Assumption of Sanctity

When indigenous peoples organize to protect their rights, they are characterized by mainstream media as rebels, secessionists or guerrillas. When the settlers organize to protect their privileges, they are characterized as the opposition. The sanctity of the state — whether strategically promoted as part of a government’s psychological warfare, or merely assumed by thoughtless journalists — remains mostly unquestioned by consumers of corporate media.

The assumption of state sanctity — even in the face of spurious spectacle like the Olympics — is difficult to maintain when states like China murder minorities and imprison those who expose its inhumanity. An interesting test of the psychological sanctuary of state sanctity will come as the state of Canada — one of only four countries in the world to oppose the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples — faces off against indigenous peoples in British Columbia, the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics.