First the Royal Wedding, now the death of an “evil,” murderous Islamic fundamentalist. One, a noble prince and his beloved princess, a nation unified, the West proud. The “Other,” an evil, murderous Islamic fundamentalist, the object of hatred, his death, too, now a source of pride. In this country and to an even greater extent in America, they - the media and thus the public - will celebrate Osama Bin Laden’s death just as they celebrated the marriage of the Prince and Princess, albeit through a passionate identification with the one and a complete repudiation of the “Other.” The Royal Wedding is testament to our history and identity as a nation, the envy of the West, whilst the death of Osama Bin Laden symbolises our cultural, political and indeed our historical authority and superiority over the “Other.” Indeed, within a week we have produced all that is “good” about Western civilization whilst destroying all which embodies “evil” and “darkness.” It is the perfect example of a dichotomy, the binary which has long separated “us” and “them” at the heart of Western civilization, reflected in our fanatical obsession with Princes and Princesses, with Aladdin and Star Wars and the eternal battle against “evil” inherent in Western cultural consciousness.
However, Osama Bin Laden is only one “evil” of many, a mere individual, constructed has eternal evil, an essence of evil symbolising every evil which exists in the world today. He is and was Che Guevera, who was also evil, once, until his image became commodified. He is also Saddam Hussein, who was never really truly evil in the eyes of the West - in fact, he and the West were once very good friends - until he rejected them. Only then did he become evil, so evil in fact that the deaths of millions of innocent civilians in Iraq became justified, much like the deaths of countless civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Palestine have become justified. After all, this is evil we are fighting, and evil must be vanquished.
Yet evil is never vanquished, our dichotomy will not allow that, and today more evils are being produced. From Hugo Chavez in Venezuala, who has dared to nationalise his countries oil, to Iran’s Ahmadinejad, who has outrageously and vehemently criticised the moral good at the heart of Western Imperialism. More evils are being born, and let us not forget our latest, greatest, most dangerous evil yet, the latest embodiment of Hades, Osama and Darth Vader combined, the villainous Colonel Gaddafi. Up until a few months ago, most of the general public had not heard of Colonel Gaddafi, let alone his absolute, undivided tyranny. Today, he is a mad, crazed dictator, his face the new image of eternal evil, perfectly encapsulating the objectification of evil we seek to construct. There have been casualties in this construction, of course, and there will be more. Most recently, Gaddafi’s son and three granddaughters have lost their lives through yet another NATO air-strike, yet we are told “collateral damage” is to be expected, and who are we to argue? When evil is constructed, the image of evil - be it the caricatures of Bin Laden, Gaddafi, Guevera or Saddam - becomes ever-pervasive, and a child’s death soon becomes a million, all of their lives expendable and ignored under the noble act of “humanitarian intervention.”
However, yesterday’s death of Saddam, much like today’s death of Osama Bin Laden, has done nothing, changed nothing. It is death reproduced by the media for the satisfaction of the majority, and is inconsequential when compared to the destruction caused by the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Tomorrow, perhaps it will be Gaddafi who dies, and evil shall once again be vanquished, the image of his death once again culminating in the satisfaction of the majority. Yet the very next day, be sure: evil, whether in the form of Ahmadinejad, Assad, Chavez, or some other proponent of anti-Imperialism, will become the latest and greatest evil yet, another sequel to his evil predecessors. We will ostracize, we will invade, millions will die. But no matter. Evil is evil. And when the face of the individual becomes caricatured and mythologized into an embodiment of evil, anything can be justified. Even death, it seems, can be celebrated.
