Contrary to media cliches about “the silly season,” this is a time
of very serious -- and probably catastrophic -- political maneuvers.
From California to the U.N. building in New York City to the
sweltering heat of Iraq, the deadly consequences of entrenched power
are anything but humorous.
Can you remember watching a movie when some calamity is happening
on the screen, and laughter ripples across the darkened theater? You
might wonder why people are chuckling at the grievous misfortunes of
others. To comfortable viewers, a disaster can seem quite amusing.
The market is hot for Hollywood extravaganzas that fill screens at
multiplexes. The spectacles of high-tech weapons and cinematic
bloodshed are experienced as just so much viewing pleasure. The
unreality, we’re told, is just for diversion -- people understand the
difference between movie posturing and the real world.
But this summer, news outlets are agog with real-life versions of
what could be called “Pulp Nonfiction.”
Of course there are plenty of assurances that people with power,
and those ascending to it, have their heads screwed on right. But the
line between make-believe and make-political-hay is so wispy that it
has just about disappeared.
“I don’t run around every day with a gun in my hand,” Arnold
Schwarzenegger has said. “So I want kids to understand the difference.”
Fat chance, when plenty of adults -- including Schwarzenegger -- don’t
seem interested in making the distinction.
In early July, with the Bush administration smoothing the way, the
candidate-to-be went to Iraq and recited lines from movies in front of
cheering U.S. soldiers.
Stepping forward to entertain troops in a summer palace that
formerly belonged to Iraq’s dictator, Schwarzenegger had his opening
line ready: “First of all, congratulations for saying ‘Hasta la vista,
baby’ to Saddam Hussein.” Not content to start with a phrase from
“Terminator 2,” the actor closed with a line from his first Terminator
movie: “I'll be back.”
True to his word, a few weeks later Schwarzenegger was back --
again conflating movie dialogue with public discourse. After announcing
his candidacy for governor of California, he proclaimed: “Say ‘hasta la
vista,’ Gray Davis!”
There’s been plenty of media eye-rolling about the California
recall, but much of the coverage actually contributes to the wacky
atmosphere it vaguely decries. Time magazine’s 11-page spread on
Schwarzenegger begins with the headline “All That’s Missing Is the
Popcorn.” Actually, from a media standpoint, all that’s missing is much
discussion of the widespread poverty, transportation nightmares,
unemployment, deteriorating health care and severe pollution that are
integral to daily life in California.
With enough money and firepower behind them, we’re led to believe,
fantasies can become realities: on campaign trails, in diplomacy and
during military occupation.
After violating the U.N. Charter by invading Iraq, the U.S.
government wants the U.N.’s Security Council to bless the occupation
and the “governing council” that the occupiers handpicked. This is akin
to someone murdering all siblings and then demanding special
consideration as an only child.
Sure, some post-war difficulties in Iraq have gotten quite a bit
of negative press (though U.S. coverage generally understates the
misery and repression involved). But the American media spin does not
acknowledge the extreme arrogance of current U.S. proposals for U.N.
backup of the occupation -- while the White House would still call the
shots in Iraq.
After proceeding as though military might can solve just about
anything, the Bush administration is now trying a new tactic. The
effort is to involve the United Nations as a kind of air freshener for
the stench of a rotting occupation. In effect the manipulators in
Washington want, retroactively, to get a “good war-making seal of
approval” from the U.N. Security Council. But war, with continual
deaths and serious injuries, is continuing in the form of escalating
resistance and counter-insurgency.
In desperate need of public-relations cover from a U.N. mission in
Iraq, the U.S. government is offering the United Nations a role of
subservience to the conquerors. The message from Washington to the U.N.
is: We have every right to make this disastrous mess and perpetuate it.
And now you have every responsibility to follow our orders while
providing humanitarian assistance -- circumscribed, of course, by our
priorities as occupiers.
But we get little media scrutiny of the fact that U.N. involvement
would be largely dictated by a rogue superpower.
And so it goes: Why focus the media lens on reality when there’s
so much show-biz puffery to go around?
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Norman Solomon is co-author of “Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t
Tell You.” For an excerpt and other information, go to:
www.contextbooks.com/new.html#target
