Kairos n°35

Daring to attack the mob

The work of truth exposes, when one really attacks the most infamous and significant manifestations of power, the risk of ending up with a bullet in the head. This is the danger when the mysteries of this social putrefaction that is the politically organized robbery are revealed, as in the Kazakhgate episode, which gives democracy the only value of appearance. Revealing the mafia component of politics, these formidable crimes of mass dispossession are also far from being  » nameless, faceless, party-less « , as the man who was also the architect of mafia politics superbly feigned about finance⁽¹⁾.

Faced with a horde of journalists who keep their mouths shut, the action of the small minority who actually open it therefore exposes them to potential dangers. Always busy convincing themselves, by persuading us, that they are free to say what they want, we should not expect the caste of journalists to dig the problems to their roots and reveal the evil immanent to the productivist system. We should not go too far, they say what they want under one and only one condition: that they do not « freely » feel like saying everything. Faced with the lack of response to a request to publish his article  » Beware of radio silence (active) « ⁽²⁾, a contributor to our newspaper raised the forbidden theme:  » Could it be that Le Soir does not dare to publish it? Are shareholders muzzling free speech? « . The reply from the Soir journalist came:  » Please stop fantasizing about « our shareholders ». There are enough crazy conspiracy theories in this world without adding a completely absurd one « . It would therefore be pure fantasy to imagine the Hurbain family as having other than philanthropic objectives and a love of the free press. And if the journalist doesn’t talk too much about the ranking of the Hurbain family among the largest Belgian fortunes, and to what extent inequality destroys in a general way what makes life, it’s not because this information might displease his bosses, but only because he doesn’t want to. It would not be because Le Soir likes to publish content written by the Nuclear Forum⁽³⁾ that it would give little interest to articles that denounce the crime of the atom. In short, if you are surprised that the desires of journalists and bosses often coincide, you are probably just a mediocre conspiracy theorist.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, the IPM press group has muzzled the magazine Financité, which was inserted in La Libre on a quarterly basis:« As you know, Alain Siaens [Président du CA de IPM et administrateur de Degroof Equity] is one of our directors, so let’s not mention Degroof Petercam. « Result: the end of a twelve-year collaboration. But above all: it must not be known that Degroof Petercam invests in nuclear weapons, one might think that it is in their sole interest… Good people, sleep well!

They will therefore pretend to be surprised by this generalized fatigue of many people in front of the information. Obviously, this one, which has become soothing, empty, just spectacular, proper to a bureaucratic journalism serving a career plan to the detriment of the search for truth, would only be able to generate palaver, Sunday debates on the national channel and scoops of a day that take away from the heart of the matter. And when these are mentioned (Kazaghgate, Publifin, Samu social, Panama…), it is to close them immediately, as if everything was normal. The generalized corruption lasts as well, all these small and big compromises, commissions, bribes, which literally dictate all the « choices » of society.

If we have to discuss decent wages, voluntary simplicity, work arduousness, reduction of greenhouse gases, exit from nuclear power…, while never forgetting our share of voluntary servitude that contributes to maintain this world as it is, it seems vain to do so while leaving the conductors of wage exploitation, mass consumption, alienation of the worker, destruction of the earth, quiet, out of the debate.