From: Keith Elis (hagbard@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Sun Apr 13 2003 - 20:16:51 MDT
Anders Sandberg:
> You might remember my speculation before the war
> that Saddam was not that good at media manipulation.
> The dear minister seems to have proven it
His claims were, of course, mostly transparent to the West. I mean, his
sound bites were juxtaposed with pictures of what was really going on.
But I don't think he was expecting Al-Jazeera to 'CNN' him like they
did. He flew off the handle at Al-Jazeera reporters on a few occasions
for calling him out.
There is a pervasive Arab meme associated with the preservation of
'face'. In my experiences, even secularized Arabs will nearly always
allow even their stiffest competition to save face. They will very
rarely allow matters of business or politics to become matters of honor
or dishonor. Lying in an attempt to preserve one's honor is often
acceptable, and it is customary to simply play along, or avoid bringing
up the truth. I suspect that al-Sahhaf was charged with preserving
Saddam's honor in the Arab community and for the history books, and
Al-Jazeera's lack of complicity was unexpected and not a little
offensive. To be sure, Western aristocratic society boasts similar
memes. There's an ESS there somewhere, I fathom.
Keith
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