The following article was originally published on July 24th 2011 by the Forget the Box news collective.

Did you know there’s a war going on? One you haven’t heard of?

It’s not a terribly well organized war. Not too many people are dying – though this is changing, fast.

It’s not very well reported – the established media has been slow at coming to terms of what’s actually transpiring here. They are blinded by their own complacency, and this war is partly their responsibility. Yet they, much like the rest of society, continue to look elsewhere, continue to deny their, our, reality.

Over a year ago, the reality came home. The G8/G20 Massacre was perhaps the greatest single broad, collective violation of Canadian human and civil rights the nation has ever witnessed. It was claimed by the Police State that they were acting in their defence, that they were only doing their job. The buck was passed, but the video doesn’t lie. And more than a year later too few have been held accountable. After all, you’ve got to justify building the Police State, and when there aren’t enough terrorists around, you go after your own.

Across the Arctic, one of our circumpolar neighbours is reeling from what was initially reported – and in my opinion misleadingly reported – to be a terrorist attack. The News Corp owned Wall Street Journal went ahead with that headline today, despite the fact that the Norwegian authorities had already detained a self-described Christian fundamentalist yesterday. The truth is never convenient.

And we’ll certainly know the truth soon enough. The man responsible has been outed by the Norwegian national broadcaster. His home has been raided. His forum posts and electronic exchanges have been found and the picture is becoming very clear. A delusional man hyped-up on thoughts of the impending Islamization of Europe, decided to blow up a government building, and then (dressed as a cop mind you) go on a shooting rampage at a summer retreat sponsored by the governing Labour Party’s youth wing. At the time of writing there are 97 confirmed dead, most of whom are youth. Precious youth gunned down in the prime of their lives because of their political affiliation. Gunned down because preaching racial intolerance and reactionary nationalism sells newspapers, and pulls in advertising. Gunned down because it’s easier to kill your fellow man than to try and understand him. The son-of-a-bitch is apparently cooperating with the police. He is doubtless certain that upon explaining he was merely acting in the defence of his nation, he will be pardoned. Perhaps he thinks he is now a martyr for his cause. It’s sick isn’t it?

Down South, the once great American Republic is being held hostage by the same kind of people who encouraged Anders Behring Breivik online prior to his deadly spree shooting. The same kind of people who fuel a deception/propaganda machine, and ultimately, perhaps unwittingly, produce their own home-grown terrorists; Timothy McVeigh, David Koresh, Randy Weaver, William Pierce, George Lincoln Rockwell, Fred Phelps, Jared Lee Loughner, James Earl Ray – all of these people led to believe that they would provide the solution to troubled times. It is a solution that comes, invariably, at the end of a gun.

When was the last time the Left produced a bomber?

When was the last time an anarchist assassinated someone?

Who was the last Progressive spree shooter?

I can’t think of anyone, but the aforementioned list (which is far from complete) resonates deeply in my mind. What’s sickening is that there this a collusion, possibly an international collusion of media, corporate interests and conservative political movements. The people involved push their flock to the edge of hysteria, and set them loose.

In other words, there is nothing stopping exactly this kind of tragedy from happening here in Canada. There is no preparation, no equipment, no police force, capable of preventing insane Fascists from acting ‘in defence of their nation’. Just like with Islamic terrorism, you can’t stop it. And the home grown threat is always invisible. Whether it’s someone pretending to be a cop or an actual cop, there’s nothing the State can do to stop dedicated killers, oppressors and those who believe the best change is executed with great vengeance and furious anger.

But perhaps the State can go after the media that feeds this insanity.

I would hope that’s what President Obama is thinking right now. In light of John Boehner’s refusal to accept a compromise to ensure the United States doesn’t go into default, it occurs to me that there is a pervading sense amongst nearly all Conservatives that cooperation is a kind of weakness. The child refused to cooperate, and left the meeting room in a huff with the issue unresolved. This is the Republican Party, holding a nation hostage for the sake of the elites. This is the same party, which through its lobby and media tentacles, have convinced countless ‘lone-wolves’ time and time again to wage their own personal war against whomever they disagree with. Boehner doesn’t need to put a gun in anyone’s hand – the NRA’s already taken care of that. Boehner doesn’t need to tell people who to kill, Fox has already declared the Muslims/Anarchists/Liberals (etc, etc) are coming to get us. And Boehner doesn’t need to cooperate to make the American government work either. He’s gambling on an RNC landslide in 2012. He’s gambling on ‘lone-wolves’ to create new problems, new distractions.

Something must be done,

Because it doesn’t seem to be in anyone’s interest to protect the Left anymore.

We’re sitting ducks,

And involved in an undeclared and spontaneous war of attrition with a force that doesn’t seem to place much value on human life in the first place.

I hear the clichéd phrase ‘oh, how the mighty have fallen’ being uttered here, there and everywhere – often of late with regards to an individual I consider to be perhaps one of our society’s greatest evils. His name is Rupert. His wife’s name is Wendy. He’s Australian. And he’s turned deceit, fraud and manipulation – on an epic scale – to create the world’s premier bullshit machine. I don’t necessarily agree with the aforementioned phrase; frankly, he’s not falling quickly enough.

And as capitalism falls, so too do the most egregious examples of our laissez-faire complacency, and I can’t personally imagine a more sinister product of market-driven capitalism than corporate-friendly mass-delusion media. Some in power would look on the success of Fox News, News Corp etc as a great testament to an individual’s business savvy. I look on it’s success as nothing more than applying Goebbel’s methods as a ‘necessary balance’ to an assumedly liberal media. The evil is palpable.

The embattled chairman says he is humble.
And then he falls asleep during the proceedings.
He has the gall to claim humility, but acts with utmost hubris.
He apologizes – not for the crime, but for not being a better boss.

He indicates in open session of a parliamentary inquiry that he will make those responsible pay for their crimes.

Just who the fuck is this asshole anyways?

Does he honestly believe to be beyond the reach of the law?

From the looks of things – yes, I would bet my bottom dollar that Murdoch honestly believes at this point in his 80-year old mind that he has ascended to a position beyond the reach of any law enforcement. This may legitimately be the case. If Murdoch can plausibly deny direct knowledge of the goings-on of his subordinates, and let’s face it, he probably can unless new documents prove otherwise, then he’ll likely not be held responsible. No jail time, perhaps a fine, maybe an expedited retirement and the appointment of a sufficiently ‘Murdochian’ heir – perhaps even his son. And at that point, in corporate parlance, we’re now dealing with a ‘media dynasty’ with Rupert as elder statesman. In Murdoch’s mind, the corporate giant and the country are on an even playing field, with Chairman and Prime Minister of seemingly equitable stature. His presence at these meetings is nothing more than an attempt at public relations. It’s damage control, the danger being that he’ll likely be left in the driver’s seat.

The News of the World Scandal has considerable implications, but only if the current inquiry balloons into an investigation of the entirety of News Corp’s operations, past and present, across the globe, with Murdoch toppled like Saddam and the corporation broken up into a million tiny pieces. Unless the people demand this from their elected officials, the implications are merely within the realm of possibility. While the Brits have been doing a decent, typically balls-out aggressive, job hammering the Murdochs, Brooks, Coulson and Cameron, I have a hard time believing Americans will demand the same degree of open hostility from their elected representatives when questioning News Corp operatives this side of the Atlantic. I find it ironic that News Corp, by stoking the flames of sensationalism, jingoism and scandal, were able to coax once genteel British politicians (and the People too for that matter) out of the closet of decorum and passive, almost academic politics and (somehow) into a new role as righteously indignant investigative reporters. Watching footage from the parliamentary committee and, subsequently, the grilling of David Cameron by the Opposition, I wondered what makes us so passive, so unwilling to hold evil accountable? Why aren’t our elected officials prosecuting those who harm the people with a self-appointed righteous conviction?

Writing this article has left me feeling somewhat impotent; there’s a lot going on here which is going to take some time to work itself out, and its difficult to say where this will all eventually lead. I would like to see this scandal take down Cameron, Murdoch and the entirety of News Corp. I would like, one-day, for their to be a new compound word ‘newscorp’ which will be a synonym for the People’s revenge, a figurative head on a pike, reminding future generations that the media must serve the People, inasmuch as the State must do the same.