Look around you. The paint has not only chipped off the walls of the Western Empire– the roof is falling. Germany, the current pioneers of western democracy has legalized censorship of those who speak against Israel’s war crimes. Politicians are comfortable supporting the sovreignty of Ukraine but denouncing the sovreignty of Palestine. America continues to topple governments in South America and yet scratch their heads when floods of immigrants come pouring in. The curtain has fallen from the gameshow we call US politics as we wonder who really is in charge of the Land of the Brave and Free. The question is. Are we brave? Are we free?
I know who was. John Pilger.
John Pilger was an australian journalist born in 1939 and died on the 30th of December 2023. He was one of the bravest voices of investigative journalism. Known for his critique on western foreign policy and his unwavering quest to spread the truth amidst all the lies of corrupt news outlets, he stands as one of my heros and teachers of unrevised history and the courage to stand up for what is right.
So, now in a time as relevant as ever where we see the flimsy veil of western civilisation burning under the heat of its own corruption— I want to share 7 essays by John Pilger that absolutely every journalist (and everyone, really) should read to interrogate what you don’t know and…. what you think you know.
Let’s get started.
1. Race and Pinstripes (1992)
” ‘Out of Africa and Onto Our Doorsteps.’ Using the press to play the race card is an old tactic.”
Race and Pinstripes documents an asian family who experience racial terrorism in their own home for months. Pilger informs us how under Margeret Thatcher’s adminstration, the media did well to follow orders on seeding hate toward anything, or any culture deemed as “alien.” Pilger gives us insight into Britain’s fundamentally racist and negligent Immigration and Refugee laws propelled by media coverage that paints immigrants as villains and economic bood suckers.
The thing about Pilger is that his work will always be pertinent. It’s crazy to think that even well into the 21st century racism is displayed so openly, so violently and, the most heartbreaking of all: by the youth. I’m talking about the Southport Riots in the UK. We’re talking people in their mid-20s pulling people of colour out of cars, vandalizing homes for asylum seekers and targeting police that wish to restore order.
As South Africans, can we please, I beg, not follow that example? Can we not chase out our brothers and sisters because of something as arbitrary and colonial as borders?
2. Organized Forgetting (1990)
“When will journalists and broadcasters reaffirm surely the most vital and noble obligation of their craft: that of warning people when their rights are being taken away, and of the reminding them of the historic consequences of vigilance lost.”
So it’s of my view that we live under this ridiculous idea that the west are beacons of civility when in fact most of the world denounce western values.
I like that Pilger shows how far up their behinds Western politicians like Thatcher and Mcarthy were. But most importantly how the media shapes our thinking by telling us which facts are important and omitting the facts that actually are. As long as communism is mercilessly critiqued, Arabs are mercillessly villainized and Africans are mercilessly deemed as troublesome pests.
However, Pilger’s message to these hemogonizing powers at play is this: media is supposed to represent the view of the citizens not the politicians. Or else democracy fails. You hear that, Germany?
Organized Forgetting succintly outlines the skewed perception mainstream media promotes. I’d say that now more than ever the media is weaponized against social consciousness and in defense of ensuring we are left in the dark.
I’d love to know: what do you think?
3. Information is Power (1991)
“Ninety per cent of international news published by the world’s press comes from the ‘big four’ Western news agencies. Two are American, one is British, one is French.”
How many lives is one shamefully rich man worth? According to Pilger: thousands. The life of a Robert Maxwell was worth more than 6000 lives ravaged by a typhoon in the Philipines. And yes— there is a connection. A man who eats hundreds of rare shellfish a month most certainly has a conncection with with coasting towns in developing countries who overfish so that they may help their country repay debt imposed by the World Bank and IMF.
We don’t make these connections because we’ve been indoctrinated by media to subcategorize the developing world with terror, poverty and distaster struck headlines. And then of course our Western counterparts are depicted as h onourable; accomplished, prosperous. The question is: prosperity built on whose back?
I couldn’t recommend this essay more.
4. A Betrayal of Purpose (1991)
“It’s like there is a missing generation of journalists.”
If you want to understand the inner politics of news agencies and where the strings of hidden agendas are being pulled from, Pilger is your man. In this gripping article, he exposes how The Mirror, a popular British newspaper was corrupted under the new leadership of Robert Maxwell. Basically, a mouthpiece for Britain’s capital elite.
Journalists out there — read this essay. Curious minds out there — read this essay.
5. New-Age Imperialism
” The ‘new world order’ is a new age of imperialism. Wearing the UN figleaf, Washington’s divine rightists will now do virtually as they like.”
Pilger calls the USA out for being an amnesiac and I love him for it. The USA loves forgetting wars they lost. They love forgetting that the CIA are the ones who put Saddam Hussein in power. Also, they love forgetting that mass immigration is a direct cause of government interference in other countries that they should just leave alone. New-Age Imperialism shows that territorial control is basically done on a zoom call rather than in person. And yes, it is just as destructive because it poses itself as “peace.”
So to those bright sparks out there who say they are tired of hearing about colonialism —this essay is a must-read.
6. How the World Was Won Over (1992)
“Minutes after Yemen voted against the resolution, a senior American diplomat was instructed to tell the yemeni ambassodor : ‘That was the most expensive”no” vote you ever cast.’ “
I still have goosebumps thinking about this article. Written a year after the US attacked Iraq, Pilger exposes how countries were blackmailed by America into supporting their invasion into Iraq. This essay reveals extensively, with facts and figures how America uses debt as a lever to control the developing world.
It reveals the economic repurcussions faced by countries who refused to cast aside their morals to support the US.
It reveals that the US’s invasion of Iraq was not just an impulsive miscalcultion like we were taught in school. It was a meditated plan to finally do away with a powerful middle-eastern president that they could not control.
And it reveals the weakness of global leaders under American influence and bribery.
7. A New Propaganda (1991)
“In a democracy manipulation of public perception and opinion is, by necessity, more subtle and thorough than in a tyranny.”
If America was that sorting hat from Harry Potter, it would yell terrrorist every time something crawling out of the middle east came within a one metre radius. And yet America did exponentially worse in Cambodia under a signle presidential term than Hitler ever did. So who are the terorrists here?
This essay is an effective antidote to the hero-worship mentality we have for the North-Atlantic rulers. It explains how the fall of the Soviet Union was an opportunity for the USA and Britain to subvert the concept of socialism so that that now most of us a despise a concept we don’t truly understand.
For fear of being a hypocrite, I have never been able to call myself an anti-capitalist…until reading this essay. I don’t support pollution just cause I breathe the fumes of the city. Please, good people of the interweb. Read this essay.
So what next…?
Congratulations, curious spirit! You’ve made it this far. I really hope this blog inspires you to read John Pilger or at the very least support journalists with integrity and wish to speak for the voiceless. I would really love to hear your thoughts about the world…about politics, about anything, really! Don’t hesitate to reach out😊
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