“I’ll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow”

Frank Zappa

So there you go. My dictators mustache. I’m half Iraqi and half Russian so I have excellent dictator genes from both sides of the family. I’m made for the job. Plus, both my grandfathers had a glorious mustache. If you wonder what facial hair got to do with dictators read this guide to evil dictators facial hair.

If I somehow assumed sole and absolute power and control in Israel I would change a lot of things. This is my fantastic dictatorship:

There are many fazes that a medicine/cure goes through before it reaches patiences to help them. Clinical Trials are conducted to allow safety and efficacy data to be collected for health interventions (e.g., drugs, diagnostics, devices, therapy protocols). These trials can take place only after satisfactory information has been gathered on the quality of the non-clinical safety, and Health Authority/Ethics Committee approval is granted in the country where the trial is taking place. So how does all of this relate to my dictatorship? I would speed up the development time of cures by allowing clinical trials on violent prisoners. There will be not death punishment for any crime under my regime. Instead, new and experimental drugs will be tested on criminals from early stages. Prisons should be totally self efficient. They must be able to produce the funds that are needed to operate them on their own. Clinical trials would be one of them ways in which they could do it. I am not talking about replacing the jail punishments, only about adding to them. Our society should not suffer the burden of sponsoring prisons or the scums that live there.

“Future of Religion”

The Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Future of Religion, Omer Golan 2010

Next on my agenda will be the complete and total separation between state and religions. I understand that religions had important functions in society in the past. But it is not the case any more at the present.

Religion is a matter of faith. Under my dictatorship, religions will not be allowed to organize. No matter what religion you believe in, faith is personal, belief is personal, so it will not feed on public funds any longer. Greedy organized religions will have to give back to society all of the wealth they accumulated on our expense and will be shut down and outlawed. Religious ceremonies will not be in any way a part of the new state’s agenda, there will be only secular holidays, like maybe a national BBQ holiday, and a great celebration of the dictator’s birthday (note May 14th for the celebration). Religion will have no grab on the institution of marriage, only civil marriages will be legally obligating.
To my view, religious sites and symbols belong to the past, and to history museums. I will take all the religious sites and put them in a glass boxes for display in one great big History Museum dedicated to religions that will be built in Tel Aviv,  or maybe somewhere far out in the desert.

Church of All Nations, Jerusalem, Future of Religion, Omer Golan 2010

I will make Israel one secular country for everyone (that I like) that want to live a decent life, with a family and a job and whatever, I will chase out the religious lunatics and nationalist fanatics. The IDF will have to give up half its budget, and do a lot more community work and keep the (new) order. The money that we will get from the army we will invest in education. A lot of education. because smart, educated people don’t blow themselves up.

At the end of the day, just like some old Roman dictators, I will give back my power to the people. Some people are bothered when I say all kind of anti democratic statements, like “democracy failed, or it really needs an upgrade”, or the one about that NOT all people should be allowed to vote. Some just think that I am crazy. I think that it’s very logical. The majority are uneducated and easy to manipulate, we should definitely not do what the majority choose. So my idea seems very reasonable: I suggest to put a few multiple choice questions about the candidates and political parties and views right next to the voting polls. If someone don’t know enough about their favorite candidate and the elections – their vote will be discarded (and a bucket of cold water will spill over them with an automatic mechanism).

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Omer Golan is a contemporary new-media and fine artist based in Tel Aviv Israel.
http://omer.arts-collective.com

Born in another time / Mati Shemoelof

Murderous dictatorship
Drowning me
that does not informed on the birth forecasts

And nobody will save you on the new race coast
so I’m running to your static past
but there I discover dynamic dictator
Generals sits in the pit along with the political language

And who will save the theological poetry
Here come the prophetic gangs of racist letters
Praying for the aid of our corpses

Mati Shemoelof – Israeli poet, editor, journalist and activist. Much of Shemoelof’s literary work and activism deals with issues of ethnicity and class among Mizrahi Jews in Israel.


Mati’s Blog

What would you do if you were The Next Great Dictator?

This open call is open to all artists and writers worldwide.

What would happen if you assumed sole and absolute power and control in Israel, or the middle east, or even the entire world?

In the Roman Republic the term “Dictator” did not have the negative meaning it has later assumed. Rather, a Dictator was a person given sole power for a specific limited period, in order to deal with an emergency. At the end of his term, the Dictator was supposed to hand power over to the normal Consular rule and give account of his actions – and Roman Dictators usually did.

Imagine you had an extraordinary amount of personal power, especially the power to make laws without effective restraint, will you be a positive dictator or a mean one?
Submissions to this project are limited only by your imagination and desire to be in control.

We are looking for any kind of art, poetry, plays, images, videos, sound, journalistic pieces, academic extracts, experimental texts, everything and anything which you feel responds to the above question.

All articles should be no more than 1,000 words long and respond to the above question.

The Next Great Dictator

ArtPolitica will publish your submissions on our Homepage and our Facebook  fan page, along with an abstract of the authors bio and website link at the end of each post.

Please email all submissions to info {at} artpolitica {dot} com with the subject heading “Publication Submission”.

This open call has no deadline for submissions (for the time being).