Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 18:51:03 -0100
Subject: Re: [P_F_P] Sontag on the current crisis



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Diane Davis <ddd-AT-mail.utexas.edu>
To: <lyotard-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2001 4:26 PM
Subject: FW: [P_F_P] Sontag on the current crisis


> 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
>