iHaveNet.com
World - You Cannot Kill an Idea | Middle East
  • HOME
  • WORLD
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Balkans
    • Caucasas
    • Central Asia
    • Eastern Europe
    • Europe
    • Indian Subcontinent
    • Latin America
    • Middle East
    • North Africa
    • Scandinavia
    • Southeast Asia
    • United Kingdom
    • United States
    • Argentina
    • Australia
    • Austria
    • Benelux
    • Brazil
    • Canada
    • China
    • France
    • Germany
    • Greece
    • Hungary
    • India
    • Indonesia
    • Ireland
    • Israel
    • Italy
    • Japan
    • Korea
    • Mexico
    • New Zealand
    • Pakistan
    • Philippines
    • Poland
    • Russia
    • South Africa
    • Spain
    • Taiwan
    • Turkey
    • United States
  • USA
    • ECONOMICS
    • EDUCATION
    • ENVIRONMENT
    • FOREIGN POLICY
    • POLITICS
    • OPINION
    • TRADE
    • Atlanta
    • Baltimore
    • Bay Area
    • Boston
    • Chicago
    • Cleveland
    • DC Area
    • Dallas
    • Denver
    • Detroit
    • Houston
    • Los Angeles
    • Miami
    • New York
    • Philadelphia
    • Phoenix
    • Pittsburgh
    • Portland
    • San Diego
    • Seattle
    • Silicon Valley
    • Saint Louis
    • Tampa
    • Twin Cities
  • BUSINESS
    • FEATURES
    • eBUSINESS
    • HUMAN RESOURCES
    • MANAGEMENT
    • MARKETING
    • ENTREPRENEUR
    • SMALL BUSINESS
    • STOCK MARKETS
    • Agriculture
    • Airline
    • Auto
    • Beverage
    • Biotech
    • Book
    • Broadcast
    • Cable
    • Chemical
    • Clothing
    • Construction
    • Defense
    • Durable
    • Engineering
    • Electronics
    • Firearms
    • Food
    • Gaming
    • Healthcare
    • Hospitality
    • Leisure
    • Logistics
    • Metals
    • Mining
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Newspaper
    • Nondurable
    • Oil & Gas
    • Packaging
    • Pharmaceutic
    • Plastics
    • Real Estate
    • Retail
    • Shipping
    • Sports
    • Steelmaking
    • Textiles
    • Tobacco
    • Transportation
    • Travel
    • Utilities
  • WEALTH
    • CAREERS
    • INVESTING
    • PERSONAL FINANCE
    • REAL ESTATE
    • MARKETS
    • BUSINESS
  • STOCKS
    • ECONOMY
    • EMERGING MARKETS
    • STOCKS
    • FED WATCH
    • TECH STOCKS
    • BIOTECHS
    • COMMODITIES
    • MUTUAL FUNDS / ETFs
    • MERGERS / ACQUISITIONS
    • IPOs
    • 3M (MMM)
    • AT&T (T)
    • AIG (AIG)
    • Alcoa (AA)
    • Altria (MO)
    • American Express (AXP)
    • Apple (AAPL)
    • Bank of America (BAC)
    • Boeing (BA)
    • Caterpillar (CAT)
    • Chevron (CVX)
    • Cisco (CSCO)
    • Citigroup (C)
    • Coca Cola (KO)
    • Dell (DELL)
    • DuPont (DD)
    • Eastman Kodak (EK)
    • ExxonMobil (XOM)
    • FedEx (FDX)
    • General Electric (GE)
    • General Motors (GM)
    • Google (GOOG)
    • Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
    • Home Depot (HD)
    • Honeywell (HON)
    • IBM (IBM)
    • Intel (INTC)
    • Int'l Paper (IP)
    • JP Morgan Chase (JPM)
    • J & J (JNJ)
    • McDonalds (MCD)
    • Merck (MRK)
    • Microsoft (MSFT)
    • P & G (PG)
    • United Tech (UTX)
    • Wal-Mart (WMT)
    • Walt Disney (DIS)
  • TECH
    • ADVANCED
    • FEATURES
    • INTERNET
    • INTERNET FEATURES
    • CYBERCULTURE
    • eCOMMERCE
    • mp3
    • SECURITY
    • GAMES
    • HANDHELD
    • SOFTWARE
    • PERSONAL
    • WIRELESS
  • HEALTH
    • AGING
    • ALTERNATIVE
    • AILMENTS
    • DRUGS
    • FITNESS
    • GENETICS
    • CHILDREN'S
    • MEN'S
    • WOMEN'S
  • LIFESTYLE
    • AUTOS
    • HOBBIES
    • EDUCATION
    • FAMILY
    • FASHION
    • FOOD
    • HOME DECOR
    • RELATIONSHIPS
    • PARENTING
    • PETS
    • TRAVEL
    • WOMEN
  • ENTERTAINMENT
    • BOOKS
    • TELEVISION
    • MUSIC
    • THE ARTS
    • MOVIES
    • CULTURE
  • SPORTS
    • BASEBALL
    • BASKETBALL
    • COLLEGES
    • FOOTBALL
    • GOLF
    • HOCKEY
    • OLYMPICS
    • SOCCER
    • TENNIS
  • Subscribe to RSS Feeds EMAIL ALERT Subscriptions from iHaveNet.com RSS
    • RSS | Politics
    • RSS | Recipes
    • RSS | NFL Football
    • RSS | Movie Reviews
You Cannot Kill an Idea
Robert C. Koehler

HOME > WORLD

 

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

The crowds keep swelling, as though awareness, determination -- humanity itself -- were rising up from the earth. Einstein observed that we can never solve problems at the same level of thinking that created them. I hear the resonance of a new moral intelligence asserting itself, on the streets of the Middle East, in the United States and around the world.

"You can kill a man," said Medgar Evers, "but you can't kill an idea."

But oh, they try, they try. Hundreds were killed and wounded across the Middle East in recent weeks. "In the southern city of Aden," AP reports, "Yemeni security forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators after Friday's Muslim prayers, wounding at least 19 people."

Our whole approach to security is built around the assumption that you can kill an idea. Guns, brutality, coercion: This is the common wisdom. It's sustained by a moral numbness that permeates mainstream culture and is carried along by the corporate media, which perpetuate a facile misunderstanding of the world with the throwaway certitudes embedded in their reportage.

Consider, for instance, this stunning little say-nothing sentence that I plucked from an AFP dispatch about NATO's possible killing of 65 civilians (including 40 children) during a recent strike in Kunar province, Afghanistan:

"The accidental deaths of civilians in international military operations is a highly sensitive subject in Afghanistan -- particularly in Kunar -- which experts and officials say can fuel support for the Taliban-led insurgency."

A reader can glide so smoothly past such military-industrial truisms, hardly noticing that the subject under discussion is flesh and blood, the lives of people who have the bad luck to be living in a war zone. These people, alas, keep getting in our way as we set about the grim task of killing "insurgents," that is to say, believers in a particular idea.

There's no grief in such language, no horror, no sense of wonderment that we're operating out of a 12th-century "kill them all, let God sort them out" mindset, constrained only by the tedious sensitivity they have over there about dead children. Rolling Stone recently broke a mini-scandal about the Army's use of "psy-ops" propaganda on visiting U.S. congresspersons in order to cajole more funding for its Afghan operations, but as far as I'm concerned, much of the media colludes in psy-ops reporting aimed at keeping the whole country hoodwinked and stupid.

I've despaired for years that the voices calling for a world beyond war and the corporate agenda have been effectively marginalized, with no more than a symbolic place in our sophisticated pseudo-democracy -- and certainly no leverage to exert on actual policy.

But this is what is suddenly changing. The "street" and the "masses" have actually found -- maybe rediscovered is the right word -- the power of nonviolent collective action. And the cradle of this new approach to civilization is not in the comfortably snoozing West but in the impoverished and long-brutalized Middle East, where every despot has either tumbled or is shaking in his boots -- and where violence has suddenly been stripped of its righteousness and been exposed as weakness, no matter how much mayhem it produces.

Thus in Iraq, even though Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki responded with brutal impotence to huge protests throughout the war-ravaged country over the weekend -- calling not for his ouster but merely for electricity and an end to corruption -- he failed to quell the rising tide of change. The Washington Post reported that 29 protesters were killed throughout the country in clashes with government forces, and 300 intellectuals and journalists (the heroic, non-collusive kind) were arrested, with many of them tortured. But the "day of rage" was still a triumph.

Filmmaker Raad Mushatat, in a gathering of colleagues after their release, told a Post reporter: "The government is scared. But they do not scare me anymore."

This is change.

And it's the kind of change that crosses borders, that defies every attempt at coercion. "You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea." Maybe what we're witnessing is the end of passive citizenship, at least as something the military-industrial status quo can count on. And maybe, in this country, the defense of public-sector union jobs is just the beginning, to be followed by demands for a defunding of our wars, which radiate suffering in all directions, and a redirection of spending into education, health care, infrastructure and other programs that serve the common good.

"We will not . . . end this slaughter of innocents, unless we are willing to rise up as have state workers in Wisconsin and citizens on the streets of Arab capitals," Chris Hedges wrote this week. "Repeated and sustained acts of civil disobedience are the only weapons that remain to us."

Suddenly protest is not "symbolic" anymore, but a way to work the levers of change: a recovery, you might say, of the right to vote.

SocialTwist Tell-a-Friend

 

  • Japanese Government Confirms Meltdown
  • Officials Claim Positive Signs on Japanese Reactor
  • Nuclear Meltdown at Quake-Damaged Japanese Plant
  • U.S. Geologists Explain Science Behind Japanese Earthquake
  • The Slow Decline of North America
  • Will Libya Again Become the Arsenal of Terrorism?
  • How a Libyan No-fly Zone Could Backfire
  • Superpower Obligations
  • Caught in the Middle East Minefield
  • You Cannot Kill an Idea
  • Democracy Must Be the Future of the Middle East
  • Arab Revolutions Need Not Be Americanized
  • Bahrain and the Battle Between Iran and Saudi Arabia
  • 'New Chapter' in the Middle East
  • Embarrassing Times for Al Qaeda
  • Western Intervention in Libya Should Not Fly
  • Yemen: Divided Dissent
  • Egypt: The Road Ahead
  • Egypt: First Steps
  • That Other Middle East Protest
  • Arab World's Obsession With Israel Is Fading
  • Time to Rethink Arab Arms Sales
  • Cote d'Ivoire: Power Gridlock
  • UK - Latin American Relations: Rearranging The Deckchairs
  • Mexico: Cracking Down
  • Ireland: A Work In Progress
  • WikiLeaks: Unsteady Drip
  • A G-Zero World: New Economic Club Will Produce Conflict Not Cooperation
  • The Post-Washington Consensus
  • Currency Wars: Then and Now
  • Currencies Are Not the Problem
  • The Advantages of an Assertive China
  • China's Search for a Grand Strategy
  • Will China's Rise Lead to War?
  • Getting China to Sanction Iran
  • How al Qaeda Works
  • Fighting the Laws of War
  • Cambodia: A Temple and a Tempest
  • A Welcome Foreign Policy Caution
  • A Politically 'Comatose' Middle East Awakens
  • New Regimes in Arab World Could Highlight American Hypocrisy
  • Egypt in Danger of Becoming America's Greatest Middle East Enemy
  • Middle East Unrest Spreads to Libya
  • The Tunisia Effect
  • The Arab Revolt
  • Far East and Middle East: A Study in Contrasts?
  • Arms Sales for India
  • The Indian - Pakistani Divide
  • Iraq: From Surge to Sovereignty
  • Doing Multiculturalism Right
  • Germany's Immigration Dilemma
  • World's Top Ten Circular Buildings and Structures
  • Freedom Fever
  • Revolution and the Muslim World
  • Discovering Fire
  • A Truth More Powerful Than an Army
  • Egypt's Dim Future
  • Demographics of Arab Protests
  • In New Arab World United States Cannot Straddle Fence Much Longer
  • The Wealth Gap Around the World
  • Revisionist History of Bush Democracy Agenda Doesn't Hold Up
  • What the Egyptian Uprising Means for Investors
  • The Real 'Realism' on Israel
  • Shaky Restart to Inter-Korean Talks
  • The Threat of Civil Unrest in Pakistan and the Davis Case
  • Davos Man and the Real World
  • From Davos to D.C., A Crossroads Moment for the World
  • The 10 Countries With the Most Debt
  • Egypt: The Distance Between Enthusiasm and Reality
  • Egypt Revolt Part of a Long History of Uprisings
  • Hope Amid the Chaos in Cairo
  • Egypt's Uphill Economic Struggles
  • The United States - Egypt Breakup: Washington's Limited Options in Cairo
  • Egypt a 'Textbook' Foreign Policy Dilemma
  • Egypt's Widening Discontent
  • Egypt Aflame
  • Obama Meets Foreign Policy Test in Egypt
  • Tunisia: Moment in the Sun
  • Hunger Fuels Discontent in Middle East
  • No Justice, No Peace
  • American-Israeli Policy To Be Tested By Arab Uprisings
  • Israel, Turkey and Iran: Neighbourly Strain
  • Israel: Testing Times
  • Syria: Washington's New Direction
  • Russia: A 21st Century Alliance?
  • Russia: Podium Pressure and the 2014 Winter Olympics
  • Montenegro: The Survivor Exits
  • Kosovo: A Way To Go
  • Belarus: Back in the Freezer
  • Korea: A Glimmer of Hope
  • Humanitarian Workers: Aid for the Aid Givers
  • U.S. Officials Talk Tough With China
  • Obama Presses Hu Jintao to Let U.S. Banks Into China
  • Obama Served Peace Prize too Early
  • America's China Syndrome
  • Tunisia's Lessons for Repressive Regimes
  • Tunisia: A Popular Uprising But Then What?
  • Unrest in Tunisia and Ivory Coast Send Tremors Through Africa
  • Afganistan: Nurturing a Narco-State
  • Top Global Risks of 2011
  • China and United States Need Overarching Concept for Interaction
  • China's Growing Military Might Poses Many Policy Questions
  • Britain and China: Then and Now
  • How Repressive Regimes Use the Internet to Keep Power
  • Islam's Hijackers and Hijackees
  • WikiLeaks: Diplomacy as Usual
  • Africom: Soft Power Warriors
  • Nigerian Elections: Levelling the Playing Fields
  • Nigerian Elections: Changing of the Old Guard?
  • Sudan: Beyond Southern Sudan
  • Afghanistan: Deadly Addiction
  • The Euro: Until Death Do Us Part
  • Russia: Rewriting History
  • Gulf States Should Take a DIY Approach With Iran
  • Back to 'Normal' in the Middle East
  • America: Uneasy Engagement
  • America: Flying Into Turbulence
  • Obama and Human Rights: Continuity and Change
  • Western Economy on Suicide Watch?
  • South America Enters Middle East Quagmire
  • The Political Power of Social Media
  • West Is Best? Why Civilizations Rise and Fall
  • Exploring the Influence of Culture on Military Doctrine
  • The Good News About Gas
  • Less Than Zero: Bursting the New Disarmament Bubble
  • Why Moscow Says No
  • A Third Way to Palestine - Fayyadism and Its Discontents
  • The Dangers of a Nuclear Iran
  • Plan B in Afghanistan
  • The Fallout of the Global Gun Trade
  • Finish the Job: How the War in Afghanistan Can Be Won
  • Why the Rich Are Getting Richer
  • A Leaner and Meaner Defense
  • Defense Is On The Table
  • The American 21st Century
  • Culture Matters: Real Obstacles to Latin American Development
  • A Wave of Christianophobia
  • Lessons From the Iraq War for Afghanistan
  • Foreign Policy Review Suggests a Losing Effort
  • Iran: Glow, Little Glow Worm, Glow
  • Believe in Violence and Be Saved
  • Colonialism Still at Heart of Africa's Growing Pains
  • The Empty Chair
  • North Korea: The World's Problem Child
  • Save the North Koreans!
  • For Middle East Peace, Israel Must Prepare for Nuclear War
  • Iran Nuclear Talks: A Widening Chasm
  • A Sordid Dance in Afghanistan
  • Holding the Course in Afghanistan
  • As New START Debate Rages, Quiet Nuclear Progress With Russia
  • Argentina Needs to Face Education Debacle
  • A World Full of Fault Lines
  • Facebook, Twitter and the Search for Peace in the Middle East
  • China's Leadership: Fractures Finally Showing
  • China: Uncertain Leap Forward
  • Britain and China: Being Friendly
  • Belarus: Land Between
  • Sudan's Referendum: Prickly Interdependence
  • Saudi Arabian Foreign Policy: Limits of Being Helpful
  • Iraq Refugees: Seeking Safety
  • Troublesome Partner in Afghanistan
  • NATO Presses on With Futile Effort in Afghanistan
  • Counterfeit Medicines: Health and Harm
  • Food Supply: Lunchtime Blues
  • Cybersecurity and Society: bigsociety.com
  • America's Credibility Deficit
  • Global Warming Conference Faces Meltdown
  • WikiLeaks Disclosures Not Earth Shattering
  • WikiLeaks May End Up Helping America
  • WikiLeaks and The Invisible Government
  • Wikileaks: More Than Just an Embarrassment
  • Wikileaks: Undiplomatic Diplomacy
  • A WikiLeaks Wake-up Call
  • Will WikiLeaks Hobble U.S. Diplomacy?
  • How WikiLeaks Can Make Us Less Free
  • Wikileaks: Small Revelations That May Cause a Big Idea to Take Hold
  • G20 Summit: Hitting Singles in Seoul
  • The Consequences of Fiscal Irresponsibility
  • GDP Now Matters More Than Force: Policy for the Age of Economic Power
  • What Population Growth and Decline Means for the Global Economy
  • Leading Through Civilian Power: Redefining Diplomacy and Development
  • The Future of American Power: Dominance and Decline in Perspective
  • Who Do You Call If You Want to Divide Europe?
  • The Game Changer: Coping With China's Foreign Policy Revolution
  • Why the Retirement Age Is Increasing
  • Religion's Growing Influence in International Politics
  • The Difficulty of Integrating Rising Powers
  • Ban-ki Moon Has United Nations 'Drifting Into Irrelevance'
  • Bachelet Faces Uphill Battle at U.N. Women
  • Murderous Tactics Fueling Terrorist Propaganda
  • Benjamin Netanyahu: A Hawk in the Ointment
  • Diminished Capacity
  • Moscow's Modernization Dilemma: Is Russia Charting a New Foreign Policy?
  • NATO Summit Unlikely to Answer the Most Important Questions
  • Franco-German Call for Change in the EU Meets with Much Opposition
  • A Tenuous Deal in Iraq
  • Conflict or Cooperation? Three Visions Revisited
  • A New Global Player: Brazil's Far-Flung Agenda
  • Pax Ottomana? The Mixed Success of Turkey's New Foreign Policy
  • Rise of the Mezzanine Rulers
  • Globalizing the Energy Revolution
  • Democracy in Cyberspace
  • The Digital Disruption
  • Africa: Agriculture's Final Frontier
  • A Reading List for the Twenty-first Century
  • Latin American Leaders Could Have Learned From South Korea
  • Region Ignoring Venezuela Coup Threats
  • To Fight Corruption, Start Cutting Red Tape
  • New Congress Won't Lead to 'Fortress America'
  • The Shifting Balance of Power
  • Checking China's Territorial Moves
  • Why China Has a Point About Quantitative Easing
  • China's Rate Hike: Winners and Losers
  • Taiwan's Shadow
  • Fools Rush in Where Europe Rushes Out
  • Germany to Muhammad: Go Home
  • Can NATO Nudge Russia Westward?
  • French Demonstrations Tell a Familiar Tale
  • Chavez a Pain for Spain
  • Nestor Kirchner's Death May Mark End of an Era
  • Petraeus Follows Iraq Formula in Afghanistan
  • Heavy Handed Intervention Has Stalled Arab-Israeli Peace Process
  • George Clooney Urges Obama and Media To Focus On Sudan
  • Fighting Hunger in Des Moines
  • Rise in Tourism to Miami May Signal Danger Ahead
  • Peru May Be Next Latin American Success Story
  • Nobel Winner Right About Risks of e-Books
  • Nestor Kirchner's Death May Mark End of an Era
  • Chavez a Pain for Spain
  • Economic Woes Put Brittle Nations on Edge

 

Available at Amazon.com:

Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World

Displacement and Dispossession in the Modern Middle East (The Contemporary Middle East)

Enemies of Intelligence

The End of History and the Last Man

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics

The End of the Free Market: Who Wins the War Between States and Corporations?

Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource

Bottled and Sold: The Story Behind Our Obsession with Bottled Water

Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization

The Great Gamble

At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes

Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century

Dining With al-Qaeda: Three Decades Exploring the Many Worlds of the Middle East

Uprising: Will Emerging Markets Shape or Shake the World Economy

 

Copyright 2011, TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

Recommend

Search Powered By Google

Google Search   

ADVERTISEMENT

Advertisement

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT

Job & Career Search

career & job search                    job title, keywords, company, location
  • HOME
  • WORLD
  • USA
  • BUSINESS
  • WEALTH
  • STOCKS
  • TECH
  • HEALTH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • ENTERTAINMENT
  • SPORTS

World - You Cannot Kill an Idea | Global Viewpoint

  • Services:
  • RSS Feeds
  • Shopping
  • Email Alerts
  • Site Map
  • Privacy