Started reading Sarah Chayes, "Thieves of State, Why Corruption Threatens Global Security". Early on she generalizes between Eastern Europe after the fall of the Soviet Union and Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban: naive Westerners come into the society, knowing and understanding little, find a "native" who's willing to explain and help and, often, are deluded by the intermediary. That was her path. She entered Afghanistan in 2001.
Her description ties into an interest of mine I've had for a long time: the role of intermediaries/interpreters. In American history we start with Squanto (as I first learned, though now scholars write "Tisquantum"). There's a long line of such liaisons, as time goes on often what used to be called "half-breeds", not sure what the correct term is now. Even before Squanto there was "La Malinche", who was the interpreter, etc. for Cortes in his conquest of Mexico. Sacagawea was another interpreter.
I suppose the media now serves in a similar role of interpreter/story teller and is similarly distrusted.
But it's wrong to see it as wily natives scamming naive Americans; it's also the case that wily Americans scam the naive natives.
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