Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 19:09:43 -0100
From: hbone <hbone-AT-optonline.net>
Subject: Re: [P_F_P] Sontag on the current crisis


I certainly respect Sontag.  She went to Sarajevo more than once when the
bullets were flying, and our leaders were hoping the genocide would just go
away.

But I think the U.S. sorely needs an appearance of unity and action to get
the cooperation of other nations.  Without their cooperation, future actions
of the U.S. may be as ineffective as its actions in the past.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 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
>