Italy!

And you may find yourself in another part of the world -- Talking Heads

Recently I found myself in Libya! And thus it is interesting and strange to read about the popular riots there. I was there as a tourist, taken around and talked to about how great Qadaffi was by an extremely likable Libyan guide. We saw the most incredible Greek and Roman ruins. But as an inevitable part of our trip, we also saw Bengasi, where, in the recent Muslim cartoon worldwide popular riots, the Italian embassy was burned to the ground. Here in Italy there is debate: did the Reform Minister, Calderoli, incite these riots, thus putting at risk the life of innocents, by wearing and showing, on national TV, a T-shirt that reproduced the offensive,  Danish cartoons? Well it didn't help. He was forced to resign.

Fans of colonial history will remember (and I didn't know this until I went to Libya, so I am not trying to be cute or superior or anything) that Libya was one of Mussolini's pet projects. Which doesn't mean he or his agents did nothing of value while in Libya. We met a number of people, especially older ones, who spoke much better Italian than I do, who longed for the relative liberty and educational values they remembered from the Italian regime in the 1930s. Though don't get me wrong, there was plenty not to like about Libya in the fascist period, including exclusive Italian-only services, etc. One of the things Mussolini's agents did, however, was re-set up a bunch of Greek and Roman ruins. A lot of the really great things one is able to see in Libya are the undeniably direct result of Mussolini's desire to display fascism's *love* for all things Greek and Roman, especially Roman. Of course it played a legitimatory role as well.

The question it is difficult to answer right now is: to what extent are the riots in Libya the result of Islamic outrage over the West's treatment of The Prophet, may blessings be upon Him; to what extent a reaction to police shootings during the first protests; and to what extent an excuse to tell Qadaffi to go fuck himself.

There are these great pictures of Qadaffi in Libya. They try to do a very weak-willed 'cult of the personality' around the guy, but it creaks. One of the best pictures of him is in a Volkswagen distributing leaflets. Can I post that picture here? This very same Volkswagen bug, which apparently played a particular historical role, is also lodged in an important museum in Tripoli. My purpose isn't to make fun of any of this; just to register my surprise at encountering something new and unexpected. Like a traveler! And now to see that same society in the grip of lawlessness, which only a month or so ago seemed to be doing just fine, thank you very much. But of course ours was the perspective of mere tourists. What can be expected from that vantage point.

As interesting as Libya was and is, it's nothing compared to Italy, where I am temporarily stationed. Marx said once that everyone should look carefully at his and Engels' depiction of capitalism in England, because everyone else's future was inscribed there. That's the way I feel about Italy and the rest of the West. Here battles are fought out to their logical conclusion in a way that leaves no room for ideological nuances. I love Italy, the way other people love daytime soap operas, and yet I congratulate myself for 'not watching too much TV.'