| Old Articles | | Friday, February 08 | | · | |
| Wednesday, February 06 | | · | |
| Tuesday, February 05 | | · | Savage Capitalism or Socialism: A Conversation with Luis Britto Garcia |
| Sunday, February 03 | | · | Canada vs. Venezuela: The Background Gets Even Murkier |
| Thursday, January 31 | | · | |
| Monday, January 28 | | · | The History - and Hypocrisy - of US Meddling in Venezuela |
| · | Canada Is Complicit in Venezuela's US-Backed Coup D'état |
| Wednesday, September 26 | | · | Why Israel Demolishes: Khan Al-Ahmar as Representation of Greater Genocide |
| Friday, September 21 | | · | US Disregard for International Law Is a Menace to Latin America |
| Saturday, August 25 | | · | How Long is the Shelf-Life of Damnable Racist Capitalist Lies? |
| Thursday, August 09 | | · | Martial Law By Other Means: Corporate Strangulation of Dissent |
| Wednesday, August 08 | | · | North Korea and The Washington Trap |
| · | Venezuela Assassination Attempt: Maduro Survives but Journalism Doesn't |
| Sunday, May 20 | | · | The British Royal Wedding, Feelgoodism and the Colonial Jumbie |
| Friday, May 04 | | · | |
| Monday, April 09 | | · | The Bayer-Monsanto Merger Is Bad News for the Planet |
| Tuesday, March 20 | | · | Finally, Some Good News |
| Thursday, March 15 | | · | Zimbabwe Open for Business, Code for International Finance Capitalism |
| Friday, January 12 | | · | Shadow Armies: The Unseen, But Real US War In Africa |
| Wednesday, December 13 | | · | The U.S. is Not a Democracy, It Never Was |
Older Articles
| |
 | |
World Focus: What about Life in America?
Posted on Tuesday, November 27 @ 05:20:43 UTC
Topic: North Korea
|
 What do Charlie's Angels, gangster films and James Bond tell us about life in America?
By Stephen Gowans
November 27, 2007
North Koreans are learning about “what is going on in the world” and that “the government of Kim Jong Il is not really for their own good” by watching south Korean soap operas and James Bond films, says the Washington Post (November 21, 2007).
The newspaper quotes a 40 year old emigrant north Korean who lives in a Seoul suburb who says “she learned about the world beyond (n)orth Korea from Hong Kong gangster films and from (s)outh Korean television,” while her 17 year old son's “understanding of the United States – where he hopes one day to live – was formed by watching old videos of ‘Charlie's Angels'.”
The idea that television and films can furnish anyone with even a wisp of a realistic understanding of what's going on in the world is as silly as the idea that Hansel and Gretel offers a window on Germany.
Of course, it's not only north Koreans who get their understanding of the world beyond north Korea (and of north Korea too) from televisions and films. So too do many of the rest of us, and most of us are just as blind to how misleading an understanding it is.
Television and film reinforce ideological myths that those who really rule, use to justify exploitation, imperialism and the unequal distribution of power and wealth.
Western films and television that deal with north Korea impart crude propagandistic depictions of the country, reminiscent of the brand of WWII propaganda that reduced enemies to carton-like stereotypes. The same can be said about references to Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. With few exceptions, US entertainment media depict Fidel Castro as a brutal dictator.
On top of reinforcing distorted understandings of countries resisting Western domination, US television and film create and perpetuate the myth that Americans are all pretty much alike and that the US is a middle class (and hence essentially classless) society, with a few exceptions of conspicuous wealth earned by those who, through pluck, talent and perseverance made it big, as anyone else could surely do with enough determination.
If everyone dresses pretty much alike, lives in pretty much the same comfortable houses in the same tree lined neighborhoods – as anyone steeped in the mythology of US television and film might think – then class conflict becomes pretty much an invention of crazed Marxists who've lost touch with reality.
Source: http://gowans.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/what-do-charlie%e2%80%99s
-angels-gangster-films-and-james-bond-tell-us-about-life-in-america/
|
|
| |
| Article Rating | Average Score: 5
Votes: 1
| |
|
|
