Once upon a time six blind men came across an elephant.
- The first one touched his side and said the elephant was a wall.
- The second one touched his tusk and said the elephant was a spear.
- The third one touched his trunk and said the elephant was a snake.
- The fourth one touched his knee and said the elephant was a tree.
- The fifth one touched his ear and said the elephant was a fan.
- The sixth one touched his tail and said the elephant was a piece of rope.
But only the third blind man was white and spoke English.
- The BBC said the elephant was a snake.
- CNN said the elephant was a snake.
- The New York Times said the elephant was a snake.
- The Wikipedia said the elephant was a snake.
- Hollywood said the elephant was a snake.
- Harvard said the elephant was a snake.
- Oxford said the elephant was a snake.
- Cambridge said the elephant was a snake.
- Schoolbooks in Texas said the elephant was a snake.
And so the Vast Talking Machine filled the world with its voice and, lo, many believed that the elephant was a snake.
Those who disbelieved were discounted. After all, most of them did not speak English or were not white or came from poor countries or were just women. So what did they know?
Those white Americans who disagreed mostly kept their mouths shut and just thought of it as a Very Odd Looking Snake Indeed.
Those few white people who did speak up had
- their intelligence questioned or
- their education questioned or
- their motives questioned or
- their state of mind questioned.
After all, if most white people believe something how can they be wrong?
The moral of the story:
In our world it is not one observer in six who is an English-speaking white man but one in 44:
- Less than 22% of the world is white.
- Less than 11% of the world is white and male.
- Less than 2.3% of the world is white, male and speaks English.
Yet they run the BBC, CNN, the New York Times, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge. They write most of the Hollywood films and Wikipedia articles and schoolbooks in Texas. They even own BET. English-speaking white men own and run nearly all the main bits of the Vast Talking Machine.
Not that English-speaking white men are always wrong or always agree among themselves. But when they do generally agree on something but are wrong about it, it is very hard to set it right.
For example, things like stereotypes about Africa or about blacks, Latinos and Asians become very hard to shake – or even escape. Meanwhile, pointing out – or even knowing about – the full truth of the evils past and present of English-speaking white men is not easy at all. It certainly is not something you can depend on the Vast Talking Machine to do – as Malcolm X found out and WikiLeaks has shown.
– Abagond, 2010.
See also:
- propaganda model
- The Five Rules of Racial Standing – how White Americans are affected by race when judging the truth of someone’s statements, whether in court, on television or on a blog.
- stereotypes about Africa– here I list some of them, yet if you read the comments of the following two posts you will see how knowing about Africa only through the Western press gives me the wrong picture:
- What Malcolm X read in prison
- Zora Neale Hurston: What White Publishers Won’t Print
- History in Texas schoolbooks
- racism
White people own BET? I’ll have to look into that, Not because I don’t believe you but just because that seems like an interesting fact to me.
LikeLike
Oh they sold it to Viacom that’s why.
LikeLike
a response to wikileaks I guess?
I see the pattern, and wonder if its worse that we already knew this information, the leaks just make it more specific.
LikeLike
Painfully sad, but true. White men currently tell the world to think their way and see the world through their eyes.
I hope the following statement is correct: nothing lasts forever.
LikeLike
It’s quality, not quantity,baby. Were just that awesome.
LikeLike
Of course the problem is, that if it were not a White perspective at the apex, then some other group would be forcing the fan, the wall, the spears, of the tree trunks down everyone’s collective throats.
It’s important to note that NOBODY actually sees the elephant. (which I think is Abagond’s point)
LikeLike
lol What an interesting post. I must admit I didn’t see it coming.
It is true that the white English speaking male POV is often taken as THE truth. It is extremely difficult, to the point of impossible, to question it, let alone offer another view of the issue. Even if it’s something that’s obvious to everybody, except for white English speaking males.
As for the elephant, I am not sure if we’re able to see it at all, but that’s another story.
LikeLike
That lucky elephant would probably begin to associate blind men with the act of massage.
LikeLike
yes, white males do have the largest megaphone for sure. However, I don’t think that being a white male (or anything else for that matter) automatically gives you such a unique, exclusive, and specifically limited view of things as the analogy postulates.
LikeLike
Great post! I think it’s often hard for non-English-speaking-White men to get a voice, but it’s also hard to get that third man to move to a different part of the elephant.
LikeLike
I think King got the point here. In China they sing their own tunes, in islamic world they have their Al Jazeera which also knows how to song and dance. The reality is that we all must be very much aware that so caleed “news” and “trues stories” are made by some men/women with some agenda, knowingly or not.
True, the white west has still the best mediain tv-shows and movies, but in the so called News business, it doesn’t have the same power what it had say 20 years ago. Also the Net is taking over from the centralized media, slowly but surely.
But always be aware when somebody in any media says: we have the true story of this right here…
LikeLike
They own Essence magazine.
LikeLike
I was in a discussion today about the previous owner of BET, why he didn’t make it an opportunity to become a mega media empire, with Robert Johnson acquiring the power of a Rupert Murdock. Perhaps he would have had the ability to change the Vast Talking Machine.
LikeLike
So what’s your point. Isolate the few English-speaking white men at the top of the tree, open the door to other languages and cultures? Maybe the Mandarin-speakers can take over the talking machine that way – God knows they’re trying. The economics of scale is in their favour, isn’t it? Heck, they could populate the whole world with ready listeners to their broadcasts and no other races or languages would be necessary.
Whiteys invented it, whiteys built it, whiteys should be given a bit more cred and let them talk – if they’re so smart maybe we might learn something. Why do you criticise anyway? You write in English, so maybe it’s your education you’re complaining about. Is your dream that one day we switch on our televisions, radios and computers and can’t understand 99% of what’s being said, so can’t participate in government, culture, school, workplace?
LikeLike
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ankhesen Mié and Ankhesen Mié, eccentric yoruba. eccentric yoruba said: The Vast Talking Machine http://bit.ly/e15enn […]
LikeLike
Exactly, Sam. Basically, there is NO elephant per se. Only different interpretations of it.
LikeLike
Whoa, my blood ran cold reading this essay. Abagond, you “learnt” me something here.
LikeLike
This right here!
I remember hearing about the six blind men story but to spin it like this damn.
LikeLike
@peter: If you watch Fox News, or so called talk shows in Fox, you really should be worried about yourself and about your education. Even the nazis and soviets made better propaganda than that shit.
“Is your dream that one day we switch on our televisions, radios and computers and can’t understand 99% of what’s being said, so can’t participate in government, culture, school, workplace?”
Won’t happen, my friend. There are only some plus five million of us finns and nobody has taken over our tv, magazines etc. Computers and many manuals do not have instructions in our language, but they always do have english versions. Luckily we learn english and other languages in schools so we understand them too. 😀
You should be scared about the basic situation in US media, Peter. Only two decades ago you had several national medias, now you have only few. Your news coverage is shrinkin rapidly, your information has turned into propaganda and that is anti-democratic as hell. Fox News and others spew out straight propaganda, call others liars while doing so themselves, and you guys are watching that shit in peace.
You do not understand what is going on in your own country anymore because the media won’t tell you. You do not understand why you went to war in Irak because they all lied to you. You have no idea what is going on in Afganistan, because what you see and hear is propaganda controlled by US military. That is the reality right now and you are affraid that some foreign language will take over??
You think Pentagon papers would be published today? You think two reporters could topple the president with the backing of their publisher today and reveal that the whole goverment is corrupted? No way. Bush goverment was much more corrupted than Nixon’s and look how that ended!
There is no more Watergates because there is so much disinformation and all kind of trash around presented to you as the Truth. And that, Peter, is the real danger you guys face every day.
LikeLike
But is it really “white males”? Isn’t it more white females? Even the men in the media seem to be kowtowing to them.
LikeLike
Goes to show how genius white, english-speaking males are if they can control/rule the world when they are such a small number.
Why can’t non-White males do the same? Why are they so beat down?
This “the White man is the enemy” theme is getting a little old. There are evil Black men — look at the rapists in Congo and South Africa who are terrorizing African women and children.
I think a better post would be on how Black males can get ahead, but that would take self-reflection on the part of Black men which is something they do not want to do. Cause White men sure as hell are not telling Black men to have children out of wedlock, engage in silly crimes, or drop out of school in record numbers.
LikeLike
“Exactly, Sam. Basically, there is NO elephant per se. Only different interpretations of it.”
Mira, I think that there has to be an elephant for the story to make much sense. If there is no elephant then six blind men went out into the world independently and found a snake, and a spear, and a tree trunk, and a fan, and etc…
If each blind man actually found these artifacts in the world, then it says little about perceptions because you can assume that each blind man, if exposed to the discovery of the other, would come to the same conclusions.
The reason why the elephant metaphor of reality works is because they are all feeling the same reality and defining it in different ways.
LikeLike
The elephant could represent truth. If each blind man would walk around and touch a different part, they would all eventually know the elephant. The problem is that people don’t like to walk far from where they are.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The elephant represents the bigger picture or greater truth. It is possible for all the blind men to experience each others truths or picture. But it takes another special type of blind man to put together and realise these pictures are representive of something far bigger than the six of them alone are describing.
Maybe even the elephant might have a say!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, I think Wowo has it right. But once you’re convinced that your particular portion of the elephant is a thing unto itself, then there is no logic in seeking further for attached walls, spears, or tree trunks. It is only once you realize that your snake is part of a larger truth, that it makes sense to continue exploring how it is attached to the larger animal.
LikeLike
The elephant does indeed represent “the big picture”. The blind men, at least in the original telling, represent the average human being’s inability to see a different point of view. Most people are content to see only what they choose, and lack even the basic curiosity to lift the corner of the rug to see what has been swept under it.
The ‘Vast Talking Machine’ is nothing but a massive vehicle for personal propaganda, with the words ‘Divide & Conquer’ as the mantra and motto. When people switch off the talking heads, and begin using their own brains to think with, then forward progress just might re-commence. Until then, they keep lining up for their daily dose of kool-aid and opening wide for their spoon-fed ration of fecal matter…
LikeLike
Patricia Kayden
Goes to show how genius white, english-speaking males are if they can control/rule the world when they are such a small number.
Why can’t non-White males do the same? Why are they so beat down?
This “the White man is the enemy” theme is getting a little old….”————————————————————
On this, I totally agree.
Hence, this cavalier response …”” dav—It’s quality, not quantity,baby. Were just that awesome…on Mon 13 Dec 2010 at 15:55:20
LikeLike
Interesting piece!
LikeLike
In reality it’s even less than 2% running the show.
Most of that 2% of English-speaking white males in the world consists of ordinary workaday joes — some of whom, though they often like to take credit for, and personal pride in, the inventions/discoveries of others, can barely boil water and tie their shoes at the same time.
In other words: the majority are just that un-awesome.
LikeLike
People still break things down to race? Wow, sad. Two things, male and female. That is it. You fools hate one thing because its not your thing. Whats the difference? He wants his, He wants his. So why do either of them get to say the other is a “wrong” person? Hilarious
LikeLike
dav said: “It’s quality, not quantity,baby. Were just that awesome.”
Reponse: It’ certainly isn’t quality, it’s clearly not quantity. You’re just that pathalogically corrupt. :))
LikeLike
@Oyan, Dav & Patricia
“…Once upon a time six blind men came across an elephant…
…The third one touched his trunk and said the elephant was a snake…
…But only the third blind man was white and spoke English…
…And so the Vast Talking Machine filled the world with its voice and, lo, many believed that the elephant was a snake…”
Do you really believe these are the actions of a small group of awesome qualitative geniuses???
Did 3rd blind man really set the bar so high that the other 5 blind men couldn’t reach this level.? Or even get over it?
Are you representative of the awesome quality of such geniuses???
Hmmm…
LikeLike
If the six men speak different languages and each only his own, then all it would take is a couple of interpreters. They could also be blind and never touched any part of the elephant. By translating every version of each of the men back and forth, they should quickly come to the conclusion that none of their versions can be true. They should sit together and try to come up with a more plausible theory before anything gets sent out as “news”.
If this world doesn’t want to totally lose its coherence, people need to make an effort to talk to each other and more importantly – listen.
LikeLike
Abagond,
This is just a suggestion, but maybe you should make a blog addressing Patricia Kayden about her racist mindset. Just a thought though.
LikeLike
Most of the people that own those companies and press and hollywood and everything else is run by Jewish men not white men. If you think that jewish are white they are not they will tell you themselves.
LikeLike
@ Bob
Exactly which of the media companies are owned by Jewish men?
Do you actually know the companies that you’re describing, and the names of the men who own them?
-Many Jews are genetically White. They are of Russian, Slavic, or other European extraction. They may be culturally Jewish. There are also Semitic Jews who look more like Arabs.
Is it your contention that ALL Jews are non-White?
Are Falasha Jews also non-Black?
http://robtshepherd.tripod.com/falasha.html
LikeLike
Oyan,
“……But only the third blind man was white and spoke English…
…And so the Vast Talking Machine filled the world with its voice and, lo, many believed that the elephant was a snake…”
Do you really believe these are the actions of a small group of awesome qualitative geniuses???
————————————
I hate to say(admit?) but I do. not. know. This cabal of ‘awesome geniuses’, certainly have the historically documented monopoly, because that’s all is presented in the history books; I have done much of my own research, but, it still begs the question of, awesome genius, or pathologically corrupt? Either response, nets the same outcome. Not necessarily language or semantics, but ‘they’ still created their version of paradise, in which ‘we’ all live and cater to.
LikeLike
Awesome genius, or pathologically corrupt?
Probably neither. Certain groups, nations, people’s have their time, that’s all. We look at the last 1000 years as if it’s forever, but it isn’t. Groups arise and they fall. It just so happens that we live in the time of the Northern Barbarians. But one day they will live in the times of the next group who floats to the top.
LikeLike
Abagond
I’m not shore what to make out of these post and what your agenda is. I chouse not to analyze it in every philosophic ways.
Has it ever accord to you that all those who says the elephant is a snake belong in English speaking white majority places? Would anyone receive anything else?
Its proven and well known that men has higher credibility than women when its come to talking about serious stuff like news, so that is no occasionally. . I don’t know about white vs. others, surveys on these matter is to controversial to announce publicly. But it is a fact that people tend to trust and believe people who are as much like as them self. Otherwise you would be considered naïve (and in many cases probably true). In US and UK white English speaking people are the majority.
If this post of yours is so great, why is David Duke so bad? He claims pretty much the same about the media and Jews.
LikeLike
That was funny, of sorts! 😀 English speaking indeed.
LikeLike
http://www.wikipedia.org/ in very many languages.
BBC and Oxford and Cambridge are part of a 91% white English-speaking country.
Go get your news from Der Spiegel or Le Monde or Al Jazeera or NHK. They’re all on the internet along with media from pretty much every country in the world. Some of them even have English-language editions.
Abagond, you seem to have been getting sloppy recently. It’s a shame, I’ve learned a lot from your blog, but your last few posts have really obvious quibbles that detract from the punch of the main points. I don’t like pointing out all the quibbles because then it looks like I’m denying the rest of it.
LikeLike
@ Sagredo, ML, Patricia Kayden:
Sagredo said:
“BBC and Oxford and Cambridge are part of a 91% white English-speaking country.”
That is an appeal to what? Provincialism? All three presume to serve the whole world, not just White England.
My point is that many people in the English-speaking world, and particularly in America, learn most of what they know about the world at large from English-speaking white men, from 2.2% of that world, a 2.2% that has a limited, sexist and racist view on things. (Even in America, they are only 33% of everyone).
Some of my own posts have miscarried, like the one on Nigeria, because I trusted English-speaking white men to get it right. And I kick myself for it because I should have known better.
And then in comments and in books I see this same mistake repeated over and over again – people assuming that Anglo white men have a full and true picture of what is going on.
So THAT is my “agenda”. I am not trying to make white men look bad or something. This is not about blame. Instead it is a warning against being overly dependent on any one part of the world for your knowledge of the world as a whole.
LikeLike
Will said:
“Abagond,
This is just a suggestion, but maybe you should make a blog addressing Patricia Kayden about her racist mindset. Just a thought though.”
Her comment is just so boilerplate it is hard to know where to begin.
LikeLike
To Abagond:
It seems she and others like her have been making boilerplate comments to any of your blogs that discuss the truths about racism, white people, etc. Right now, she’s the queen of typical whiteness.
LikeLike
You are right that English speakers get their news from English-speaking sources, and these tend to share certain biases. If that is your point, I concur.
“All three presume to serve the whole world, not just White England.”
The BBC, like all media offers itself to anyone who can read it. The other two are universities, where research is done which is offered to whoever is interested.
I don’t really see the point of this. The whole world has media and academia, all of which reflects its various origins, and all of which is, by and large, available to everyone. There’s no point complaining about how dare the BBC presume to serve the whole world when there’s so much else available to you.
You also make the classic American mistake of talking about “white” or “black” as if these were global things instead of American constructions. The BBC, for instance, represents a British point of view, which is at some distance from the hair’s-breadth between white and black American points of view. (I exaggerate, but not much.)
LikeLike
Sagredo said:
“You are right that English speakers get their news from English-speaking sources, and these tend to share certain biases. If that is your point, I concur.”
That is part of what I am saying.
“I don’t really see the point of this. The whole world has media and academia, all of which reflects its various origins, and all of which is, by and large, available to everyone. There’s no point complaining about how dare the BBC presume to serve the whole world when there’s so much else available to you.”
You need to get it out of your head that I am complaining. I am not complaining, I am warning.
If I were in China instead of America, I would probably be saying that getting your general knowledge of the world mainly from Chinese men is a mistake. The fault lies not with Chinese men, but in depending mainly on them.
To put it in terms of food, I would be saying that you cannot not eat just bread and expect to be healthy. Not because bread itself is unhealthy, but because bread – or any other single kind of food – cannot give you everything you need.
LikeLike
[…] from a combination of three web-based writings that I’ve seen on the web. The first was this hilarious post by Abagond, about the six blind men touching an […]
LikeLike
OK Abagond, I guess I’m with you on this.
LikeLike
Very clever!
Unfortunately, that is reality!
LikeLike
I guess you have a good point there Abagond, the problem is that we don’t live in a perfect world, so the Chinese is still going to get most of their truth information exclusively from Chinese men, English from English speaking and so on.
I like you’re your comparing with food, I didn’t like the movie “Super-size me”, who shows what happens when you only eat at Mac Donalds. You most certainly get sick only eating Mac Donalds food, but its noting wrong with Mac Donalds food in fact it has very high quality, taste great and you get good information on contains. Since Mac Donalds is an big powerful multinational restaurant franchise who has done a lot of bad things for the environment around the world, its totally acceptable to make a full evening propaganda movie about how dangerous their food are. The audience, who sees the movie, trembling shocked on their heads, totally agrees how bad and dangerous Mac Donalds food is, and goes home and warms a frozen pizza in their microwaver instead of risking their health on that dangerous Mac Donalds place. If anyone made a full evening movie about how sick you get of only eating kebab from Ali at the corner, or how bad it is for your health to only eat vegetables or fish, it would be totally tasteless.
But I see however, if you eat some burgers from Mac Donalds, some kebab, some fish, some frozen pizza and enough vegetables, you would probably get much better of, than only eating at Mac Donalds even the food are great there.
LikeLike
@ML. I am sorry but McDonald’s is hardly the epitome of good or healthy food!!!. And yes we do live in a perfect world its just that some of us have chosen to F*@uck it up!!!
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Mbeti's Blog and commented:
More Media Analysis From one of my favorite bloggers!
LikeLike
[…] The Vast Talking Machine on Abagond […]
LikeLike