The Greek Chorus. The Iraq War
I recently read Antoon’s article about the anniversary of the Iraq War. It’s a worthwhile piece that goes and looks at what exactly our invasion did to that country. Having been a soldier there, I too am very aware of the sad tale. What makes me sadder yet is how Americans, from the left to the right, have reacted to it and how our politics has not really ever had a reckoning about the war or the reasoning that got us into it.
Look, for example, at the comments that basically tried to deflect blame for the war back unto the Iraqis or elsewhere. Note that nowhere in there is a coherent argument made. In fact there are plenty of fake world views. I’m all for the post-modern view of the world, but we do have to agree on some basic facts. This only goes to show that our problem is bigger than one war, it’s bigger than one dotard in the White House.
Of course you know by now what I, a writer, thinks about all this, but now I’m thinking that some of our problems are intractable. How else to explain such a chorus of idiocy? [1] Perhaps that’s too harsh. More like proud of ignorant beliefs because that’s a tribal marker.
Note that this existed long before social media was running riot with its bots and amoral view of who gets to propaganda. Note that this doesn’t mean social media isn’t making things worse.
So where do we go from here?
What does an ape that seems less worried about facts and truth when it comes to its immediate environment because, it’s happier with a head full of emotion, even if that emotion is hatred? After all, despite the pronouncements of the likes of Pinker et al, there is a real feeling that things are slipping into a kind of darkness that doesn’t bode well for any of us.
Of course, this means that voices like Antoon need to be heard, but why won’t people even listen? Why is even basic discourse (with someone voicing a non-pro-ethnic cleansing stance) so hard for us? This isn’t the internet’s fault and its limitations as a forum, I see it on the news on TV and elsewhere. Is it the need for tension that our business models require?
Again, we need to understand that, like public roads, public arenas need rules for proper discourse. Otherwise it’s simply a matter of the most-Goebbels like mass that will win.
[1] Maybe my problem is with those who are allowed to comment. I seriously think that almost every major website should move to forcing people to read an article before replying, then asking some comprehension questions (about the article and the basics about it) before moving on to allowing people to say something.
Antoon writes quite a few novels. I highly recommend this one about a man living under Saddam’s regime.
