MSM’s strategy of tension

DIE HARD III / Herman Tiu Laurel / Jan. 22, 2014 / Daily Tribune

"The strategy of tension (Italian: strategia della tensione) is a tactic that aims to divide, manipulate, and control public opinion using fear, propaganda, disinformation, psychological warfare, agents provocateurs, and false flag terrorist actions."

This is the constant strategy of mainstream media (MSM), just in their last "invasion" news and headlines ploy to stir up fear of and tension at China over a non-existent plan plan to seize Pag-asa Island that the Philippines presently occupy. It also asserted that 2014 is China's opportunity to seize it because of the misfortunes of the Philippines. BS. China can do that anytime it pleases but it won't as it would be diplomatic foolishness.

Philippine MSM is one huge farce with major newspapers and broadcast outlets controlled by the financial-economic ruling class that thrive on the umbilical cord that connects it to the Western financial system, i.e. Wall Street, the City of London and the Bank of International Settlements. The country's biggest corporations are dominated by foreign capital which is already admitted to be foreign controlled.

The Philippine MSM engaged on a strategy of tension against China, as well as many segments of the international media. In the Philippines one foreign writer called on Filipinos "not to take the bait" of China, but what bait? The "invasion" story was a non-story in the first place. This foreign writer in the Manila Times once wrote that "the Filipinos need foreigners" to help it get out of the economic rut it is in, forgetting the fact that it is foreigner, particularly the US and Britain that screwed the Philippines for the past century. There is a horde of Western writers spread out in MSM in the Philippines promoting the opening up of the economy without limits and pushing the rigged financial markets.

It is not surprising that Ben Kritz of the Manila Times will be accusing China of the "invasion," the "new fishing rules" and, earlier, the ADIZ aggression. What they do not write about is the revival of the US prodded revival of Japan's capacity for aggression, the US missile defense system being set up to ring China, Japan's "nationalization" of 280 new islands, ad nausea. The Western powers are confronted with the dusk of their powers, as the news of China this early in 2014 overtaking the US as the top trading nation of the world and its vaulting to having the third largest gold reserves next only to Germany (which cannot get its gold back from the US) and the US.

I am not surprised that after that article on "The 'invasion' Ploy" came out, the day after my e-mail was hacked and totally wiped out, losing all my contacts and messages accumulated over years. I got texts from relatives and friends about receiving mail from me frorm Ukraine asking for financial help as I allegedly met an accident there. Of course, hundreds of thousands of others have received such fraud mails and nobody is fooled by them, so they are just covers for special hacking operations just as they did to my e-mail. But then there are others who would like to hack my communications to inconvenience me.

The strategy of tension and mayhem is inherent in our political system. The exposé of Sen. Bong Revilla of BS Aquino's bribery of senators to vote in favor of his vendetta against the Supreme Court chief justice who presided over the return of the Hacienda Luisita to farmers is an example.

Revilla acceded to BS Aquino's request and convicted Corona against all principles of separation of powers, due process, non-discriminatory justice and fair play, so what does that make all of them — they're all corrupt, unprincipled, self-serving — but all the better to obfuscate the real issues in the land such as the perpetuation of neo-colonialism and exploitation such as in the power sector.

For any individual human being or any collective of such individuals to achieve any goal, be it a village raising a child or a nation building an sovereign state and economy, requires focus on a series of activities that builds upon on another. A building or road or hydro-electric dam begins with the foundation, the education of a citizen begins with the ABCs and ends in a wholistic view of life and the universe, and national consciousness and unity are built on a foundation of understanding the particular people's history and destiny. The MSM should have a role in focusing the nation, but in the Philippines the MSM is just a tool of the strategy of tension that addles the national mind and divides the consciousness of the nation into a daily kaleidoscope of disjointed, Picasso-que abstract.