|
 Fifty years ago the culprit would have been the Jews.
In the case of rape, a black. We can foretell the finale.
Holy war against holy war. Terrorism changes place—it
leaves the planes and becomes bacteriological war in a
vicious circle of vendettas.
By João Sayad
Goliath, the Philistine giant, was brought down by a well-aimed stone thrown by David,
Israel's first king. The Bible also says, in another place, that Goliath was defeated by
someone else, with another name that History didn't record. Probably, this other Hebrew is
the real author of the feat, since he is mentioned and known only by this fact.
In history, the trivial, human and concrete facts do not matter. For history the only
people that matter are heroes and villains, who always play the same script. The history
of the Western civilization, past and future, is already written in the Bible, in the
Homerian and Greek tragedies. We don't have a lot of imagination. The actors are chosen
right before the act and they play a pre-established drama. Samson, David, Napoleon,
Lincoln and Dom Pedro I are chosen like King Momo, Pierrot, Harlequin and the character
from the Northeast Bumba-Meu-Boi. The real history, from people who did or did not, is not
history, is life.
Last week, the whole world lived the panic of the passengers from the hijacked planes,
was asphyxiated by the smoke, screamed from despair and moaned buried by the World Trade
Center's debris. Thousands of anonymous people, friends or acquaintances, lost their
lives. We will never know who committed the heinous crime. The tragedy became history. We
will repeat the drama from 3000 years ago, Jews against Philistines, or Christians against
Moors or poor against the rich. David against Goliath. "We" are David. The
"others", Goliath.
As an unimaginative movie, last week's tragedy continues as history. The American
President declares war against concretely unknown terrorists, but easy to identify when we
follow the original script—they are the Cananaean, the Moor, the Saracen. Fifty years
ago the culprit would have been the Jews. In the case of rape, a black. We can foretell
the finale. Holy war against holy war. Terrorism changes place—it leaves the planes
and becomes bacteriological war in a vicious circle of vendettas.
The American government strengthens its spy network, reduces the civil liberties of
Americans. Americans become fundamentalists, xenophobes, McCarthyists. In the '50s,
Charley Chaplin was persecuted and went back to Europe. Now, they will perhaps persecute
Madonna for being indecorous or Muslim Muhammad Ali for his religion. Political refugees
from around the world have no place to go anymore.
The lights are turned off in the country of the movies, universities, libraries,
museums. All unite against the common enemy, which still has to be chosen—a poor and
inhospitable country in Asia, a band of terrorists hidden in a cave, the Palestine
(Philistines?), the Persian (Iran?) or the Babylonians (Iraq?).
If we could make science fiction with imagination, history's sequence might be
different. After a week of silent mourning, perplexed and respectful in the face of pain,
the United States and NATO decide on a fund of 40 billion dollars for investments in
Afghanistan, in Iran or another place. They start a new Marshall Plan before any war is
begun and which is promoted by the attacked country.
In a few years, the Eastern threat, wherever it might come from, would be controlled.
The Eastern fundamentalists would be globalized. They would start to eat at McDonald's and
would go to Geneva to protest against globalization. We would really be making history. We
would stop being led by characters with pre-established roles. None of this will happen:
the human and rational solution is science fiction. The B science fiction has become
reality.
João Sayad, the author, is São Paulo city's secretary of Finances and
Economic Development. You can get in touch with him at jsayad@attglobal.net
Send
your
comments to
Brazzil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed