Letter To The Editor: Reality TV And Foreign Policy

In our society, being famous is a goal unto itself. You can become famous, and even be called an influencer, with no particular skill other than self-promotion. I don’t mean to make light of self-promotion because it is a massive skill in our current state. Consider the lasting presence of reality tv. The two longest-running reality tv shows in American history are Cops and Survivor. I’m admittedly proud of having never seen either.

However, a quick Google search will show that both follow basic formulas and are predictable. Even the suspense doesn’t come from the unknown, but rather how it will play out, before the predictable ending happens. Another quick search will show that those who want to succeed as influencers have to show authenticity and consistently show high-quality content that helps or entertains their audience.

Of course, there are obvious flaws in both approaches, in terms of actual expertise or credibility. No one on Survivor is in real danger. Cops may be real Cops but the show doesn’t reflect the day-to-day reality of law enforcement. And does anyone think that highly produced reality is real, or staged authenticity is authentic? Of course not, which leaves the viewer with the aspect of entertainment, allowing oneself to unwind or wind up based on the well-produced product in front of them. Pretending that being a journalist is the same thing as being a social media influencer, or that being an entertainer is the same as having expertise, is like being unable to separate an actor who plays a superhero from the character on screen. And yet, American society is choosing the green screen over actual context.

Consider the current conflict with Venezuela. A quick afternoon of reading will show even the casual observer that Nicolas Maduro is and always has been a dictator. As such, there isn’t much good to say about him. If you are bilingual, you can read in Spanish what dissidents and exiles have to say about him, and it is quite raw. Of course, this is nothing new, as dictators dominate their own media circle through propaganda, vehicles bleeding their own countries dry. Maduro isn’t original in this or any other sense. However, regime change is not new, and U.S. involvement in swapping out dictators is also not new. Noriega, the chosen parallel of media outlets, wasn’t put into office in Panama by the U.S., but he was a CIA asset, trained by the US Army at the School of the Americas. His dictatorial atrocities were ignored until he became increasingly involved in drug trafficking and may have even sold US intelligence to Cuba. All of which resulted in another regime change spearheaded by our country.

As for stolen oil, another political point, it should at least be remembered that the oil in question was on Venezuelan soil. I understand business can be globally complicated, but the switch from drugs to oil as the point of emphasis is telling.

The cycle has been replayed multiple times. We put Saddam Hussein in power with the hope of countering Iran, and then took him out in the early 90s when he threatened our allies. Those particular allies were not exactly laboratories for democracy, but they were cauldrons of oil. Venezuela was once known in South America as Venezuela Saudita, referencing the incredible oil reserves that rivalled even Saudi Arabia. Now Venezuela is a country that is bleeding people. Sure, we hear about the Venezuelan exodus in terms of coming to our country, but its neighbours, Colombia, Ecuador and even impoverished Bolivia, have received the Venezuelan mass exodus.

Venezuela’s relationship with the U.S. is complicated and tied largely to oil. It may be that Maduro has ties to cartels, although anyone who can read in Spanish would find the references to the Cartel De Los Soles have less to do with an actual cartel and more to do with a ring of government officials, specifically in the Venezuelan military, who took/take kickbacks from cartels to look the other way.

As for stolen oil, another political point, it should at least be remembered that the oil in question was and is on Venezuelan soil. I understand business can be globally complicated, but the switch from drugs to oil as the point of emphasis is telling.

All this, amidst the media barrage of the last couple of days, avoids the Babel of what our government and mass media have become. Power and fame are equivalent on TV and the internet. President Trump immediately dismisses those who counter him as people he has never heard of. The average person tuning in has little to no knowledge of Venezuela’s history or the U.S. involvement in regime changes in Latin America. But the people with actual knowledge of the crisis are not those who will be immediately in front of the camera. Those in front of the camera will be those with the greatest access to the media swarm, with the reality that most are not even semi -fluent in Spanish. President Trump stated that he watched the attack on Venezuelan soil like a tv show. (not even a tv series) That’s exactly where we are, with foreign policy produced and consumed like an episode of reality tv or a podcast. But real lives are at stake, and our national security, as well as the future of our neighbours in this hemisphere, won’t resolve like the latest episode you can tune into or tune out of.

John Cabascango is the author of Off the Rails: Evangelicals, Power and Politics. He
writes regularly on Substack