What did strike me as important - if both obvious and complex - about
the whole "Saddam statue" idiocy (forgive my expression) was the East
European (1989) parallel made, and likely conscious in pulling down the
statue at the first place. (To be sure, the 1989 *also* misrecognised
freedom as 'liberation,' at least for those who had been listening to
the VOA-generated reminiscences of 1945 and the always-
possible "American liberation.") On the one hand, this reaffirmed
the "popular desire" for "freedom" thus identified with American
liberators. The opposition (among capitalists, at the end, even if at
the same time between a global imperialism and whatever stands against
it) is thus remapped as good vs. evil: but also as capitalism (free
market, modernity, democracy and this kind of images) vs. its
presumably outdated other. I wonder, then, whether this second or third
defeat of the Second world (the repetition) can be "taken back",
ideologically, to make a historical possibility recognise itself in its
defeat (that of Iraq, but also of the global resistance).
I know, this is only incidentally about film.

Best,
SImon Krysl

---------- Original message ----------
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To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 9:39:58 AM
Subject: Re: misinformation

It struck me, too, without having been there or knowing anything
independent about the scene, that the "liberation" moment was clearly
staged (or, better: framed).  You never see more than 50 or 60 people
cheering the "coalition" forces; you see the same people again and
again saying things like "Bush is good," or slapping shoes against the
image of Saddam.  In the image of the statue toppling the crowd is
dense, but you can very nearly see its limits -- it seems clear that
there aren't very many people outside of the frame.  And yet these
images are presented on the major networks as if there are massive
crowds ("the Iraqi people") cheering their "liberators."  I am
surprised that almost no one questions the legitimacy of these images
and their purported message.  (Of course there was some of that here
too: a group of 100 or so students and faculty on my campus was
presented on the local media as if the whole school had gathered to
protest -- an impression I was happy with, because I was one of them,
but that I knew to be misleading.  That makes it look like it isn't
an "American conspiracy" to misinform for political reasons -- though
it can be used that way -- but just another way to sell more eyes to
advertisers: bigger crowds, bigger stories, draw more people in.)

Nate

--
Nathan Andersen
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Collegium of Letters
Eckerd College
4200 54th Ave. S.             Phone: (727) 864-7551
St. Petersburg, FL 33712      Fax:   (727) 864-8354
U.S.A.                        E-mail: [log in to unmask]