October 2, 2005

• A friend here in Houston invited me to go see 'The Power Of Nightmares,' which was showing at the Museum of Fine Arts.

  It's a BBC documentary, originally a TV series and now repackaged into a movie specifically for Cannes. The basic premise is to track the origins of both Islamism and Neoconservatism, and to show how much they have in common, and how they've both manipulated fear within their countries to benefit politically. The second half culminates in a sort of exposé of the absurdity of the war on terror. Sample assertion: 'Al Qaeda' as an organization was sort of dreamed up in order to prosecute WTC bombers in 1996, and include Osama Bin Laden in the prosecution, using an organized crime model. Later, OBL picked up the term since it had already struck fear in the hearts of westerners. Wikipedia says this about it, citing 'The Power Of Nightmares.'

  What's really funny about this whole thing, however, is reading the right-wing reaction on the web. Here's the National Review Online bit. It's full of misconceptions and hand-waving. NRO has to defend it's ideology at all costs, though, and conservatives in America have long ago given up integrity in this cause. Example:
  

  I am no expert on Strauss, but I know enough about him to be aware that much of his thinking was influenced by his first-hand observations of life in Weimar Germany. Curtis's narrative cleverly fails to mention this point, portraying Strauss and his followers as responding to the wickedness of American suburbia.

  ...Except that's completely incorrect, and you'd have to be on drugs to have read it that way. The whole article is a bunch of misrepresentations, handwaving, and arguments of authority, none of which address the factuality of the assertions, and amount to some guy who hasn't seen the whole thing saying, "How dare you! Don't you know who Leo Strauss is?"

  Anyway. The moviehouse of the museum was sold out, and it warmed my cockles to see Houstonians this involved in the discussion. The filmmaker answered questions afterwards, pointing out that it was up to Americans to come up with a new vision for their country that wasn't based on manipulating fear. The minds of many people in the audience had clearly been blown... They were in that tender stage of not knowing if what they had just seen was a lie or the truth. I love to see people in that frame of mind; it gives me back a little hope.

  Now: If only we could come up with something to replace the fearmongering big-enemy rhetoric, and start making the country a better place.

  • 11:19 am
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