The spectrum of tyranny is wide and colorful. It is gratifying to see the Iraqi soccer team winning its way into the limelight as it shed its physical and emotional anguish, not to mention Udai’s dungeons where torture of athletes makes Abu Ghraib look like a harmless Strauss waltz. Regardless of anything else, you have to thank Bush for that accomplishment.
Those sitting in Doha’s studios sporting the latest in French suits, and those who demonstrated in Amman with bellies full of junk food imported from Tokyo and Kentucky while Iraqis suffered Saddam and the sanctions, should stop and reflect.
It is no secret that reflection for us is not intrinsic. Reflection on matters of urgency or matters of course, starts with asking questions and comparing facts. We are discouraged from doing that by an education that inculcates us with a certain “truth” and promises horrific consequences in this life and the next if we dare attempt to question anything.
Though not as obvious as Saddam’s tyranny, this is tyranny nonetheless. If, for example, you wake up one day to find out in the papers that you are allowed to read a certain book in English when the same book in Arabic is banned, you wobble with the concept of objective reality and wonder. You had better wonder in silence since the state is there to “correct” your potentially errant behavior.
The temporary triumph of the state over the individual is gloriously documented in George Orwell’s 1984. When Winston Smith, the protagonist, is persuaded that his torturer’s four raised fingers number five, the seal is set. The Deconstructionist school in literary criticism believes that what makes such “mental manipulation possible is the state’s control” of language. If you have lived in such a state for a week, you would know what they are talking about. The state creates terms of its own that they would force into daily use until it sinks into one’s subconscious while eliminating others. One such supremely important word that is eliminated from our daily use is “why.”
The Deconstructionists, summing up their argument, go on to conclude that “discourse, lacking a center, becomes an instrument of power, and so, in the land of Big Brother, war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.” Now that is something worth reflecting on.
Sure enough, there are bombs in Baghdad, many are needlessly slaughtered every day; yet there is that intangible of liberation. For the rest of the world, the Iraqi soccer team is the best example to watch. Liberated from their fears and their oppressors, they perform with the joy of sport and the love of their Fatherland. No one will shower them with gold coins if they win, but should they lose, no one will torture them either.
In case you missed it, there was ample proof of this new situation. During the opening ceremonies, the Iraqis marched with heads held high and broad smiles. Like any other “civilized” nation, they had only the flag of their country to lead their way. Then came the Jordanians. They had a picture of their leader leading the way. You tell me, which team would you rather march with?
