Subject: FW: [P_F_P] Sontag on the current crisis
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:26:35 -0500


FYInterests. 

Best, ddd


 
> Let's Look Reality in the Face. By Susan Sontag Monday, September 17,
2001
> (Le Monde )
> 
> For a terrified and sad New Yorker, America never seemed to be further
> away
> from recognizing reality than facing the monstrous dose of reality of
> Tuesday, September 11.
> 
> The gulf which separates what occurred and what one should understand,
on
> one hand, and the sheer deception and self-satisfied nonsense peddled
by
> practically all the leading public figures of American life, and its
> television commentators, is stupifying and depressing.
> 
> The voices authorized to keep track of the events seem to be joined in
a
> campaign aimed at treating the public like children. Who has
acknowledged
> that it wasn't a matter of "cowardly" aggression against
"civilization,"
> or
> "freedom," or "humanity," or the "free world," but an aggression
against
> the
> United States, the self-proclaimed world superpower, an aggression
which
> is
> the consequence of specific American actions and interests? How many
> Americans know about the continuation of American bombings in Iraq?
And
> since we're using the word "cowardly," shouldn't it be applied to
those
> who
> kill from high in the sky, out of the range of possible reprisals,
rather
> than to those who are willing to die in order to kill others?
> 
> As for courage -- a morally neutral virtue -- whatever one can say of
> those
> who perpetrated Tuesday's slaughter, they were not cowards.
> 
> At all costs American leaders want to make us believe that everything
is
> all
> right. America is not afraid. Our resolve is not broken. "They" will
be
> hunted down and punished (whoever "they" might be). We have a
> robot-president who assures us that America always has its head held
high.
> 
> A whole range of public personalities, vigorously opposed to the
foreign
> policy of this administration, apparently feel free to say nothing
but: we
> are all united behind president Bush.
> 
> We've been reassured that everything was going along well, or close to
it,
> even on a day marked by the stamp of infamy, and even if America was
now
> at
> war. Yet all is not well. And this isn't Pearl Harbor. Considerable
> reflection is going to be necessary, maybe it's being done now in
> Washington
> and elsewhere, on the colossal failure of American intelligence and
> counter-intelligence, on the possible options for American foreign
policy,
> in the Middle East in particular, and on what constitutes an
intelligent
> program for military defense.
> 
> But those in charge of official functions, those who wish to be and
those
> who have been in the past, have decided -- with the willing complicity
of
> the major media -- not to ask the public to bear too great a part of
the
> burden of reality. The complacent and unanimously lauded platitudes of
a
> Congress composed of one Soviet-like party appeared contemptible. The
> unanimity of moralizing rhetoric, aimed at masking reality, poured out
by
> leading Americans, and the media, in recent days is unworthy of a
mature
> democracy.
> 
> Leading American figures, and those who would like to be, have let us
know
> that their duty is only one of manipulation: to impart confidence and
> manage
> the pain. Politics, the politics of democracy-which involve
disagreements
> and encourage sincerity-have been replaced by psychotherapy. Let's
suffer
> together. But let's not be stupid together. A little historical
conscience
> can help us understand exactly what happened, and what might continue
to
> happen.
> 
> "Our country is strong", they keep telling us. For my part, that
really
> doesn't console me. Who can doubt that America is strong? But America
> should
> not be only that.
> 
> 
____________________________________________
  D. Diane Davis
  Division of Rhetoric and Composition
  Department of English
  University of Texas at Austin
  PARLIN 227  (512-471-8765)
  Austin TX 78712-1122

  ddd-AT-mail.utexas.edu
  http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~davis