Watchmen, Gran Torino, and the dawn of nuclear destruction
 

A dawn on nuclear destruction is upon us. I didn’t understand this until seeing Watchmen but I now see it is inevitable. Or rather, it simply won’t be averted. Let me explain.

I just saw Gran Torino and Watchmen. Gran Torino is a very good film which I really liked, and Clint Eastwood is great there. I didn’t like its ending though. Watchmen is on a whole different level. Being a superhero film it won’t win, or even be nominated to, any of the major Oscars probably, but it is a brilliant, invigorating film, though definitely not for everyone’s taste. It is based on famous comic book novel, which I must admit I didn’t know about as I never read comic books (The book is apparently considered the citizen Kane of Comic books). From a quick look the film seems very  faithful to the book, and the brilliant screenplay I assume is mostly attributed to the author. Given that the book was written in the 80s it is amazing how timely it is. Both films deal with the question of force, violence, pacifism, and how they mix. In both the US and its use of force are questioned.


How does our society deal with violence, and can they handle it any more? I have wondered for a long time now on people’s reaction to Israel recent attack (January 2009) on Gaza. Talking to people, reading the newspapers, listening to the news, people believe Israel massacred from pure rage Palestinian children. Now, I do not wish to enter into a political discussion of who is at fault there – it is completely beside the point I’m trying to make here. 

The fact is, there is at the moment a simply astonishing hatred towards Israel. I remember Annie Lennox on TV saying, with her voice shaking, something in the form of:  “I remember waking up, looking at the news, and seeing bombs fall on Palestinian children. We have to stop this.” Now you might share her anger, but then what about Africa??? Why are the millions dying in Africa take such a small place in people’s anger compared to hundreds in Gaza. No one seems to be doing anything about a genocide which is killing millions in the Sudan (sorry, almost forgot that country name!). Almost nothing was done to stop the killing of millions in Rwanda, and nothing is done now. Where are all these people when millions of Africans are involved, while if 20 Palestinians are killed in some operation the whole world is outraged. Moreover, Finland lately rejected a Rwandan extradition request for a man suspected of taking part in the African country's 1994 genocide because it feared he would not receive a fair trial there. At the same time, trials are opened in Europe for every other general in the Israeli army if they can show a relation to an action that killed a couple of Palestinians, but of course those courts are completely fair (even though the judges are informed by the same media which is convincing Europe that Israelis like to drink blood for breakfast.)

But Africa and Israel are not the only places in the world – Russia, South America, East Asia, China, so many countries which are of course completely ok and no problems there. No reason for human rights activists to involve themselves with those countries when Israel and the Palestinians exist. Still, the UN human rights committee concerns itself almost exclusively with Israel, (which is even more astonishing as the US provides most of the UN money, but still continues to fund it), as do so many human rights activists around the world.

I should make it very clear that I’m not saying: oh, why are people picking on poor Israel as many other countries are equally bad. No, I’m asking and trying to understand why are people choosing to pick on Israel and not other countries.
 

As you can see, I couldn’t figure out where does this amazing hatred, especially in the last couple of months after the Gaza attack, come from. One can look at history and the recurring hatred of the Jews, every time with a new reason – the economy, they are rats, they steal our money, they kill our children, or even scientific proofs. There were always reasons. Freud tried to explain it in his book Moses and Monotheism. Still, what is going on now? Why is this current amazing hatred? Another attempt at an explanation could be that Israel is considered by the West as part of it. It’s one of us who is misbehaving and then people want to correct it more than others. Given the west involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, this is less the case, especially as why is Russia less part of the west than Israel? The west could do so much to help the Russians, yet they are completely impotent and their citizens/electorate are much more involved in the going’s on with Israel, and rarely care about human rights in Russia.


And at last I get to my point, an understanding which came from Watchmen – force, violence and sacrifice. Israel uses, and certainly now used in Gaza, extreme force and violence. If you heard any Israeli general speaking they were proud of it – we advance with extreme force and violence were their words. The Arab world also uses great violence (most people in the west, Arabs and Muslims included, don’t distinguish too well between the general semi-battle going on between the west and Muslim countries and the Israeli-Palestinian battle.) One of the important answers to understand the situation is then fear.

SPOILER ALERT (for Watchmen)

If you haven’t seen Watchmen better stop reading now. I’ll divulge the ending, but this is not the only reason. What I’ll say simply won’t make much sense without seeing it, or not the correct sense.

Let us jump to the end of Watchmen – in the end, to avert a war of the worlds, a common enemy is created. This common enemy I want to suggest is, in our case, Israel. People are very afraid of a war between the Arab/Muslim world led by Iran, and the West/Christian world. (I’m way oversimplifying things here, I know. I can’t enter into too many subsections. The government of Egypt might take a different side than that her occupants would like etc.).  This war is upon us, but the voices to stop the war are mingled with voices of a sacrifice, a sacrificial lamb in the form of Israel to perhaps bring peace. This fear and then wanting to find a common enemy, is part of the reason. Another part is the following (which is somewhat connected).

Many Americans of the left simply think that Israel does not have the right to self defense. That it can’t defend itself and it should simply cease from existing. But these voices are not simply from some people hating Israel, there are even many Israelis who share this opinion. If the price of Israel existence is that they’ll have to kill Palestinian kids, in “self defense,” is this an acceptable price to pay? For many people, the amount of violence needed for self defense is simply too high and if that is the price, they prefer that Israel shall stop existing. (In a funny turn of events, many American Jews want now Israel to simply stop existing, as they imagine they are hated because of Israel actions, instead of their previous feeling of Israel providing them the right to exist.)

 
Note that none of the people criticizing Israel, none of them, have any other suggestions of what Israel can do besides ceasing to exist. They tell different stories of the past, but you will not hear a single suggestion of what Israel can actually do to stop the firing of rockets on it besides simply leave. Not all of them will say it straight out, that is left to the people shooting the rockets, but the bottom line is that NO ONE has any other ideas what to do, only their choice is for the destruction of Israel rather than Israel shooting on civilians.

Now, Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah, are not stupid. They were brilliant and understood the west very well. They understood that they simply can’t lose. Their aim in a war is to cause as much harm as possible to their own civilians in whatever means possible. As you can see it’s a tough war to win as how can you win? Against whom? They shoot, on purpose, next to civilians, hospitals and so on in order for them to be hit, many times forcing the civilians to stay there against their will. As much damage as they can cause against “their own” population, the more they win. I say their own population as this same population takes part in this, and votes for these people to rule them. They are huge supporters for this method and the kids gleefully go on top of rooftops to be bombarded; they walk around important people so they won’t be killed. They don’t need armored vehicles, they carry a couple of babies with them, maybe a woman or two, and that does the trick. (And, if they are still shot at and killed, well, that causes more damage to the other side, as people are outraged.) Who, and what is a soldier in this battle is unclear. Can a 2 year old be a soldier – it didn’t use to be the case, but they discovered it is their strongest weapon, their Marines.

 

Jumping to the end – Nuclear destruction. There have been times before when people wanted to repress violence. After World War I – The war to end all wars. When Hitler came, they didn’t want to fight him – “I have brought piece in our time” was England’s prime minister, Chamberlain, message after signing a peace agreement with Germany, in 1938. A prime minister known for his appeasement policy.

Iran, and Ahmanidejad,  constant references to Nazi Germany are not accidental.  

 
Our society cannot handle violence at the moment, and the continuation is clear – it is always the same. At some point, it will erupt, the repressed will come back to life, and with extreme force. Amazing amount of violence is upon us, and I simply don’t think it can be stopped anymore. A nuclear bomb will explode in one of the major cities of the west. Perhaps Muslim extremists (80%) or perhaps other strange groups. It will be strange if Paris disappears – besides the people all the astounding art of the Louvre disappearing forever; the Orsay; how would the west look with so much of its art lost. London, NY? Who knows. An atomic bomb to destroy part of the city – inevitable by now. I don’t know when though. It could take a while, hopefully.



I will finish by returning to another point of the film. One of the major points of the movie is that violence is part of who we are (sex and violence, as the sex scene comes when they return to their violent ways). And if we can take it away, it is not clear what creature remains. What happens to the human when you take away self defense?
In the film’s next to last scene we see a Rorschach image created from Rorschach's blood, asking us – what is life? It is a Rorschach image.