Claudia Rosett in OpinionJournal.com dissects the explosion of anger expressed by rampaging crowds in a suddenly free Iraq, and the role played by falsity in sustaining all such regimes as the one we just deposed. Note her observations on the support for their lies provided by the "mannered talk" of the world's diplomats and mass media, who cooperate in building and maintaining a facade of normality for tyrants and psychopaths. Reflect also on how our elites recoil when the truth is uttered; e.g., "Axis of Evil," but how ordinary citizens handle the truth with aplomb.
But if tyranny demands doublethink from its subjects, it requires something similar of the tyrants themselves. They insist that they be loved and revered; their survival depends on their ability to keep such facades in place. Saddam, in his efforts not only to impress the world but to reassure himself, had to have his cheering crowds, wave at the adoring singing children and see his own image refracted endlessly in pictures and statues. Kim must count the floral baskets brought to his door, and catalog the gifts that attest to his power and importance, totting up the words of every flattering flunkey, the pomp of every state visit, as evidence that--yes, indeed--he is king of kings.
And yet, they know. The very thoroughness with which they arm themselves--the secret police, the networks of informers, the jails, the private guards, the bunkers and barriers and fortresses--all these things announce to the world how very well tyrants understand that they are hated. And how very scared they are. Despots make a devil's deal, in which the price of ruling by terror is that they themselves live constantly with the knowledge of their own depravities, and in fear of their own subjects. Their worst enemy is truth, and their worst nightmare is the moment when Mephistopheles arrives, inside the palace walls, to make his claim.
For Saddam, whether he is alive or dead, midnight has arrived. The looting is now winding down--and for that we can be grateful. There is nothing lovely in such anger. But the scenes, the rubbish, the broken glass, the plundered palace rooms, send a message very close to home for tyrants everywhere, broadcast in a language that perhaps none dare speak to them in person. It will be a powerful help in drawing a line against the rest of the Saddams.
Posted by Alan at April 16, 2003 06:29 AM