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<\/p>\nEL PERRO
\n2005<\/p>\n
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The democracy shop<\/p>\n
ENGLISH BELOW<\/p>\n
La idea de poner en marcha The Democracy Shop como marca (de camisetas, de tablas de skate), partiendo de la imagen de la soldado Lynddie England cometiendo torturas en la prisi\u00f3n de Abu Ghraib responde al hecho de entender las torturas de Irak no como un caso m\u00e1s de arrogancia imperialista ante una poblaci\u00f3n del Tercer Mundo, tal como argumenta Slavoj Zizek, sino al hecho de que al someterse a esas torturas humillantes, los prisioneros iraqu\u00edes fueron en efecto iniciados en la cultura occidental y en su valor democr\u00e1tico, probaron el sabor de su obsceno submundo, el de las bromas pesadas a lo Jackass, y otros ritos inici\u00e1ticos de la tortura y la humillaci\u00f3n a las que uno ha de someterse para que se le acepte en el seno de una comunidad cerrada. No se suelen ver fotograf\u00edas an\u00e1logas al menos en intervalos regulares en la prensa occidental, salvo cuando estalla alg\u00fan esc\u00e1ndalo en una unidad del ej\u00e9rcito o en un campus universitario, donde el ritual inici\u00e1tico se les va de las manos y ya sean los soldados, ya los estudiantes, resultan perjudicados m\u00e1s all\u00e1 de un nivel que se pueda considerar tolerable. Estas humillaciones constituyen el suplemento necesario para acceder a los valores p\u00fablicos de la dignidad, la democracia y la libertad personal. Lo que percibimos cuando vemos las fotos de los prisioneros iraqu\u00edes humillados en nuestras pantallas, en nuestros peri\u00f3dicos, es precisamente una visi\u00f3n privilegiada de los \u201cvalores del mundo civilizado\u201d. Valores de los que Jimmy Knoxville, Steve O y dem\u00e1s creadores y participantes de Jackass, o de su \u00faltima versi\u00f3n manierista m\u00e1s salvaje: Bumfight, literalmente La lucha de mendigos (www.bumfights.com), se han servido para crear un producto medi\u00e1tico de impacto mundial, dando carta de naturaleza espectacular a lo que antes se realizaba en secreto, y convirtiendolo en mercanc\u00eda.<\/p>\n
La Segunda Guerra del Golfo ha sido presentada por los dirigentes occidentales implicados como un esfuerzo por llevar el ideal democr\u00e1tico a un pueblo sometido por una dictadura, y por extensi\u00f3n al resto del mundo isl\u00e1mico. Las fotos de las torturas de Abu Ghraib supusieron un cuestionamiento medi\u00e1tico inmediato de esta pretensi\u00f3n. En este sentido tambi\u00e9n se abre una nueva reflexi\u00f3n \u00bfen que tipo de democracia vivimos?\u00bfqu\u00e9 democracia exporta el mundo occidental? la respuesta nos la puede dar Noam Chomsky: \u201cSi por \u00abdemocracia al estilo norteamericano\u00bb entendemos un sistema pol\u00edtico con elecciones regulares pero ning\u00fan desaf\u00edo serio para el dominio empresarial, es indudable que los pol\u00edticos estadounidenses ans\u00edan verlo establecido en todo el mundo (…) El ideal democr\u00e1tico, en nuestro pa\u00eds y en el extranjero, es simple y honesto: Sois libres de hacer lo que quer\u00e1is, siempre y cuando eso sea lo que queremos que hag\u00e1is\u201d.<<\/p>\n
ENGLISH TEXT<\/p>\n
The idea to set up The Democracy shop as a brand (for t-shirts, skateboards), using the image of the soldier Lynddie England torturing prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison, is an attempt to understand the tortures in Iraq, as Slavoj Zizek said, not just as another case of imperialist arrogance towards the Third World. It tries to focus on the fact that by being submitted to these humiliating tortures, the Iraqi prisoners were in effect being initiated into the western culture and its democratic values. They experienced the taste of its obscene underworld, its tedious Jackass style jokes and other initiation rites of torture and humiliation to which one must be submitted in order to be accepted into the heart of a closed community. It is not common to see such photos, at least not regularly, in western press, except when some scandal breaks out in an army unit or in a university campus, where the initiation ritual gets out of hand and when soldiers or students are harmed beyond what is considered acceptable. These humiliations are the compulsory finishing touches before being able to access the public values of dignity, democracy and personal freedom. What we perceive when we see images of humiliated Iraqi prisoners on our screens, or in our newspapers, is precisely a privileged view of \u201cthe values of the civilized world.\u201d Values like those of Jimmy Knoxville, Steve O and other stars and performers of Jackass, or their latest brutal mannerist version: Bumfight, (www.bumfights.com) with which they have created a media product of worldwide impact, making something that was once done in private acceptable and spectacular. In this way, they have convertedother people\u2019s humiliation, despise and pain into commercial merchandise.<\/p>\n
The Second Gulf War has been presented by western leaders involved as an attempt to export the democratic ideal to a population submitted to dictatorship, and by extension to the rest of the Islamic world. The images of torture in Abu Gharib raised immediate doubts in the media about this intention. In this sense, further considerations arise. In what kind of democracy do we live? What kind of democracy is the occidental world exporting? Noam Chomsky can give us the answer: \u201cif by \u2018North American style democracy\u2019 we infer to a political system with regular elections but without any serious challenge to the corporate control, there is no doubt that the American politicians long to see it established throughout the world (…) The democratic ideal in our country and abroad is simple and honest: You are free to do what you want as long as it is what we want.<\/p>\n
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