*Ø* Iran's transsexuals
Capital, which is so heavily invested in the military-industrial complex, requires the existence of combatants, and traditionally generates discourses of "the enemy" and "the other".
To this end, capital's meme machine borrows heavily from racial stereotypes, and in fact sometimes creates those stereotypes.
Thus we shouldn't be surprised when a middle manager of capital, such as George W Bush or almost any news media editor, police chief or defence officer in the Western world, propagates a Crusade mentality when there are impediments to investment. In our time, Islam is the enemy, for many reasons, not the least of which is its resistance to some of the mainstays of US trade, such as alcohol and the Hollywood sex-death culture.
The portrayal of Muslims as the enemy usually relies on the stereotypes of violence and puritanism. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and a different picture emerges. If the same standards were applied to Western cultures, it would be very easy to portray Western cultures as incredibly violent and ruthlessly puritanical. Give me five minutes and I can paint a picture of Australia or the USA that would make Hieronymus Bosch's inferno pale by comparison. As a matter of fact, this method is used by Islamist ideologues of the bin Laden variety, and by Leninist memeticists in Cuba and China. Whichever "side" the propaganda is on, it is still propaganda.
Understanding why our "enemies" change like the fashion season, it's important to keep undermining the stereotypes, and I do so at every opportunity. I delight in telling people that I have lived for years with Afghan Muslims, and I make a point of conveying my experience of certain qualities that I find superior in Afghan Muslim culture to my own. As just one example, without doubt Afghans are on the whole far more hospitable than Australians, who pride themselves on being welcoming. The difference is like chalk and cheese.
Of course, we all know that Muslim countries are incredibly sexually repressive, unlike our own enlightened states. So it must be a lie that Iran, the worst of the worst as far as Muslim states goes, supports transsexuals more compassionately than many states in the enlightened West.
Caption to image above: Maryam Hatoon Molkara, who was formerly a man known as Fereydoon, was an early campaigner for the rights of transsexuals in Iran. Photograph by S. Reza for the New York Times.
Capital, which is so heavily invested in the military-industrial complex, requires the existence of combatants, and traditionally generates discourses of "the enemy" and "the other".
To this end, capital's meme machine borrows heavily from racial stereotypes, and in fact sometimes creates those stereotypes.
Thus we shouldn't be surprised when a middle manager of capital, such as George W Bush or almost any news media editor, police chief or defence officer in the Western world, propagates a Crusade mentality when there are impediments to investment. In our time, Islam is the enemy, for many reasons, not the least of which is its resistance to some of the mainstays of US trade, such as alcohol and the Hollywood sex-death culture.
The portrayal of Muslims as the enemy usually relies on the stereotypes of violence and puritanism. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and a different picture emerges. If the same standards were applied to Western cultures, it would be very easy to portray Western cultures as incredibly violent and ruthlessly puritanical. Give me five minutes and I can paint a picture of Australia or the USA that would make Hieronymus Bosch's inferno pale by comparison. As a matter of fact, this method is used by Islamist ideologues of the bin Laden variety, and by Leninist memeticists in Cuba and China. Whichever "side" the propaganda is on, it is still propaganda.
Understanding why our "enemies" change like the fashion season, it's important to keep undermining the stereotypes, and I do so at every opportunity. I delight in telling people that I have lived for years with Afghan Muslims, and I make a point of conveying my experience of certain qualities that I find superior in Afghan Muslim culture to my own. As just one example, without doubt Afghans are on the whole far more hospitable than Australians, who pride themselves on being welcoming. The difference is like chalk and cheese.
Of course, we all know that Muslim countries are incredibly sexually repressive, unlike our own enlightened states. So it must be a lie that Iran, the worst of the worst as far as Muslim states goes, supports transsexuals more compassionately than many states in the enlightened West.
Caption to image above: Maryam Hatoon Molkara, who was formerly a man known as Fereydoon, was an early campaigner for the rights of transsexuals in Iran. Photograph by S. Reza for the New York Times.
Pip Wilson posted item above at 8:56 AM | Permalink
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