Digging Deeper VI: The Corporation at Work in Peace & War (www.ufppc.org) June 27, 2005

Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2004).

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Peace is War: The Collateral Damage of Breaking News. (Mar. 7, 2003 speech to the Center for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi.) After Sept. 11, “the U.S. mainstream media’s blatant performance as the government’s mouthpiece was the butt of some pretty black humor in the rest of the world. It brought the myth of the Free Press in America crashing down” (2). But this media role is typical of modern democracies, including India (2-3). “It’s a mistake to think that the corporate media supports the neo-liberal project. It is the neo-liberal project . . . Corporate/nationalism has become the unwavering anthem of the mass media. One of our main tasks is to expose the complex mess of cables that connect power to money to the supposedly ‘neutral’ free press” (4). “New Media” are like bees buzzing around the buffalo of “Old Media” (4-6). The evolution of “crisis reportage,” a “blood sport” (6-9). Indian examples (9-15). For most people, “peace is war ― a daily battle against hunger, thirst, and the violation of their dignity . . . the endless crisis of normality” (15-16). Needed: “understanding and exposing the instruments of the State” (16). “The only way to make democracy real is to begin a process of constant questioning, permanent provocation, and continuous public conversation between citizens and the State” (17). People need to learn to avoid the polarizing “spurious choices” of crisis reportage (18-20). Concluding for global society: the Titanic (20-21).

The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Empire. (Not listed in table of contents.) (Guardian [London], Apr. 2, 2003.) Review of war news (23-34). Current crisis is “about a superpower’s self-destructive impulse toward supremacy, stranglehold, global hegemony” (34). “The fact is that the only institution in the world today that is more powerful than the American government is American civil society” (37). “The real and pressing danger, the greatest threat of all, is the locomotive force that drives the political and economic engine of the U.S. government, currently piloted by George Bush” (38).

Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (Buy One, Get One Free). (Talk at Riverside Church, New York City, May 13, 2003; broadcast live on Pacifica Radio.) “Some uncomfortable thoughts about money, war, empire, racism, and democracy” (42). Empire’s attitude: “I will never apologize for the United States. I don’t care what the facts are” (George H.W. Bush, quoted in New York Times [Aug. 4, 1988]) (42-45). CIA’s role in violent seizure of power in Iraq by the Ba’ath Party (45-46). Empire claims “a mandate from heaven” in the form of the right to enforce God-given universal freedoms (47). “Empire is on the move, and Democracy is its sly new war cry” (47). “New product: Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy (bring to a boil, add oil, then bomb)” (47). Joking about the looting of Baghdad (47-50). “Democracy is in crisis. . . . Every kind of outrage is being committed in the name of

democracy” (54). Subversion of democracy by neo-liberal capitalists (55-59). Who’s fighting the war (59-61). Who’s benefiting (61-62). Purpose of anti-terror legislation is to usher in “an era of systemic automated surveillance” (62). Plans for Iraq (63-64). Recommends as strategy “to isolate Empire’s working parts and disable them one by one. No target is too small. No victory too insignificant” (66). “The battle to reclaim democracy . . . has to begin here. In America. The only institution more powerful than the U.S. government is American civil society” (67). Appeal to U.S.’s “rich tradition of resistance” (67).

When the Saints Go Marching Out: The Strange Fate of Martin, Mohandas, and Mandela. (Expanded version of essay originally broadcast by BBC Radio 4, Aug. 25, 2003.) Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Ghandi, and Nelson Mandela are “the three high priests of nonviolent resistance,” are being used “as mascots” (70). Violence in India (70-71). Disappointment of South Africa (71-73). King would never have accepted the role thrust upon him as “Great American” (73-79).

In Memory of Shankar Guha Niyogi. (Talk delivered in Raipur, India, Sept. 28, 2003, and published in Hindi in Hindustan on Oct. 13, 2003.) 12th anniversary of murder of popular trade union leader. “I’m a writer” (79). Iraq as “the culmination of the process of corporate globalization” (80). India being “sold back into slavery” since the mid-1980s (81).

Do Turkeys Enjoy Thanksgiving? (Speech at the World Social Forum in Bombay, Jan. 14, 2004.) “The New Imperialism is already upon us” (84). Poor countries targets of “the corporate machine” (84). Media doesn’t have to lie, “it’s all in the editing” (85). “As long as our ‘markets’ are open, as long as corporations like Enron, Bechtel, Arthur Andersen are given a free hand, our ‘democratically elected’ leaders can fearlessly blur the lines between democracy, majoritarianism, and fascism” (86). “Poverty is being slyly conflated with terrorism” (86). Use of corrupt local elites (87). “New Racism” assigns roles to a few “Fortunate Fowls in Frying Pan Park,” “like myself” (88). Purpose of “international instruments of trade and finance” is “to institutionalize inequity” (89). Importance of globalizing resistance (89-93). “Our resistance has to begin with a refusal to accept the legitimacy of the U.S. occupation of Iraq” (94).

How Deep Shall We Dig? (I.G. Khan Memorial Lecture, delivered at Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India, on Apr. 6, 2004, and published in Hindi in Hindustan on Apr. 23-24, 2004, and in English in The Hindu, Apr. 25, 2004; excerpt appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Apr. 25, 2004.) Kashmir “used to be a business. Now it’s a mental asylum” (95). Apt description for all of India (96-101). But, economic

“growth” (102-03). Privatization in India as a “New Secessionism” (103). “India Pvt. Ltd. Is on its way to being owned by a few corporations and major multinationals (104). “Communal neo-fascism” (105-08). Neo-liberalism and neo-fascism go together (108-10). “When victims refuse to be victims, they are called terrorists and are dealt with as such” (111). Elections important, but “I don’t believe that entering the electoral fray is a path to alternative politics” (113). Praise for “grassroots resistance movements” (115). Needed: coordination (115-16). Struggle has atrophied into “feel-good political theater” (117). “We need to redefine the meaning of politics” (117). “Perhaps we need an elected shadow parliament” (117).

Glossary. 4 pp.

Notes. 23 pp.

Index. 10 pp.

About the Author. Lives in New Delhi. The God of Small Things won the Booker Prize in 1997. This is her 4th collection of essays.

About South End Press. Non-profit publisher devoted to “radical social change” (159). Organized as an egalitarian collective, “inverting the pervasive racial and gender hierarchies in traditional publishing houses; our staff has had a female majority since the mid-1980s, and has included at least 50 percent people of color since the mid-1990s” (159). Also publishes Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Winona LaDuke, Manning Marable, Ward Churchill, Cherríe Moraga, and Howard Zinn. Involved in Speak Out and Z Magazine. 250 titles in print.

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