| Wednesday, February 23, 2005 |
21:20 - I can change, I can change
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Reading this piece in Der Spiegel, why is it that I'm reminded inexorably of the end of Rocky IV—the one from 1985 where after beating Dolph Lundgren, the Soviet superman boxer dude, to a bloody pulp, Sylvester Stallone slurs out drunkenly that "I guess what I'm trynna say is.... if I can change.... and you can change... everybody can change"? And after sitting there looking stunned for a moment, the Gorbachev stand-in and all his bemedaled retinue slooowly stand... and slooowly begin clapping... and the Soviet Union sloooowly begins to crumble?
As I think back on it, that must have been one of the most insulting movies ever, if you were a Russian democrat. The idea that all that had to happen to get communism to fall was for some drooly palooka to stumble off the edge of a boxing ring and blurt out some puddle-deep crap about how it's conceivable to do something else with your economic and political system. I mean, imagine you're some political dissident or expatriate, a victim of Khrushchev's or Brezhnev's KGB, with family that had been "disappeared" and five name changes and as many fake passports covering your trail. What goes through your mind: "Wow, you mean we can change? That's all we had to say?"
And yet, somehow, it ended up being on the right side of history—and a better prognosticator of future events than, say, White Nights. Perhaps "stupid but optimistic" simply carries a more lasting and infectious message than "glumly realistic" to the most important audience of all, the body politic.
But anyway, I'm glad to see some people in high places starting to talk like this, even if just because they know this kind of headline is so shocking that it's bound to sell newspapers. The argument this guy makes is pretty simple: no conspiracies, no dire evil. It's just sense. It's self-critical, but it has the ring of reality. Or so it seems to me.
All things considered, I think this would be a better world if more people were to listen to such a perspective with an open mind, and do what the mindset it creates says needs to be done to and for this planet. Maybe believing in stupid fantasies isn't such a bad thing after all.
UPDATE: Sure looks like it's working for Lebanon.
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Brian Tiemann
