppression and media disinformation?
* * *
Devon DB: What is your opinion of the ongoing crisis in Syria?
James Corbett: The crisis in Syria can only be
understood through the lens of what the mainstream Western media is
leaving out of their reporting, namely the ongoing, on-the-record
support of outside actors in arming, equipping, and training the
so-called “opposition” that is currently waging a ground war against the
Syrian government.
This help is coming in the form of equipment and tactical involvement
from the US State Department and the CIA, arms and supplies from Saudi
Arabia and Qatar, logistical support and operational bases in Turkey,
and armed militants associated with Al Qaeda and other Wahabbi Sunni
terror organizations from Libya, Iraq, and elsewhere. In this context,
the constant demands of Clinton and other Western representatives for
Russia to “stop arming Assad” can be seen as the hypocritical and deeply
dishonest position that it is.
In fact, the entire conflict can only be understood when it is seen
not as the spontaneous outgrowth of a popular internal resistance, as
portrayed by the West, but as a foreign-funded and armed terrorist
insurgency whose open terror campaign of car bombings, ethnic cleansing
and other war crimes are consistently praised as heroic by the new
“humanitarian interventionists” of the neoliberal imperialist set. Given
what has taken place in Libya in recent days, those gun-ho
interventionists who are currently praising the “Syrian freedom
fighters” would be well-served to contemplate who it is they are helping
to bring to power in Damascus.
Devon DB: Many in the alternative media are focusing
on the actions of the rebels, while, some would say, ignoring the
actions of the Assad regime. This usually results in one being accused
of being a regime supporter. Why do you think that the focus is so much
on the rebels rather than on the regime and how would you respond to
such accusations as being a regime supporter?
James Corbett: Selling war to the
public has always involved portraying the issue as a clear-cut case of
black and white, good and evil. Once the issue is framed in that way,
anyone who opposes the war can be portrayed as a supporter of evil. In
every instance, the case for peace is effectively taken off the table by
arguing that “if you’re not for the war, you’re supporting X,” where X
is the boogeyman du jour.
This has transitioned easily from the Bush era “axis of evil” and
“war on terror” to the Obama era of “humanitarian intervention.” The
rhetoric and reasoning are virtually identical, but they have been
transposed into a liberal-friendly context. This thinking necessarily
begs the question of who gets to decide who to “help” and what groups
will take over in the aftermath. I do not support Assad any more than I
supported Gaddafi or Assad. But neither do I support Mugabe, or the Al
Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain, or the House of Saud, or Netanyahu, or any
of the other leaders of repressive regimes. Why is one leader demonized
and the other feted? The answer is obvious.
So the question is whether refusing to support the bombing and
military invasion of a foreign country is morally equivalent to
supporting that government’s leader. This comes down to the question of
moral responsibility. As a Canadian citizen in Japan I have absolutely
no control over what happens in Syria. I do have a say over what the
Canadian government does, what actions it takes, and what its military
does. When it lends its support to the bombardment of Libya, I become
implicated in the deaths of those civilians who were killed in those
strikes. So it is up to us to stop the violence, bloodshed and power
grabs made by our leaders under the guise of “humanitarian intervention”
as it is up to the people of Syria to deal with the Assad government
however they can. This is the nature of moral responsibility.
Devon DB: In the alternative media, we have read and
heard time again that the situation is Syria could lead to “a World War
3 scenario,” do you actually think that this is possible?
James Corbett: If NATO were to
roll into Damascus tomorrow with guns blazing, there would be military
repercussions. Russia has face to save in the Syria situation as well as
strategic interests to protect in the country, so it would not sit idly
by while the country is taken over by a foreign military. This is
precisely why there has been no direct military intervention by any
outside military, nor is there likely to be barring some international
outrage like a false flag event.
More worrying, perhaps, is the relentless, years-long campaign by
Israel to drum up support for a military strike on Iran. Such an event
is very much on the table, very much a possibility, and would almost
inevitably draw Russia, China, and other military powers into armed
conflict with the NATO powers, which very well could lead to a third
world war scenario.
Devon DB: Switching gears now, how would you define alternative media and what do you think its purpose is?
James Corbett: There are two types of alternative
media. There is the establishment alternative media and the real
alternative media. The establishment alternative media is usually funded
(at least partially) by the big name foundations and NGOs with ties
back to the usual cast of behind-the-scenes oligarchs. They will present
differing views from the mainstream media, and often offer more
balanced, thoughtful and contextual reports to their audience. When it
comes to key paradigmatic issues like the necessity of R2P or the
responsibility of Al Qaeda for 9/11, however, they will circle the
wagons and defend the system.
The real alternative media is independent and grassroots, and is
not funded by the NGOs or foundations. As a citizen journalist movement,
it cannot be defined by any particular ideology or viewpoint; it is a
representative of the population at large. Given this media landscape,
it is tempting to portray the mainstream and establishment alternative
media as inherently bad and the real alternative media as inherently
good, but this is too simplistic.
The establishment media occasionally does good work and often reports
true facts (with heavy amounts of spin and lies by omission). The
establishment alternative media contains some of the best critiques of
the prevailing mainstream opinion, even if those critiques are careful
never to cross certain lines.
The real alternative media is completely unmuzzled, but it is also
unfiltered. There will be brilliant examples of truly independent
reporting and analysis, and there will be dreadful examples of
unreasoned speculation. No one medium is inherently good, and it is up
to all of us to do the (sometimes laborious) work of piecing together
the truth from a myriad of sources, each with their own strengths and
weaknesses, good points and blind spots.
Devon DB: What role would you say the Corbett Report plays in the overall alternative media scene?
James Corbett: The Corbett Report is nothing more
nor less than my own attempt to fill in the context that is being left
out of much of the so-called debate in the mainstream and establishment
alternative media. Initially spurred on by the dreadful lack of
contextualization of the events of 9/11 in the media, I have branched
out my own investigation into economic, social, geopolitical, scientific
and philosophical matters. Through my tendency to link back all of my
factual statements to source documents, I hope to be in the process of
creating a resource that will be valuable for those who are seeking to
come to a better understanding of the world at large.
Devon DB: Why do you think more and more people seem to be turning to the alternative media?
James Corbett: The internet has surpassed
newspapers and is the process of eclipsing television as the main source
for news and information for most people. This means necessarily that
more people are turning to the types of alternative media outlets that
can only be found on the web to keep them informed about the world.
There are a number of technological and social factors that are playing
into this transformation, but the number one issue has to be the
public’s growing awareness of the information controls that exist in the
traditional media. With the internet, people are suddenly able to
become their own editors, deciding what stories are important, what
sources are reliable, and what pieces of information are worth pursuing.
Why would anyone relinquish the power that comes from this very
liberating experience of the world of information back into the hands of
a few corporations run by the same few rich, well-connected men who
have a vested interest in keeping the current order the way it is? And
now that social media and blogging are making the tools for creating
media platforms accessible by nearly everyone on the planet, the very
idea that “news” is something that is organized by some centralized
company in New York or London or Tokyo is being overthrown. The end of
the old media paradigm is already here, the newspaper, magazine and tv
companies just don’t know it yet.
Devon DB: In your podcasts and radio shows, you
have used the term “global enslavement grid” or variations of it. What
exactly do you mean by that term?
James Corbett: The global enslavement grid is an
interlocking system of economic, social, political and psychological
controls that have been put in place to direct society toward a planned
future global government structure. Although it has existed in some form
or other for centuries (and, presumably, millennia), its modern form
can be traced back to the British eugenicists of the late 19th century
and the Fabian socialists of the early 20th century. One can trace a
line stretching from Francis Galton to Paul Ehrlich, going through such
figures as H.G. Wells, Julian Huxley, Walter Lippmann, B.F. Skinner and
Bertrand Russell, amongst others, who were all obsessed with the problem
of how to create a well-ordered society through scientific methods. To
one extent or another, they all wrestled with the question of society
and how it is to be governed, as well as the possibility of using
scientific methods to control the lower strata of society for the
benefit of a ruling elite.
We see this coming to fruition in the creation of the modern
surveillance society, where the centuries-old idea of the panopticon is
being implemented at a societal level, and in the modern environmental
movement, which has produced in many the conviction that humanity itself
is a cancer and that the control (and eventual eradication) of humans
is in itself a good thing. The history of the development of this
enslavement grid and the ways that it operates is too large to
encapsulate in short form like this, and it’s difficult to do justice to
an idea this expansive in so few words. Articulating the enslavement
grid has been one of the primary goals of my website, which has so far
produced thousands of hours of media and will hopefully be able to
produce many thousands more, exploring this idea and its development, as
well as fruitful forms of resistance for those who are opposed to this
agenda.
Devon DB: How do you think people can unplug from this matrix that has been created by the elites and is fed to us on a daily basis?
James Corbett: The most important thing people can
do (and what I have come to believe is the only thing that people can
do) is to realize that the power to change society truly rests with you.
We tend to shunt off the big questions about “how to change the world”
to the political arena, where we can support this or that political
movement or put our hopes in this or that political candidate. This is
part of the global enslavement grid itself. By constantly focusing on
what is outside of us and waiting for a savior to come and put society
back in order, we are ceding our power over our own lives to the very
corporate-military-banking-governmental superstructure that is creating
the global dictatorship that we are seeking to resist. Worse yet, we
continue to support that very structure in the most straightforward way
possible: by buying their products, shopping at their stores, banking at
their banks, and voting for their politicians. How can we possibly
presume to have any effect on changing the current course of society
when we are still supporting the very corporations, businesses,
governments and institutions that are behind it with our time, money,
and energy on a day to day basis?
The only solution is to begin to create the alternative society that
we want to live in. That means beginning the long, hard process of
decoupling ourselves from the corporate/retail/banking system that we
are born into and transitioning into a local, independent economy that
bypasses that corporate structure altogether. There are thousands of
ways to do this: growing your own food, buying what you need at local
markets and independent retailers, participating in local alternative
currency systems, supporting independent alternative media and detaching
ourselves from the technology that is increasingly embedding us in this
matrix. It is not an easy process, and in all likelihood it is a
generational project. But it will not begin unless we take those first
steps.
James Corbett is an independent
journalist based in Japan. He is the producer of The Corbett Report. He
is also producer and film director for Global Research TV.
Devon DB is a 20 year old independent
writer and researcher. He is studying political science at Fairleigh
Dickinson University. He can be contacted at devondb@ail.com.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/selling-war-to-the-public/
ETHICAL DONATORS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS REQUIRED, TO FILL THIS SPACE WITH YOUR POLITICAL SLOGANS, ADVERTISING
OFFERS, WEBSITE DETAILS, CHARITY REQUESTS, LECTURE OPPORTUNITIES,
EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOPS, SPIRITUAL AND/OR HEALTH ENLIGHTENMENT COURSES.
AS
AN IMPORTANT MEMBER OF THE GLOBAL INDEPENDENT MEDIA COMMUNITY, MIKIVERSE POLITICS HONOURABLY REQUESTS YOUR HELP TO KEEP YOUR NEWS, DIVERSE,AND FREE OF
CORPORATE, GOVERNMENT SPIN AND CONTROL.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW YOU
MAY ASSIST,
PLEASE CONTACT: themikiverse@gmail.com
