...from my Christmas card list. Which he probably wouldn't have read anyway.
Be that as it may, Mr. Ahmadinejad's attempt to ban western music from state radio and television stations reminds me of my own fundamentalist beliefs: as an object reminder of the differences between Me and Mr. Ahmadinejad. Not Me as in The Great Satan and Them as in Iranians. No. What a small, illiberal, mean-spirited definition. I'm not even going to tie proficiency in Western music and cultural traditions to economic wealth and efficiency, as some commentators on this news item have.
Rather, here I confess to drawing a distinction between those who listen to the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and hear the voices of a demonic plot to destroy their religion and culture, and those who hear a deaf man otherwise known chiefly for his irascible nature, quarrels with relatives, and lack of personal hygiene speak simply to you across the centuries about his hope in the brotherhood of all mankind. I draw a distinction between those who listen to a clarinet concerto by a German boy genius* and follow the trickling rise and langourous fall of the clarinet under skilled fingers that reminds me of lazy spring afternoons, and those who hear only a narcotic vapidity.
It's true that I've chosen the high points; but even though by and large Eminem cuts no ice with me, it's true that I would deeply miss various Eminem inspired parodies, such as this one, which, to me, has a deep subtext concerning the American Dream and the place of immigrants in an assimilationist society. Fifty-ton, meat-eating, saurischian immigrants.
But the important difference between me and Mr. Ahmadinejad shouldn't be that one of us is right and one of us is wrong (even though I clearly think a distinction can be drawn). It's that one of us would and has actually imposed his claimed musical preferences on his entire country. Much as I like my iTunes list, I know that forcing the rest of America to listen to The Clancy Brothers, classical music, and spoof rap songs about Middle-Earth would drive 99% of you batty. But that's essentially what Mr. Ahmadinejad has chosen for his country. That's the difference between what this country should be fighting in the world, and the battles we so often choose to fight instead.
Happy holidays.**
*K. 622 in A major with David Shifrin is my pedestrian favorite, for those keeping score at home, though a close second has to be his much less well known canons "Leck mich im Arsch" and "Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schon sauber" which are exactly what they sound like.
**my small part in a quite different war.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I know you said you didn't much believe in it, but here it is: Hearts and minds. Ahmadinejad is trying to control them because if he doesn't, he'll lose them. It just comes out really sillily in this case.
So here's a modest proposal, taken from Cold War strategies. Broadcast classical music into Iran. Broadcast NPR and the BBC. Get rid of Karen Hughes and just pump culture, without a political bent, into the airwaves. Tell an honest story and let listeners pick it up on their own, without being preached at.
Well, when I say I don't believe in "hearts and minds," I mean I don't think much of it as a military strategy, as implemented. It usually seems to consist of building a clinic , school, or park somewhere which promptly gets bombed, or vandalized, or has its teachers shot because they refuse to stop teaching women how to read. As practiced by, say, Radio Free Europe I have a lot more respect for it. But, again, when we did that we weren't standing atop the Czechs with size 12 boots.
Ah. Thanks for clearing up my confusion--I can't argue with that. Well, we haven't invaded Iran yet....
I wonder how nationbuilding in Bosnia's gone.
Ha--Bosnia. I have to admit I didn't even consciously think of the modern peacekeeping force, but of the Soviet Union's repression of Czechoslovakia. I will note that my understanding is that UNPROFOR was rather unsuccessful at preventing war in Bosnia, repossession of UN-guarded heavy weapons by belligerent parties, or the massacre of refugees in UN-designated safe areas (see Srebrenica). The later NATO-led -FORs seem to have done better, but that was after quite a bit of tiring internecine war, ethnic cleansing, and an agreement hashed out at Dayton between leaders who weren't facing down a homegrown insurgency that thought the whole thing was illegitimate. Of course, most of this information is from Wikipedia, which (I suppose a minor error) thought that Scott O'Grady had been captured by Serbs. Well, you get what you pay for.
Post a Comment