Jan 18, 2011
Tunisia and the West
Brendan O'Neill explains how the people of Tunisia come out of this uprising well, and Western politicians and observers do not.
"The idea that this was a 'Wikileaks revolution', an uprising brought about by a revelation of the truth by wise men in the West, is more than just another example of media self-obsession and self-congratulation – it is an updated version of the White Man's Burden. This is the White Wikileakers' Burden, the notion that it falls to media-savvy folk over here to open the eyes and energise the hearts of enslaved brown people over there. Tunisian authoritarianism was backed for years by Western governments as part of the fantasy politics of saving the world from African chaos and Islamic fundamentalism – and now a Tunisian uprising is depicted as simply a physical extension of the fantasy politics of bedroom-based bloggers and leakers who seem to believe they can liberate people at the push of a button."
"The idea that this was a 'Wikileaks revolution', an uprising brought about by a revelation of the truth by wise men in the West, is more than just another example of media self-obsession and self-congratulation – it is an updated version of the White Man's Burden. This is the White Wikileakers' Burden, the notion that it falls to media-savvy folk over here to open the eyes and energise the hearts of enslaved brown people over there. Tunisian authoritarianism was backed for years by Western governments as part of the fantasy politics of saving the world from African chaos and Islamic fundamentalism – and now a Tunisian uprising is depicted as simply a physical extension of the fantasy politics of bedroom-based bloggers and leakers who seem to believe they can liberate people at the push of a button."