Vapid Pretty Faces

Torture wouldn’t exist in our countries if it weren’t effective; formal democracy would continue if it could be guaranteed not to get out of the hands of those that hold power. (Eduardo Galeano)

The events in Iran are encouraging, with caveats:

One, we will not know for years, perhaps decades, how much of a role the U.S. and Britain have played in fomenting the crisis. If it is of Western making, the ends are assuredly not democratic.

Secondly, even if it is a true democratic movement, it will exist only in the shadow of a monster – the U.S. has surrounded Iran will military bases and fire capability. They are perpetually threatened, and such threats usually result in oppressive governments to “protect” the population. (Example: The U.S. has been threatening Cuba for decades, the Cubans rely on oppressive government to protect them from dangers, real and imagined. The U.S. then complains that Cuba is not “democratic” enough for us. A true democratic movement in Iran will taste similar blatant hypocrisy.)

I’ve listened to Obama’s words on the subject. If actual policy were conveyed by a mouthpiece, it would be encouraging. But remember, this mouthpiece serves an apparatus that invaded a neighbor of Iran’s, murdered half a million (at least) of its civilians. This apparatus installed a “democratic” regime, but only in the sense envisioned by Galeano above – that if it falls under the control of our power centers, people are allowed to vote among various choices we offer them. If not under our control, we will attack.

I used to put up a piece here on the anniversary of 9/11 called “September 11, 1973” to commemorate the overthrow of the democratic government of Chile by the United States. We cherish our democracy here, hold it up as an example for the rest of the world, but when others enact true democratic reforms of a type that we ourselves are not allowed to experience, we trample them.

Iran is on a precipice – many of their people remember what it was like before 1979, when a U.S. toady, the Shah, ruled, and didn’t even bother with sham democracy, as they have now.

Iran, not unlike Venezuela, has a chance to break free of both of local Mullahs foreign thugs alike. There is always hope. If it is truly a democratic break, we will isolate and attack. If it is a for-show only government that takes power, if it has cut a deal in advance with us, then the country will be submerged yet again in an abyss of darkness. Let us pray.

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The Daily Show has done some remarkable work by sending correspndent Jason Jones to Iran. (See here, here, and here.) Their goal was comedic, but as in so many countries under oppressive rule, the best outlet for political protests is by means of comedians and court jesters.

Jones has been exposed to everyday Iranians, and found them kind and intelligent. To contrast this, he interviewed Americans in Times Square, asking them basic questions about our government. It’s pathetic. It’s a comedy show, of course, and so exaggerates for effect, but Jay Leno made mockery of this same phenomenon by asking ordinary Americans very basic questions about news and government. It was painful.

A very large percentage of us are pathetically ignorant. We on the blogs are better informed, but let’s not kid ourselves that ordinary everyday Americans are in any way affected by anything but the highest and most visible news. They know we have a new president, that there is turmoil in Iran, and are fed images of various demons to keep their minds right. Beneath awareness of only the most painfully obvious events dangled before them is mush. The American people are so easily manipulated that it doesn’t even take skilled propagandists anymore, as it did prior to World War I.

We are not a functioning democracy – we don’t have an educated citizenry, our institutions are controlled by powerful moneyed interests. There is a rumbling of discontent, as most of us understand that our health care system doesn’t work very well and is too expensive, and that international cooperation is a good thing. We all know this on some level, but we have no effective mechanism for translation of those impulses to government policy. We have only the comedians, who these days deliver our real news.

I’ll take one Daily Show over ten Russert’s, and fifty Brokaw’s, or a thousand of the vapid pretty faces that mock us from their perches as CNN and Fox and all the others.