Bulletin 675
Subject:
15 December 2015
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
The cultural hegemony of the medieval Roman Catholic Church controlled
the vast majority of the population in Western Europe with the fear of eternal
damnation and the hope of salvation. The graphic descriptions provided in the
verses from Dante’s Divine Comedy (ca. 1300 AD) illustrate this
mechanism of social control which had operated already for nearly a thousand
years and would continue for many centuries more. The violence and threat of
violence on the part of the Roman Catholic Church is a success story for
preserving social inequality and restoring law and order in the face of massive
injustices. Marx thought that ideology serves as a cover to conceal material
contradictions; it is instructive to note, he believed, that ideas which are
concocted in a given context often have an inverse relationship to the material
reality and that any analysis should take this into account. Thus, the
preaching of ideas for equality serves to ‘naturalize’ real inequalities
and to perpetuate the status quo; the rhetorical flourishes celebrating
principles of human rights are useful to conceal the daily injustices
practiced in the same quarters and to make them tolerable; the lofty
pronouncements of citizenship camouflage the venal opportunism practiced
routinely in consumer society. In short, ideology is understood
as part of a wider phenomenon of the projection of wishful thinking which is
often used to hide its contrary in the real material world. A recent example of
this is the press conference
held by the US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Real Admiral
John Kirby (USN), where he projects his own short comings onto a RT journalist
who is questioning him about US policy in Turkey-Iraq relations. Please see: https://www.rt.com/usa/325550-iraq-turkey-kirby-dodgy/
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State Dept spokesman gets
personal with RT over Turkey ... State Department spokesman John Kirby gets
testy when RT’s Gayane Chichakyan asks if Iraq has a legitimate concern over
“the situation where the US invites f... |
If ideology is mostly an ipso facto production of some idea
the meaning of which stands opposite to that of a real material contradiction,
then it is a matter of simple geometry to discover from where there is smoke
there is fire, i.e. the material contradiction which created this phenomenon is
located at its source.
The sight of such contradictions can be terrifying; we can imagine
the medieval serfs not wanting to interrupt the flow of food to the
aristocracy, nor even think about it. The real material contradiction of the
many producers empowering the few owners, who turn around and use that power to
dominate them and to periodically destroy them with wars
is shockingly ugly when first viewed. The sight of such contradictions is
camouflaged by ideology, however, and life goes on, business as usual, as if
such relationships did not exist.
For a good illustration of the forces of cultural hegemony during
the Spanish occupation of the Medieval Flanders, see the 2011 film, “The Mill
and the Cross,” based on the painting by Peter Brueghel the Elder (1525-1569) -
"The Way to Calvary"- and directed by Lech Majewski
http://putlocker.ms/watch-the-mill-and-the-cross-online-free-putlocker-2011.html
(one
minute wait to load 1h30 movie)
[The film focuses on a dozen of the 500 characters depicted in
Brueghel’s painting. It consists of a series of vignettes depicting everyday
peasant life, interspersed with monologues from some of the principal
characters, including Brueghel explaining the structure and symbolism of his
painting. The theme of Christ's suffering is set against religious persecution
in Flanders in 1564.]
In the medieval works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), we see early
expressions of genuine disgust with the vapid authoritarian culture that
expands quickly into general hypocrisy and sordid criminality. The Canterbury Tales were completed
in the 1390s, and its vivid descriptions of social relationships are memorable
not for their official piety, but for their bitter satire in portraying
individual foibles, such as greed, vanity, hypocrisy, naiveté . . . . The
poignant ridicule of greed and dishonesty is expressed in the “The Pardoner’s
Tale” :
‘In churches
,’ said the Pardoner, ‘when I preach,
I use, milords, a lofty
style of speech
And ring it out as
roundly as a bell,
Knowing
by rote all that I have to tell.
My text is ever the
same, and ever was”
Radix
malorum est cupiditas. (The root of evil is greed.)*
‘First I inform them
whence I come; that done
I then display my papal
bulls, each one.
I show my license
first, my body’s warrant,
Sealed by the bishop,
for it would be abhorrent
If any man made bold,
though priest or clerk,
To
interrupt me in Christ’s holy work.
And after that I give
myself full scope.
Bulls in the name of
cardinal and pope,
Of bishops and of
patriarchs I show.
I say in Latin some few
words or so
To spice my sermon; it
flavors my appeal
And stirs my listeners
to grater zeal,
Then I display by cases
made of glass
Crammed
to the top with rags and bones. They pass
For
relics with all the people in the place.
I have a shoulder bone
in a metal case,
Part
of a sheep owned by a holy Jew.
‘Good men,’ I say, ‘heed
what I’m telling you:
Just let this bone be
dipped in any well
And if cow, calf, or
sheep, or ox should swell
From eating a worm, or
by a worm be stung,
Take water from this
well and wash its tongue
And it is healed at
once. And furthermore
Of scab and ulcers and
of every sore
Shall every sheep be
cured, and that straightway,
That drinks from the
same well. Heed what I say:
If the good man who
owns the beasts will go,
Fasting, each week, and
drink before cockcrow
Out of this well, his
cattle shall be brought
To multiply –that holy
Jew so taught
Our elders—and his
property increase.
‘Moreover, sirs, this bone cures jealousies.
Though, into a jealous
madness a man fell,
Let him cook his soup
in water from this well,
He’ll never, though for
truth he knew her sin,
Suspect his wife again,
though she took in
A priest,
or even two of them or three.
‘Now here’s a mitten
that you all can see.
Whoever puts his hand
in it shall gain,
When he sows his land,
increasing crops of grain
Be it wheat or oats,
provided that he bring
His
penny or so to make his offering.
‘There is one word of
warning I must say,
Good men and women. If
any here today
Has done a sin so
horrible to name
He daren’t be shriven
of it for the shame,
Of if any woman, your
of old, is here
Who has cuckolded her
husband, be it clear
They may not make an
offering in that case
To these my relics;
they have no power nor grace.
But any who is free of
such dire blame,
Let him come up and
offer in God’s name
And I’ll absolve him
through the authority
That by the pope’s bull
has been granted me.’
‘By such hornswoggling
I’ve won, year by year,
A hundred marks since
being a pardoner.
I stand in my pulpit
like a true divine,
And when people sit I
preach my line
To ignorant souls, as
you have heard before,
And tell skullduggeries
by the hundred more.
Then I take care to
stretch my neck well out
And over the people I
nod and peer about
Just like a pigeon
perching on a shed.;
My hands fly and my
tongue wags in my head
So busily that to watch
me is a joy.
Avarice is the theme
that I employ
In all my sermons, to
make the people free
In
giving pennies –especially to me.
My mind if fixed on
what I stand to win
And
not at all upon correcting sin.
I do not care, when
they are in the grave,
If
souls go berry-picking that I could save.
Truth is that evil
purposes determine,
And many a time, the
origin of a sermon:
Some to please people
and by flattery
To gain advancement
through hypocrisy,
Some
for vainglory, some again for hate.
For when I daren’t
fight otherwise, I wait
And give him a
tongue-lashing when I preach.
No man escapes or gets
beyond the reach
Of my defaming tongue,
supposing he
Has
done a wrong to my brethren or to me.
For thou I do not tell
his proper name,
People will recognize
him all the same.
By sign and circumstance
I let them learn.
Thus I serve those who
have done us an ill turn.
Thus I spit out my
venom under hue
Of sanctity, and seem
devout and true!
‘But to put my purpose
briefly, I confess
I preach for nothing
but for covetousness.
That’s why my text is still
and ever was
Radix malorum es cupiditas.
For by this text I can
denounce, indeed,
The very vice I
practice, which is greed.
But though that sin is
lodged in my own heart,
I am able to make other
people part
From avarice, and
sorely to repent,
Though
that is not my principal intent.
(from “The Prologue of The Pardoner’s Tale”)
Today, in the 21st Century, contradictions abound, both
in the realm of ideas and in field of material relationships; to be well
educated means to be equipped with the critical skills to free ourselves from
conditioned obedience, to identify manipulation by propaganda, to distinguish
truthfulness from intentional distortions and deceitful self-interest --to
deconstruct ruling-class edicts so that we can identify the roles played by
different value hierarchies which are in conflict (among them capitalist
interests in private profits vs. civil interests of social
well-being and the environment).
The 10 items below should help raise our level of
consciousness to better appreciate the origins of painful contradictions we are
now living, and the dire consequences these contradictions inflict on us and on
future generations. The inescapable question today is: Who owns society, the class-conscious
people or the class-conscious owners of capital, who purchase
collusion from elements of the masses?
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor of American Studies
University of Grenoble-3
Director of Research
University of Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social
Movements
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC4cOf8oLDk
a.
The Shock
Doctrine Naomi Klein and Alfonso Cuaron
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSF0e6oO_tw
=======
b.
Protest in
Paris: Climate Justice Activists Decry Accord as "Death Sentence" for
Millions
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/12/14/protest_in_paris_climate_justice_activists
=======
c.
Crippled in Syria, Turkey Goes for a ‘Sunnistan’ in Iraq
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43708.htm
by Pepe Escobar
=======
d.
Sistani Orders Turkey Out Of Iraq
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43703.htm
by Moon Of Alabama
=======
e.
Video Shows Israeli
Commandos Rescuing Wounded Jihadists From Syria
=======
f.
What Orwell can teach us about
the language of terror and war
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/12/words-on-war-a-summons-to-writers-orwell-lecture
=======
g.
The Courage from
Whistle-blowing
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/12/11/the-courage-from-whistle-blowing/
by Ray McGovern
[Courage, like cowardice, can grow when an action by one
person influences decisions by others, either toward bravery or fear. Thus, the
gutsy whistle-blowing by some NSA officials inspired Edward Snowden to expose
mass data collection on all Americans, recalls ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.]
=======
h.
Thousands March in Paris Demanding
Strong Climate Accord
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oUeGEb5Wx8
[As world leaders put
the final touches on a weak climate accord, 15000 people poured into the
streets of Paris to call for stronger action to avert climate catastrophe.]
=======
i.
National Health Singers -
'YOURS'
Video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43725.htm
The National Health Singers are a choir of NHS workers established
in 2015 by junior doctors. We believe that every person has the right to NHS
healthcare free at point of access and that right should never, ever be
threatened.
=======
j.
Noam Chomsky
(2013) "Pedagogy of the Oppressed"