Colorless Green Ideas

The Bright End of Nowhere

Lately when I turn on my television I'm assaulted with images of the "new" Iraq. You know the ones; where brave first-time Iraqi voters, who are risking their lives just for even thinking of taking part in the whole process, are corraled into battle-ready polling stations by the omnipresent American soldiers. You know the ones; the kids who just want to go home. The newscaster with the perfect hair and the cleft chin carelessly throws around buzzwords like "democracy," "freedom," and "hope." Words that used to have meaning. Somehow the programming managers and news directors remain unable to recognize the irony in flashing the latest death toll information from Iraq on the screen at the same time.

Come on, people. They aren't even trying anymore. They're realizing now that it's impossible to backtrack and take back all those lies that they fed us, so they've adapted a new strategy. Now they just hit us with as many blatent untruths and ridiculous contradictions in the shortest time possible, in such a way that our numb, bewildered brains are fooled into thinking that it's alright sooner or later.

Some people may say that our greatest flaw as a species is our inherent and unwavering reliance on our emotions. Any robot, cyborg or android worth his or her salt will tell you that. In an utterly hopeless situation all it takes to lift a person from the depths of utter and absolute despair is a reassuring whisper of "it'll all be alright." They've taken the same principle and just scaled it to international proportions. Add some glitz, some glamour, then drown out the voices of the suffering and the free thinkers with a plastic, disposable soundtrack, and you've got an equation for an apathetic and easily-lead population. Oh, and what's the harm in making a little money off all that jealousy, lust, and envy that we've generated on the side?

It's how we sleep at night. It's how we continue to get up in the morning. Because If you were conscious of the amount of blood spilled in your name, and in the name of the the things you hold dear and take for granted each and every day, you'd never find the willpower to get out of bed and face the world. If you had any idea of the human rights atrocities that your tax dollars helped fund, you'd just lie there awake and dreaming of life without indomitable and everlasting guilt.

Well, this time I don't think it's going to be alright, despite their constant assurance. I hardly associate the Iraq I see on television with "Democracy," "Freedom," or "Hope." In fact, they're the last words I would ever think of. The very concept of holding an election in a country as war-torn and unstable as Iraq at this point in time is a joke. And you're fooling yourself if you think the whole thing doesn't boil down to the almighty dollar - Iraq's first free election in a half-century will determine which fat Americans get fatter wallets.

If Iraq isn't more fucked under the new government than it is now, I'll be surprised. If this thing goes off without resulting in tens of thousands of more civilian deaths, I'll be astonished.

No, this time I don't think it's going to be alright.

posted by Sylpheed @ 8:47 PM