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A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

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US Bombardements since ‘45<br />

China 1945-46<br />

Korea 1950-53<br />

China 1950-53<br />

Guatemala 1954<br />

Cuba 1959-61<br />

Guatemala 1960<br />

Vietnam 1961-73<br />

Congo 1964<br />

Laos 1964-73<br />

Peru 1965<br />

Guatemala 1967-69<br />

Cambodia 1969-70<br />

Nicaragua 1980-87<br />

The colonization of mind<br />

To rule support of public opinion is essential. That public opinion is being<br />

moulded more and more by the mass media and that mass media is<br />

now almost completely in the hands of big capital. Here too there was<br />

a silent takeover. Even military industry has not been absent in this<br />

takeover. Dassault, a French arms manufacturer is a very good example.<br />

The following pronouncement of Marcel Dassault, the founder, speaks<br />

for itself: ‘My group should have a newspaper or review in order to express<br />

its opinion and perhaps also to reply to a few journalists who have<br />

written in a very unpleasant way. I’m tired of being insulted in several<br />

newspapers, because there are people who are incompetent and who<br />

do not know the real problems. So I want to be able to respond.’ 35 Today<br />

the poor man controls more than 70 newspapers or reviews. It is just<br />

one example. By some calculations, 70 percent of the French press is<br />

now in the hands of defence firms. 36 The result of this takeover is that<br />

public debate is not being held by the citizens but being held (or not<br />

being held) by the corporate media. One must admit, the commercial<br />

35 http://www.acrimed.org/article1519.html<br />

36 The Economist, July 8, 2006, p. 32.<br />

El Salvador 1980-87<br />

Grenada 1983<br />

Libya 1986<br />

Panama 1989<br />

Iraq 1991-2008<br />

Somalia 1993<br />

Bosnia 1995<br />

Soedan 1998<br />

Afghanistan 1998, 2001-2011<br />

Yugoslavia 1999<br />

Pakistan 2005-2011<br />

Yemen 2009<br />

Libya 2011<br />

113

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