----- Original Message ----- From: James Heartfield <Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>; <revo-readers at egroups.com> Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 4:17 AM Subject: Afghanistan, America, Suicide
>
>
> ,
> the Siege. Behind these cultural investigations of imminent catastrophe
> lie the elite's presentiment of the of its own system.
COMMENT: What evidence do you have of this or is it somehow self-evident? I
assume "fall" or something is left out.
>
>
> >
> America's pre-eminence though has come with a price. Guilty Americans
> hear with despair that they consume a quarter of the world's energy. Not
> just the so-called Vietnam syndrome continues to dog the elite, now it
> must cope with a psychosomatic 'Gulf War syndrome', too. America's
> leaders shouted down the demand for reparations for slavery, though the
> whole of American culture is shot-through with a guilty preoccupation
> with its past crimes against Afro-Americans. American guilt is the
> perennial accompaniment of American success.
COMMENT: American guilt is the perennial accompaniment of American success?
I hadn't noticed. If it were those trying to ease sanctions in Iraq would be
much more successful. Anyway the official US response is not guilt for the
deaths of countless Iraqi children and others but "It is worth it". Doesnt
sound like much guilt there. I hadnt notice that Americans showed much guilt
at consuming so much energy. How come the sale of SUV's etc. has soared as
compared with more fuel efficient vehicles? The perennial accompaniment of
American success including killing of the innocent, deliberately destroying
water supplies, etc. etc. etc. is complete indifference except for a devoted
core, a saving remnant that continually try to educate their fellow
Americans and urge them tochange course.
>
> The fantastic inversion of America from victimiser to victim silences
> the problem of American guilt. Already the environmentalist lobby the
> Sierra Club has withdrawn its campaign against President Bush's energy
> policy; anti-capitalist protesters who barracked the G8 summits in
> financial centres around the world have been strangely silent about the
> demolition of the World Trade Center. Already sponsors are withdrawing
> from the planned anti-globalization protest in Washington on 30
> September.
COMMENT: It is not a question of guilt per se although no doubt many
enivironmentalists do feel quilty because their country is a prime cause of
environmental problems. Even those environmentalists who at present are not
campaigning against the government do it on purely pragmatic grounds that
has zilch to do with any "problem of guilt". By the way, for some
environmentalists the problem of guilt involves not keeping corporations
from raping their own country and resources. It has nothing to do with some
guilt for mistreatment of other countries. America was itself the victim
before this attack.
>
> >
> America's real war is not with an external
> enemy, but with itself. The campaign is not to defeat a foreign force,
> but to silence the nation's own self-doubt about its standing in the
> world.
COMMENT: All the reaction I have seen shows exactly the opposite. THere is
no self-doubt about the US role and standing in the world and this is
supported by all its allies. The campaign is meant to appease the populace
and designed to make citizens more secure. I doubt that it will accomplish
the latter but that is another matter. I just dont see that there is any
self-doubt involved. If there were, the response would be quite different.
My take upon the situation is that there should be self-doubt that is
lacking. Self-doubt and realisation of the power of the enemy would create a
more rational response.
>
> The individual audacity of the World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks
> disguises the despair that drove them. Though the hijackers almost
> certainly intended to appeal to an anti-Western sentiment, it failed to
> materialise. Even the footage of a handful of Palestinians celebrating
> ran against the grain of the Palestinian leadership's insistence upon
> sympathy with the US. The gradual slaughter of Palestinians over the
> last five months has cost more than 500 lives, but barely provoked any
> wider response. The adoption of their cause by a loose grouping of
> Arabs, mostly from Gulf States who had made their homes in North America
> indicates the isolation of these activists from any social base. In the
> 1970s a wave of hijackings took succour from a popular opposition to US
> policy in the Middle East. By contrast the World Trade Center/Pentagon
> attacks - like the previous WTC bombing - arise out of the collapse of
> the anti-imperialist movement. Frustrated at their own failure to
> organise resistance, these militants took a shortcut that by-passed the
> masses. Tragically, suicide is fast becoming a key component of left
> strategies. Kurdish militants have developed the tactics of hunger-
> strikes and even self-immolation. It is a measure of the left's
> isolation that it dwells on fantasies of apocalyptic destruction, rather
> than the more patient work of contructing an opposition.
COMMENT: What makes you think that the attackers acted in despair? The profile of these attackers is of people who are not in poverty, and did not come from backgrounds of poverty and hopelessness. Why isnt the motivation religious part of a holy war?
As for the appeal to anti-western sentiment. Most Palestinians know that these acts will result in greater attacks upon them. Even if they did rejoice internally they would be prudent not to show it externally. Terrorists such as Tim McVeigh may have a narrow social base but these terrorists have a social base in a fundamentalist Islamic movement that is almost worldwide in scope. Of course even the Taleban condemn the acts officially. You take this as a sign that the appeal to anti-western sentiment failed! Wow.
Suicide is becoming a key strategy of the left? The vast majority of recent suicide terrorist attacks have been by right-wing fundamentalist groups. Who are the leftist suicide groups?
What caused you to have this guilt trip?