[spectre] a terrible day

[D A N Arenzon]

Going against the propaganda machine, is simply not possible, its too vast, too huge, too extended and it molds reality in every possible way. Counterpropaganda even when supported by private parties and governments has little or no effect.
and to make it just worse, in case you get really good and effective you may become the next Assange; is that a desired option?

I grew up under military dictatorships sponsored and well orchestrated by powers who spiritually cleansed and plundered a continent through 500 years
Market rules this world.

As to the other world…I work together with an extended family of makers, artists of all sorts whom we build together the air we all breathe, here, there and everywhere.
d
a
n
https://dan.openeurope.de/

> On 02/03/2022 19:42 Lanfranco Aceti <lanfranco.aceti at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Dear Carsten,
> 
> I wanted to say that I totally agree with you. I am shocked by the war rhetoric and its poisonous influence. It makes it more difficult for me to write since I am a slow and careful writer, particularly when posting online in these threads and on these topics. The reason is that I like to achieve a balance and make sure that I contribute something. Contrary to most, I still believe that words are stones and one has to carefully balance issues. 
> 
> The propaganda is intolerable as much as the a-historical representation of facts. 
> 
> Andreas, I did not want to write immediately about your 'smackdown' of Mathias Fuchs at the beginning of this thread. Like you, I very much like facts, but I think you might be too confident in the 'innocence of NATO' and yes, unfortunately so, the world is divided into imperialistic spheres of influence. There are three links that I would like to provide in order to show, with facts, that NATO is not innocent: the first is this link to an old article from November 14, 1990: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/11/14/cia-organized-secret-army-in-western-europe/e0305101-97b9-4494-bc18-d89f42497d85/
> "Andreotti said he believes the operation should now be dismantled, given the new "'climate which has freed us from the nightmare of wars and divisions.''
> When Andreotti is speaking of divisions, he refers to political internal divisions for which the right side of the political spectrum would have weapons to use against the other side. He refers to the Gladio Organization which was a CIA/NATO operation that created a secret organization that kept stashes of weapons in the Western States and trained men to fight in case of war with Russia but also in case of internal political divisions that would move the country away from the US approved political thinking. 
> 
> The second link is to an announcement titled "Gladio: The Short Sword of State Sponsored Terrorism" of a book NATO's Secret Armies https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2010/4/1/853084/- . 
> 
> The third link is to this documentary by the BBC (a non-biased source for those who prefer a more institutional news outlet) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3IkbhKv598 .
> 
> NATO represents the arm of a sphere of influence in Europe to protect American interests. Why has it not been dismantled after the Cold War? 
> It is too easy to write that NATO is innocent, assuming the righteousness of the Ukrainian cause, in this case, or in any other war of 'our' side versus 'theirs'. It is, unfortunately, a historically correct fact that NATO has interfered to promote US interests, even with state sponsored terrorisms within the borders of its own allies. To assume the innocence of NATO means to blindly participate and support imperialist causes. I would like to remind everyone of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when the Russians placed their missiles on the island threatening the mainland of the US in response to US installation of missiles installed in Italy and Turkey and directed to the former U.S.S.R. Cubans are still under embargo from the United States and the restrictions were not lifted, not even during COVID. I haven't seen the Europeans' outrage against this Cold War archaic foreign policy that has hindered the social development of Cuba. No outrage, not even during the current pandemic. I see that there is a wonderful selection of what to be conveniently outraged at. Certainly not the same outrage for Libya and for the ousting and killing of Muammar Gaddafi, for example, or the many other wars and destabilization of democracies across the world. The consequence has been the death toll that an Obama administration policy has had on African and all other immigrants attempting to reach Europe via Greece and Italy by passing through what is now a failed state and making the Mediterranean a tomb for children, women, and men alike. The racialized outrage of Europe for worthy and unworthy victims continues to be particularly problematic and largely unaddressed.  
> 
> The sphere of influence of the United States expands to Central and Latin American countries with over a century of policies that have produced some of the worst dictatorships in the world. Pinochet's dictatorship is just one of the very many that first comes to mind. 
> This is a good handbook to begin with if anyone has any interest in reading about this topic: https://www.amazon.com/US-Power-Latin-America-Routledge-ebook/dp/B072L187Q5/ref=sr_1_5?crid=38JGYE9MTLKZO&keywords=us+foreign+policy+latin+america&qid=1646235180&sprefix=us+foreign+policy+latin+america%2Caps%2C154&sr=8-5&asin=B072L187Q5&revisionId=&format=2&depth=1
> 
> Regarding the role of NATO in Europe, may I remind you all that Italy, by having one of the strongest communist parties in Europe, was at the forefront of some of the worst operations carried out by a foreign power, through local groups, to keep Italians firmly in the center-right of the political spectrum and aligned with NATO.  
> 
> I would like to see any Western state having a referendum and leave NATO to be a neutral and demilitarized zone between the spheres of influence of Russia and the United States. 
> 
> It is my opinion, and this is an opinion and not an irrefutable fact, that this will never happen without bloodshed since the US has strong economic and geopolitical interests and will want to retain its control over what we, as European citizens, are invited to believe are free democracies and cannot dare to consider to be vassal states, similarly to the vassal states that the roman empire or any other empire has had throughout history.
> 
> It appears that for whatever reason, economic or strategic that it might be, for President Biden and its administration was necessary to push for a conflict with disregard for the consequences for the people of Ukraine, for the Russians (may remind you all that the soldiers are human beings as well), and for the security of all Europeans.
> 
> To look at this with naive eyes is dangerous for our own future. Ukraine is a participant in this conflict with what I consider to be unreasonable demands, backed by the United States that wants to keep on reducing the sphere of influence of Russia to its own advantage. It has failed with Georgia and it seemed destined to fail again. 
> 
> I find the propaganda in these times from all parties odious. Everyone seems to have forgotten that there are people on the ground, on both sides and they don't deserve to be demonized. It won't serve anyone, least of all the people that are suffering. 
> 
> I used to do a presentation for my history of art students titled The War of the Riches, looking at the visual representation of war and heroism and the role that the masses and the poor played in it. The poor were marginalized, cannon fodder, ravaged masses by disease, and corpses to build a guided sense of horror in the viewer. George Orwell featured abundantly in the list of readings. I also talked of matriarchal theory, more than feminism, to present an alternative view of what might be possible as well as try to raise awareness of economic issues that underpin these wars and that have nothing to do with how they are presented to the public.  
> 
> The murky financial dealings between President Biden and Ukraine's presidents will emerge at some point. As other things emerged about US Presidents, e.g. President Ronal Regan and G. H. W. Bush Iran-Contra scandal.  
> Having said all of this, and there is much more that I would like to add, I have been obsessed by this question: why hasn't President Zelensky pursued a policy similar to that of Finland, that is to achieve a status of neutrality and demilitarization, perhaps even with the entry in the EU, without joining NATO? To answer Andreas' statement earlier, yes I do not believe that Ukraine had or has a right to join a military alliance like NATO without expecting retaliation, when instead it had every right to join in the EU as a neutral and demilitarized state, freely negotiating to do so, without fear. Perhaps our role as European is that of striking a balance between competing interests and not siding with one part or the other. It is finding solutions or even imposing them to both the United States and Russia that they might be unwilling to consider. 
> 
> I believe that particularly as artists and curators we have, in a world that seems increasingly divisive, even more of a duty now to engage in proper debates with all parties without preaching and taking preconceived sides. We should more than ever listen to and attempt to understand not a single part but the entire complexity of what we are all experiencing, to perhaps make better decisions guided by other feelings that are not fear and hatred. Cultural boycotts, exclusions, and embargos will contribute very little to shed a light on the dreadful events of these days and find a different path that will not cost human lives. 
> 
> I would like to close with two links about Mark Lombardi's works of art.
> 
> Mark Lombardi, Banco Nazionale del Lavoro, Reagan, Bush, Thatcher, and the Arming of Iraq, c. 1979-1990, (4th version) 1998. Colored pencil and pencil on paper. Dimensions: 50 x 120" (127 x 304.8 cm).
> https://www.moma.org/collection/works/82619
> 
> https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/movies/mark-lombardi-death-defying-acts-at-moma.html
> 
> Thank you all for your patience and... May the Force be with you. 
> 
> 
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