I thought I would contribute a short criticism of the current Iraq massacre inquiry currently taking place in the UK.  This is a short selection from Italian Socialist Dario Fo’s famous play The Accidental Death of an Anarchist.  The characters are discussing the role of scandals.  The “Maniac” character is a Minstrel/Harlequin type character which is very common in comedia dell’arte, and and they are used to expose the truth plainly and through the use of humor.  The other character is the “Journalist,” who was supposed to represent the reformist Italian Communist Party, whom Fo used to criticize for not being radical and revolutionary enough. Here is the extract:

“Maniac: It means: ‘Whether they want it or not, I shall impose truth and justice. I shall do what I can to make sure that these scandals explode in the most public way possible; and you need not fear that, in among the rot, the power of government will be undermined. Let the scandal come, because on the basis of that scandal a more durable power of the state will be founded!

….Journalist: So in other words he’s saying that even when there aren’t scandals, they need to be invented, because it’s a good way of maintaining power and defusing people’s anger.

Maniac: Correct. A liberatory catharsis of tension…You remember the ‘Profumo’ scandal in England? A minister of defence, caught up with drugs, prostitution, and spying…!!! Did the state collapse? Or the stock exchange? Not a bit of it. If anything they came out of it stronger than before. People thought: ‘The shit is there, so let it float to the surface…’ Were swimming in shit – even swallowing some of it – but nobody comes round telling us that everything’s fine and dandy, and that’s what counts!….

Scandal is the fertilizer of social democracy! In face I’d go even further: scandal is the best antidote to the worst of poisons – namely when people come to realize what’s really going on. When people begin to realise what’s going on, we’re done for! But look at amerikkka – a truly social-democratic society. Did they ever try to censor the true facts about the massacres carried out by amerikkkan troops in Vietnam? No they did not! It was on the front pages of all the papers – photos of women butchered, children massacred, villages destroyed. And do you remember the scandal of the nerve gas? The amerikkkans had manufactured enough nerve gas in the u.s. to wipe out the entire population of the world three times over. But did they try to hide the fact? Not a bit of it! In fact, when you turned on the TV, there they were. Trains. ‘And where are those trains going?’ ‘To the seaside.’ ‘And what are those trains carrying?’ ‘Nerve gas. It’s going to be dumped at sea…A few miles off the shoreline!’ So that supposing there’s a little earthquake one day, the containers will crack, and the nerve gas will come bubbling up to the surface, glug-glug-glug, and we’ll all die. Three times over!

They’ve never tried to hush up these scandals. And they’re right not to. That way, people can let off steam, get angry, shudder at the thought of it…’Who do these politicians think they are?’ ‘Scumbag generals!’ ‘Murderers!’ And they get more and more angry, and then, burp! A little liberatory burp to relieve their social indigestion.

Journalist: But excuse me – you say amerikkka is so free, but what do you have to say about the calculated murder of terrorists, with their families, and the burning of an entire black area in Philadelphia?

Maniac: I was talking about the ‘right of liberatory burps’, not the ‘right to life’….the important thing is to have a good scandal!…So that the Italian nation can march alongside the amerikkkans and the english, and become a modern and social-democratic society, so that finally we can say: ‘It’s true – we’re in the shit right up to our necks, and that’s precisely the reason why we walk with our heads held high!”