Saturday, November 25, 2006

Two Bad Eggs in a Pod

Forgive me for mixing metphors, but I thought it was an apt description of the recent
meeting between Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Iran's Mahmood Ahmadinejad.
Apparently the two politically isolated leaders are reaching out to each other in an attempt build some sort of unity in the face of Western criticism. Personally, this only delegitimizes Ahmadinejad's position in my mind. Despite his populist rhetoric, Mugabe typifies the corrupt leadership that so much of Africa has suffered under since decolonization.

It's amazing (and terrifying) to see the chaotic currents of the modern colonial project continue to swirl around us today. The words of Mugabe, Ahmadinejad, and other products of the backlash to Western imperialism continue to rely heavily on the anger of colonization. Despite their despotism, these leaders' words garner them with some small sense of legitimacy simply because those who they rail against have devalued their own rhetoric. Africans, Persians, Arabs, Indians all simply yearn for a justice and equality that seems suspiciously absent in their lives. Yet in frustration they often turn to ideologues- and their impostors- who promise to hold the answer to Western dominance. Hyperbole becomes truth as the complexity of modernity is paved over with sound bites and simple answers.

And who says this confusion merely arises in Harare, Mumbai and the West Bank? What about the millions of Americans who would rather blame Islam for terrorism, or who think the conflict between Shi'ites and Sunis (or Hutus and Tutsis or Serbs and Croats) is an immutable conflict between perpetual enemies? We glaze over the complexities of the modern world and fall for the same generalities that create misunderstanding, mistrust and animosity between people all over the world.

I guess what I am getting at (if there is any point to my ramblings) is that we need a more comprehensive understanding of the factors at work in the societies we find ourselves in. Culprits like Mugabe and Ahmadinejad use frustration and misunderstanding to fuel their ambitions. Their solutions ring hollow, but as long as their claims of injustice are substantiated by the actions of our world leaders, they will continue to wield legitimacy. The responsibility is with us to hold our leaders and ourselves accountable to our actions. We have a chance at fixing injustice only by understanding its dimensions.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Christian,

I just picked up on your blog after your first, and very welcome, post on the new 'Sounds Iranian'.

I must say, after reading your remarks, it's a little eerie to hear one's thoughts echoed so directly - and so eloquently - by a complete stanger. I guess we're both truly products of our times!

In any case, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with your brief analysis.

What interests me vis-a-vis blogging (and satellite television, for that matter) is how such technology can both potentially contriube, and detract, from the appeal of populist anti-imperial leaders such as Ahamadinejad.

Apropo your analysis, I think a major element of the sort of topsy-turvy, post-colonial system we're now all part of is the 'fragmentation' of official 'Grand Narratives', and their replacement with a whole bevy of both contradictory and complimentary individal narratives.

This seem to have major implications for both the global moral authority of the 'Western Democratic Liberal' project (which, as a tempered continuation of the colonial trajectory, views itself as inevitably 'universal'), but also for local hegemonies, such as Iran's revolutionary government, which must equally struggle to maintain their monopoly on the narrative espoused by its subjects.

I'm sure there's a more eloquent way to put all this, but I feel that what I'm describing is nonetheless a fairly imporant element of the contemporary global system.

From this point of view, what interests me is the degree to which blogs represent 'nodes of resistance' to the narrative enforced by a hegemony, versus their more banal role as online ranting spaces, whose individual content is devalued by the sheer number of competing voices that abound.

I don't think I'm articulating this particularly well at the moment, but if you find such ideas pertinent, maybe we could continue this discussion via posts on Sounds Iranian. Interested?

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