And so it begins. Even though everyone who 'knew' said it wouldn't happen, we are taking the first, sickeningly familiar steps down the road to an invasion of Iran. Why? Well the easy answers are because the guy running the place is a little fascist nutter who may have some technology that may allow him to develop nuclear weaponry.

While I think it's patently ridiculous for us to swagger abut the globe insisting that peoples do as we say, not as we do, eg. nuclear power and weapons, I also think it's patently obvious that he is a dangerous psycho. As you may have guessed however, I suspect there's much more to this story than one weird little bloke. As you might also expect I'm going off at a tangent to found out what.

So Playboy recently published its first editions in a Muslim country, Indonesia to be precise, and provoked some pretty wild demonstrations. I suspect that we won't hear from most of the usual champions of free speech on this one, censored by their own taste they'll make an exception to their principles when it comes to the Heff's freedom of expression.

Though I've never held a copy, I have a certain respect for the famous skin mag, for being more than just that. In 1980 it was Playboy, and in particular the researchers they paid for, that helped NORML(1) debunk the Heath/Tulane study of 1974.

Basically if you've ever heard that smoking dope kills brain cells, you've heard of Heath/Tulane. These guys strapped Rhesus monkeys into chairs and forced dope smoke equivalent to sixty-three joints into the small simian lungs over just five minutes through gas masks. There was no oxygen mix, just five solid minutes of incredibly dense smoke.

Amazingly enough when the test monkeys were compared to the control group, (all having been killed and dissected,) the test monkeys were found to have far more dead brain cells. But then repeated asphyxiation will do that to you.

Anyway, back to the point, which is that while the outrage over the first Indonesian Playboy at first appears to be just another rant from a minority of puritanical Muslims it is actually something quite different.

According to BBCN24, Indonesia has a free press and native men's magazines contain far more suggestive and revealing images. The outrage is actually directed at what is perceived as a cultural invasion, the global dissemination of US customs and products.

So where's this going and when do we get to the Hitlers? Well I've written before that everything and everyone has strengths and weaknesses, nothing and no-one is 100% good or bad. Two things fascist nutters often have going for them are a proud sense of their own identity and unflinching determination to achieve their aims.

Now when you live in a country that is under the shadow of potentially overwhelming foreign animosity, when being born where you were is practically a crime in itself in the eyes of many around the world, these characteristics become much more appealing in a leader.

Plenty of people in every part of the world know all too well that the US and the rest of us western gangs, will not be negotiated with. Why then would you elect or support a peacemaker, a diplomat? Of course you want someone who's prepared to send a big fuck you to the arrogant bastards who think themselves better than you and yours.

After the first world war all European parties involved were pretty much financially knackered, (the US knows how to make war pay its way,) not to mention having lost almost an entire generation of young men. The very armistice that ended the war came about in recognition of the fact that neither side could afford to take any more.

This said however, we stripped Germany of not only most of armed forces but also huge sums of 'reparation' money. On top of this the Germans were expected to be ashamed of themselves for daring to fuck with us. This led to a lot of people living bare and miserable lives with both the form and the thought of their nation in tatters.

Of course this meant that all Hitler had to do to get elected, and he was democratically elected, was offer jobs and national pride. He didn't say 'Vote for me and I'll kill all the Jews,' he just said, 'Vote for me and you'll be able to feed your kids and be proud of your country again'.

Basically we gave Germany to Hitler on a plate. Had we shown a bit more class at the end of WWI and allowed the German people a bit more pride and opportunity no-one would have listened to the little loon with a weird tash.

As with many other terrible, terrible things we just haven't learned our lesson and are repeating this mistake all over the place. Everyone acted surprised when the Iranians elected the hardline outsider, why?

By ramming our free markets and popular culture down everyone's throats we're simply pushing them into a corner. Once there, it is almost inevitable that they will turn to either a fascist government or terrorist group to fight their way out again.

Is it really such a crazy concept to just say, 'if you don't fuck with me I won't fuck with you,' and let people get back to what they're really interested in, their lives and families? Apparently it is. Apparently it's worth the cost, the spread of western ideals throughout the world is worth all this seemingly endless hassle and potential annihilation.

The question is, worth it for who?

footnote

(1) National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws