Fighting Ghosts

I was talking to a good friend on the phone the other day and I made mention of an uncomfortable dinner we had shared a few years ago with our respective spouses. "Ugh", she remarked, "you remember that?" We were discussing our lives and the events that have shaped our individual thought processes and values and her husband told me that I was still fighting my grandfather's battles. This actually floored me and I have never forgotten the statement and use it occasionally to take stock of my own critical thinking.

Like many Jewish people, I was raised in an intellectual environment that always championed the underdog and the persecuted. My mother was a Unitarian, and my first memory in church was singing "We shall overcome" hand in hand with my neighbor. My mother was active in the civil rights movement and an organizer for Eugene McCarthy's campaign in 1968. My father voted for Henry Wallace. My grandfather had an incredible life of struggle and helped found the Histadrut in then Palestine. I was very poor at certain moments in my life and resented the silver spoon and the ease of life enjoyed by the privileged. My friend and I discussed these issues the other day and she mentioned that she is trying to stop reflexively thinking like a liberal. It is a good exercise in intellectual integrity. Reflexive thinking from any point on the political bandwidth is a trap.

I mention this because I am so disgusted by the current situation in Zimbabwe. NPR had an interview with a Mugabe defender yesterday that was appalling. His government is casting the current debacle in terms of a fight against British Colonialism - kind of a 28 year Austin Powers flashback. I think any rational person would admit the that battle has long since passed but it makes such a convenient smokescreen for his murderous thugs. Hundreds have been already slaughtered. Voters who vote for the opposition have been threatened with death after the election. The real power that controls this landlocked country, Mbeki of South Africa, sits idly by and says and does nothing.

In Venezuela, we have Hugo Chavez, the great liberator, fomenting a new plan where neighbors must turn in neighbors who are suspected of not agreeing with the thought police. He is financially supporting communist FARC in a neighboring country.

Pakistan's military rulers are disallowing Sharif, the man Musharref our buddy, deposed in a coup, from running again. They have lost support of their people and we are about ready to have a dangerous blow back.

Less than 5% of the Cubans have access to a telephone or computer that can get on the actual net. The proud people who fought against Batista's dictatorship have become dictators themselves. The old story.

Many of these countries have legitimate grievances against past colonial intrusion and manipulation. And yet they all seem to be fighting their grandfather's old battles against an enemy that no longer really exists. And using it as a pretext for some really nasty shit.