Attacks on national economies by means of transnational corporations, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are one form of non-military attack on other countries. Another is the subject of this essay -the invasions of family and community structures, traditional values and culture. These are primarily carried out by the media, educational institutions and propaganda arms of NGOs. Properly understood, all these forms of invasion emanate from the capitalist system. The capitalist system not only places a higher value on monetary profit than on social institutions, it also has an interest in their destruction. This can be seen in the capitalist destruction of traditional values abroad and even more thoroughly in the United States. We will first look at the latter of the two.

The capitalist machine develops methods to sell people what they do not need and often do not really want. An old fashioned maxim in invention, production and sales marketing was once "meet a need, don't create one". Over the years, marketing techniques have been developed to convert "wants" into "must have" and desires into essentials. Cellular telephones serve as an example. Everyone in the family, including children "need" a cellular telephone and if parents object the phone is sold as a security item for keeping contact with the child who may have an emergency. A cheap cell phone gave way to one with a camera and an MP3 player which now gives way to a "Blackberry" with enhanced computer capabilities. A myriad of other products come to mind, burdening family incomes, creating family conflicts and undermining cultural norms and values. If it were not for this power to corrupt, strong non-material values would reverse an expanding market.

Personal credit and debt: In reality, most people live on a "fixed income", i.e. a fixed wage or salary. It is true that wages and salaries change, but for most workers, at best they follow the rate of inflation and cost of living. To solve the problem of "buying power", the capitalists have invented personal credit. Not long ago, we used bank credit only for larger purchases, the car loan and house mortgage. Today, the credit-card is used for everything from purchasing gasoline to food in the local market. The credit card industry is one of the tools used to feed expanding consumerism resulting in the enslavement of ordinary people in what amounts to an open-air debtor's prison. In recent times the capitalists are caught in their own trap, with banks refusing credit to the consumer due to loss of employment, wages and benefits in the crash of the global economy.

Capitalist News and Entertainment

The news and entertainment media in the west serve the capitalist mission by targeting culture as traditional values erode consumerism. They're most powerful forms in the U.S. and most western countries are television news shows, newspapers, magazines, Hollywood movies and New York sit-coms and now, the Internet. These arms of the capitalist system undermine the teaching of good parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts. Instead of turning to an extended family for support and guidance, people turn to a celebrity's advice column, their astrology chart or when disfunctional, to a 50-minute-hour psychotherapist who is a stranger.

The News: The multi-billion dollar "news" industry on television and in the print media is not produced to inform and educate. Obvious to all, the corporate news is a hybrid of disinformation and entertainment. Stories of crime, sexual affairs, racism, injury, death, war and corporate-driven political views prevail on the front pages and on the evening TV news "shows". The news provides ready-made analysis and answers rather than raising questions that stimulate the mind for pondering and personal or interpersonal analysis. The boring, hair coiffed fools on TV talk shows do not know the meaning of debate and reduce themselves to talking over and deriding one another and yelling at each other. In the process, the viewer learns to do the same rather than learning how to intelligently and respectfully listen and use reason to debate an issue within the family, with a neighbor, friend or fellow worker.

Thus, it is difficult for people to learn how to exchange ideas and learn from one another. Rather than being challenged to examine the root causes of war and social problems, we are told to leave that to the "professionals". The corporate news media resents the existance of the Internet because people like us have the temerity to analyse and report rather than relying on "professional journalists" to do the job for us. Their distribution and advertising losses due to the Internet now have them scheming to restrict access and gain control of the alternative media.

Entertainment: Entertainment in the capitalist world consists of high-impact violence, intense drama, explicit sex, mind-pounding music in a world of artificial stimuli. Throwaway plastic toys bore the child quickly and replace the joy and creativity that comes with renewable home-made inventions and back yard games. Playing baseball, soccer, football, wrestling and basketball have been replaced with "spectator sports" - unless we are "good enough to make the team".

"Real reality" such as exploring nature, watching ants at work, trying to catch a bird, fishing, climbing trees, blowing bubbles made from soap and water, drawing pictures and fastening them to paper with paste made by the child from a mix of flour and water and marveling at the stars on a clear night - are replaced with "Reality TV" - watching other people experience a false, invented "unreality".

In films and television, we see the actors at leisure and rarely at work. Children and adults alike "learn" that work is something to be despised, performed reluctantly and only for the eagle that flies on Friday. In the capitalist system and media, the intrinsic value of work is almost never promoted or modeled. What is promoted instead are after work hours, weekends, annual holidays and ultimately retirement. People look forward to 5 o'clock when they can "live"; then look forward to the weekend or days off when they can enjoy life; then anticipate the annual 2 week vacation when they can really have fun and then to age 65 which many think of as the beginning of their lives rather than nearing the end.

A study from the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that watching videos as a toddler leads to both disorders. Dr. Dimitri Cristakis says that watching TV "rewires" an infant's brain and that the damage shows up when the child is 7 years old having difficulty paying attention in school. Cristakis says, "In contrast to the way real life unfolds and is experienced by young children, the pace of TV is greatly sped up." Jane Healy, psychologist and brain expert comments on the study, "Also in question is whether the insistent noise of television in the home may interfere with the development of ‘inner speech’ by which a child learns to think through problems and plans and restrain impulsive responding." Healy also believes that children should not be playing computer games until age 7. She says that these games only stimulate the "flight or fight" response in the brain instead of other vital areas needed for development of reasoning skills.

Susan Greenfield, Ph.D., an Oxford University neuroscientist agrees. She says that social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter are causing changes in young brains, reinforcing the need for instant gratification and making youth more self-centered. She says they shorten attention spans and "rewire" the brain:

'My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.'

Tradition and Science

The media defends it's veiled attacks on traditional values by citing traditional beliefs, practices and culture as unfashionable and as impediments to medicine, science and technology which they would have us believe can only advance in a capitalist system.

The attempts to juxtapose cultural traditions against science and medicine by western intellectuals and the corporate media are non-sequitors. This is so because tradition is not necessarily antithetical to responsible scientific development. In fact, responsible scientific development would thrive more in traditional settings where families are intact, education is prized and social upheaval and conflict are the exception rather than the rule. One only has to read up on the amazing scientific developments in the Islamic world to see this.

Arts, Education and Relativism

Even much of the west's non-representational art and their relativist ideology serve a similar function. "Truth and beauty are in the eyes of the beholder", we are told. Those who do not appreciate "modern art" are considered to be "unsophisticated" in the arts. Poetry written in traditional forms and structures began to be rejected in the first half of the 20th century by modernist poets and journals, in favor of free verse where order and rules are echewed. This is not to speak ill of non-representational art or unstructured poetry but it represents a trend in western culture against traditional rules and forms.

Higher education in the liberal arts in the west are no exception to these phenomena. As a youth in university, I once presented thoughts to a sociology class and was immediately attacked by the professor, "That is only your truth", he said. "Everything is relative and there is no such thing as absolute truth", he told the class. Perhaps unwittingly, he was presenting "his truth" as absolute but the class was too young and inexperienced to offer this rebuttal. In the discipline of psychology, this is called "The white coat syndrome" in which the authority has overwhelming power. One must ask where the professor's statement leaves young students relative to their own family values, traditions and broader culture.

Transnational Attacks on Culture and Tradition

Military Attacks: The capitalist wars are often meant to intentionally destroy the culture of their target in order to gain access to international markets and resources. The military war on the culture, heritage and antiquities of the people of Iraq serve as a good example. Any informed person cannot think about pre-1990 Iraqis without thinking of their love for their country, culture and traditions. Their love for family, an advanced educational system, high literacy rate, their cities, farmlands, their souqs, neighborhood stores, date palms, the Euphrates, their heritage as "the cradle of civilisation" and their antiquities - these and much more spoke Iraqi tradition, culture and national pride. The U.S./Israeli/British destruction of Iraqi culture was symbolized by the destruction of the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad, with their priceless artifacts now being sold in the capitalist underground around the world. Meanwhile the purveyors of war blame the theft on "Iraqi looters" while this "looting" took place under the control of U.S. Marines. But military attacks on a nation's culture are only one method employed by those who would rule the world. Anti-cultural attacks by the media are perhaps what parents of traditional Muslim families fear even more than bombs. When Muslim parents object to the invasion of their communities, homes and youth by capitalist values, they are in turn called "backward" or ignorant.

Media Attacks on Foreign Cultures: Media invasions of foreign cultures are carried out under the pretext of freedom of expression. If China, Iran or North Korea attempt to protect their traditions against these invasions they are accused of being repressive, denying their people of "freedom". The anti-values and products pushed to the youth in foreign countries via satellite TV and film often appeal to the most base and menial human instincts. This came to mind a few years ago while traveling through Morocco by car when we observed young Muslim men, apart from their families, watching "Bay Watch", a California-based soft-porn program on television shown in tea houses via satellite, along the road from Tangiers to Casa Blanca. The invasions are an offense to most Muslim cultures where modesty is highly valued. Programs that make sport of nudity and explicit sex are repugnant to those who treasure their culture and traditions in the Muslim world. The youth are particularly vulnerable to these attacks. Other movies and television shows promote and normalise violent crimes and glamorise a police state. Meanwhile, the same media accuses the victim, repeating over and over that their culture and religion are responsible for "suicide bombings, indiscriminate killing and terrorism".

Defending against these attacks on Muslim values can be seen in Iran today where traditional elders are fighting off these powerful cultural invasions by the west. In instances of Muslim compromise, the corporate media is quick to exploit their behavior. Only yesterday CNN put on a show, filmed in an Iranian house party where men were drinking alcohol, portraying them as hypocrites. The capitalists are now employing a new strategy to destabilise Muslim nations with an assault on their culture called non-violent resistance (NVR), led by Peter Ackerman, a U.S. Zionist. It was put to use in the legitimate protests of honest Iranians in the recent Iranian presidential elections. The corporate media accuses the Iranians of resisting "modernity" when really, they are trying to protect their families and community from amoral reprobate thoughts and behavior practiced and espoused by the west.

Attacks on Venezuelan Tradition and Culture

While not a Muslim country, here in Venezuela, private cable television is replete with powerful messages to the youth to forsake Venezuelan traditions and adopt violence, sexual promiscuity and consumerism as a preferred way of life. Any child flipping through channels at night is bound to see raw pornography on cable TV. Massive commercial malls are built by big transnational corporations and the private media sells their trash using powerful advertising techniques. The name of one such mega corporation is "Traki". Venezolanos have appropriately dubbed the store, "Trashi" due to the expensive, but worthless products they sell. Again, the youth are the most vulnerable as these ads and products results in competition among them for the latest gadget. When the Chávez government fights back with controls on mall development on prized real estate and on media program content, they are accused of censorship and violations of free speech. Employing Ackerman's "non-violent resistance", the U.S. funds the opposition to protest against "oppression". The capitalist media is quick to give the protests international coverage for which the anti-war movement could only dream.

Conclusion

The youth and their parents in the United States have been victimized by capitalist governments, media and educational institutions more than in any other part of the world. There is no organised defense for whatever tradition and culture remain in the U.S. Parents are besieged by these powerful institutions. Communities and extended families needed to properly rear a child have been broken. Whole generations have been born into the same systematic indoctrination perfected within the capitalist system. As a result, for many in the U.S., life has become a boring, dirty, tawdry experience, watching "Friends" on TV rather than learning the real meaning of friendship; choosing alchohol over an evening walk; losing the ability to allow a magnificent sunset to fully penetrate their perceptual filters and flood their being. Others in the U.S. successfully resist this theft by "the machine" and through great parenting or great effort retain the true value of being alive. It is unlikely that development of new, worthwhile traditions and cultural values will occur in the United States short of a full collapse of the capitalist economy which may not be far off.

Meanwhile, the battle for remaining, intact cultures in other countries, whether one happens to appreciate their traditions or not, is to be respected and defended. Our survival as a species depends on it.

READ BIO, POETRY AND MORE ESSAYS BY LES BLOUGH