Inflatable Democracy

Regarding building democracy in Iraq (or elsewhere), Tobias writes,

...I’m reminded of one of Peter Sloterdijk’s rather snarky observations that I first came across in Bruno Latour’s Making Things Public. In an essay for the volume,

He imagined that the U.S. Air Force should have added to its military paraphernalia an “inflatable Parliament” which could be parachuted at the rear of the front, just after the liberating forces of the Good had defeated the forces of Evil. On hitting the ground, this parliament would unfold and be inflated just like your rescue dingy is supposed to do when you fall in the water. Ready to enter and take your seat, your finger still red from the indelible ink that proves you have exerted your voting duty, Instant Democracy would thus be delivered! The lesson of this simile is easy to draw. To imagine a parliament without its material set of complex instruments, “air-condition” pumps, local ecological requirements, material infrastructure, and long held habits is as ludicrous as to try to parachute such an inflatable parliament into the middle of Iraq.

Sloterdijk then went on to establish Global Instant Objects, purveyors of the clever Pneumatic Parliament. (See Neural for an explanation in English.)