Rhetoric Games
The recent visit of the Iranian President to New York and the free speech dust cloud that was kicked up made me wonder if everyone was clear on just how this game is played
Mr. Ahmadinejad Speaks - New York Times. Free speech is just that; free and open. The idea is to keep the game of rhetoric on the level of rhetoric. To not let it spill over to other modes of process. In a free society like this one is supposed to be, on which we stake our claim of being enlightened, people get to make the statements they want. Bad, unprincipled demeaning idea's are taken to task by our peers. Those they hurt make demonstration. Self serving aspects of a point of view are exposed. No weak ideas are left unexamined to grow stronger in the shadows. All is brought forth to be cleansed with light. Free speech is not free. Which is to say it is free like software ought to be free, not so much like free beer. It contains the corollary of struggle. A harmful idea that is allowed to breath always presents a risk of gaining respect in particular circles. Public discourse must always and continually engage such ideas and vanquish them. This is the cost. Free speech also is not a benefit or product, but a foundation of a free society. Free speech does not function when it stops short of full and free discussion. Those who say they believe in or support free speech, but say that only at the point where they announce their exceptions, things they will not have spoken about. These people simply do not really believe in free speech. There are always the three categories. Things you are for, Things you are not against, and those things you cannot abide. Free speech is always and only about the last. Not the second, never the first. It is about overcoming the doubt that you cannot make argument against force fear, and trickery. It is about gaining the weight of accumulating facts on the scales of just reason. Capturing the desire and will of the people, not just a faction, for your vision of justice. Visitations from beyond the apple. Ahmadinejad is a head of state. The US agreed to host (back whenever) the United Nations so as far as a trip to New York is concerned he has pass. A Visit to Ground Zero? Maybe not, it would be too insensitive to too many. I certainly doubt his sincerity, and without sincerity that is a place he ought not go to, but in the art of diplomacy you simply keep it from happening without making a Broadway production of it. He was invited to give a speech at Columbia University. If a head of state desires to give a speech while abroad the head of state generlly should be accommodated. The generals of Burma hide, they do not give speeches. The president of Columbia Mr. Bollinger invited him, then saw his way to pissing on him once he was there. Pandering to the posturing policy mules and the muleskinners driving them on. It seemed unnecessary in Ahmadinejad's case. I've never seen or read of this guy saying anything that left him looking like the bigger or better man. He is Iran's empty celebrity head of state. This is not to say he had no plan. His objectives were to deflect attention from Iran's lack of freedom by appearing to eagerly engage in free speech. To to get us to jump offside and appear foolish
Why Ahmadinejad wanted to speak at Columbia. - By Anne Applebaum - Slate Magazine.
You can run this in to various larger contexts. Sticking closely to what was at hand. We were willing to accept Ahmadinejad as Iran's leader and by extension leader of the forces arrayed against the west. At that point he needed only to show up. The roiling crowd would do his work for him. Then he makes statements such as the one that Iran has no homosexuals, or is unable to give a coherent account at why Iran had to detain the head of the Wilson Center for months
Facing Scorn, President of Iran Is Defiant to His Critics - New York Times. At once it becomes obvious he only has a partial understanding of what goes on in his own country let alone ours. One is left asking: who runs Iran? Ahmadinejad is only one player among many, immersed in the concerns of his own entourage and his own portion of the script
U.S. Focus on Ahmadinejad Puzzles Iranians - New York Times.
An arching goal is to maintain clear nuclear weapons containment policies. The purpose of his visit was his speech before the UN where he would speak of Iran's nuclear ambitions. While all states are not the same. The work of the those trying to stop the spread of nuclear weapons is simplified if all states face the same choice. That nuclear weapon acquisition does not increase a nation's security or well-being. This message has a weight greater than any other and ought to be maintained in the face of chaotic and unstable micro polices, such as decaring that we will blast nuclear tools out of the hands out of some. And all subsequent attendant and catastrophic rounds of point proving.
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