Bhutto and the Creationists of Democracy December 27
Unlike Pakistan, American’s live in a culture where political assassinations - at least the violent kind - are mercifully rare. We can usually depend on an orderly transfer of our ever-lengthening national to-do list from one nitwit to another every few years without bloodshed. But as Benazir Bhutto’s assassination shows, trying to create and run a democracy is no easy feat - despite what neocons would have you believe.
Modern-style democracies are relatively rare and few countries that try them on for size stick with them more than a few violence-wracked years. Americans have been at it longer than most and we still haven’t perfected it. Our democracy survives as much because we’re too disorganized and lazy to do anything else than because we’re all similarly dedicated to high-minded principles, open debate, and honoring our fellow citizens.
The life cycle of democracies have eerie parallels in the Creationism/Darwinism debate. True to their right-wing roots, neocons are the Democracy Creationists. To them, it’s a simple matter of a powerful, benevolent, and unseen hand chucking out the evil despot du jour and waiting a few weeks for a Democratic Garden of Eden to spring magically from the fertile earth just as foretold in the Holy Briefing Papers. Throw down a little seed, sprinkle some water, and you’re good to go.
‘Real Men’ Don’t Believe in Evolution
Neocons don’t believe in that evolution crap. Their Democratic Gardens of Eden will thrive because beings with unfathomable wisdom and beneficence will guide their development. Playing the part of God will be Donald Rumsfeld on Broadway and Paul Wolfowitz in the road show. Adam and Eve will be played by body bags.
Neocons believe this despite the lack of any empirical evidence that it’s so. They take it as a matter of faith that if the Deity-in-Chief commandeth a people who’ve never experienced a democracy to build one in the next seven days, it will be so.
Amen.
Democratic Darwinists are more pragmatic. They’ve observed democracies’ track records and concluded they survive about as often start-ups like Webvan. They know democracies are much nastier to create than sausage because they’ve actually handled the chitlins and can tell you first hand it’s a dirty, smelly, unpleasant affair. Since they’ve never observed a lush democracy farm out on the back forty next to the spaghetti farm, they conclude that Democratic Gardens of Eden are exceedingly rare and one should take great care before investing in one.
Asking the Right Questions
If democracies are so difficult to achieve, can they ever be created? Well, yes Virginia, they can. And oddly enough, usually at the point of a gun just like the neocons say - see American Revolution. But like anything done at the point of a gun, there’ll be gore and blood galore before anything useful happens. People will die and be maimed and that’s OK if you are the unseen, benevolent hand attached to an arm half a world away. After all, it’s not your hand getting ripped off, it’s some poor Pakistani’s.
Whether democracy building is a good thing depends on asking the correct question. Can we create a democracy? Yes, with untold deaths and at great expense, we can. Should we create a democracy is another question entirely. That decision lies with the people who will pay the ultimate price for the democracy. If they believe strongly enough - as did Benazir Bhutto - the answer is yes. If they believe strongly otherwise - like America’s BFF, Pervez Musharraf - the answer is an emphatic no. But either way, false Gods like the neocons shouldn’t be making that call, the poor bastards who will die over it should.
Sometimes the smartest creator is the one who learns to keep his benevolent hands to himself. It’s a shame our wayward creationists haven’t learned that lesson.
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distributorcap Dec 27
funny how President Asshole and VP Hemorrhoid are dismantling everything they claim to be building elsewhere
may they both…
well stated OP
Dusty Dec 27
Its sad Poobie..her father and brothers were all assassinated as well. I wondered today how often she thought about that since she came back to Pakistan.
To the victor goes the spoils and that fuckwit Musharraf now inherits the lead in the..cough..election. Politics are quite deadly and bad for your health in some parts of the world still.
I hope Pakistan will find a way to keep edging towards Democracy. The US intervention does or doesn’t help is the question.
commander other Dec 28
{sigh} yet another chapter in the continuing rape of moral decency, let alone democracy. well written, OP.
delia Dec 28
Compelling analysis, OP. I’ll be back for more.
Suzi Riot Dec 28
Really excellent post.
Isn’t it interesting that the same Neo-Cons who are so intent on creating a New World Order through this farm method of democracy building are the very same ones who pose the greatest threat to American democracy? I actually don’t think they want democracy at all; I think they want control and know that if you set up a country that is a representative republic and you can control the representatives as well as the executive, and you call it “democracy”, well you’ve got yourself a puppet government.
Omnipotent Poobah Dec 28
DC,
Yup, you have to stamp out democracy to save it.
Dusty,
I think we’d be much better off not trying to make it happen. It never works and only prolongs the suffering.
Commander,
Thanks
Delia,
You’re welcome any time.
Suzi,
One man’s democracy is another man’s dictatorship. It’s location, location, location.
D3880 Dec 28
Very well written Poobah. And now what will be do about Pakistan? Unstable government and terrorists closest to their nukes - quite terrifying. I know! Let’s send in our military! Oh wait, no. The Fuck-up in Chief and his commander, officially known as the Vice Fuck-up, have already squandered our military in Iraq. We’re screwed.
SteveIL Dec 29
Actually, the Democratic Darwinists are just as stupid as the so-called Neocon Creationists. In case you haven’t been reading, the idiot Democratic Darwinists have been saying exactly the same things in calling for “democracy to flourish” in Pakistan. That, and there is no attempt to get it right on why democracy was able to take root, survive a civil war, and thrive in the United States. But, it is the nature of the Democratic Darwinists, the “liberals”, to rewrite history instead of learning from it.
fairlane Dec 31
What in the Hell is a “Democracy?”
I’ve heard, and read about them all my life, but not unlike Big Foot I’ve never actually seen one.