PHA-Exch> Food for a furious thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 185

Let me start this Reader by letting you know that the UN has approved the
year 2009, starting December 10th, 2008, as the International Year of Human
Rights Learning, as proposed by the UN Delegation of Benin with civil
society advise by PDHRE.





*WHEN WE STAND NAKED BEFORE THE UNVARNISHED MIRROR OF TRUTH, WHAT WE SEE IS
WHAT WE REALLY ARE. OFTEN WHAT WE ARE IS WHAT WE CIVILIZE OURSELVES TO
DISGUISE (OR WHAT WE CHOOSE NOT TO BE OUTSPOKEN ABOUT). *



Variations on a theme by Salman Rushdie. Inspired, plagiarized and
paraphrased from his novel "Fury", Vintage Books, Random House, London,
2002.



What makes the world go round should not be the renunciation of all that is
important. (P. Coelho)





1. The industry of popular culture is replacing that of ideology. Nowhere
more can this be seen than in the influence advertising and propaganda has
gained over us. We all have lived long enough to witness the absolute
victory of advertising and propaganda.



2. Advertising is the notorious enemy of promise; it is nakedly capitalist
and as far away from human rights as can possibly be imagined; everything,
as well as everybody and every principle dear to us is for sale; advertising
sooths our pain, our anguish of loneliness and of ignorance; the pain of
wanting without knowing what is wanted. No wonder advertising and propaganda
are popular; "they make things better"; "they show us the road ahead", they
are thus not part of the problem; they solve things the easy way.



3. Advertising does not brainwash us, it stains our brains! It is based on
the belief that ignorance, if backed up by sufficient dollars, becomes
wisdom. Through it, knowledge exercises power over us from on-high. On
issues that matter in the world (for instance human rights), "Mall America"
and the aspirations of the "gym generation" lead to the distraction of our
contemporaries. Uncertainty is at the heart of what we are; nothing is
written in stone, everything can crumble, we are told.



4. Furthermore, to complicate things, fundamentalist propaganda and
arguments are used over the media to tell us that there is no morality
without religion. Does this mean that we are an insufficiently devout
citizenry…? …and that human rights are a matter of creed?  This only
highlights the paradox of human life: its creator is fictional, but life
itself is a fact --with all its nice and not-so-nice, often shameful*features.
* *

*: We note that until the advent of hyperlinks, only God was said been able
to see simultaneously into past, present and future alike; such omniscience
is now available to all of us, at the merest click of the mouse.



5. Taking this allegory to the wider contemporary context of our globalized
world, the lingering danger is that the confidence in what-we-are-told
becomes political currency… American-style success has become the only real
validation of one's worth. Nobody (seems to care or) knows how to argue with
big money or with the negative *consequences of today's globalization…* *

*: But the globalization age, too, must end, as do such periods in the human
chronicle. Maybe this truth is just beginning to slide into our
consciousness.



6. In short, the possessors of the "truth" and the defenders of the lie are
strong; is it better to bend before their combined force? Or by standing
against it, may one discover a deeper strength in oneself and lay the
despots low? What are our limits of tolerance? How far, in the pursuit of
what is right, can-we/should-we go? (…and, by the way, where are the laws
against sins of improper omission? Have we really also fought for them?).



7. So, we are left with the question: Will tomorrow just rewrite yesterday?
(Or, how will next week unmake the past five, ten, fifteen years?).



8. To close, it is good to remember: Human rights are never *given* by those
who enjoy them (and who are living in the American-style success mode);
human rights must be *taken* by those who do not enjoy them.



9. So, if you think there is something to be said and to be done on human
rights, say it! + do it!    Do not meet trouble halfway… Get your house in
order; know the whole house, not just select rooms; remember who owns the
house. Home improvements mean human rights improvements… (K. Weerasuriya)



Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City

cschuftan at phmovement.org
[All Readers can be found in www.humaninfo.org/aviva  under
No.69<http://www.humaninfo.org/aviva%20%20under%20No.69>
]
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