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The Underlying Message of Kony 2012: Hate Goldstein, Love Big Brother!

By Michael McGehee at Mar 12, 2012


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Big Brother's "Thirty Minutes of Hate"
Just as Israel is killing children in Gaza and Americans are killing children in Afghanistan, millions of decent and unsuspecting people fell prey to an imperial propaganda campaign: Kony 2012. The latest feel-good political stunt that claims to be standing up for human rights.

That Invisible Children, the makers of the film, has never made "Stop Bush/Obama/Blair/Cameron/Olmert/Netanyahu" a campaign ought to tell you something. This faux-social activist PR stunt—like the "Save Darfur" campaign—is a distraction.

As I previously wrote, there is just something odd about a relatively obscure group that happens to have millions of dollars to spend on making a film that is so horribly one-sided, gets so much wrong, and which happens to compliment U.S. power in the region. The film ignores the social factors behind the Lord's Resistance Army and their leader, Joseph Kony. It ignores the much more murderous figure of Uganda's dictator, Yoweri Museveni. Yet it calls on arming this dictator. There is nothing in the documentary to suggest the LRA are another example of the Acholi people resisting the oppressive regime.

The mantra is a classic one: Be outraged at the proverbial Emmanuel Goldstein from George Orwell's classic 1984:
Winston’s thoughts move on to a daily ritual, which was conducted in each office, the “two minute Hate.” During this process, the telescreens broadcast pictures of Emmanuel Goldstein, the Number One “Enemy of the People” according to the Party. [...] During the “Hate” people watched the speeches of Goldstein and reacted in violent anger. Winston himself often started out by dissembling his emotions, but the effect of the collective frenzy was such that after about thirty seconds, he found himself actually feeling the power of Hate.
This is the basic function of Kony 2012. Hate Goldstein. Love Big Brother.

And with the groups own financial record under scrutiny we should also be suspicious of this being a scam. Pick an easy boogeyman without being a threat to power and ask for donations in order to "Stop [insert proverbial Goldstein]."

It's not to suggest there is no truth to the claims made against Goldstein/Kony. He is a murderous, kidnapping thug. But he is not the boogeyman, or as one popular flyer puts it: "the worst." There are considerable reasons to be suspicious of the campaign. Anyone serious about standing up for human rights would not support a bigger human rights abuser (i.e. Museveni) to use military force to "stop" or "bring to justice" a smaller abuser. And especially considering the campaign originates in the U.S., it is hard to understand why a similar campaign is not directed towards the U.S. military—what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world."

The most important questions we should be asking Invisible Children are: Why Kony? Why now? Why not Museveni, or Kagame? When more than one million Iraqis were killed in an illegal U.S. war of aggression, where were you?

To read more of my blogs please visit: www.truth_addict.blogspot.com
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Re: The Underlying Message of Kony 2012: Hate Goldstein, Love Big Brother!

By Orbbucop, Jack at Mar 20, 2012 18:37 PM

"The film ignores the social factors behind the Lord's Resistance Army and their leader, Joseph Kony. It ignores the much more murderous figure of Uganda's dictator, Yoweri Museveni. Yet it calls on arming this dictator. "

Be careful if trying to draw a causal link between Museveni and Kony. It is innacurate and irresponsible to portray the LRA was a response to the dictatorship of Museveni. I mean, the LRA doesn't really have a political agenda at all. 

"There is nothing in the documentary to suggest the LRA are another example of the Acholi people resisting the oppressive regime."

I hope this is not something you believe. The LRA exists because of Kony, who is acting mindlesslly, without any measurable goal or realistic ending in sight for his rampage. It is contemptuous and insulting to the Acholi people to suggest that they (or any people, for that matter) are supportive of the LRA. 

The video is certainly very exaggerative and misleading about the conflict (and I agree that with the legitimacy of the critique that it doesn't mention Museveni once), but I don't think that saying that Museveni is a " bigger human rights abuser" [than Kony] is a responsible way to approach criticism (in fact, I disagree with that statement).

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Re: Re: The Underlying Message of Kony 2012: Hate Goldstein, Love Big Brother!

By McGehee, Michael at Mar 20, 2012 19:03 PM

Bubba Brown,   There is a causal link. And Kony is not “acting mindlesslly, without any measurable goal or realistic ending in sight for his rampage.”   See Doom’s and Vlassenrot’s article in African Affairs back in 1999: KONY'S MESSAGE: A NEW KOINE? THE LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY IN NORTHERN UGANDA. The authors write of the LRA:   “Only a purified Acholi people, with a renewed identity, will be able to fight victoriously against the army of Museveni and regain an autonomous political existence. Kony's aims were political…”   And Museveni is a much, much bigger human rights abuser than Kony. This is an uncontroversial fact, so I am not sure what is so disagreeable about it. It was Museveni and Kagame who perpetuated the genocide in DRC and Rwanda, not Joseph Kony.   The point is and has been stated over and over again, especially by Ugandan writers, that the film is void of the social context in which the conflict existed and it ignores the much more pressing issues and the biggest criminals.   Also related is this speech by Keith Harmon Snow: The Plunder and Depopulation of Central Africa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg6kPY7QC3M

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Stephen_oct_2010

Much needed sense

By Roblin, Stephen at Mar 15, 2012 18:28 PM

Hi Michael,

Glad you wrote this blog. You may be interested in a piece I wrote last May about the virtual dictator's (Museveni) handling of the  February 2011 elections and the democracy protests in the spring (http://www.zcommunications.org/ugandan-spring-instability-spreads-to-east-africa-by-stephen-roblin). The Godfather of course didn't let the massive corruption and repression get in the way of higher strategic interests--in perfect accord with the dominant "stability" principle.

Again, glad you're challenging the hysteria. Hopefully some sense trickles out.

Best,

Stephen

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