Zapped Out

IF you can’t manage a coup d’état, try a coup de théâtre instead. That, at least, is the tactic employed by Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatistas, in Mexico. In an age when many people, dazzled by electronic and other imagery, have difficulty in distinguishing the medium from the message and the form from the substance, such a tactic has a pretty fair chance of success. It also has the inestimable advantage of being much less dangerous.

The Zapatistas have now decided to lay down their arms and participate in normal politics. Their rebellion ended with a cross between a bang and a whimper: a triumphant 2,000-mile march on Mexico City, which ended in the huge rally in the Zocalo, the central square of the most populous city in the world. This gave the impression—as, of course, it was intended to do—of unanimous admiration and approval of the movement and its leader. In the face of so popular a protest, who (except a supporter of the immemorial oppression of the Indians) could be churlish enough to doubt the noble aims of the Subcomandante, who so attractively combines in his person the qualities of Che Guevara and Christopher Hitchens?

About the Author

Anthony Daniels

Mr. Daniels, a retired doctor who worked in several parts of the world, is the author of Mass Listeria, a book about health scares.

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IF you can’t manage a coup d’état, try a coup de théâtre instead. That, at least, is the tactic employed by Subcomandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatistas, in Mexico. In an age when many people, dazzled by electronic and other imagery, have difficulty in distinguishing the medium from the message and the form from the substance, such a tactic has a pretty fair chance of success. It also has the inestimable advantage of being much less dangerous.

The Zapatistas have now decided to lay down their arms and participate in normal politics. Their rebellion ended with a cross between a bang and a whimper: a triumphant 2,000-mile march on Mexico City, which ended in the huge rally in the Zocalo, the central square of the most populous city in the world. This gave the impression—as, of course, it was intended to do—of unanimous admiration and approval of the movement and its leader. In the face of so popular a protest, who (except a supporter of the immemorial oppression of the Indians) could be churlish enough to doubt the noble aims of the Subcomandante, who so attractively combines in his person the qualities of Che Guevara and Christopher Hitchens?