Dejavu-Doo in a Parallel Universe

by Claudia

The people of America are obsessed with the outbreak of passion for personal freedom and justice in Iran.  It doesn’t matter that they can’t find Iran on a map, never heard of Farsi and couldn’t tell a Persian from a persimmon………

Our culture has become addicted to the thrill of mass focus on (fill in the blank):  and probably the more life threatening to someone, somewhere- the greater kick the Twittering thumbs will get out of it.  Any minute now the spotlight will shift to an American Idol loser or a gotta-have techno gadget, but in the meantime all the speculation, rumor and bathos available are fixated on Iran. 

Iranian Americans seem to be enjoying this episode. It has relieved their anxiety of waiting for Israel to prompt Uncle Sam to drop the big one on their friends and families and lowered the volume on the conflation of nuclear power with nuclear weapons. They actually get invited on news programs to clarify the speculation and add their own to the mix. 

Anyone who has ever been involved in street demonstrations knows the heady atmosphere of near-anarchy and joint passion.  It’s the basis of democracy, lynch mobs, and revolutions. Its requirements are few: a population with the will to put their bodies and their futures on the line when an invisible boundary has been crossed.

It’s happened here. It’s happened in Iran just 30 years ago.  It happened in Peru just a couple weeks ago, it will always happen when people have had enough.

Defining “enough”- now that’s the problem. Sophisticated societies have learned to manipulate the public and diffuse “enough.”  Our own offers us the opportunity to cheer on others while we passively endure the erosion of freedom, privacy and economic viability.  The magician distracts his audience while he picks their pockets. 

There is a danger here. The audience may get so caught up in the fever of discarding restraint that they look for other chances to experience it. Closer to home.  At least we can hope so.