On the Respect website, I watched a video promoting a September 23 “Stop the War” demonstration in Manchester.
There’s the requisite closeup of Tony Blair’s facial pores and the carefully-selected, context-free montage of suffering people. (And no, I don’t like such techniques even for causes I support.)
But I’m quite mystified by what happens at 1:30 into the video. A world map appears, red dots pop up at various locations, and finally the words THE WORLD’S 2ND SUPERPOWER are superimposed.
I won’t presume to speak for the rest of the world, but as far as I can tell, the red dots in North America are (from right to left) in the approximate locations of Portland, Maine; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Omaha, Nebraska; and San Francisco and Los Angeles, California.
Is THE WORLD’S 2ND SUPERPOWER a reference to the United Kingdom? If so, what do the red dots represent? Outposts? Targets? Is THE WORLD’S 2ND SUPERPOWER making a move to become number one again?
Update: From Wikipedia:
The Second Superpower is a term used to conceptualize a global civil society as a world force comparable to or counterbalancing the United States of America. The term derives originally from a 2003 New York Times article which described “world public opinion” as one of two “superpowers.”
…..
The New York Times article was widely circulated in the peace movement during February of 2003, adding to the hope among many participants that galvanizing world public opinion could prevent the Iraq War.
(Hat tip: Don and Paul in the comments.)