-Caveat Lector- from alt.politics.org.cia ----- As always, Caveat Lector. Om K ----- <A HREF="aol://5863:126/alt.politics.org.cia:41485">Civilization, CIA, Barbarism</A> ----- Subject: Civilization, CIA, Barbarism From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (TRKeske) Date: Sat, Jan 30, 1999 9:14 AM Message-id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM How could one help but notice the rich irony in the comment from Augusto Pinochet, former dictator of Chile, that he enjoyed vacationing in London because England was so "civilized"? It is too-rich food for the following thoughts, and it will give you a stomachache. Augusto Pinochet's regime was as depraved and brutal as can be imagined, yet he loves things "civilized". How delightful. Picture yourself being forced to watch your loved ones raped before your eyes. Imagine mutilation, castration, electroshock to genitals, bayonets up vaginas, dogs used to commit sexual assault. These were not merely tactics used against criminals. They were used as a full-scale war against anyone of even remotely leftist or progressive tendencies, anyone critical of the government. Perhaps Britain is indeed civilized, having arrested Augusto Pinochet. There is as much paradox and irony in this, too, as there is in Pinochet's comments. Providing the contrast is the ever so-civilized Maggie Thatcher, enjoying lunch with Pinochet, criticizing the arrest. I have a fondness for London, myself, and always will. It is where my lover and I went to celebrate our 25th anniversary, our first trip abroad, the first place in the world that we wanted to see. I notice that there is a peculiar popularity, these days in America, for newscasters with heavy British accents. I think that perhaps it is because so many Americans have a stereotype engrained in their minds of "very proper" British. Somehow, they trust them more than their own newscasters. While I maintain affection for Britain, I am aware of the painful paradox and contradiction. Its history is often shameful and depraved. The same is certainly true of America, maybe even more so. Probably, the truth is that paradox and contradiction are universal in human beings. We are both quite civilized and quite barbaric at the same time. Wake up, Maggie, I think I have something to say to you. You and many others will think that I am quite barbaric and uncivilized when I am done saying it, but I am merely the same contraction that you, and Britain, and America, and the rest of the world are. I would hate to be rude to a host, but I have a higher duty, as one of the rabble, to rouse people all over the world to rebel against their governments, when it seems best for the balance of barbarism and civilization. The ugly side of Britain has been evident enough in history. The brutal suppression and exploitation in India. The callous attitudes toward Ireland, just recently mending. The Nazis sympathies within sections of British aristocracy, before WWII. Most Americans would never give a second thought about Britain's despicable role in China's Opium War, and how Britain raped that country for the sake of drug profits. Then again, most Americans never noticed the CIA's raping of half the entire globe, for drug profits. Probably, the CIA, Richard Nixon, and Henry Kissinger are far more to blame than Britain and Maggie Thatcher, for the spectacle of horror that was Augusto Pinochet. Our government would prefer to hide the fact of the extremely close collaboration between Nixon's administration and Pinochet, despite its knowledge of the human rights abuses. Our country might have been more aware of the abuses of Kissinger and Nixon, true madmen that they were, but I recall another civilized lady who enjoyed luncheon dates with unsavory, powerful men. Supporters of Katherine Graham, formerly of the Washington Post, were quite upset when I criticized her for censoring news critical of her dear friend Kissinger. Didn't I know, she was extremely liberal? I had her all wrong. I don't doubt for a minute that she was extremely liberal, in spite of her having lunch with a rabidly right-wing friend. It is the contradiction and paradox of the decent and indecent, the civilized and the barbaric. It is the very subject of this entire, verbose essay. Kissinger did not believe in democracy, when it came to Chile's election of the liberal Allende government. He said quite cynically that the people of Chile had no right to make such a mess of things, to elect a socialist government, through their own foolish votes. The U.S. government would never admit it, but I believe that they welcomed and intended torture as a tool of repression. Today, the civilized world wrings its hands over such soul-tormenting questions- do we have the right to arrest Pinochet? Should he be exempt, as a head-of-state? Are we following international law and agreement, according to all the proper rules? The hypocrisy of it all is sheer madness, of course. So exquisitely sensitive are we, fiercely debating the fine points of sheer unreality. The reality of the terror and torture was a minor footnote, somehow escaping our eagle eyes and refined sensitivities, when it was actively going on, and when it mattered most. Lean close- I'll whisper a little truth in your ear, what it all means in a world full of depraved murderers and torturers like Augusto Pinochet. It's not something that a politician would ever dare say, but then again, politicians lie a lot, and they tell people what they want to hear. There is no Right. There is no Wrong. There is no God, and there are no Rules. Nothing really Matters, least of all the opinions of your fellow human beings. You live in a freakish, accidental world of random pain and capriciously dispensed hell, into which innocents are thrown, wholesale. You have exactly what rights that you decide you have, and can manage to win in battle against bastards who would deny you any rights at all. Vigilante groups would have perfect right to shoot Pinochet, or torture him at length, much less to watch him detained in a country club prison. Probably, the world would have been a better place if Richard Nixon, Jesse Helms, Henry Kissinger had all been shot, right smack through the head, for being the kinds of men fully behind Pinochet. It is obscene to live in a safe and civilized world, pulling the strings that create obscene, uncivilized worlds like Chile. In America, and in Britain, we think that we are less guilty than the generals in Chile. Truth is, we are probably more guilty. It is we who had the power to make and break these people. We used them like pawns in a chess games, like puppets on a string. We keep them at arm's length, have proxies to do our bidding, stooges to do the dirty work, fall guys to take the blame, then we manage to convince ourselves that the blood is not on our hands. Iron Lady, you are not a defenseless woman. You were one of the most powerful individuals in the World. The defenseless women were in Chile, tasting steel bayonets up their private parts, while the Iron Lady had lunch in good taste with tyrant. I toss my own lunch, watching you have your lunch. It obviously means nothing to you. How can you appreciate the consequences of your attitudes and actions, when you live in such a clean, untroubled, plush, civilized world? How can you appreciate, when you are so little confronted in the censored and sanitized media, that is largely controlled by people as rich, powerful, and indifferent as you are? I don't know if Western leaders could appreciate what is wrong, if they never tasted the same, in a close and personal way. The constipated attempts at justice are too tame, too timid, too late for people like Pinochet. To deter them from doing what they do, it might be most effective to torture the torturers, make them experience it from the other side, eye for eye repayment in kind. If this would apply to Pinochet, it would probably apply to people like Nixon, Kissinger, and Helms as well. Is it really a terrible thing, or merely a sensible thing compelled by a terrible logic? It's not that I am so uncivilized as to wish to see this. I wish to see the British people cast votes in a civilized way, so that no one ever needs to cast iron in an uncivilized way. I wish to see supporters of brutal tyrants not to be elected, so that they do not need instead to be electrocuted and executed. It is the civilized way. But it has to happen before patience runs out, at whatever unpredictable time that may be. Otherwise, it is time for things to be brutal in Britain, because they have already been brutal for far too long in places like Chile. I am civilized and do believe in giving peace a chance. However, sometimes peace is the thing whose chance came and went when you were paying no attention whatsoever, because you didn't care less, and did not think that it mattered. You did not care less because there was no war going on, to command your attentions. I confess my deep ignorance- I did not know before last year that the House of Lords enjoyed hereditary position. It is an opportunity to display how you can have insight even in ignorance. I know almost nothing about the voting record of the House of Lords, but allow me to attempt to describe them in sheer blind-sight. They are the ideological counterparts of the American GOP. They ride high moral horses. Very concerned are they about "decay". They pretend concern for the common man, but this is mostly for expediency. What they find most in common is shown in subtle attempts to exploit common bigotries and base instincts. While feigning concern for the common man, their policies almost invariably favor the rich, even though they try to propagandize the public that the opposite is true. They pretend outward displays of respect, but they in truth drip with venom and contempt for broad segments of the population. They tend to be openly homophobic and discreetly racist. They deny hotly that these things are true, but they are quite true. Why are they this way? When you are wealthy, when you have hereditary privilege, you need to justify it in your mind. You naturally tend to convince yourself that you are privileged because you are superior, intellectually and morally. You justify by imagining that your fellow human beings are "unworthy", and "to blame" for their own fates. The rabble vaguely threaten you, just by being "have-nots", because they might try to take some of what you have. As a result, compassion is not likely to be your strong suit. The vestige of monarchy is a peculiar thing to behold. It seems like a harmless amusement today, not a serious injustice. It is almost like living dolls for a little girl to play with, and dress up as Princess. Probably, it is past time to put away child's things. In the case of the House of Lords, I imagine how I would feel if the Republican party held hereditary positions. Like Henry Kissinger, I am cynical even about democracy, when it delivers to you madmen, criminals, tyrants and sleaze. If it were hereditary, on top of all that, I would feel extremely justified to try to overthrow it. I know how many holes it would take to fill the House of Lords- as many as it would take for a paramilitary to shoot it full of holes, like Swiss Cheese. Again, fortunately, I am not so uncivilized as to wish to see anyone ripen like Swiss cheese as they get old and obsolescent. I am very proper and civilized. When you live in a country, it often would not even occur to you to shoot part of your government full of holes. Your press, your education, limit what you are capable of thinking. This is why you need foreign viewpoints from far way, to help plant the seeds of radical ideas. I am only encouraging you to the very same fight that I encourage here in America, in Russia, in China, in Chile, in Zimbabwe. Because I am civilized, just like you, I have not shot anyone, yet. I urge you kindly to step aside, voluntarily, peacefully, while you still can do so, peacefully. We won't shoot you, tomorrow, if you don't move, because good citizens like ourselves are patient and civilized. After some unknown number of tomorrows, we will shoot you full of holes, if you still fail to move out of the way of necessary change, because we are also barbarians, just like you. What you did to others will be done to you. Tom Keske Boston, Mass. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. 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